I just sent this off to some of my students. Feel free to substitute Jeet Kune Do when you find the word wing chun. You may not agree with everything but there is much truth here.

Here are some interesting random excerpts from a book I am studying.

Bending the knees lowers your center of gravity. This puts you in a position of balance. When you bend your knees you should feel your center of gravity drop from your upper body to some where around your belly. You should feel solidly planted on the ground and yet mobile.

The problem with a classical approach to wing chun is that it takes much longer to perfect skill than your basic wack-‘ em and poke_’ em method of martial art currently in vogue today. There are no short cuts to mastery. The problem? In essence ,the challenge is mental and emotional. The concerned beginning wing chun student immediately faces the reality of a long period of drudgery, footwork, conventional exercises, and tedious repetition of the basics. It is the rare individual who chooses some distant reward over instant results. Instant results are very seductive. Encountering this convoluted reality is what leads so many developing wing chun students to opt for the easy way out. It affords them instant gratification. So, many will avoid classical wing chun training, because in it’s difficulty, it generates much resistance. In it’s highest form the art of wing chun is about gaining control over your own actions. It is about self discipline. It is mastery of form and technique, which leads to effective and efficient maneuvering of body and weapon in combat. An advanced wing chun student ends excelling in combat only because of the control he established along the way.

In training, right of way pure and simple refers to who has the right to hit who at any given moment. And it is established as attacking would be carried out in real combat, by creating advantages of timing, distance and weapon placement over your opponent. You cannot hit and not be hit if you do not do this. By in large, whenever you establish such an advantage, you will have right of way. The concept of right of way is merely an acknowledgement of this position of superiority. The conventions of wing chun are convenient ways of determining such an advantage.

The reason for learning complex wing chun movements is basic to the learning process. Your abilities need to be stretched to grow. Having to think and act in complex patterns does this. Physiologically it stimulates the nerve impulse pathways producing more efficient motor responses. By performing complex actions whether or not you ever use them in actual combat, you hone those underlying technical skills that makes any simple action easier to accomplish by comparison.

Simplicity. Start simple and build with understanding. If you start with the most complicated attack you can think of, without a sound base, you will trip over everything in front of you. No matter what wing chun seems like, it is simplicity that the student should strive for. The bottom line is: be only as complicate as you need to be and as the situation dictates.

Good Wing chuns:
1. Is thoughtful and logical
2. Is economical in it’s movements
3. establishes a clear physical advantage
4. is always repeatable
5. Is pliable if necessary
6. Is balanced
7. focuses on process over result.
8. aspires to the highest common denominator rather than the lowest

OK, I have a confession to make. I substituted wing chun for the word fencing. This book is actually called the Inner Game of Fencing. It is authored by Nick Evangelista. Fencing is an excellent tool to help examine the basic and some of the deeper aspects of wing chun and JKD movement. As you know fencing was vey important to Bruce Lee. I just happened on this book. It is not a how to manual but rather deals with concepts and principles.

Kimsut

Nice post Kimsuit!!!

Excellent post my friend! It is very fitting to both wing chun and Jeet Kune Do! I agree with you 100% (as always)!

Keep Blasting!
Sifu Lamar M. Davis II
Senior Instructor
Hardcore Jeet Kune Do
Sifu@HardcoreJKD.com
JKD@windstream.net
http://www.HardcoreJKD.com
http://www.DragonBlastMA.com
Phone (205) 296-7070 (Incoming Only)

"Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit First - ALWAYS!"

"The REAL future of Jeet Kune Do belongs to US, the few, the proud, the HARDCORE! Now, what are we going to do with it?" _ Sifu Lamar M. Davis II

Good author and nice post

Best part!!

"No matter what wing chun seems like, it is simplicity that the student should strive for. The bottom line is: be only as complicate as you need to be and as the situation dictates."

That's interesting. Fencing looks like a sport that requires a lot of finesse (like JKD and Wing Chun). There's a club that just opened in the Birmingham area (Homewood I think) that I would like to sit in on, just to see it's relation to JKD. I don't want to take any classes on it though, since it seems to have zero street application. Can't carry a foil or rapier around. Actually "running someone through" with a sword would be kinda gross.

Eric,
Unfortunately I don't have time to train two arts but there is street application to fencing. However it is not directly related to the technique but rather the attributes that are developed in fencing.
Hand eye coordination
Precision
improved reaction time.
explosiveness
non telegraphic movement
Hand before foot.
The list goes on. You can learn all of these in your chosen martial art but fencing can fine tune them. I think it would be great for you to observe a class but remember, like JKD and Wing Chun, all fencing is not alike.
Kimsut

Cadence, timing/rythym, beat, half beat, fighting measure, footwork, SDA, PIA, ABC, ABD, the basics for JKD’s On Guard position, and the delivery method for the straight lead.

It’s fencing’s impact on JKD that allows it to be such a strong lead tool fighter. Even Kicking in JKD is affected by the fencing influence. Basics like side kick to the knee followed by finger jab to the eyes (off the thigh into the eye) would not work the same with out the structure that fencing has given us. With out it JKD’s fighting stance would look a lot more like that of a boxing or Wing Chun.

I'm not saying that fencing is the end all of JKD but it's definitly had it's impact...