P.O. Box 661291 • Sacramento, CA • 95866-0724 • 916/973-9191

Home • Volume I • Volume III • What is Wing Chun? • CD-FAQs • Purchase Info • info@xumedia.com • Policies

Sensitivity

In Wing Chun the sense of touch combined with a developed awareness of which direction force (energy) is going is known as 'Sensitivity'. It is only applicable or useful when 'Sticking'. Sticking means to maintain continuous physical contact with someone for the purpose of feeling & reading their intent, energy level, controlling their movement. Without sticking, Wing Chun practitioners are virtually blind & unable to use their controlling & trapping techniques.

A related quality to sensitivity is the ability to relax while practicing Wing Chun. You can only be sensitive to other people's energy when you eliminate the noise of your own tension. This is one of the most difficult aspects of Wing Chun to practice. Relaxation does not mean being completely detached. Rather, your muscles need to be limber while your mind remains clear, open, & receptive to new & changing sensations. Your mind should be almost blank and detached. A good secondary exercise to all things shown in this program is to do it with your eyes closed. This eliminates visual confusion many people experience while performing Wing Chun. In later exercises such as Pak Sao, many people respond quicker by closing their eyes after they learn the reflexive responses.

The opposite of being relaxed is being 'stiff'. In Wing Chun this is an uncomplimentary description. Being stiff is equivalent to being characterized as mentally 'dense'. In both cases the person has barriers to feeling and sensing what is going on in the world around them. The stiff person does not flow well with his opponent's energy & attack. One of the principal tactics in Wing Chun is to go with the opponent's flow then divert or redirect it into an unexpected direction, causing the opponent to over commit himself or become out of position. To fully execute this strategy you must remain 'soft' or relaxed. The semantics have some irony when you remember Wing Chun was developed by a woman.

Many martial arts practice focusing; using all your concentration, energy, & intention of do one thing. Wing Chun is the opposite. It requires you to take the wide angle perspective and be aware of many thing, because you will have many contact points with your opponent if you properly execute the form & their applications.

BACK

Last updated 3/6/2000
all material on this site is copyrighted by Xu Media, 2001. All rights reserved.