Interviewer: Good evening sifu. Thanks for agreeing to this interview.
Sifu: Good evening. What is it you’d like to discuss?
Interviewer: May I ask you to discuss your formula for courage, sifu? I recall a student asked you how it was possible to maintain calm and be relaxed in the face of an attack? Some people even seem to get rattled in gwoon training.
Sifu: Ah, yes! It’s obviously vital to be able to control our mind and thereby our emotions in a self defence situation. Managing fear is a major aspect of this control. We can’t hop around like crows afraid of their shadow. We must soar like an eagle, unafraid, with the freedom to go anywhere with confidence. I was once asked how it was possible to remain calm in the face of an attack. Richard, I think asked me to re-iterate the formula once, I recall. I replied with a formula framed to facilitate it being remembered. It had an expanded and also a more concise form.
Interviewer: Yes. May I ask you to elaborate on that formula?
Sifu: Certainly. The full formula went:
Courage comes from control,
Control comes from confidence,
Confidence comes from competence,
Competence comes from comprehension,
Comprehension comes from correctness,
Correctness comes from consistency,
Consistency comes from commitment.
Interviewer: If I count correctly that’s eight C’s. Does that help in remembering it?
Sifu: (Laughs) Could be! Yes, we can call the formula the “Eight C’s”. Usually I simply express it as the condensed version: “Courage comes from confidence; confidence comes from competence”.
Interviewer: OK. Could you unpack the full version for us please?
Sifu: Sure. Courage is being able to control fear to the extent that it is not dysfunctional. That is, to the extent that it causes you to freeze. Fear is dysfunctional to the extent that it is a mind killer. Fear is functional in that it alerts us to actual danger – imminent or immediate. In some circumstances it’s possible to control fear so that it doesn’t manifest at all. Courage is not necessarily being unafraid, of course. It is often surmounting fear. Where do we develop the capacity to do this? My belief is that if we believe that we can control a situation sufficiently then we can control the manifestation of fear. We can, in desperate situations, like courageous self sacrificing war or civilian heroes, simply dismiss the fear and face the possibility of death with a “What the heck!” attitude. Parents will do this if their offspring are in danger. Some folk are even so brave that they face certain death to save others, sometimes they may be complete strangers. That’s real courage. In fact, that’s sainthood, to be frank!
Interviewer: Interesting. So, other than the kamikaze attitude, if we control a situation we can control our fear?
Sifu: Yes. I think that logically fear is the apprehension we suffer that we may be, or likely will be, by our assessment, unable to control a situation sufficiently to prevent harm to us. In the self defence from attack situation we need to know that we won’t suffer injury or death. See, my take is this: fear is our belief - whether it is objectively correct or incorrect really doesn’t matter - that we don’t have, or can’t acquire in time, the resources to cope in a given situation. If we can assure ourselves, both ahead of time by correct training, and in the situation, by rationally relaxing and doing what we have trained to do – to protect ourselves from injury or death - then our fear will be manageable – or even absent.
Interviewer: Absent? Fearless?
Sifu: Yes. It isn’t always wise to be fearless, though. It depends on the situation. If I, or any other competent Wing Chun practitioner, was to be attacked by the average clown of a hoon out to throw his ego around we ought have no reason to fear. If, however, I was to be attacked by a group of criminals – and remember that anyone and everyone who assaults you is, by definition, a criminal - and, worse, they appear to be, or are, armed, then some apprehension is decidedly warranted. But not so much that it causes me to freeze or hesitate in implementing my training. In a really dangerous situation I need to be one hundred percent convinced that my training will answer the challenges presented. I need to know that I can control my fear and control the situation. I could, if possible, I would, leave – run away. Is that cowardice? No, it’s common sense. And it’s sound self defence. I train with my mind, not my ego. I live with my mind, not my ego! Therefore, I defend myself with my mind, not my ego! The ego, if allowed to reign might want to stay and teach the clown attacking me a lesson. I must admit it’s incredibly tempting given the number of undesirable, lower class fools we have running amok these days! Giving such an attacker the beating he really does deserve might be justified. But it may not be wise. It might turn nasty if his ignorant and cowardly mates jump in to uneven the odds against me. Or, if I accidentally killed the fool!
