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Sifu Frank Schäfer:
Can you compare street fights with fighting contests?
Great Grand Master LeungTing: Fighting is no game! The
street fighting differs from a martial art contest, in a street
fight there are no rules governing the age, weight,
qualification or even the number of fighters. Therefore fighting
in the street in never a fair thing. In a martial-art contest,
however, a contestant can give up, or raise an objection, and as
far as he admits defeat, everything can be settled easily. But
once you join a fight, you can only hope defeating your
opponent, but not to surrendering yourself to him, for you get
no chance of doing so!
SFS: What is about the traditional Chinese martial-art
spirit?
GGM LT: Besides teaching students techniques of
martial-arts, a traditional Chinese Kung Fu master has to
educate his student with morality of martial artists and the
sense of knighliness, so as to prevent bringing up a student who
will ruin his own reputation.
SFS: What is the meaning of learning the techniques of
fighting?
GGM LT: Learning the techniques of fighting does not mean
equipping oneself for bullying others. It is meant to build up
your own confidence of dealing with tough guys who bully weaker
ones. When you get enough self-confidence, you will naturally
despise bullying others who are weaker than you.
SFS: When do you have to fight and when not?
GGM LT: I always remind my students that there are
occasions when we ought to fight, and also occasions when we
ought not to fight - we ought not to fight when there is no need
to fight, or when victory of a fight can not be compensated. On
the other hand, we ought to fight when we are in danger, or in
critical situations that cannot be dealt with other means, or
simply when we can do nothing but fight!
SFS: You mentioned once the philosophy of the poisonous
snake, can you explain it?
GGM LT: A real WingTsun practitioner should always
imagine himself to be a poisonous snake - someone provokes you
but if you think that it is not necessary to fight back, you
keep silent or leave him alone. Seeing no reaction from you, he
probably stops irritating you. However, if you feel you can’t
avoid a fight, then don’t hesitate, but initiate an attack as
fast as you can with an aim to defeat him totally!
SFS: What’s about armed attacks?
GGM LT: There is a big difference between performance and
reality. Most martial-art instructors like teaching students
techniques of using bare hands to deal with armed enemies.
However these techniques are not so often practicable in real
life. Remember my advice: you can deal with an enemy who is
holding a pole or a weapon that is not sharp. However, if your
enemy is armed with a sharp knife or an axe, you had better get
hold of a chair or a wooden stool to protect yourself.
SFS: And self-defence against firearms?
GGM LT: Sometimes it’s better to run for your Life! Never
dream you are a martial-art hero in a movie. Scenes in which an
unarmed man defeats dozens of armed enemies only appear on the
movie screen. In real life, you had better run away from these
situations.
Don’t ever try to fight against a man with a pistol with your
self-defence techniques, for the finger of the man holding a
pistol will not move slower than your whole body, and will not
pose himself in the way as your instructor does - pointing a
plastic pistol at you.
SFS: How can you handle one fighting against many?
GGM LT: Too many people think the best way to fight
against a group of co-attackers is to stand against a wall. That
is terrible wrong, standing against the wall means blocking your
way of retreat, and you will have to fight until you have
defeated or killed. The best way is to fight while escaping.
Keep moving so as to distract your enemies, so that only two or
three of your enemies can get close to you.
SFS: Why is WT so different - also in comparison with WC
or VT?
GGM LT: The gist of learning Kung Fu is not just in
memorising sets of movement patterns but in the Way of using
these movements. WingTsun movements are equivalent to the
formulae in Mathematics.
Whether you can become a WingTsun expert depends entirely on how
you can flexibly put these formulae into practical application
under various circumstances.
SFS: Does WingTsun uses kicks?
GGM LT: There are in fact not too many kicking methods in
the WingTsun system. They include only the Frontal Thrusting
Kick, the Sideward Thrusting Kick and the Slant
Thrusting Kick, which, combined with variations in positions
and angles, form the total of eight kicking methods.
These eight kicking methods, however, can be performed in
correlation with various sets of offensive or defensive
techniques. There are two characteristics of the kicking
techniques of the WingTsun system. Firstly, a kicking technique
of the system has to be performed in correlation with an arm
technique so as far to diversify the attention of the opponent.
Secondly, a kicking technique of the system is usually performed
in close range, so that it can take its effect without giving
warning to the opponent.
SFS: And the best defence against a kicking expert?
GGM LT: The best way to deal with an opponent skilled in
kicks is to get as close to him as possible, and attack him
before he initiates a kick. This conforms to the saying "Attack
his head to stop his kicks" - for as you are launching heavy
attacks at his upper level, such as his head, he has to make
defence and keep balance, and is thus too busy to launch a kick.
Besides, most practitioners would unconciously keep themselves
away from an opponent who is skilled in kicks. This is wrong,
for a good kicker does not like his opponent to get too close to
himself, otherwise he can't make advantage of kicks as to
conform to the saying "Legs are long but arms are short".
It is a pitty that most martial art practitioners do not
understand this point.
SFS: How does a WingTsun practitioner handle grappling?
GGM LT: In the WingTsun theory it is extremely wrong to
pull back or struggle. It is because when the victim tries his
best to struggle, his whole body would turn rigid and this may
offer a good chance to the Judoka or wrestler to make use of his
force to throw him onto the floor. Any experienced Judoka or
wrestler knows the principle that it is easy to carry a hard
object on the back and throw it onto the floor, but it is
extremely difficult to carry a soft object on the back and throw
it down.
Once a WingTsun expert is being grabbed, he would never try to
struggle but instead would relax his whole body totally. He
would get very close to his opponent in stead of pulling back.
Therefore, he will be able to re-borrow the pulling force from
his opponent and strike back before his opponent can put him
onto the floor.
SFS: Are there secret techniques?
GGM LT: Some Kung Fu trainees are very curious to learn
the "secret techniques" or "missing techniques" from their
instructors. In deed this is a very wrong idea that would only
offer their instructors a big chance to make money by trying to
satisfy their curiosity. I dare say there is NO such
what-so-called "secret techniques" or "missing techniques"
treasured by their instructors!
The BEST TECHNIQUES must be those most commonly used by their
instructors in training or actual combat. In fact those
so-called "secret techniques", even if they were not "nonsense",
would soon be missed if these were seldom used by their
instructors!
SFS: Just one last question: Is there a key for winning a
fight?
GGM LT: Attack is the best defence! The way of fighting
is to make use of what one is skilled in to attack the
opponent's weakness. To render further attacks after a
successful attempt until the opponent is being knocked down
is the guarantee for final victory.
Always remember that Don't raise your leg, unless you are
sure of hitting the target and the best tactic to deal with
a good kicker is -as explained before- to deprive him of the
chance of raising a kick.
Don’t try to become a hero!
There is a Chinese saying that he who knows how to deal with
situations is a hero.
You are not a coward when you refuse or avoid a fight.
On the contrary, to accept a meaningless fight means you are a fool
posing as a Hero!
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