Wing Chun vs Wing Chun

“Aikido versus Aikido breeds weakness and self deceit.”

- Toshishiro Obata

Knowledge, Abilities and Gung Fu

The wise man does not allow his knowledge and abilities to be sounded to the bottom, if he desires to be honoured by all. He allows you to know them but not to comprehend them. No one must know the extent of his abilities, lest he be disappointed. No one ever has an opportunity of fathoming him entirely. For guesses and doubts about the extent of his talents arouse more veneration than accurate knowledge of them, be they ever so great.

In the 1600′s, Balthasar Gracian, a jesuit priest wrote 300 aphorisms on living life called “The Art of Worldly Wisdom.”

Get Em Like

Despicable

Chuck Norris

“He fully immersed himself into acting and film making and ended up as probably the most famous martial arts film star on the planet. This did not come by accident, it wasn’t dropped into his lap it came by design. He was not offered his success on a platter, he had to go out there, invest heavily in himself, learn his trade and create the success that he could see in his mind’s eye. At one point in the conversation Chuck said to me, ‘Geoff you could do this, anyone could do this, it’s a choice.’ I knew it was true.” – Geoff Thompson

Chuang Tzu

The man who not divorced from the absolute, is a heavenly man; the man who is not divorced from the essential is a spirit man; the man not divorced from the true is a complete man.

Make Heaven absolute; make spiritual quality the root, make the Tao the door which reveals this in changing (life).

The man who does this is to be called a sage.

-Chuang Tzu

Fierce Wing Chun

Chi Sao, Sparring and Fighting

I’ve been in enough fights now to recognize that almost all the Wing Chun clips posted online do not adequately represent any form of reality. Chi Sao is great, but should be viewed within the confines of being an artificial drill that MAY help develop certain attributes such as structure and connection, but has little  correlation with the dynamics of fighting.

Sparring is the only artificial way of developing real time skills that have an actual bearing on the way you fight. If you don’t engage in sparring, then you are nothing more than a martial theorist.

Similarly, whatever skill set you believe you possess, be it clinch fighting or iron palm, unless you can prove it works in hard sparring, there is no chance in Hell that you will make it work in the disjointed, chaotic and brutal world of actual fighting. Period.

End Credits

When the blood dries in my veins
And my, heart feels no more pain
I know, I’ll be on my way
To heaven’s door

I know when I knock
I’ll be hoping I don’t drop
To a place where I will rise, like before

I can feel, something happening
That I’ve never felt before
Hopeless dreaming will start
Dragging me away from heavens door

Don’t Look At Me

I see you scowling at me bro. In a busy gym, I see you posing in front of the mirror. I’m looking for the pin pricks; do you inject in your arms or arse? No worries, I’m here to workout, mind my own. Just using this space gym people. I try not to make eye contact with any of you because it distracts the mind from the task. I’m just using the squat rack. Just skipping in front of it and doing pull ups from it. Oh shit, there you go, Mr. Steroid man. You know I’m working out here and not content with posturing and sniggering with your mate, you now insist on stepping into my little patch of space. Damn, can’t skip now. Don’t know what your problem is, but clearly it seems to be me. I don’t want any trouble, just want to workout man. How about you move out of my way. I see, this is a test. You want to force me to move, maybe relocate elsewhere. This is a strategic battle, I see your game.  Mate, you don’t know me do you? I’m quick to anger. All I say to you as I tap your arm is; “watch yourself mate”. Thank heavens. You move, you allow me to continue. You glare but don’t say anything. Nice one, for your sake.

Cun*. I fucking hate you cun*. I hate what you stand for cun*. Don’t look at me again, cun*.

The Man I Am

Wing Chun Gung Fu has been a constant fixture in my life since 1993, when I met Leung, Kwok-Keung sifu. It carried me through law school, the hardships of passing exams. In 1999 when my dad died, I turned to sifu who helped me through this toughest time in my life. His formula for helping me was simple, push me harder in my training. He wanted martial arts to be my emotional outlet as I had no other outlet. My girlfriend had abandoned me emotionally. I became withdrawn from my friends and my family was torn. But I trained.

I was saddened to leave sifu when I moved to Canada from England in 2004, but I started training even harder. I formulated new ways of training, based around the fact that it was all solitary. A new country meant no training partners. When I heard sifu was sick in December 2004 I flew out to be by his hospital bedside and I comforted him for the last few hours of his life. When he died, once again I was faced with another huge loss in my life.  I came back to Canada emotionally drained. I turned to training for comfort and contacted Jesse Glover in January 2005 to start a new chapter in my Gung Fu.

Training martial arts has helped me on so many layers. It saw me through some tough times, but more importantly it has seen me through some of the greatest moments.

Martial arts has kept me sane, it has helped me through sadness. It has educated me and helped me meet some great people. It has taken me to immense joy. Training has helped me become the man I am. It has been a constant fixture that has helped teach me the value of balance, discipline and hard work. I used to set goals for improving my martial arts skill and it is the same process of setting goals that I applied to my family and professional life which has allowed me to achieve a certain level of comf0rt.

Don’t hate.

Hometown Glory

Law 30

Law 30

Make your Accomplishments Seem Effortless

Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease.  All the toil and practice that go into them, and also all the clever tricks, must be concealed.  When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more.  Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work – it only raises questions.  Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you. (Robert Greene)

Clara Hughes

Canada’s Most Medal-laden Olympic Athlete Interview:

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/qpodcast_20100423_31277.mp3

(Starts at 49 minutes into the Podcast)

I really enjoyed listening to this interview.  Clara talks about the dark times in her life and how she changed her life path after making poor teenage-year choices.  Inspiring to say the least.

The Real Shaolin

http://www.realshaolin.com/trailer.html

What a Minimalist is Not

“At the end of your life, do you want a garage full of crap or a heart full of memories and friendships?”

http://theminimalistpath.com/2010/03/minimalism-not/

100

15 Minutes Skipping

100 punches

100 kicks

100 front knees w/clinch

100 side knees w/clinch

100 situps

100 dry-land swims

(1 hour)

London ting, init?

Strugglin

I know I’m not the only one.  30 something.  Wife, kids, cars, mortgages, commitments & dreams.  So don’t feel alone.  When you feel like it’s all piling on know that there are others out there dealing with the same thing.

However, the only thing is that I will not let it crush me.  The harder things push on me, I push back.  Sometimes I yield – it depends on the situation.

We only have a small window of opportunity coupled with a small window to spend with our family.  It’s almost like a sick joke that way.  Make as much money as possible while spending as much time as possible with your loved ones.  Find time to fit in your passions.

Don’t let your dreams die.  For they are the spark that will eventually burst into flame.  Keep strugglin’.

Boost Your Brain

Dr. Judith Horstman’s suggestions for drug-free ways to boost your brain are:

1. Exercise it. Physical exercise is the best thing you can do for your brain.
2. Feed it Fat. Our brains are mostly fat and the brain needs fat for fuel. But feed your brain good fats like Omega-3′s, nuts and seeds.

3. Stimulate it. To do this you must learn something new and hard. The easy stuff doesn’t get your neurons firing.

4. Play with it. Play is very important for brain health. From video games, board games, cards and surfing the net.

5. Serenade it. Music can enhance moods and better sleep and lower blood pressure. Of course, make sure you listen to classical, jazz and other soft sounds – and not thrash-metal
music.