Wing Chun: The Mind

Wing Chun is designed as a combat system. For this reason, the system emphasizes confidence, timing, intercepting, capturing the center-line, shocking the opponent, setting up for consecutive strikes, and trapping. But the most important weapon in the Wing Chun system is the mind. The mind is the center of the system revolves upon. Having a calm mind will determine your success in combat. The Wing Chun mind is the mental frame of mind you need to survive.

If you’re not confident, you will be a disaster in fighting. If you have fear, you will lose. Don’t fight it if you have too much to lose. If you must fight, you must destroy your opponent and not stop until he is defeated. You must have the fighting spirit and attend to the job on hand. Don’t have fear, let your fighting instinct guide you in destroying your opponent. This is the kind of confidence you need to face your opponent.

The basic drills pak sao (slapping hands), lap da (grabbing and striking) and dan chi sao (single sticking hands) give a beginning student a sense of facing an opponent. The first form, Siu Nim Tao, advises the student to ‘not think too much,’ and gives the basic tools and how to utilize them, as in learning to drive a car, which you eventually do without having to think The wing chun system was designed to develop a person with no knowledge of martial art to eventually become a proficient fighter.

If you’re facing an opponent, you must have the confidence to walk straight in on his punch or kick. There is no retreating step in Wing Chun. The idea is you have to ‘eat up’ your opponent’s space and step in. It’s not Wing Chun if you take a sidestep or retreat from an attack.

Newton’s laws of physics states that only one body can occupy a space at a time. One must rush in with absolute confidence because if a practitioner can’t fulfill this requirement, he or she may as well study another style.

Change and adaptation are essential to survival. That is why there are so many types of martial arts. A good Wing Chun player is a great pretender. He can adapt and change his tactics. One must change and adapt to circumstances to survive. That is the Wing Chun mind.

A master can only be a master today. You can’t tell what the future is, as the situation may change. You can only be a master up to the present. An individual has to develop, continue with his own research and grow everyday.