Originally Posted by
Ali. R
Most of everything that’s practiced in the Leung Shenug system is based on “chum” and “softness”. One of the main reason why? As my Sifu Woo Ching stated is; “because Leung was a tall/strong man”. And Yip Man taught his students based on their body structures, attributes and abilities. My teacher trained with Leung Sheung for over 8 years.
Leung Sheung being taller than others was taught by ‘Yip Man’ how a smaller framed man could move a bigger person around the room, in which he’d (Yip Man)
taught Leung Sheung how to counter that from a stance point of view.
And by being bigger/stronger than most, he was always stressed the importance of softness, and that’s to be able to keep up with the smaller man. Because once his stance was fixed (good), his size combined with his bodyweight/center of gravity and softness only enhanced his mobility and structural prowess, as if he was the smaller guy.
And you’ll never see our shoulders go upwards or our hands go above our clavicle, because if that happens, the bigger man would never take back or have control of his center mass, if taken. The stance that we use is the original concept taught by Yip Man, but other families have their own versions from what I’m told.
And there’s nothing wrong with that, because most students do it all the time (change their stance), which is a personality thing based on what they do (wing chun) or it’s just their version.
But for the bigger man, he must keep and use that structure to be successful and it works even better of the smaller man as well. The only thing I see that is diffident on that clip; the elbow are pointed backwards or behind him when we sink/point them downwards to develop more “chum” and stable rooting as a bigger person.
Ali.