Panther Wing Chun in Penrith, New South Wales | Sport & recreation

Panther Wing Chun

Locality: Penrith, New South Wales

Phone: +61 407 262 273

Address: cnr Trent St and Birmingham Rd 2750 Penrith, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.pantherwingchun.com.au

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24.01.2022 [Qi - Breathing and The Feeling of Qi] 2020.12.24 Photo by Le Minh Phuong on Unsplash In this and the next one or two posts, I am taking a bold step to share my... views on Qi. This initiative came from my dialogue with a reader, Kevin from Indonesia, who asked me about breathing techniques in training and the Qi phenomenon. My discussion is based on this dialogue. But I start with a disclaimer first: I don’t have a good knowledge of Qi at all. If there is any, it’s all from my personal experience in practising Wing Chun. Thus my discussion could be regarded as narrow-sighted. I believe many of you know about Qi much better than I do. So please add your views and point out anything inadequate or wrong. The Qi concerned here is better interpreted as the feeling of Qi, rather than Qi Gong, which literally means the kung fu of Qi, a specialised stream with techniques commonly applied to health well-being and mostly seen in kung fu styles associated with the famous Shaolin origin. On the contrary, the feeling of Qi is no secret. When your body is in a relaxed state or your mind calms down like during meditation, such feeling will easily (start to) come up. It is this kind of Qi being talked about in the context of practising Wing Chun. Here it goes. Kevin: Is there any breathing technique in Internal CST, like Dan Tien (gathers oxygen when inhaling then expands every part of the body and exhales)? Me: In the training of Chu-style Wing Chun, there is no particular emphasis on breathing. If there is any breathing technique, I would suggest it is that kind of breathing that helps keep your physical body calm, and it then goes deep down to the belly, in contrast to the normal breathing shallow down just to the chest. This deep down to the belly is also a natural result of your mind trying to open up and access different parts of the body, the belly being the site of CoG or the lower centre, representing the entire linked body mass as much as you manage to access. This means: Before, air is inhaled into the lungs mainly due to activity in the chest (muscles and rib cage, etc.); now, air is still inhaled into the lungs, of course (air won’t penetrate into the abdomen), but the linked belly is so active that its activity is orchestrated with the chest’s to become one integral breathing movement. This is a manifestation of a more articulated mass. You may regard it as the commonly known Dan Tien. While I say it is a natural result, it is still your choice to turn it into a cause whenever it fits. For example, you currently practise very slowly, and your body is becoming calmer such that you feel more clearly your own breathing. Yet, you might feel by deliberately focusing on this deep breathing and maintaining it strong at Dan Tien, you will be able to better keep the calm state for further exploring the slow movements. In such a case, paying attention to breathing using the belly is beneficial. As another example: When practising Siu Nim Tau, especially for beginners, the chest muscles usually contract to perform the move. This is particularly so when you try to test out power (force) of a specific move with your partner, in which it’s easy for you to become nervous and engage the chest muscles. Your breath is then being held up (constrained) at the chest. In such a case, paying attention to breathing using the belly can help sink (let go) the breath from the chest down to the belly for a more integral breathing movement, and hence a more articulated mass to perform the move, instead of the congested chest. So far my discussion has been just on breathing, concerning normal air, not about Qi yet. When the physical body stays calm and relaxed, every part will become more active internally. This activeness is reflected in as well as enables various communication among the different bodily parts, which when actively kept, will give the feeling of Qi. I would like to map this activity to the proactive filling up initiated by the mind (Idea). Simply said, the mind is the actor that turns a relaxed body into a vehicle for proactive Qi operation. More elaboration in the next post. [#chushongtin #wingchun #Qi #breathing #DanTien]

