Sigong allowed us to try and work it out for ourselves in pairs, which was fun as they have such fascinating names, for example: “Iron Buffalo Ploughs the Field Spear”.  Sigong then brought the group back together to ensure everyone understood correctly.  This led us to a deeper understanding of the origin and purpose of the names.    We then moved on to practise and polish the movements learned in the previous seminars, with opportunities to ask questions and correct our movements.  I always find this very helpful as a refresher and reminder of the shape and d ..read more

Sáu Kyùhn 收拳 Withdraw the Fist Part 3 Generally, the inside hands are good for attacking and the outside hands are good for defending, however, if you level is hight, then you can attack with either the inside or outside hands and defend with the inside or outside hands. No matter whether we are attacking or defending, we need to have good wrists, so exercising the wrist is a healthy thing. The next movement comes when we cannot rotate the wrist anymore. As long as we have not moved the wrist from the same spot and kept the arm straight, the fingers of the hand should face outwards. Norma ..read more

Daoist Lǚ Dòng Bīn 呂洞賓 Part 15 Zhōng Lí Quán 鐘離權 continued his explanation of Shén Xiān 神仙 – Immortal Level, “The second level is Rén Xiān 人仙 – Human Xiān (Immortal). This is a person who has been training for a long time, over more than one lifetime, even many lifetimes, and has developed magical powers. If you come across such as person, then you will see they have magical powers, but they are still human.” “The third level is De Xiān 地仙 – Earth Xiān (Immortal). A De Xiān stays in one location. They are like a guard who is guarding a place. They are usually found in temples, house, or i ..read more

Chén Zhào Xù 陳照旭 Part 1 When I was studying with my Sīfú 師父, Chén Xiǎo Wàng 陳小旺, he told me a story about his father Chén Zhào Xù 陳照旭. Sīfú was only seven at the time and one day when he went to school everyone was talking about his father and saying how powerful his father’s Tàijíquán 太極拳 was. Being so young, he did not understand. Of course, he had heard of Tàijíquán and had seen it all the time, but he did not understand why everyone was saying his father was so powerful. It was only when he went home trust he heard the whole story. He did not ask his father, as he did not know how to ..read more

When we practise Wing Chun, we must also consider our health and not just fighting. In the forms, each movement has an application and a health benefit. When we punch, the punch should be connected and come from the whole body and then it is good for our health, it is the same for Sáu Kyùhn 收拳 – Withdraw the Fist. So how do we do it properly? Sáu Kyùhn comes after we punch. Once we have punched, we do Hōi Jéung 開掌 – Open the Palm, where palm should face upwards. Then we do Jyún Wún 轉腕 – Rotate the Wrist, where the wrist should rotate inwards, ie if you are using your right hand the wrist ..read more

Daoist Lǚ Dòng Bīn 呂洞賓 Part 14 Zhōng Lí Quán 鐘離權 continued to explain the Shén Xiān 神仙 – Immortal Level and Daoism 道 to Lǚ Yán 呂嚴, “There are also five kinds of Shén Xiān. The purpose of all Shén Xiān training is to reach a higher level, eventually reaching the highest level. When a person has enough spiritual ability, good morals and breaks through the cycle of reincarnation, then that person is Shén Xiān. It takes many lifetimes, and you must have a good Sīfú 師父 – teacher. The Sīfú must be high level and must have reached Shén Xiān. Training is both physical and spiritual. The spiritual ..read more

Principles of Chùn Yuén Quán Part 8 The principles of Chùn Yuén Quán 俊元拳 are: Posture Relaxation Move from the Waist In Line One Whole Movement Breathe Through the Nose   We need to follow them in this order. First, we need to focus on our posture. When our posture is good, we can focus on relaxation. When the relaxation is good, then we can focus on moving from the waist. When this is good, then we can focus on creating the line, which is similar to posture, only we need to do this in many positions. We can hold the positions for a while and check if we are in line or not. Then we ..read more

Sáu Kyùhn 收拳 Withdraw the Fist Part 1 Whenever we perform a Wing Chun form, whether it is Síu Lihm Tào 小念頭 – Reducing Thought, Tsum Kìuh 尋橋 – Looking for the Bridge and Bīu Zī 標指 – Thrusting Fingers, we will always punch and then withdraw our fist. Withdrawing the fist is called Sáu Kyùhn 收拳. Sáu收 means withdraw and Kyùhn拳 means fist. Even though we do it so many times, a lot of people are still missing a lot of detail and so not getting it right. The meaning behind Sáu Kyùhn seems quite simple, just withdraw the fist and bring it back to the side of the chest. However, all traditional Ch ..read more

Daoist Lǚ Dòng Bīn 呂洞賓 Part 13 Zhōng Lí Quán 鐘離權 continued to explain the Shén Xiān 神仙 – Immortal Level and Daoism 道 to Lǚ Yán 呂嚴 and said, “There are three levels in Shén Xiān practice – low, middle and high. However, each skill in the world always has three levels. The beginner level is the lowest, the senior is the middle and only very rare people can reach the high level. The beginners level takes three years to pass through. Three years of daily practice, at least three times a day. Then you will start to understand the principle and purpose of the skill, but you will still make a lo ..read more

Principles of Chùn Yuén Quán Part 7 The sixth and last principle is, breathe through the nose. For a healthy person, breathing through the nose is quite normal, but, when we are doing very physical exercise, most people will breathe through their mouths. Chùn Yuén Quán 俊元拳 requires that we breathe through our nose. We say, the nose is for breathing and the mouth is for eating and talking. So, the mouth should not be used for breathing, otherwise we would have hair in our mouths to filter out dust, like we have in our nose. During our Chùn Yuén Quán practice, if we are able to breathe thro ..read more