Interviewer: Yes. So the control you mention is control both of the situation and of self?
Sifu: Exactly! You develop extraordinary levels of self defence knowledge and skills in learning our art. The skill and knowledge entails developing control – of self, of the attacker or attackers, and, of the environment.
Interviewer: How do we control the environment, sifu?
Sifu: By running away! (Laughs) Seriously, that’s best. In our sick modern Western world here with distorted legal procedures that penalise victims and allow criminals to roam the streets to re-offend, with idiot civil libertarians prattling about the rights of criminals, leaving the scene is by far wisest. That we have so many criminals- and fools defending their “rights” - is, in itself, testimony to the sickness of our society. In Buddhist terms, we do live in a decadent age. Western civilisation is in a bad way, I’m afraid!
Interviewer: Yes, it would seem so. On many levels. OK, we can control the environment by leaving it. Is there anything else we can do?
Sifu: Absolutely! Protect your back, don’t get cornered, keep moving, put attackers in each other’s way, use environmental weapons, stand with your back to the light, shout your message….
Interviewer: Your message?
Sifu: Yes. Referring to what I just mentioned about a foolish legal system that sees criminals as simply misguided rather than anti-social and evil, you need to know you may have two fights on your hands – the actual attack where you were the victim – and the possible legal fight where the attacker tries to make out that he was the victim. I know it’s logically utterly idiotic but law is not justice – well, not here, anyway. You must clearly keep that in mind. It was said a long time ago that, “the law is an ass”. Your message, heard and reported by any witnesses should be a loud: “Look I don’t want to fight!” Add: “Don’t hit me!” You believe he will, so you ensure that witnesses will relay your message to the police. Saying that you believed he’d attack you after he has done so, hasn’t got as much clout as shouting it out before he actually does. If your message verbally deters the would-be attacker then excellent! The alternative is to shout “Fire!”
Interviewer: “Fire?”
Sifu: Yes. It’ll attract attention and provide many witnesses. It’s been shown in our sick society that if you shout “help” that no-one will come, or if they do, they’ll just spectate! The Kitty Genovese murder showed that.
Interviewer: Kitty Genovese?
Sifu: Sorry, I forget myself, any well educated psychologist is familiar with this case. I’ll tell you the story. She was a New York City Italian American lesbian woman who was stabbed to death near her home in the Kew Gardens section of Queens in New York on March 13, 1964. She parked about 30 metres from her apartment's door, which was around the rear of the building and was stabbed twice in the back by a psychopathic murderer and rapist, an African-American who had simply picked her at random. The psychopath ran after her and stabbed her twice in the back. Genovese screamed, "Oh my God, he stabbed me! Help me!" Witnesses observed the criminal enter his car and drive away only to return ten minutes later. He had changed his hat to a wide-rimmed one to shadow his face. He systematically searched the parking lot, train station, and small apartment complex. Eventually he found Genovese who was lying, barely conscious, in a hallway at the back of the building where a locked doorway had prevented her from entering the building. Out of view of the street and of those who may have heard or seen any sign of the original attack, he proceeded to further attack her, stabbing her several more times. While she lay dying, he raped her. The attacks spanned approximately half an hour. Unfortunately the animal didn’t get the deserved death penalty – merely a prison sentence. He’s still in jail I think. Like a true psychopath, he has never expressed any remorse. He had committed a lot of other crimes, including murders, and is obviously an irredeemable monster in human form. So, the poor girl was stalked and murdered over a period of time whilst gutless clowns watched and did nothing! The reaction, called the “bystander effect” or the “diffusion of responsibility effect” has prompted a lot of interesting research and been replicated in psychology experiments several times. There is debate over how accurate the news reports of the time were but the main points stand: there are some very nasty psychopaths out there and most people won’t lift a finger to help someone in need. You’ll see it time and time again.
