What is the ultimate goal of WingTsun? – Part 1

Why do we actually do it: learning the forms, ChiSao, LatSao, handling weapons, getting used to adrenalin effects etc.?

What is the purpose of all this training? Just to kill time?
Multi-facetted WingTsun is without doubt an excellent and even sensible way to pass the time.
70% of the training time is spent in the company of others, allowing physical and verbal communication that enables us to feel we are part of the other person, and we have the same, harmonious effect on him. We are doing something good for the body and mind – and we are learning to defend ourselves and our loved ones in an emergency.

To destroy the opponent?
All too often we read shocking assertions to the effect that WingTsun has only one aim, namely to "kill" the opponent without delay, in short order. In fact, and whatever their technical level, these poor souls are not describing WingTsun, but rather themselves and their currently low level of consciousness.

To effect change in oneself!
On the path towards the final goal in WingTsun we must allow something to grow smaller, i.e. wither and die, within ourselves, but I need to add a little background in order to explain this.
WT is a so-called internal style – in his first and only book, Bruce Lee called it the "philosophical art of self-defence". Anybody concerning himself with Taoist systems like WingTsun knows that the key word is "transformation", i.e. change.
At the lowest level this only manifests itself as something simple, for example changing a hand technique. The standardised "technique" TanSao is e.g. transformed into BongSao.
At the next level the advanced student learns that BongSao is not only performed with the arm, but with the entire body.
But there is more, for on the last level the WT master himself becomes BongSao in a comprehensive sense (body, mind and soul), as a flesh-and-blood symbol of giving way, letting go and shedding a burden. Accordingly one might say that the ultimate aim is not only to change a hand technique, not only our body, but all that we are.

But how do we make this change in ourselves?
By becoming a different person!

And how do we become a different person?
By "acting" in a different way. To quote the poet Goethe: "In the beginning was the deed!"
If we begin to "act" differently over a longer period, and then also begin to "think" differently and "see" the world and the things around us in another way (= rethinking towards the positive), we become a different person.

How this change takes place where WingTsun is concerned will be the subject of next month's editorial.
Best wishes
Your SiFu/SiGung
Keith R. Kernspecht

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Timing – Part 2: Timing beats speed

Timing – Part 1: Surviving with the right timing

Grand International EWTO Seminar 2009

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