[Haveunique]

These are the words my SiFu says the most during training. And for a reason.

Relaxation doesn’t mean turning into a couch potato that doesn’t move because it’s so relaxed. On the contrary, what we in Wing Chun understand as relaxation is relaxing the muscles that do not need to be used at any particular moment.

How we learn to do this during training can be learned only at training There is no way I can find enough words to fully describe how the process goes. It has so much to do with the inner feeling and reaching the comfortableness with your own body disregarding the action, that every student experiences this process in their own way. Revelations usually seem to come unexpectedly – when a student realized how much more comfortable he or she had become with their own body.

Still, there are some common signs, which show that a person is not feeling comfortable. Our mind and body work as one mechanism, and what goes on in our mind usually shows in the body, and vice versa.

There are techniques that help us work with our mind. However, there are moments when affirmations or our skills to abstract away simply aren’t enough... (read more here: http://ouluwingchun.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/wing-chun-principles-1-relax/)   

[Gra-ach]

In addition, one may picture himself (in his imagination, usually) as being relaxed but instead he has taut muscles which don't want to obey his commands in a reasonable amount of time. And it's even worse than actually just being tense and know about it. In the second case - person knows that there's something which has to be dealt with, in the first one - everything seems to be fine and dandy and nothing to worry about.

After several training sessions I started catching myself being tense (especially my trapezius muscles were strained) when I'm working - and believe me I don't work with those And because of this tension I remember getting really awful headaches, because there was not enough oxygen going to the brain. Now, whenever I feel that muscles which I don't use at the moment are strained I relax them and try to control their state. And it's not like there's some kind of alarm going on when there's a need to relax, I have to periodically perform "a full body check" to see if everything is the way it should be   

[Haveunique]

I think this "full body check" you refer to, Ira, is one of the really valuable learning experiences of our training sessions. It teaches us to pay attention to both what goes on outside of our bodies, and inside   

[Gra-ach]

I guess you're right If for some reason I stop or pause practicing I will definitely forget the right movements, lose the speed and technique, but I won't forget the need to relax and the way to do it. And training to the state when you do this "full body check" unconsciously and relax tensed muscles also unconsciously will be really great achievement.

And being always alert without being overly tense is a great thing - this way you won't miss anything interesting happening around   

[Валентина Слободянюк]

Without training you can easily lose your relaxation reflex if it’s not strong enough yet. So we need to practice in it every day to have the result described above.
about "full body check" - I think this state is called Here&Now   

[Fanda]

It is a long time when I want to ask about one thing:

During the training we are practising techniques and few of theme ends with pushing oponent on the ground.
My question is if it is happens somewhere on the street to me, should I try to don´t fall or other wise?

During the training I know that I will fall and when partner push me I do that but in case of emergency how it is working?   

[Художник]

even on a training try to keep yourself relaxed and dont thik about falling,never fall by your self when you pushed. when you're relaxed, it's prety hard to pull you down(without force of coruse and if you follow the force when you have been thrown). you just need use principles   

[Gra-ach]

SiFu in his address to students highlighted that he doesn't teach us to fight real fights, and you instructor hopefully doesn't say that she teaches you how to fight in the street. At the Academy you learn how to control your mind through your body, or something like that

So, fortunately, I've never been in the situation when I have to defend myself, so I can't speak from personal experience. What I can say, is that you should avoid the situation altogether. I don't think there are a lot of possibilities for the person lying on the ground. On the other hand, if you don't struggle and don't become aggressive - your attacker will lose some fight that's in him - if he's not high, or drunk, or in pain or something like that. So it's easier to give what the atacker asks of you than to risk your life.

There's a joke about self defence:
A guy comes to a sports club and asks what he should take up to protect himself. A trainer asks if he wants to show off, or to save himself. The guy hesitates and the trainer says:
If you want to show off, go to MA classes. If you want to be safe, pick up running   

[Haveunique]

I think it's just a whole different approach we're taking to our self-development when we focus on our own selves first, and then we may think if we should fight elsewhere... At the same time, the fight with oneself is the toughest because there is no one else there, just you. Maybe that is why some people try to avoid seeing what they have inside and prefer to find an external attention-grabber.   

[Fanda]

PRINCIPLES OF WING CHUN which I learned and which I am still working on.

Body and stance forty five degrees
-target of your opponent is getting smaller and we are more protected!

Protect your center line
-center of body is most important, if we open our center line , we can get the punch directly there.

Breathing helps
-in stressfull situation or just when we need to be more concentrated or when we are out of energy breathing is key to get our situation better!

Wing chun is one movement
-all excercises in wingchun are made as a one movement and fluently. It is done because nobody is waiting for us in real situation.

Be relaxed
-to be relaxed is key to save energy and key to be faster. Relaxed body is also important when we fall or when we are dropped on the ground.

Watch the elbows and knees
-watching elbows is giving us chance to see punches sooner than when we are watching other parts body of the oponent.

Go to the blind side
-when we go to blind side it helps us to be on more safety place, also we can have big advantage in comparation with oponent.   

[Procyona]

[Procyona]

[Haveunique]

As I am learning to be, I keep discovering how there are many things I got myself used to do and how sometimes I need to undo them. For example, keeping the back straight was one of the things I misunderstood and for many years I've been overstraining it. No wonder that nowadays I get to un-strain it with many different ways, primarily with body-mind holistic approach. For those working on their physical and mental being, how is it going and what are your insights? Thank you.   

[Haveunique]

Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors. (Ludwig van Beethoven)   

[Procyona]