“(Never) fire, till you see your own image in the pupil of your enemy’s eye.”
Gustavus Adolphus

I like to come at the ideas of our our system from many different directions, because I think everyone has different sensibilities and what will click like a key fitting into a lock for one person will miss the mark for another.

You may notice that I spend a lot of time discussing psychology, almost more than the the specific techniques and principles of Wing Chun.

This is because I think that everyone else talks about all the other stuff (Bong Sao, centerline), but no one talks about this.

You can be the biggest badass in the world and lose to someone who is more aggressive and more determined and ready to put their neck in the noose.  You must be ready, mentally.  You need to expect it and understand what it will be like.

This idea is not new.  Any place you can find someone with fight (or combat) experience, you will find this notion.  Fighting under stress in real life is different than training in the school.

This is what is meant by the Wing Chun principle, “you must go inside the house to fight the fire.”

You can’t fight from the sidelines.  You have to step up.

And yes, its scary.

There is a scene in the John Wayne western The Shootist .

Wayne plays an aging gunfighter named Books who is dying of cancer.  He target shoots with the teenaged son of the woman running his hotel.  They shoot at the target, and the kid says “Mr. Books, How is it you’ve killed so many men? My spread wasn’t much bigger than yours.”

Wayne replies “First of all, friend, there’s no one up there shooting back at you. Second, I found most men aren’t willing, they bat an eye, or draw a breath before they shoot. I won’t.”

You can see the same principle at work in this (final) scene from the Kevin Costner movie, Open Range .  Once the fight is on, Costner’s experienced gunfighter quits playing games and turns the situation into a deadly shooting range, calmly taking aim and firing, at first one man, then another.

He just walks right up and starts shooting.  He has decided this is a fight and he picks his moment.

You have to get this clear in your mind.  When the fight kicks off, as a Wing Chun fighter, you must step up and start hitting.


Open Range