Wing Chun Kung-fu Volume 1. Joseph Wayne Smith, Dr.

of exercises are performed for the pubococcygeus muscle (PC), similar to the exercises now known as the Kegel exercises. The PC muscle controls urine flow and its spasmodic contractions constitute orgasm. Contract and release this muscle—squeeze it as tight as possible for 10 seconds, release, and then squeeze again and so on. A strong PC muscle prevents sagging of the pelvic organs, and can increase the intensity of the orgasm. Dr. Arnold Kegel devised a series of exercises for the PC muscle in the late 1940s, but Wing Chun practitioners interested in Chi Kung have been training this muscle for at least three thousand years!

      THE SECOND AND THIRD SECTIONS OF THE SIL LUM TAO

      The second and third sections of the Sil Lum Tao are very straightforward and are described by the captions to the photographs in this chapter. The palm strikes, chops, and finger thrusts are self-explanatory offensive weapons, or, in the case of the side palm, pak sao, a defensive parry. The second and third sections of the Sil Lum Tao also contain techniques for force redirection. The double lifting hands and the drawing-in are primarily used in close-range fighting to disrupt the flow of energy of an opponent’s attack. The drawing-in hand movement involves having both of your hands on the outside of your opponent’s hand. This is a strongly disadvantageous position as the median axis of your body can be readily attacked. The drawing together of an opponent’s hands constitutes a hand trap and puts you in the advantageous position. The drawing-down hand (la) and the upward-lifting wrist movement (ding) in the third section of the Sil Lum Tao are not primarily used as blocks, but rather function in sticky-hand fighting as conventional ways of opening up an opponent’s guard by either moving the guard down or up, followed by an immediate attack. The haun sa a and jut sao from section one of the Sil Lum Tao also serve a similar purpose. The jut sao is a sudden downward jerk with the edge of the heel of the hand, to clear a pathway for a strike. The haun sao is a wrist-rotating movement, used to twist around guards, or to open up a guard. In both cases we can see the evidence of the concept of sticky-hands; the use of all these hand moves presupposes that contact has already been made with the opponent’s hands, or forearms.

      The bong sao hand movement is one of the most important hand movements in Wing Chun, but it is also the most complex and least understood. There are many types of bong sao movements in Wing Chun, including the wooden-dummy section, but to keep this discussion concise and uncluttered I will consider here only the simple bong sao in the Sil Lum Tao. The bong sao consists of a bent-elbow hand formation, such that the blade of the hand faces upward. The angle of the elbow is slightly greater than 90 degrees: any less and the hand movement is too weak, any more and punches will skate over the top. The elbow is elevated so that the shoulder is blocked from view of the attacker. This means that a punch will be deflected upward and will not be long enough to connect. The bong sao, therefore, functions as a distance-destroying deflection. The hand is bent for the purpose of sticky-hands, so as to glue to an opponent’s hand. This means that your hand is already inside an opponent’s guard, which wouldn’t be the case if all you did was raise your elbow to defend yourself. All that now needs to be done to counter-attack is to straighten the elbow to launch a bil jee to the throat, or alternatively to rotate the hand in order to drop a back fist on the opponent’s nose.

      The bong sao, like all hand moves, has its weaknesses. It is weak to the side if an opponent pushes your elbow in toward your chest, and most importantly it is weak in the respect that it leaves your side unguarded. That is why in sticky-hands, the hand sequence goes from bong sao to taun sao—the Wing Chun hand moves are a coherent system of internally related hand moves that shift from one to another to cover up possible weaknesses in the preceding hand move. My system, like Western boxing, therefore places great emphasis upon combinations, not only attacking combinations but defensive ones as well. I cannot emphasize strongly enough how important in fighting it is to develop fast, fluid, and clear combinations, because unless you are fighting a fool, no fight against a skilled opponent can be ended by just one master technique. There is always the possibility in the heat of combat that your best technique may not work as it worked while sparring in class. Therefore, a good fighter is versatile, capable of both defending from all angles and attacking from all angles. Indeed, the ideal is to not merely simultaneously defend and attack with a hand or leg move, but to simultaneously defend and attack an opponent with both a hand technique and a sticky-leg technique with follow-ups. In the next chapter I shall begin describing how this is possible with a description of the Wing Chun footwork at the Chum Kil level.

      THE SIL LUM TAO FORM AND CHI KUNG

      OPENING

      1. To perform the first form of Wing Chun Kung-fu, the Sil Lum Tao, or Way of the Small Thought, stand in the attention position, with your back straight, eyes focused straight ahead upon the horizon, your feet together, and your hands at your sides. In performing the Wing Chun forms, emphasis is placed upon symmetry: the left-hand movements and the right-hand movements are performed as if there were a mirror running through the centerline of the body. For this reason, to make matters clearer, hand techniques are often shown here only on the left-hand side, because the right-hand techniques are exactly the same but performed on the right. In this photograph, the center-line is an imaginary line running through points in the middle of the subject’s body. Maintain deep but relaxed breathing throughout the form.

      2. Now move both hands slowly upward to perform a double til sao, or upward lateral wrist deflection. Both hands are moved together, at a deliberately slow pace, with the thumbs of both hands facing up, the knife edge of your hands facing downward. Slowly move your hands until your arms are fully extended and at right angles to your body. The fingers and wrists are very relaxed, like the leaves of a willow tree.