From the “Feeling a little off” Dept.

It’s 2:00 am. I feel like crap. I am stuck in this spiral of depreciating physical fitness. It’s really starting to get to me.

From the “My Kung Fu is better than your Kung Fu” Dept.

Last week, I was talking to Lambert, Thip’s boyfriend. He started taking Wing Chun kung fu. Interesting conversation with him and I.

Like any new student he’s trying to understand the politics of Wing Chun. When I first started back in 1993, I found out that the Yip Man lineage of Wing Chun had been divided into several distinct schools. More politics than anything else, it basically breaks down with Yip Man’s students doing “self-promotion”.

So you have people like Leung Ting or William Cheung each saying that their kung fu is better than anyone other system, including other forms of Wing chung. Master vs. Master, student vs. Master. It’s all kind of funny.

I don’t really care much for this kind of stuff and I spent a lot of time trying to explain to Lambert that there really isn’t a difference between “Wing Chun”, “Wing Tsun”, or “Ving Tsun”. It’s just how you spell it.

Same shit; different piles.

Bottom line: If I train harder than my oponent, it doesn’t matter what school of martial arts you practice.

It became apparent to me that he didn’t understand Siu Niem Tao; the first structured routine or form that you learn in Wing Chun. Granted, I think his training is much more “practical” with a emphasis on drills—which is awesome because you can learn any martial art using drills. Moreover, it took me over two years to “really understand it”, so I guess I have to be patient.

I still practice what I know – the first 3 parts of Siu Niem Tao, Parts 1 and 2 of Chum Kieu, and Parts 1 and 2 of the wooden dummy set.

I wish I had a wooden dummy.

It’s a shame I stopped in 1997 (with only infrequent visits to my sifu since then).

Tai