Interviewer: Sifu, thank you for agreeing to this interview. May I ask you to elaborate on why you stress so often in class three main concepts in basics and san sau.
Sifu Zopa: Yes. I’m happy to.
Interviewer: You tell us to capture the centreline but you go further. You say that, in fact, some Wing Chun practitioners have become obsessed with the centreline to the point of neglecting the other concepts.
Sifu Zopa: I do. I certainly tell you to take control of the centreline, the jung sien, to ensure your attacker is on your centreline but you are not on his and that he can’t rescue his facing. This is a basic Wing Chun strategy. But, as you say, I note that if this is over-emphasised and two other related concepts are not known or over-looked that your Wing Chun is incomplete.
Interviewer: Yes. You also refer to capturing the centre of gravity. In fact, you say this is a major feature of your Wing Chun.
Sifu Zopa: I do. If you capture the centre of gravity, the jong sum, of your attacker and ensure he is kept off balance, by leading his jong sum into emptiness, then he is fighting gravity before he can try to fight you. You’re enlisting the assistance of an everpresent force – Uncle Gravity! (Laughs). It’s instinctive for the attacker to act to stabilise his balance to prevent himself falling.
Interviewer: Sifu, you also constantly tell your students not to “over juen”. What do you mean by this?
Sifu Zopa: Over juening refers to juening so far that you put yourself at risk of having your strike countered and having your attacking arm pressed across your body, trapping your centreline facing away from your attacker. If this happened then you’d have lost control of the centreline and would need to employ Bil Jee techniques immediately to rescue yourself. You have to always imagine an attacker in front of you when you’re doing basics in air. In air is usually where a beginner will over-juen because they have no physical reference in a training partner and aren’t imagining one.
Interviewer: Sifu, you’ve referred to keeping your hands “within the span of the fan”. Can you explain this?
Sifu Zopa: Ah, yes. Yuen Kay San Wing Chun has the concept of the sien mien, or the fan. This concept has it that you imagine a large Chinese fan with the handle against your sternum and opening up such that the tips of the edges of the fan are in line with your shoulders. Keeping your arms within the span of the fan helps you maintain control of the centreline and the attacker and maintain your safety.
Interviewer: Thank you, sifu, for this interview.
Sifu Zopa: My pleasure!