22.01.2022 [The First Two Drills for Pole Training - Only Joint Rotating] 2020.09.22 The first two drills for training the pole are probably the most familiar to learners,... namely, lifting and pressing the pole vertically up and down very close to the body between chin and pelvis, and pushing and pulling the pole out and in on the chest level. In both cases, the pole must be kept, more or less, horizontal throughout, i.e. the head and tail of the pole are always kept in pace, so that it can deliver power in its entirety, not just partial or even self-countering. Instinctively, one is tempted to hold the pole tight in order to manoeuvre it as a weight by lifting, pressing, pushing and pulling. Such weight-dealing skills are deemed wrestling and struggling, as explained in my previous post [Adhesively Wrap-hold a Weapon Hold It Sticky] dated 2020.07.24. The Wing Chun way is like this. Take the first drill as an example. Use joint-rotating to keep the pole travelling on the vertical pane very close to your body. There is no distinction between up and down, nor out and in; just the elbow joint being rotated (by the shoulder joint) to the back or to the front. When rotated to the back, the elbow joint rotates the wrist centre upward (if the wrist centre is below the elbow; let’s label this as back-upward), or downward (if it is above; label this as back-downward). The opposite is also true: When the elbow joint is rotated to the front, it rotates the wrist centre downward (if the wrist centre is below; label this as front-downward), or upward (if it is above; label this as front-upward). Your focus has to change, not on the hand (holding the pole) lifting up and pressing down, but on rotating the elbow to the back or to the front. There is then no lifting or pressing force in the hand, because it does not need to cause the pole to move on its own; rather, it is passively being rotated by the elbow joint (via the wrist centre). The hand, i.e. the palm and fingers, doesn’t need to tense up to lift or press. It can then turn into an adhesive surface to wrap-hold the pole. If you can’t switch over to use the joint-rotating mechanism, probably your hand must hold for a tighter grip and thus tense up to a certain degree for lifting and pressing the pole (the heavy weight) when moving it, and you can hardly hold the pole sticky. There is one more moment to consider: when the elbow joint and the wrist centre are approaching the same level (let’s label it as level), i.e. when the forearm is resting on the horizontal. This occurs when the wrist centre crosses the elbow’s level from above to below or vice versa. At this moment, the wrist centre adds its rotating to the palm (in the fist shape), and hence to the pole, to alter the fist’s head to the opposite direction (above to below, below to above). When the fist’s head is altered from downward to upward, let’s label this as level-upward, and from upward to downward as level-downward. Now we can use the above labels to compose the pole drill movements. When you send the pole from below (the pelvis level) to above (up to your chin), it is composed of back-upward, followed by level-upward, followed by front-upward. Similarly, when sending the pole from above to below, it is back-downward, then level-downward, then front-downward. You will appreciate that it is not one lifting nor one pressing movement, but one move composed of, at least, three rotating movements. It is this change of paradigm that makes handling the pole effortless, not as a weight. How about the second drill, i.e. sending the pole out (forward) and in (backward) alternately? The components are: when sending it forward, vertical-forward (wrist changes the fist's direction), then up-forward (elbow sends the wrist); when sending it back to close to the body, down-backward (elbow withdraws the wrist), then vertical-backward (wrist changes the fist's direction). Note that in these two movements (out and in) the wrist centre is always in the front of the elbow joint except when the pole is close to the body where the two are almost vertical. I’ll leave it to you as an exercise to figure out how these components work for this drill. The above has depicted how it should work in the arms. Manoeuvring the pole requires much power from your body. Both the wide stance and the additional momentum from (relaxed) muscular power are crucial in this respect. Only that they are not a focus of discussion here. [#chushongtin #wingchun #pole #drill #joint]