Interviewer: I can see the reason for your formula emerging!
Sifu: Yes. The thugs in our world believe that learning self defence simply entails learning how to bash the heck out of an attacker. Well, we both know we’ll leave that to the street fighting martial artists! You know the types – those who think they have to bulk up to look like King Kong, that they have to “look mean” to be effective martial artists! (Laughs outrageously).
Interviewer: Yes, regrettably, the bash and smash merchants. OK, “confidence” was next. Could you comment on this please. sifu?
Sifu: OK. My formula says that control comes from confidence. We’ve noted that you need to control your thoughts, your emotions, and the environment. Once the physical stage of the attack actually begins you also need to control your attacker. You’ve seen many, many times that our art controls the attacker completely once he initiates his attack. He literally gives himself to you! You have to train so you are proficient at this. Once you can control reliably then you can justifiably have confidence. You’ve seen me demonstrate many times how it is impossible, once I have control of your bridges, centre-line and centre-of-gravity, for you to re-attack or withdraw. If you try I can hit you but you can’t hit me!
Interviewer: (Laughs) Absolutely! People who don’t do our Yuen Kay San art wouldn’t understand, I guess? It’s hard to imagine, in fact!
Sifu: I very much doubt outsiders would understand how it works. Even in the Wing Chun Pai, our art is unique and rare in this respect.
Inteviewer: It’s really like standing grappling isn’t it?
Sifu: At the risk of giving readers who aren’t my students a totally incorrect impression, I can briefly simply say “yes” to that. On second thought, I’m actually not that concerned it might be misunderstood by outsiders, to be frank.
Interviewer: OK, may we go on? Yes?
Sifu: (Nods)
Interviewer: Next, I think, was competence? You’re sort of bringing in these factors as you explain the preceding one.
Sifu: Yes, it’s all inter-related and flows naturally. To my mind, each factor is generated automatically by the preceding factor. Competence is simply exactly what it means. Gain competence in training that simulates realworld street attacks in type, intensity, and speed. Gain competence in employing our combat mindset. It’s as simple as that. Mind you, the vast majority of so-called martial arts are not realistic nor do their practitioners train to cope with realworld attacks. They train against their own art’s predictable attacks in a co-operative fashion. Or, they train wrestling. Sometimes their rehearsed drills or demos look spectacular too, though! They’re sport or performance arts, however. The bottom line is that you must develop the knowledge and skill to be able to defend against any attack mounted by a determined attacker. And, you ought to especially continuously rehearse the most common street attacks. Our gate theory helps a lot in this respect.
Interviewer: At the risk of sounding glib, one could say that’s what self defence should entail, eh?
Sifu: Well, “real self defence for the real world”, yes! Stopping the attacker’s attack and landing yours! I think that brings us to my next factor – comprehension. We have to fully understand our art – the principles, strategies, techniques, tactics and all the possibilities of applications. Whilst it’s possible for a person with some self confidence and a basic grasp of the Wing Chun fundamentals to successfully defend themselves, it is usually only once you’ve fully grasped the art that you can feel maximally confident. It very much depends on the context. This is why I am always saying: “avoid dangerous people and dangerous places”. You think that only applies to the pubs and back alleys, to our lousier suburbs? No. It applies also to avoiding those who would lead us astray in various ways. The subtly dangerous. Those who would distract us from training, those who would convince us to waste time on other arts, these are dangerous people! Those who doubt the art, these are dangerous people! Those who dismiss the dangers of being in the city, Civic, one of the most dangerous places in the nation, in the early morning hours and entice you to join them – to take the risk. These, too, are dangerous people! Even your friends can be “dangerous people” at times!
Interviewer: Quite so! Now “correctness” – that’s a hobby-horse of yours, sifu, isn’t it?
