[ Post a Response | North Shore Wing Chun Kung Fu Forum ]
Posted by Andrew on 8/8/2001, 1:08 pm Schools grow, age, shed their dead skin, and regrow. Sometimes students only come for a little while just to learn a little bit and gain a bit of confidence. Usually 99% of students don't remain. Those who do stay longer learn more and when they feel they have grown enough they leave and start their own school or just live life. The school has just gotten a bunch of new students in the past couple months. They are doctors, lawyers, computer specialist, etc. - in other words, all are egghead dorks who don't use muscles - just brains. Yet, all are smart enough to realize that there is at least a 1% chance that they might have to deal with an unarmed conflict sometime in their lives. This is what the school is for - teaching dorks to defend themselves in an emergency situation. The school gives them a strategy, a plan to deal with it, how to avoid it, and confidence that they will at least have a chance if they had to go into an unavoidable fight. Dorks who learn self defense for a few years become dangerous dorks; and it matters not which art you choose, that dork will become dangerous because he's a martial artist in dork disguise. In this school it is true that there is a much less emphasis of fighting. That's because we emphasize destroying, maiming, and (hopefully never) killing. We don't practice to fight. We practice to take out the eye balls, low balls, break joints, spit in faces, rip ears off, stomp on ankles, and bite noses off, and of course punch. We are taught that if we cannot avoid physical conflict you will defend your life in the extreme. This is not boasting. This is just reality. Unless you are looking for a fight a physical conflict will involve your life and/or your general health for the rest of your life. This is reality - dirty and unheroic. Speaking as a dork I can tell you I don't know how to fight. But I am learning how to avoid strikes and lash out permanent damage to my assailant. In the school we can only practice these things. We use minimum protection - goggles and cups. People do get hurt in the gym. I practicing with one of my older brothers who has 100X more fighting experience than I do in physical conflict. I have been punched by him dozens of times in the chest/stomach. These were not taps (from my perspective) but punches which bring me to the ground. One time I walked into his palm and clocked myself to the ground. And he is always holding back his power. Yet, as a dork, I'm learning how I'm getting hit, correcting myself, how to protect myself, and getting used to pain. Dorks are not used to pain but Sifu says get used to reality. But you don't do this with beginners. You do this more and more as you learn. I think I'm learning more from my older brother because this is the first time for me with physical contact in my life. At least until I joined this school a year ago. The methods in this school don't usually go with sports fighting because we practice for saving our lives. Not our honor or feelings. Since you were once interested in Wing Chun please come to the school and train. Maybe we can learn from you. Together we all can learn from each other. It's not just a saying but a maxim we use in the school. Besides Yip Man looks like a dork.
As a currently enrolled dork I feel I need to respond.
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