Understanding the genius of Ving Tsun should not take longer than an afternoon. By then, everything should be clear….Following that, it becomes about deciding how you can achieve these goals most efficiently. This is also a part of the system…Unfortunately, Ving Tsun is too perfect, such that in one’s life-span, no more than approx. 70% of it can be mastered even with great efforts! The Human Factor, as always.”– Philipp Bayer
NOTES: Check out the section showing Sifu Bayer doing a Lap Sau demo with Wong Shun Leung. Many people mistakenly do a sort of hammer fist against the Bong, but it is correct to make this a punch with an angle toward the head. The partner forms a bong against your forward pressure and you get your elbow down and then punch forward (from the elbow).
Also, in the Shawn Obasi footage below, Sifu Bayer does a combination — a series starting with a Bong, then a Cover (Jut), a Fung Hau (Knife Hand) with the Bong hand (Bong goes to Fung Hau very easily), and a Lap (which snaps Obasi forward, breaking his structure). This is very effective the way he does it because its all so fluid, in almost one motion. This is the magic of thousands of hours of training. A series of actions become fluid and can be applied in what appears to an observer (like the guy on the receiving end) to be a blur. In someone else, I would consider this to be a little flowery (i.e., risky), but he does it so fast, with such control of the opponent and his centerline, that it is a very functional set of actions.
See how easily Sifu Bayer pops Obasi’s significant weight, bouncing him back with little effort — THAT’S STRUCTURE.
Philipp Bayer and Shawn Obasi
He’s awesome…. Hot to develop a structure like that?
There’s a great story about Wong Shun Leung, Sifu Bayer’s teacher.
He did a demonstration of his Baat Jam Do (Butterfly Swords) form and a European swordsman saw it and asked for a little friendly sparring session. WSL, never one to turn down a chance to compare skills, agreed and proceeded to dominate the exchange.
The swordsman asked WSL to each him the sword techniques and how to begin.
Wong Sifu got into the Yee Jee Kim Yeung Ma stance (the basic Wing Chun stance).
The moral of the story is, basically, we all know how to get from here to there. Its in the system. You just have to find a competent teacher and put in the hours. The thousands of hours!
Many people chafe at the amount of time you have to put in, but I say, no one expects someone to be able to do Oylmpic level gymnastics after six months training. Most Olympic level gymnasts begin as children and hit their peak in the late teens or early twenties, after 10 years of training.
Wing Chun is no different. To develop skills like the top people, you have to put in your time and walk the road. The same road they walked. The key is to find someone to give you the best map.