Making The Right Choice
by Master Ron Heimberger
It is advised that prospective students choose a teacher of high
character and skill. It is easy to find someone who fraudulently claims Wing Chun through
a rich heritage, but difficult to find someone who indeed is rich in heritage. After all,
the teachers support and advice are critical to students making their way through
unfamiliar mental and physical terrain. Entering a contract of surrender, students must
have faith the teacher will not lead astray moral, technical, and ethical philosophies.
Many students drop out of Wing Chun, some before they get
through the Wooden Dummy training, some after. While it is difficult to pinpoint the
reasons behind the dropout rate, quality instruction is certainly a major reason. If you
do not get top-rate Wing Chun instruction from the beginning, you might never gain the
confidence to feel in total control of a situation at all times. Your time as a student
could be plagued with a fear of situations in which you might find yourself in the future.
It doesn't take a superman to fight and do it confidently and well. Wing Chun is a learned
skill, and to learn it you have to be taught it.
Some of the things that you have to do in Wing Chun training
cause anxiety the first few times that they are performed. One example is chi sau, the
ability to stick and fight, where one student attacks and the other overcoming such
forces. Chi Sau is normal training, it is not dangerous, and is the root to every fighting
situation on the street. But some practitioners go through their entire lives without
confidence in their Chi Sau skills just because they were never taught the value and
simplicity of Chi Sau and they never realized the increased confidence a practitioner has
when Chi Sau skills are mastered.
The other extreme can also be an indication of an instructor
to avoid. Your lessons are not the opportunity for the instructor to demonstrate that he
is the greatest fighter since Bruce Lee. If he does anything that makes you truly
uncomfortable, or puts you in fear, he is not the instructor for you.
Judging your instructor
But how can you fairly judge the quality of your instructor,
while recognizing that equally competent instructors differ in their perceptions of their
obligations? While you should realize that your attitude toward learning is an equally
important factor, here are some indicators of a good instructor:
1. It's not how much your instructor talks, but what is being
said. Good teachers have a knack of dispensing with the superfluous and presenting a
concept in the simplest and fewest words.
2. Your instructor will be keenly alert to your degree of
understanding. If you do not thoroughly understand what is being told to you, the
instructor will sense that and rephrase it as many times as necessary. An instructor knows
that a statement that is perfectly lucid to one person could be confusing to another. We
all have preconceived beliefs that tend to hinder our grasp of certain new subjects.
3. The instructor will not overwhelm you with too many
unfamiliar tasks or new concepts at one time.
4. A good instructor always explains, before each lesson,
exactly what he wants you to do.
5. A good instructor has a proven, lineage.
6. A good instructor never pressures a student, but relieves
as much pressure as
possible. He never hurries, shouts, or shows impatience. When
a student repeatedly makes the same mistake, the instructor concludes that the fault lies
with the teaching.
6. A good instructor does not waste time with exercises that
could be done at home. The system should be your work out, warm-up, cool-down, etc.
7. Don't learn from someone who uses Wing Chun as a power
position, raising himself above everyone else. The best Wing Chun instructors are some of
the friendliest and humblest people around. A boisterous attitude only means one thing,
"lack of confidence," which could stem from never learning the entire system.
8. Ask the instructor how he is certified and how long he has
been practicing.
9. Check out his students, a person may say a lot of good
things, however the proof is
in the results. Students will be a reflection of the
instructor. Good students--good instructor, bad students--bad instructor.
10. If an instructor gets angry at any of these questions,
that may be a sign for you to find someone else.
Mutual respect
Your relationship with your instructor must be rooted in
mutual respect. Lack of respect from either of you toward the other is a signal to find
another instructor.
Wing Chun is a system much like a family the instructor is
like the father of that system he is going to make as good a Wing Chun practitioner out of
you as you can be, which means that he is going to demand as much from you as he can get.
He should not pressure you, but simply stay with you and patiently upgrade your goals as
you progress. You will do yourself a disservice by looking for an instructor who will be
satisfied with less than your best.
Actually, humans are not taught, they learn. Your instructor
cannot place a funnel in your ear and pour knowledge and skill into it. The most he can do
is demonstrate, explain, and establish a series of attainable goals for you. The rest is
up to you--surrender your ego, it is the source of hindrances that prevent you from
pursuing Wing Chun to its fullest. But the responsibility for mastering Wing Chun rests
squarely on your shoulders, not the instructor; the instructor is merely a
"guide;" someone who points the way; students must walk the path themselves.
Learning
When learning new material, musicians play from a written
score and actors have the luxury of written lines in a script, but a Wing Chun
practitioner has to learn technique by feeling it. You cannot learn the Wing Chun well
unless you have a clear idea of the techniques contained within the three boxing forms.
There is no right or wrong way to do this. Eventually everyone
finds his or her own learning tricks. Some people need words and analysis in order to
absorb new movement, while others seem to soak it up like a sponge, without any conscious
reference points. Some practitioners get the general shape, direction and feeling of the
movement first and fill in the details later; many find rhythm the key. Some start by
learning the beginning and end of a group of moves, others concentrate on the transitions,
or joining technique.
Learning movement involves all the senses. It is not strictly
visual, not purely rhythmic; it is also kinesthetic and intuitive. It doesn't really
matter where you begin. The secret is to begin with a receptive mind and to go with
whatever works for you. Open up your intuitive antennae and trust that learning goes on at
many levels. Don't worry if you don't always know intellectually what your body is doing.
Often the body understands before the mind does. Sometimes you need a different learning
approach for different kinds of movement. Kinesthetic or intuitive learning (feeling and
doing rather than thinking) work best with natural movement that has an organic flow.
Tricky movement takes conscious analysis of detail to master.
Wing Chun practitioners have different learning speeds, too.
Unless you feel grossly out of place in your class, don't get flustered if you learn at a
slower or faster rate than other students. Ultimately this has nothing to do with talent
or ability, and there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Facile learners are a
godsend to teachers, and they frequently become the unofficial demonstrators for the
class. But their very speed may rob them of the opportunity to digest all they take in,
and they have a tendency to be superficial. As a slow learner, it is a struggle, to learn
a technique yet because of this fact once a technique is learned it is ingrained within
every fiber of the body, as if one had created it himself. Never throw yourself into a
movements you don't understand just to keep up with the rest of the class. A quick punch
or a hastily planted foot can easily give way to injury. Instead walk through the
combination, slowly if you have to, in the back of the room where you'll be out of the
way.
Naturally, the more familiar you are with your teachers way of
moving, the easier it is to pick up the technique. Mental attitude is also important. From
time to time all practitioners have to be reminded that they are not in class to look
good. Don't berate yourself for making mistakes. You'll only create mental blocks and make
it harder to try again. Don't forget that a class is a laboratory, a place to work and to
try new things. You are there not to hide your mistakes but to learn from them. Not
worrying about how you look frees you to get fully involved in what you are doing. And the
more actively you take class, the more you'll get out of it. Teachers respond well to
students who ask questions, try hard and contribute as full human beings. Learning is a
partnership with the instructor guiding and the student learning.
Another thing to keep in mind when learning new movement is
that no two Wing Chun practitioners look or move alike, due to individual differences in
physique, timing and movement quality. Long, lean people look different doing small, quick
movement than short compactly built people, though they may be equally skillful. Sometimes
it is hard to resist wanting to look like someone else, particularly because one learns
the Wing Chun chiefly by imitating others. But expect some movements to register very
differently on you than on your instructor or classmates, and remember that this is what
makes you unique as a Wing Chun artist.