In recent months I have received many enthusiastic reports by participants in the seminars held by Master Gutierrez, and even old stagers and
Practician grades excitedly tell me that they have now finally understood WT.
Victor's great expertise as a Practician is beyond question. I could not have found a better man to fulfil his tasks, which is to encourage a shift in attitude from the clever-dick "Look at me, I know something you don't know" to the realistic "I make do with just a little, and know how to use it".   

The level of enthusiasm speaks for Victor's ability to convince and his skill, and confirms that I made the right choice. Victor's mastery shows itself in the fact that he teaches a practicable training programme and is able to present complex matters simply, and therefore understandably.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to my master student Victor! 

But nonetheless what I have said above holds true: people only understand the WT they have understood. But that is only one half of WingTsun!
 
WT is like two sides of a coin. The side that can be represented most clearly, and whose logic is immediately apparent to an intelligent person, is the one side showing the overall concept of WT. In 1987 I presented this part of WT for the first time in my book "On Single Combat", and this may have been the precondition for the huge success of WT in Europe.

The strategy propagated in this bestseller is a strategy of preventive "forward defence", whose motto is "Attack is the best defence": we attack the opponent in such a way (with the universal solution and due self-protection) that he either takes punishment or is compelled to make contact with our arms in his efforts to impede them.
This means that he automatically provides us with a template to which we respond with the four "reflex-like automatisms" (Bong/Tan and Jam/Kao) prior to overcoming him with heavy punches.
This "If the way is clear – go forward" strategy consists of an aggressive
defence (technically speaking an attack) that forestalls the opponent's preparation for an attack, and presents him with a limited choice of "false solutions" that are already familiar to us, and to which we have a ready and painful answer that we have already practiced 10,000 times.
The universal solution (advancing with hand and foot) with attacking footwork and constant chain-punches turns the tables on the opponent, forcing him onto the defensive.
This half of the overall WT concept is represented by the four Chinese characters:
Arms without contact (or the way is clear) – thrust directly forwards.
With this half (incidentally the 2nd) of the overall concept, any WT-follower from the student who has only been training for 12 months to the 4th TG and above has excellent chances of emerging victorious from a fight. We sometimes refer to this as the "Great Vehicle" of WingTsun, with which practically anybody can learn to defend themselves successfully.
 
The other, far more obscure half of the overall WT concept (the road less travelled) is also represented by four Chinese characters:
Come - Stay; Go away – Accompany home (Stick with what comes, follow what withdraws).
This half of the motto does not begin by launching an attack, but instead follows the classic rule: "If the opponent does not move, I do not move either." It goes without saying that one does not wait until the opponent's fist has struck home either, of course.
It begins with an assessment of the situation and the opponent, with ante-perception. This is followed by absorption of the opponent's attack, which we do not need to go in search of because he is looking for us. The forward-flowing energy is of course only slight, as excessive pressure impedes the tactile sense. Indeed it is the tactile sense that plays the major role here, for we impose nothing and let him do what he wants. 
In this 2nd part of the concept, the master's approach in WT, controlling the attacker is no longer the object. Instead he is allowed to dig himself the grave into which he is about to fall. Our arms (Man-Sao) ask him
"Where would you like me to hit you?"
In the "WT concept for everyman" we only allow the attacker a limited choice of movements to which we respond by giving way and adding to them, as we already know the script and how the story ends.
The "Master's Concept" of WT is hidden on the other side of the coin, however. In this case no limitations are placed on the opponent. He is allowed to do anything, and we go along with it. For a few milliseconds we surf on the wave of the interactive process, until the tipping point arrives.
Then, and "at a stroke", we separate ourselves (Lat-Sao) from the opponent with whom we had a partner-like connection (Chi-Sao) until that point.

The "Stick with what comes, follow what withdraws" concept in WingTsun requires far greater skill than a forward defence and the auxiliary programme that is BlitzDefence. It is what the Yip Man student Bruce Lee called the "philosophic art of self-defence". 
While my BlitzDefence programme is still usable despite the initial, stress hormone induced stiffness of the arms, the master's strategy in WT requires complete relaxation of both the mind and body.
The tactile reactions must therefore be instilled under the influence of stress hormones, so that they can still be called upon despite the stress of an encounter.
Similarly, anticipating the opponent's attack by ante-perception, closing and adapting to his movements and seizing the right moment for an annihilating counter requires infinitely greater skill in terms of estimating distance, tactile sensitivity and timing.

As the Taoist yin/yang symbol suggests, neither activity nor passivity, directness nor indirectness, softness nor hardness, attack nor defence are right in absolute terms. The one must never exclude the other. Thus the germ of a defence must be contained in an attack, and the germ of an attack must already be included in a defence.

The real expert must have the entire formula, the overall concept at his disposal, everything in its own time, and the ideal to be achieved is the more demanding half of the equation. 

This master strategy is also gratifying because we use Chi-Sao to become a single unit with the other party, feeling him as part of us and ourselves as part of him. We probe and feel at the same time, and are no longer separate from him. The arrogant and dismissive "splendid isolation" of a Blitzdefence attack, which separates us, readily gives way to human interaction. Indeed we literally stand in his shoes: he becomes me and I become him. The fact that we still send him to the ground with a powerful blow "if necessary", so that he attains "consciousness" and alters his behaviour, is paradoxically an expression of real humanity.