Saturday, September 11, 2010

Wing Chun Do - It's In The Details

Loving the nitpicking details. Can't help ourselves, we're Michigan Mechanics, engineers,  technicians, and Midwestern.


Between Jun Fan and Jeet Kune Do, Wing Chun Do is more than a just a link in someone else’s evolution.  It’s the missing link between Jun Fan and Jeet Kune Do. Wing Chun Do offers the details. While others schools encourage students to follow their own paths, to find their own way, to discover their own truth, this may offer a less than satisfying learning experience for certain individuals.  The “don’t worry, you’ll eventually get it” scenario with an unstructured curriculum, where a technique is shown once or twice and never seen again, is a real turn off for many people.

With a strong foundation in body mechanics, Wing Chun Do teaches those mechanics and the fine detail work that accelerates your learning.  You have a detailed curriculum, meaning classes will be productive and meaningful. There are no short cuts to learning an art, but techniques and drills are developed to get you on your way faster.  

I can give you a car and say go find your own way or path. You might eventually get there, maybe get lost a couple of times. The car may breakdown and since you know nothing about the car, you get stuck or have to rely on others. You might drive in the wrong direction for many miles and have to backtrack trying to make up for lost time. Eventually you arrive at your destination. It just took you a lot longer than you expected.

But what if I teach you how to drive first.  And then I teach you how to drive accurately and with precision at high speeds.  I give you a road map to help you get to your destination. What if I teach you how to achieve more power under the hood, how to accelerate off the line and go from 0 to 90 in just three seconds handling velocity and power with ease. You now thoroughly understand your machine. Then I teach you how to out maneuver and out perform the competition. By giving you the details, the fine conceptual details that other arts don’t offer, you get a thorough understanding of the art and how it works for you. 


And then I give you a compass.


Some think less is more, that you can achieve the end result without the details. That simplicity means fewer techniques. An accurate statement in terms of technique, but not in the conceptual learning of those techniques.  It's in the details, the conceptual details.  Detail work brings clarity, elevates quality, and offers complete understanding. You'll learn to fit the fewest techniques to the widest variety of situations, to fit the minimal amount of techniques to the optimum number of circumstances. 

Wing Chun Do has the details.  A punch can hit harder.  A strike or block will be more accurate and devastating. Your feet will carry the body efficiently, with balance, stability, and explosive power, and with the essential footwork that supports core strength and technique.  Hand speed is greatly increased, response times and decision-making shortened, biomechanics that are tried and true that work for everyone, even you. You readily recognize energy flow and how to utilize it to your advantage and against your opponent, and finally, how to generate explosive power whenever it is needed.


The finest artwork, textiles and sculptures are sought after as the most valuable precisely because of the detail work and technique involved in executing them.  The detail work brings out the quality, vitality, beauty, and science of any art.

So if the scientist in you, the artist in you, the engineer - mechanic in you, or the detail oriented person in you, needs or loves this type of learning, when you like to know the why and how of what you are learning, and you love a teacher like sibok Rocco Ambrose, that gives it all to you, then Wing Chun Do is definitely for you.

Come surprise yourself. It might just change your life.