[note: TST is the abbreviation for Tsui Sheung Tin, an alternate English spelling of Chu Shong Tin]
I have always said I am not a master of Wing Chun or a Wing Chun Sifu even though on my last time training with TST at the beginning of the 1980’s, Sifu asked me to teach under his name in the US. I respectfully declined telling him that my skills were not at his level so I did not feel qualified or comfortable to do so. He said that my understanding of Wing Chun was very high and I would teach myself the rest. I did not really believe without his direct guidance that I would. Since I was leaving Hong Kong in a short time, I thanked him but declined the offer. It was my last time training with TST at the school and I missed that place a great deal. I stopped training after leaving HK and only occasionally would work with other fighters to improve their speed and power and occasionally help a few other WC practitioners that I would meet over the years. I had to make a living so life must go on, but I never stopped trying to understand what I had seen.
I have always wanted to know why animals seem so powerful for their size even long before I learned WC. In fact that is why I was interested to learn in the first place, as I believed TST could provide some help with this. TST was right in the end about me teaching myself, as he had provided me with the keys to open the doors to find what I sought. I stopped calling what I did Wing Chun and gave it a name that better represented the concept to me. I called it “I-FORCE” With the “I” being to the power of 3 with the combination of Intelligence, Imagination and Intent. I believe that all animals that move have an Intelligence which is a combination of 3 things starting with the letter”W”. Those being “Who you are”(I am, I exist), “What you are”(Your structure ,your shape and function) and “Where you are”( I am here ). The second component Imagination, is necessary to move since before you can move you must imagine yourself being there and not here. Intent is the last component of movement as there must be a Willing to do so, another words an Intention to act.
These are the attributes of, for lack of a better term, the conscience mind. In movement there is, for lack of a better term, the unconscious mind, which is responsible for micromanaging things at a level that would be impossible to for us to do consciously. It is my belief that there is a spot in the body that is used by the unconscious mind as a constant reference point from which to calculate and control movement. If that point was constantly moving the effort necessary to make calculations to control movement would be overwhelming. This constant reference point is somewhere that the body is aware of because all forces eventually effect it. I refer to this point as the Center of Mass (COM). I use this as a term of art more than a scientific certainty, it could be replace with the term Center of Being. I believe all animals are aware of this spot and is the default seat of their conscious minds, only occasionally changing when the need arises.
Most humans are the opposite with their conscious mind moving peripherally to do all the fine motor tasks that are the norm of our existence or bouncing around in our skulls as we chat with ourselves. If we can become aware of this spot and make it the default position or seat of the conscious mind we can move more naturally with greater efficiency and power. Even if we understand this, it is difficult to maintain, as everything we do all day in this technological world takes us from that place. What we are attempting to do is combine all the elements, I spoke of earlier, in one place; and that place becoming the origin of all movement and the depository of all external forces the body encounters. This effort is all consuming and no internal dialog is possible. It is a state that is not occupied by what we view as thought, but of complete awareness. There is no need to think about relaxing body parts: as the mind can not go to and be stuck in any body part.
When we move from the center all parts move with it with the effortlessness that we experience when walking and the muscles working in a more natural fashion. What we call normal walking could be improved upon if we walked from COM as we would not be falling over our COM everywhere we go, but instead moving with greater control and power. There is no need to think about structure if we move from COM as the correct structure will be created as needed. We will feel and understand gravity better so we can kick or step from a weighted leg for example. It allows us to use all our mass all the time. As I have always said “Nothing moves till the center moves and nothing is left behind”. The circular forces that I used to try to create and control I found already exist in this state. All the muscles and joints move more like when we walk, with eccentric muscle use and stretch reflex playing a larger role in all body movements including upper torso.
It is all very simple with only one point to control. It is only one little idea. All that is needed to create powerful movement is imagination and intent. Correct me if I am wrong as I have never heard this directly from TST but did he not say that it all came from a single point and it was very simple. Well it doesn’t really matter as this is my way. Maybe it may be of use to someone on their journey of discovering their way. TST had the same instruction as others in Ip Man’s school but found his own way that was different than other Ip Man’s students. I am a one finger typer so my thoughts tend to get a bit muddled because it takes me so much time to get it typed but I hope this makes some sense. As someone once said” May the Force be with you” – Marty Anderson