Some notes on the illustrations used in these blogs

The photos are either public domain, or taken from the internet, or privately owned, mostly by Bill or his students and other voluntary contributors to these blogs. They aren’t all from this school, and yes, there are errors in their VTK too, at times. Everyone makes mistakes, all the time. Training is supposed to make errors as infrequent as possible; otherwise an error in a fight could result in injury or worse. Perfection, on the other hand, is very difficult, although it is this ideal that we are seeking.

Any pics used inadvertently that are copyright that the copyright holder doesn’t want us to use, we will be happy to remove them. This is entirely possible with the ‘error’ pics since these were just taken at random to illustrate the point. Any pics that will do the job better (either errors or correct techniques) will be gladly accepted.

The drawings were done by Christian “Pagan” McDonald and Andreas Luiten. These were then chopped up using Photoshop to match my ideas of what they should look like. These could certainly use some work, as the people working on them are not professionals. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

The 3D graphics are being done by Peter Schop, and are a work in progress, and will mostly be used in the book versions.

Further, in regards to the pictures of the “errors” used in the various blog series. These are all taken from the internet, and are as far as we can tell unintentional errors. Sometimes things can look like errors in photos, due to the effect of the lens, or the angle or height of the camera, and thus could be correct, but simply look wrong. Sometimes the errors can be considered the right way for them. These examples, however, are the wrong way for us. All of them at least LOOK wrong, and thus illustrate the necessary points.

The error pics are taken from people who vary from beginner to master level, and some are from text books on VTK. We have tried to delete the heads so people can’t see who they are so easily, but one point is certain: No-one, no matter what level, or experience, can be sure they aren’t making mistakes. There is no shame in this, only in not trying to fix any errors once realized. This essential difficulty in doing perfect VTK all the time is why drawings are being used instead of photos: to illustrate the correct positions, so students can learn idealized positions, which are extremely difficult to do in reality. Or rather to do ALL of them perfectly, and with perfect stance and posture, and be consistently perfect. This is the nearly impossible goal of training, and trying to do this is the real kung fu.

• Photos and Videos are inaccurate and misleading, even when the student does it correctly.
• Camera angles and lens distortions make it difficult to determine correct positions and movements.
• People are imperfect, and often students will copy these errors, often subconsciously, leading to errors that are hard to remedy.

Because of this, illustrations and diagrams are used instead of photos to teach, and the photos and movies are used to illustrate the teaching.

Legal

All writing in these blogs are totally the property of the writer – usually me – and may not be copied or used without permission at all. Ask if you want to use it. Do not change anything. Keep my name and the link to the blogs and website on it.

Share it, link to it, whatever, freely, but don’t try to own it.

If you summarize or translate it, likewise keep the links or references. To do otherwise is to breach international copyright law, and will make me unhappy. Do not under any circumstances sell the writings nor the pictures as your own.

The pictures, especially photos, remain the property of the people who took them or are in them. This includes ones I used from other websites – I have tried to use public domain photos, but if I have used some inadvertently that are not, just tell me and I will replace them with ones that are. Use the pics as you will, just remember they aren’t yours, so you can’t charge for them.

If you want to link or share etc. , please do.

Later I will have a list of books for download, or contact me.

Notes on terminology used

VTK means Ving Tsun Kuen. It is the same as “Wing Chun” or “Ving Tsun” or “Wing Tsun” or “Yong Chun” or any other combination or spelling. The real name of the style is only correct in the old Chinese characters, in which case all the styles are the same. Only the English transliteration is different. There is a slight difference between the Modern Chinese and Traditional Chinese Characters, and this is sometimes parleyed into a political meaning, but as far as the actual martial art is concerned, this is meaningless. However, in the English version of the blogs I do use the Romanized versions differently. I use Wing Chun to mean the common commercial and usually watered down styles as mostly found in Western countries in large franchised schools, and VTK to mean the ‘true’ style. Wing Tsun is trademarked by Leung Ting, but this is just another version of the English transliteration. See the article “What is Ving Tsun Kuen?”.

Student means the person doing the VTK.

Partner means the person the student is training with, who in the example used is probably not actually doing a VTK technique.
Enemy means the person the student is fighting.

The “Shape” of a technique refers to the general appearance. For a beginner, it also means the general appearance without necessarily the substance of the feeling, timing and movement of the technique; an early stage of learning. On the other hand, in more experienced people, a Tan Shape for example is using the hand in the general shape of the tan sau, but using the hand differently than one would normally in the execution of the Tan Sau technique. For example, if your elbow is pinned to your body, using a “lap shape” ie moving your hand in the manner of lap sau, but not trying to actually grab your enemy, will free your elbow. Using the shape of techniques increases the versatility of the techniques by a large amount without having to learn new positions.
I will often swap between the student and teacher’s view point, often within a single article. This is largely intentional, to give perspective, so the student and teacher can see things from both sides. Learning how to teach is an essential part of advanced training in VTK, and without teaching, the higher levels are almost impossible to reach. Teaching enables the student fill in missing concepts, and makes the concepts into a functional unit.

There will be a separate blog or article on the Chinese terminology of VTK at a later date. It is a work in progress.

IMPORTANT NOTE

One of my students from overseas noted that some parts of this series of articles greatly resemble my Sifu’s articles and things he is supposed to have said. On reflection, I find that I must agree, but I don’t think that this is a bad thing. In fact, since he taught me the same thing, I would be surprised if it was not similar, and I am complimented by this rather than offended or concerned. So, I didn’t change these blogs because of this similarity, but instead included things from his articles and things he has said, and this time I did it consciously. I have expanded the articles, incorporated some things that I had inadvertently left out that he had put in his material and thus made it even more similar. And yes, I agree, some of it is very like my teacher’s words, as in fact I hope much of what I write is likewise the same ideas and similar words: He taught me these things, and I am trying to teach you what he taught me, so I hope they are very similar.

On another occasion, I had been teaching, and one of the students (who speaks Chinese) started laughing at something I said. I asked what was wrong, and he said that Wong Shun Leung said exactly the same thing in a video he saw. However, the translation into English was wrong – and mine was right. (At the time, I didn’t understand Cantonese at all). Even though the translation of the publicly released training video was wrong, I got it right, because I was teaching what I learned, not what the English translations were saying. He wanted to know why that was so. Honestly, I had not known. I had actually said something different from what the video said, because I considered what was said to be wrong, even though it was supposed to be WSL saying it. I was taken aback. I said, because I am teaching what Barry taught me, and he teaches what WSL taught him. So then, as now in these articles, I was and am flattered by the similarity rather than guilty of plagiarism.

Thank you for noticing.

And within that story is also a warning: Just because you think someone said something, if it is written or translated, it might be wrong, misleading, out of context, or in some other way in error. And even if a person did say it, it might not be what they meant, or has been taken out of context or in the wrong direction.

This particular blog will, no doubt, be upgraded each time extra things need to be put into it.