How to analyze elements from other systems!

 In Gung Fu everything rests on a foundation that makes it work. Every unique system relies on very specific key principles and key concepts that it operates under. These ideas are based on the founder's physical and mental attributes. It also depends on the particular types of situations that he faced in his lifetime which completely depends on the time in history and type of society culture he lived in. Wing Chun is no exception to this.

 

Whenever you look at the key elements of a system, its core concept, most of the time you will find that each element is usually a complete system already in another Martial Arts. For example, if you list the 5 top elements in your system, each of the 5 is usually already an entire martial art in another system. To me, this has been extremely important in my journey. Once I realized this simple fact, I can now look at the

systems that specialize in each separate element; hence when I return to my mother system later, my understanding and amplification of each element become much greater. This was one way that I ended up accelerating my learning curve.

 

Sometimes, when we look at other systems to amplify the elements in our own, we end up discovering other concepts and elements that are not in our own. This is when things get tricky because when we come across elements that I'd completely different than our own; we have to carefully observe if those unique elements are compatible with what we are doing. Does it better how the game or does it confuse our nervous system?

 

Does it help or contradict our primary goal and strategy? This is why sometimes looking at other systems is a great asset but sometimes it is a liability - it all depends if you can observe. This is very important the reason why I am writing this is that I often get emails from all over the world from Wing Chun students who ask if they should look at this or that system outside of Wing Chun.  

 

On my Website, I have designed the Wing Chun Full Immersion training program which is basically the entire Wing Chun level 1-6 + I have shown NON-Hong Kong Wc and elements and studies of other Gung Fu systems (ie Long fist, Choy Lee Fut, Hakkanese systems, Machete, Non-Classical Gung Fu, Cane work, etc). Since I have released this program, people are asking about cross-training. So I just wanna mention how it is not a matter of just randomly mixing arts. In fact, in the program, I make sure to go over exactly why an element of a system is trained, how it is trained, where it fits, how to develop the attribute and make it work, how to practice it solo, and most importantly how it specifically relates to Wing Chun to make sure it never confuses the nervous system.

 

"10000 changes does not leave the Root" -  Taoist Saying