Sifu: Ah yes! Yes! “Good enough is just not good enough” is one of my sayings, as you know. I once asked sifu how many ways of doing Wing Chun were there? He smiled and replied “Two”. Then he paused, obviously waiting for my shocked reaction – as he knew I’d heard of the proliferation of styles calling themselves “Wing Chun” – and mostly devised in his life-time I might add – then he continued: “The right way and the wrong way. There is actually one right way and many wrong ways!” Point taken. Our art is very precise. We have to reproduce it exactly. If you want my results, do it my way! Simple! So, yes. Correctness – in understanding, in skill, in application, in living in accordance with Mo Duk. All of this is vital.
Interviewer: You say that correctness comes from consistency, sifu.
Could you explain that, please?
Sifu: Yes. That’s my old notion that to progress and to master our art you have to attend training regularly, have the right attitudes, apply yourself to the best of your ability and to fully develop your ability. You have to listen to what is explained, to watch the models, to think about it and to critically self reflect. You have to consistently train your techniques as you check off the pointers to ensure you are doing our art and not something else. Consistent practice, consistent correct practice! You know I say “it isn’t practice that makes perfect, it’s perfect practice that makes perfect”. Doing a thousand punches incorrectly is worse than a waste of time – it’s drilling in incorrect punching! It’s better to do ten correct punches than ten thousand incorrect ones!
Interviewer: Yes, you never cease to remind us that quality and precision is what you want. OK, we’re down to commitment. Could you comment on this please, sifu?
Sifu: OK. Commitment is perhaps self-explanatory in a way. You have to commit to the art. You have to commit to consistent correct practice. I’ve said before that studying multiple arts is for the martial arts grasshopper. If you have extraordinary talent then you might be able to study more than one art. But, even then, I’d say that you ought to study them sequentially rather than simultaneously.
Interviewer: You’ve done that haven’t you, sifu?
Sifu: Actually, I didn’t take my own advice when I was younger, to be honest. I studied several branches of karate along with Hong Kong Wing Chun. Later, though, I focused on just my Wing Chun. Shall I go on?
Interviewer: Please!
Sifu: On the other hand, it could be said that if you have extraordinary talent then you might be best ensuring that you fully master the one art. If arts are of the same type, say Hung Gar and Choi Li Fut then certainly they could be studied simultaneously if the practitioner manages to keep them separate. I trained two types of karate at times – in an era when it wasn’t considered at all the thing to do - but I had to keep them separate. Even fairly similar looking arts do have a lot of technical differences so it is difficult to keep them separate. I now advocate one art for one lifetime. Choose wisely and commit – at least until you have one art mastered before learning another. A major reason for this with respect to our art is that you can very easily confuse methods of powering. Whilst our method of powering has much in common with some internal arts it is still within a Wing Chun matrix. I don’t think many other Wing Chun arts power their art as we do. Some rare few of my beginner students now and then insist, often against my teaching over and over again, on using muscular power. They try to rush instead of following my teaching they try to second guess me. Well, they don’t get anywhere until they train correctly with commitment to this art – not the ways of others! If you can find a situation that our art doesn’t have a response for, then please let me know – as I’ll want to seriously study that. So, you ought to commit to this art. If you commit a half or a third of your time and energy then you’ll get back a half or a third of the anticipated result. You simply have to commit your time, energy and finances. You can’t spread these around. They’re too precious to squander. Today, it’s too hard with our demanding lifestyle to actually find sufficient spare time to do justice to more than one art. I think, in fact, it’s hard finding enough time to do justice to even one art! Commit your mindset, commit your faith to the lineage, to the gwoon, to the sifu, to your gwoon mates, and to yourself. Also, once you have to defend yourself, commit yourself to ensuring that our art doesn’t lose.
Interviewer: It’s fascinating how much information that you can pack into a few words, sifu! Thank you for an interesting and informative interview.