If I’ve ever heard a “secret” to Wing Chun, it would be simply “Do it again.”  This principle is contained within the very words Kung Fu.  These words denote strength or power through hard work, there is also an element of time in them.  The more one works their Wing Chun the more one understands their meaning.  Not through analyses or through calculation but through doing, through working.  Wing Chun is not just the building of a good fighter.  One could learn in a few months how to be a proficient fighter; Wing Chun is more than that.  It is the building of a person.  The only way to do this is through work.  The intellect is only a part of the whole and when becoming the whole must be considered.  Wing Chun is such that will work the whole of the person.

The way that it must be done is actually pretty simple, but sometimes hard to bend to.  Wing Chun must be done on its own terms.  It is we who must bend ourselves to it.  The more we try to make it fit us the more of it we deny, trimming it off to fit the box we have in mind for it.  Wing Chun is bigger than any box we could have planned for it.  To try this we would be limiting what we could get out of Wing Chun and limiting our own potential for progress.  Thus, good Wing Chun cannot be attained to through ones own efforts alone.  Individual effort is important.  As mentioned before the working of it is essential, but the work needs direction if it is ever to come to full fruition.  To whom would one turn to lead him/her through territory that he/she has not been.  Wisdom would suggest that the student would find one who has been through that territory and knows what it takes to make it through.  One who knows the way.  One who knows where to avoid, where to focus more energy for better progress.   One who can gauge progress and make course correction when needed.  Such a one is an instructor.                

Because of the students’ position it is impossible for him/her to see where he/she is in his/her Kung Fu.  The student must trust the instructor to lead them in the way and give them what they need, when they need it.  For that is also the nature of Wing Chun.  It is given not taken.  Given as a gift, not purchased as a commodity.  Skill and power come from working what the instructor has given you when it is given and in no other way.  Only when following the instructor’s directions will Wing Chun find you, and you will begin to notice its growth within you.  Many times when the growth is noticed, the student wants to make it go faster.  “If I have been told to do this, and it’s getting me this much this fast, then if I do this, I should it much faster.”  Be careful.  Remember, as a student you do not know the territory, what you think may be a good short cut, may end you up in a different place entirely.  Your Wing Chun may get lost.   In the Doctrine of the Mean it is said, “The way of the superior man may be compared to what takes place in travelling, when to go to a distance, we must first traverse the space that is near.”  In Wing Chun there are no short cuts.  It is a strait path, just takes some time to travel.  Therefore focus on the step that is before you now.  The rest will come fast enough.  In truth it can be done no other way.

Work what you have been given now, with no boxes to try to fit it into, no expectations of the terrain you’ve never seen.  Just enjoy the scenery as it unfolds before you, as you travel in new places you’ve never been.  Without boxes or expectations, working it becomes much simpler and really much easier.  Just be diligent, give your heart to the journey, and you’ll find it’s better than you could’ve expected.

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