question for the more experienced (sihing73, watchman, etc)

[wingchunwsl]

when you guys started out, about how much did you guys train and when did you guys start to be proficient in the wing chun skill.

[Sedgimax]

I have only been doing it for a couple of months, so I know I still got a ways to go. But, Sifu told me last night, half serious, half joking, that I should go to Muay Thai. I am just to tense, and try to do everything with force.Is there hope? Not that Iam anywhere near giving up.

[Watchman]

wingchunwsl,

When I first started doing Wing Chun I was training four to six hours a day minimum five to six days a week. I was a 17 year-old punk kid with no job and more aggression than I knew what to do with. Wing Chun kind of anchored me down and gave me something to be passionate in, and I threw myself into it like I had never done with anything before.

That was all before a job, career, marriage, kids, and responsibility. Now I count myself lucky when I have the time to get my minimum of two hours a day in. After all these years, though, my sifu says I still have an attitude problem. :rolleyes: :D

As far as when I became "proficient"....that is an extremely relative idea. I first felt like I "knew what I was doing" - so to speak - after a good year under my belt.

Real proficiency, however, is something that I feel I'm just stumbling onto after all the blood, sweat, and tears I've poured into everything. I guess that's the nature of continuous learning as you deepen your understanding of the art's principles.

Sedgimax,

Yes, there is most definitely hope for you. Tension is a natural problem in some people that takes some time to work out - and it won't go away over night.

Right now I would suggest, of course, working on your flexibility and relaxation as much as possible. But, what will help as well is to really concentrate on learning the physical structure of your postures and hand movements. A lot of the time being structurally sound in your technique with help compensate for a lack of ability to completely relax.

If you take that approach you'll find that over a course of time that as you are more able to relax while maintaining good structure, you'll be ahead of the game just because you've got better structure than most others -- plus you've got the right kind of relaxed power to now go along with it.

Nothing scares me more in chi sau than going at it with someone who has perfect structure AND the right power.

http://www.wckfc.com/masters/man/Sec2-1.GIF

One is weak because he makes preparations against others;
he has strength because he makes others prepare against him.
-- Sun-Tzu

[Sedgimax]

Thanx Watchman,

When you say structure,are you talking about my horse stance, sinking and being well rooted? Last night Sifu was feeding me punches and I would pak dar or guan sao(dar??). On the guan sao, I would have to shift and thats when I realized that I wasn't well rooted to begin with, which started me thinking that the stance IS very important, and if I can get that down I might also improve my relaxation.The tension is of course the shoulders.When I do a bong sao,my shoulder goes above my eyes. :eek: well sort of. Anyway,I guess part of it is knowing exactly what a good root feels like? Then when I was 4, my father left.................Thanks again.

[Martial Joe]

Thank you watchman for making me feal like a slacker more then ever...

http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/lolup.gif IXIJoe KaveyIXIhttp://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/lolup.gif

[Watchman]

You're actually on the right track.

If you're not able to relax right up front, then taking the time to understand the structure of your stance and how it supports your arms will give you the "breathing room" you need.

http://www.wckfc.com/masters/man/Sec2-1.GIF

One is weak because he makes preparations against others;
he has strength because he makes others prepare against him.
-- Sun-Tzu

[Sihing73]

Hello,

When I first started learning Wing Chun, Abe Lincoln was in office and I needed a method to train Yankee soldiers to protect the North....Oh, sorry that's another story :p

My first Wing Chun Sifu was a very traditional person. I went to class twice a week for about three hours a class. For the first three classes I did nothing but sit in my stance while he performed SNT, very sloooowly. After the third class he began to teach me SNT which took approximately another six months. During this time SNT was it, very little extra training other than Chain Punching, which we did no less than 1000 each class. After this six months of SNT we began to learn Dan Chi Sau and some two person drills. I was then sent to Germany where I was exposed to WT. My first night at WT class we were doing Pak Da drills with a partner. Very fast paced compared to my first Sifu.

My out of class training was to usually spend an hour or two every day practicing SNT and punching then onto footwork. I was kept in pretty good physical shape due to being in the military and running just about every day. Nice supplement to the Wing Chun/Tsun. I highly recommend military service to anyone. In addition to this I was usually at a seminar just about every weekend I was not on duty and my Sihings and Sifu and I would get together about two times a week outside of our two regular classes. We used to go out to the "forest" and train for 5-6 hours straight every other weekend, sometimes every weekend. I was lucky my wife trained too, although some would bring their girlfriends who would cook us food and such and help us relax after a tough workout, :) ahhh those were the days.

As to when I became proficient, I am still waiting for that to happen. I was able to use my Wing Chun after about two months in Germany. I even sparred some guy who was supposed to be some type of Navy champ. He was a lot bigger than me and claimed to be a Third degree black bet in Gojo, although such claims are worth about as mcuh as a three dollar bill. I did not have any problem with this guy and I was a third student grade at the time. This does not necessarily mean I was any good he could have just been very bad. Besides, Navy guys are soft anyhow :D :rolleyes:

I will end this here as it is long enough already.

Peace,

Dave

[old jong]

I just enjoy practicing and I dont think about this! I know I have some skill but I simply hope that I will never have to use it.

[ng mui rules]

well im not one of the oldies, but i started out in a very traditional manner. first of all i would like to recognize all the guys who repied before me, all that stuff was great. i've been doing WC for about 6 years. when i started we did a lot of condtioning. 3 set of 40 pushups. 2 sets of 40 crunches and leg lifts. lots of punching practice. lots of sil lim tau. lots of iron forarm conditioning. alot of just making sure we did the techniques right. like not having tan sau too hight, or paking off center, and holding the center in bi jong. i know im not as old as the mountains but i hope this helped.

[ng mui rules]

well im not one of the oldies, but i started out in a very traditional manner. first of all i would like to recognize all the guys who repied before me, all that stuff was great. i've been doing WC for about 6 years. when i started we did a lot of condtioning. 3 set of 40 pushups. 2 sets of 40 crunches and leg lifts. lots of punching practice. lots of sil lim tau. lots of iron forarm conditioning. alot of just making sure we did the techniques right. like not having tan sau too hight, or paking off center, and holding the center in bi jong. i felt that i could defend myself after about 3 months of training. i still had a mother load to learn, but i thought i could survive a tipical highschool brawl. i know im not as old as the mountains but i hope this helped.

[wingchunwsl]

thanks for the posts guys. ;)