Greetings on what appears to be the official end of summer weather in England for this year!

 

I spend the first part of last week out in Geneva with one of the most highly regarded close protection and bodyguard training companies in the UK. I have been associated with them for some time now, working with their team with the aim of developing their tuition and teaching methods even further, particularly in the area of unarmed combat. I will talk more about this at a later date, but on this particular trip the trainees spent most of the time on tactical handgun training.

 

It was particularly interesting to see that the concepts and training methods taught on the course were analogous to that of Chinese Wing Tsun. It was certainly poignant that the first part of the training was dedicated to a brief understanding of the history of handguns. As I have stated previously, it is impossible to understand what you have now if you don’t know any of its evolution – the history puts the current training both in perspective and illustrates its purpose (which interesting enough is widely misunderstood when it comes to using handguns – there are relatively few companies with effective training in this area and even many military units have poor training).

 

With regard to the physical training itself, this was also of a similar ilk. Firstly, everything was trained as a ‘dry drill’ (i.e. without any ammunition) before being put into practice. Indeed, this is how you begin the training in Wing Tsun – namely shadow boxing. I’m afraid this is again one of the areas in Wing Tsun that is simply misunderstood particularly, in my experience, in the teachings of Western Wing Tsun. Most people believe that the idea of this training is to develop the co-ordination and build up speed and power.  Actually that is not the reason at all for the exercise. The underlying concept is that if you cannot train the application perfectly in the air without interaction with another person then you have a very small chance of being able to make it work in reality should the situation arise. Co-ordination, power and speed are rather a by-product of successful training of the shadow boxing not the aim. If you are good at Wing Tsun these skills will develop as every part of the art helps build them and continually improve them. It is important to understand that if you are good at martial arts you will have good co-ordination, power and speed but just being  fast, strong and co-ordinated does not make you good at martial arts. If you misunderstood the basic principles and methodology how possible is it to have a successful outcome?

 

Back on the topic of handgun training again, the second major parallel was concerning the stance, with the instructor stating ‘everything comes from a good stance.’ My students will attest to how many times I say this in class (and I can certainly do the same for my Sifu when I first started training with him!). If you do not have this - and it only comes from continued practice and self-correction - only you are missing out. It stops you ever reaching the highest level, as your movement, balance, kicks and development of the musculature of the legs are all dependant of this. (Indeed I believe this is one of the reasons that the Chum Kiu seems to be so universally misunderstood - and also pointing to a failure to grasp the principles of Siu Nim Tau as well). I have to say that I have even seen some ‘martial arts’ proudly advertise that they ‘don’t have stances’ which I find quite astonishing as a stance in it most basic form is just the best and most expedient way to stand. How do they intend to practice if they never stand in a way that is helpful to them?!

 

The third major similarity was to do with the actual techniques involved. Just like Wing Tsun they were all developed and evolved through the correct use of the body dynamics. I can always tell those people that truly understand Wing Tsun from the way that they move. It’s hard to explain, but as a master it is something that you can recognise straight away. Many people can be fast, but a true practitioner utilises his body and does the techniques in the way (they were intended) that they work with the body. This is more than just practicing thousands of times; it requires a whole different level of understanding.

 

I will not go into all the similarities, but it is sufficient to say that the basic principles were the same – of which having the ability to relax under pressure (a basic requirement and principle of Wing Tsun) and the need to focus at the problem at hand without losing sight of the environment around (again the same) were crucial. Just like Wing Tsun the need to simulate a realistic environment was also important.  However, it is imperative to note and put in perspective, as many people forget, that any system is only as good as the person representing it and no system is any good without constant practicing and a desire to improve.

 

I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to the directors and chief trainer of the company who accompanied me on this trip. I would also like to say thank you to Jason the excellent handgun teacher, who not only demonstrated and taught the course professionally, but took the time to show me some of the finer points to consider in the event of having to face a gun unarmed. I am looking forward to working with all of them in the future and I am sure that the standard of the tuition and students will continue to rise even higher.

 

Sifu