20.01.2022 [Qi - Wing Chun vs Taichi] 2020.12.26 Light rings: Photo by James Owen on Unsplash Spinning top: Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash Now I turn to Qi.... After you’ve tasted the feeling of Qi by calming and relaxing, you experience Qi by filling up, noticeably the forearms first, then the body trunk, then maybe the legs too. (To me, Qi in the context of Chu-style Wing Chun is filling up.) I take filling up with a simple meaning: For a piece of already-relaxed muscle (not contracting), your mind connects to it and makes it strong in terms of more swollen, more dynamic, more elastic, more flowing, by filling something into it. Making muscles strong is the main role of Qi in Wing Chun. Obviously such property is not just limited to Wing Chun, but other martial arts, notably Taichi, though the role of Qi is different. (I just have limited knowledge on Taichi but still try to draw a comparison which may appear superficial. There is a wide spectrum of Taichi variations accessible by us. I particularly focus on the Chen-style Taichi here.) In Taichi, you target to grow Dan Tien (at CoG), to make it bigger and bigger. How to grow it? The mind mobilises Qi around the body and accumulates" Qi (not air nor oxygen, of course) to Dan Tien. It is the activity of the mind - connecting different bodily parts to centre around Dan Tien via Qi, so that Dan Tien can initiate every movement of the body. It’s very similar to what we have been describing the Chu-style Wing Chun - connecting different bodily parts to the lower centre (CoG) by linking, so that the lower centre can initiate every movement of the body. But the actual operation is vastly different. In Taichi, Dan Tien, conceived as a big sphere, initiates body movements by rotating/spinning itself by turning its spherical surface, like you hold a ball and rotate it by dragging its surface; it’s not spinning from its very centre. Since the Dan Tien ball is big, its rotational momentum obtained in this way is still great too. The spinning trickles down throughout the body, through the trunk up to the arms and, expectedly, directly down to the legs. All this operation is conceived as Qi enacting, accumulated at Dan Tien, spinning there and flowing to the limbs. Physically, power is delivered by muscle-twisting and bursting/blasting. Twisting is started by Dan Tien’s rotation and carried on for and during power transmission. Bursting/blasting is the end result at the final landing of the accumulation of such twisting across all the bodily segments in between, most noticeable in launching a punch. The Taichi Qi operation is fundamentally a muscular operation - it is still the muscular layer, already relaxed and filled up though, takes the mastery role in initiating movements; it is Qi-enacting, otherwise muscles can’t remain relaxed but have to contract to perform twisting and bursting/blasting; Dan Tien is the corresponding mind activity to conduct it; and Dan Tien has to be big to cause strong and abrupt twisting to deliver big burst/blast. Since the muscular layer is still the master, it requires a strong base to draw support for generating the twisting and bursting. The base is inevitably, again, the floor. That’s why in Taichi your feet have to grasp firmly on the floor to draw support (can’t be detached), though in most times one foot grasping firmly while another foot touching lightly - the Yin-yang dichotomy for energy flow. Even spinning the big Dan Tien also requires such firm support from at least one leg. In Wing Chun, the filling up makes muscles strong and dynamic, so that they are first readily resistant (cushioning and sticky) to incoming forces (expelling them right at the contact surface), and further adding their momentum (accelerated filling up) to empower movements initiated and directed by the skeleton; it doesn’t cause twisting, nor bursting/blasting. Thus Dan Tien needs not be big. On the contrary, it’s as small as a point; it doesn’t rotate as a big sphere for long peripheral distances, but micro-spins as a point at the very centre for great angular acceleration. Forces so resulted, apart from impactful as contributed by the dynamic momentum of muscles, are also very penetrating (not bursting/blasting), due to the distinct property of joint-rotating - multi-directional forces that converge in one move. It is now the skeleton taking the mastery role, not the muscular layer, which no more needs to draw firmly from the floor; the skeleton itself erects up on its own from inside. Instead, the muscular layer hinges on the skeletal connectors and freely tags along the skeletally-directed movements to add heavy momentum. There is no reliance on the Yin-yang dichotomy. The above is about Qi in muscles. In my opinion, and this is highly my own conception, there is another feeling of Qi in the skeleton operating at the same time in the Chu-style Wing Chun. It is the feeling of links that your mind connects different skeletal parts together. It basically runs within the skeleton. Qi in skeleton differs from Qi in muscles: It is very thin, like a thin line, so it doesn’t fill up, but links; whereas Qi in muscles can be termed in volume that fills up a space. [#chushongtin #wingchun #Qi #fillingup #DanTien]

16.01.2022 From IDEA’s Wing Chun Jackscrew at Elbow, Transmitting Shoulder’s Tead Power to the Pole] 2020.10.19 https://www.facebook.com/mark.ho.372/videos/10220968731985606...Continue reading

10.01.2022 Foir all of you practicing the side slash and pivot in chum kiu (our favourite test!!!)

09.01.2022 Enjoy, much thanks to Nima for posting originally. https://youtu.be/tvkluDbR5W8

09.01.2022 The Teachings of Chu Shong Tin Fundamental Sung Action Number 1: Tead (Sink) Applying ‘Tead’ to the pole by releasing from shoulder to wrist Kin Chow Woon (Shoulder Elbow Wrist)

03.01.2022 Hi Everyone, hoping you have had a Great break over Christmas and thew New Year. REminding you al that we afre back t otraining on Monday 4 January, same time same place. See you all soon, Chris

02.01.2022 Please go and check out this wonderful collection of posts. So much to learn. Thanks Sisuk Eddie

02.01.2022 Wing Chun is a profound and deep art form Perseverance in your research and training, cultivates one's moral character... Once your skill has reached to a certain level, genuine perfection and state can be achieved Just like the river and sea, moving day and night, the force is continually flowing Chu Shong Tin #hongkong #mindfulwingchun #cstwingchun #chushongtinwingchun #wingchun #wingchunkungfu # # #stress #hk #hkig #kungfu #woodendummy #fitness #training #ipmanwingchun #ipman #martialarts #mindfulness #relaxation # # # #