Maverick (Chi Sau Reflections Part Three)
- Lancaster Wing Chun Assoc.
- Aug 2
- 6 min read
by Sifu Nick Francis
Keeping with the movie theme, I'd like to conclude this series of reflections on chi sau with one of my favorites...
Top Gun: Maverick
In this film, we rejoin the Top Gun franchise once again following the protagonist, who now after 30 years finds himself nearing the end of a highly decorative career. At this stage in his career, the main character is not seen striving to attain a significant status change nor is he seen still honing skills for a clearly identified future goal. Instead, we are ushered into his life at a point he has yet another great contribution he can make.
The question this movie poses to the viewer then is,
Is he ready?
With the daunting, seemingly impossible task before them, can any of our heroes demonstrate preparedness. Will all the years of training, trials and testing prove to be enough?
For me, this is a story about time-tested discipline, character, commitment, and sacrifice.
Personally, I find the film deeply compelling, not because it seems too high of a standard to call a fictional movie character, but it presents a standard almost too high for any human being.
The question this film asks is, "Are you ready?". |
I believe the purpose of training Wing Chun is readiness.
Perhaps the goal of learning Wing Chun is to be ready for the obvious... the readiness to fend off an attack. But learning Wing Chun offers much more than this. It trains us to be ready for the less obvious moments and the often more practical ones...
Wing Chun helps us get ready:
Perhaps you never thought Wing Chun could help you with this?
So how does it? |
Have you ever felt that someone around you just seems to be an extremely lucky person, always seeming to be in the right place at the right time?
Now, I will tell you straight away, I do not believe in "luck" per se, but I have seen a correlation between discipline, hard work, faithfulness, honorable intent, and "luck". My perception is that the more consistently you prepare for something, the more ready you will be when that moment arrives. The more you prepare, the more reliable and supportive you are, the more trusted you become, the luckier you will be.
This cannot be a coincidence.
Think about how faithful training can lead to being more lucky.
Now don't get me wrong, it's ok with me if you want to call this luck. But for some reason, it just seems to me that good things happen to those who are ready to step into the right moments when they arise.
The more ready you are, the luckier you will be!
Preparation, if I may share my understanding, is the process by which readiness is achieved.
Readiness comes through preparedness.
Sifu explains readiness with the imagery of three stages and, if I may, instead of trying to communicate this in my own words, I'll let him do this for himself... |
Now we have [several] ‘Themes of three’ when learning Wing Chun..
[The "First Theme of Three" is how we learn Wing Chun]
First, we learn the shapes
Second, we learn to defend using these shapes
-and-
Third, we learn to defend and counter attack
[The "Second Theme of Three" is shown throughout the three hand Forms]
[First]
Siu Lim Tau teaches us all the basic positions, relaxation, centreline principle and development of leg strength.
[Second]
Chum Kiu, openly being described as your fighting form (showing us how to use these shapes effectively)
[and Third]
Biu Gee, having shear aggression, causing possible over commitment and the recovery and return to our initial centreline.
But this three-step principle is shown in its simplistic entirety within Siu Lim Tau alone:
The first section of the Form, showing us the importance of the Tan, Fook, Wu Sau, showing us the centreline path and forward thinking, while at the same time developing mental focus and leg strength.
The second section of the form focuses on the now, ‘correct use’ of energy while being applied to defensive moves, and the third section plainly showing block and counter moves.
With this in mind [Grandmaster Ip Chun] poses a question:
“Which form therefore is the most important?”
... the Answer:
“Which ever form you are practicing at that time.”
[Preparation is to] enjoy the stage you are in now, give it time and give it the respect it deserves, because that stage three counterattack I mentioned, will never happen if you didn’t block the initial attack by using stage two, and you’ll be putting an awful lot down to luck in stage two if you never properly listened at stage one.
[Whereas these are the building blocks for readiness, the process of readiness feels quite different. My Sifu explains it like this]:
Stage One is when you enter the school for the first time, and, because you know nothing, you require no thought. just obedience.
Stage Two, considered the dangerous stage, is where we begin to learn.
[In this stage] Skills are being developed, drilled, practiced and tested. This stage is dangerous because it is often here that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing simple because competence can be believed but not yet confirmed.
Stage Three then, is where an attack is thrown, and you simply react with your skills (defense and counter attack)...
Without thought.
Just as when you first entered the school as a beginner... [back to Stage One]. |
Readiness to me then, is not that which comes out of us, rather it is the compound effort of what we've poured in. Readiness, as contrary as it sounds, is not a moment you prepare for, it is the collective moments that make us who we are.
Readiness is who we become.
I would suggest that this is precisely what SLT is. Siu Lim Tau is our awareness form, our form for readiness. Long before a situation may present, we are here building internal confidence, internal fortitude, patience, and peace.
This is exactly who I think the maverick character represents. By definition we may think this character as the one who is constantly rocking the boat, the one disrupting, creating the chaos. In reality however, in my experience, this disrupter doesn't have to be the antagonist by default. After all, isn't it actually easier to just go with the flow even if the current is carrying us in the wrong direction?
If this is this case, maybe the maverick isn't the antagonist at all. Instead, when fueled by generosity, kindness, and the overall greater good, this person is actually the misunderstood hero.Well, if this is the case, I would suggest that maybe we need more of this type of disrupter in the world.
• Disrupting foolishness with wisdom. • Disrupting anger with peace • Disrupting impatience with patience • Disrupting pride with humility
In most cases we may think poorly about a maverick... but in Wing Chun, maybe it is exactly what we are called to become? We train to not be ordinary. We train to be extraordinary. We train to be ready and in this readiness we are free to not only think differently, but pursue the path the makes a difference.
Training the basics builds readiness. If needed, and the situation demands, we trust them to naturally come out.
Thanks for reading. We hope that whatever you face today, you will be very lucky! |
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