"Drop your weight" my instructor tells me... "Relax"... "...stop thinking". "Let it flow". "Slow yourself down"... "Be like water"....
These are teachings that have been passed down for generations through the world of Kung Fu. Bruce Lee coined the "one-inch punch" and showed the power you could develop from taking these principles and then applying your rotary, gravitational and extension forces towards a foreign object. But first and foremost you had to be relaxed...
Interestingly, the video game 'Street Fighter' taught me this at an early age, but I didn't listen because I was too busy mashing the buttons on the arcade console scared that I was gonna get my ass handed to me once again. But now, even if you watch the characters in one of the most popular video games in my generation (the 30 somethings...) these characters do this if I, the controller, has the foresight to time them properly and am relaxed enough to react without stressing over the result (button mashing).
Since starting Wing Chun Kung Fu (which translated means "beautiful springtime") I have noticed a change in my demeanor, a movement towards being like water. I have stopped forcing things. I have allowed myself to flow past my obstacles, I have stopped reacting before it is needed and I have learned that although you sometimes feel like you need to push forwards, what is often needed is to simply observe yourself and your environment as you flow. It is interesting that as I have let go of preconceiving things I have removed a lot of the stress I previously believed life was throwing at me.
Unlike my street fighter days I have found my inner "Lee" and can now be more powerful without acting unnecessarily with the full knowledge that I CAN move when I need to. My actions are not premeditated, they are a constant evolution of my conscious awareness. "When you expand I contract, when you contract I expand... I do not hit, it hits all by itself".
These are teachings that have been passed down for generations through the world of Kung Fu. Bruce Lee coined the "one-inch punch" and showed the power you could develop from taking these principles and then applying your rotary, gravitational and extension forces towards a foreign object. But first and foremost you had to be relaxed...
Interestingly, the video game 'Street Fighter' taught me this at an early age, but I didn't listen because I was too busy mashing the buttons on the arcade console scared that I was gonna get my ass handed to me once again. But now, even if you watch the characters in one of the most popular video games in my generation (the 30 somethings...) these characters do this if I, the controller, has the foresight to time them properly and am relaxed enough to react without stressing over the result (button mashing).
Since starting Wing Chun Kung Fu (which translated means "beautiful springtime") I have noticed a change in my demeanor, a movement towards being like water. I have stopped forcing things. I have allowed myself to flow past my obstacles, I have stopped reacting before it is needed and I have learned that although you sometimes feel like you need to push forwards, what is often needed is to simply observe yourself and your environment as you flow. It is interesting that as I have let go of preconceiving things I have removed a lot of the stress I previously believed life was throwing at me.
Unlike my street fighter days I have found my inner "Lee" and can now be more powerful without acting unnecessarily with the full knowledge that I CAN move when I need to. My actions are not premeditated, they are a constant evolution of my conscious awareness. "When you expand I contract, when you contract I expand... I do not hit, it hits all by itself".
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