Full of skill or stuffed with knowledge?     Grandmaster Kernspecht on the relative importance of Chi-Sao in WingTsun ...

Dear members, students and colleagues,

I have received a great deal of feedback relating to my last editorials, whose general thrust I shall continue until my goal has been achieved, and I would like to share this with you.
As you may remember, I made the provocative statement that the enormous increase in knowledge within the EWTO has been accompanied by an unfortunate decline in individual fighting ability.
This should surprise nobody who is mindful of my personal, twenty year-old categorical imperative that "Less is more". No advantage comes without disadvantages. That is how it is.
And just as naturally there is an antithesis to this development owing to my counteraction: an over-emphasis on the reaction training which has nowadays been forgotten and is almost unknown.
The fact that the valuable sections will not be neglected is assured by the examination criteria and the wonderful tutorials given by my Si-Fu GGM Leung Ting, who is incidentally in the Castle as I write, and is teaching senior grades to work with the tripodal dummy, the chi-gerk sequence and the next part of the long pole programme.
By the way, his theme for this week is very indicative: "There are no fixed sequences."

Anybody who discovers an unacceptable situation and does not change it, although it lies in his power, is guilty of complicity. This was already known to Bertold Brecht, whose poems I am currently reading to great benefit. Chi-Sao has always been my personal strength, as well as the reflexive responses which are used for self-defence. For the next year, and if necessary for as long as it takes, I intend to dedicate myself to the sorely neglected implantation of "WT reflexes". And with the same aim in mind I will also be conducting TG examinations very conscientiously. While adhering to the preparation time and performing what one has learned by heart is a precondition, it is not enough and not what is essential! Without rapid reactions based on tactile stimuli there is no real WT. WT is implementation of the relaxed, Taoist principle of giving way, and not the performance of choreographed partner forms, however sophisticated they may be.
I do not want to stand idly by while skilled WingTsun students are turned into collectors of lifeless techniques and WingTsun clever-dicks as times change!
The last item on my EWTO examination sheet for TG and Practician grades clearly shows the value I have always attached to the most important aspect of WT, which continues to be examination criterion No. 1 for me:
"General reactions, fighting ability"! That is what I have always primarily looked for in those who present themselves for examination. Since there are only a good half-dozen combat-related, semi-reflexive reactions, I really do "the same with everyone" when checking this examination aspect, which is unique to me in this form in Europe.
At the same time I adapt to the skill level of the candidate, but this also means that I carry around a mental measuring stick to which the reactions of the candidate must measure up, my "Chi-Sao meter", so to speak: if I attack slowly, I expect the candidate to defend no more quickly. Neither should his level of pressure exceed mine.
If he needs to use more speed or strength than I when defending against my "attack", this shows me that he is not following the WT principles and has room for improvement.
Even if he is able to withstand an attack by using all his strength and speed, this does not give him a good mark, as his resistance and the impulses he transmits to me will make him fall victim to my follow-up attack.
Notwithstanding my clear preference for "living" Chi-Sao, I by no means intend to eliminate or replace the necessary (for other reasons) and well-proven sections (two-man Chi-Sao forms). And certainly not with so-called "free Chi-Sao".
Indeed, I do not really teach free Chi-Sao. I proceed according to a clear plan and a defined programme when I "implant" the fundamental WT reactions. As a "reflex implanter", I have to think carefully so that I can make my students able to dispense with thinking during actual combat. I am not very enamoured of "free Chi-Sao" or the way it is practiced, as it leads to unsystematic and incomplete learning. The student is only prepared for the few attacks which are the speciality of the respective Si-Fu. Only a scientifically based and systematic teaching concept prepares the student for all possible situations. You can read all this in GGM Leung Ting’s book "WingTsun Kuen", the first exhaustive work about the martial art of his
Si-Fu Yip Man. It remains the best WingTsun book in the market; it is definitive and indispensable!
Specific reaction training will give you back your superiority in terms of skill, not knowledge! That is my wish and my foremost objective!

Your
Sifu Keith R. Kernspecht

Source: WINGTSUN World