Effective Teacher/Sifu/Sensei
Posted on | January 26, 2009
Everyone tends to question whether certain Martial Arts are truly effective or not, but the biggest problem isn’t whether the Martial Art is effective or not. It is whether the Sensei, who will be teaching you, is effective or not. I’m simply going to use the word Sensei as the representation for teacher, Sifu, etc for the rest of this article.
It’s one of those things where it doesn’t matter if someone has or hasn’t told you about them, you simply know that they are a great and effective teacher. They may teach the same content as everyone else, but the way they teach it, the methods they choose to use to demonstrate things, etc all add to together in unison and it no longer matters what anyone else says about that person because you now have your own well opinionated outlook on that person and their teaching methods. It’s a wonderful thing when it happens. Too bad it doesn’t happen more often. However, I got lucky, and over this past weekend I got to have this experience again. I’m not going to mention a name, because I don’t know that persons views on having it listed, so I’ll stray away from that since it really shouldn’t matter anyway. All I will say is that the Sensei is a woman.
The class began like normal, with around 10-15 people having attended, where we would stretch our muscles and ligaments as to not injure them later on. But as class further progressed, I noticed when practicing various things, that she made the class feel quite at ease, at least for me. I no longer cared what the others were doing next to me, because I was fixed on doing the things she said to the best of my ability. I’ll admit, Aikido is a big change for me, so I’m definitely a beginner all over again in a lot of areas and to be honest, I love it.
Later on, we were divided into basically two groups: the more advanced and the newcomers. The class was a beginner class but many higher ranked students attend to work on the fundamentals( and have fun 
). When we got to the point where we were working in pairs, attempting to perform the technique she had just showed us, Sensei would come around and correct us. It wasn’t the fact that Sensei corrected us, it was the way she did it. Sensei made it very easy to understand and break down each movement into pieces. At one point, Sensei was demonstrating the move on me for my practice partner(nage) to see how he should put me(uke) down in a pin. The flow of her movements took me down effortlessly(on her part of course 
). When Sensei got me into the pin, she was able to demonstrate the slight difference of not having your knees close enough to the uke’s shoulders and the result of that difference AKA me auto-flinching in response to the sudden torque generated. I may not have much Aikido experience, but I’ve had enough Martial Arts background training to notice when someone is effortlessly performing techniques.
Obviously, you can’t really describe all that well how, what, and why that Sensei is so great at teaching, because you just have to be there to experience it for yourself. But, for those who have had the chance to train with people that make you feel like this, you’ll understand what I mean. It’s not what they teach, it’s how they teach it.
Wing Chun – Effective Demonstrations
Posted on | October 22, 2008
Wing Chun is a highly effective Martial Art that a lot of great fighters have had training in for their core foundation. For instance, Bruce Lee trained in Wing Chun from the young age of 13-18 under the teachings of the famous Wing Chun Sifu Yip Man.
The basic premise of Wing Chun is that it is a very aggressive close-quarter combat system. The idea is to use your energy efficiently. Many times people over look Wing Chun as a viable Martial Art style simply for the fact that in a good majority of the demonstrations that are done, and can be found on the Internet, Chi Sao is the demonstration presented. Most people don’t understand the concept of Chi Sao and therefore don’t see the whole picture, or what’s really happening behind the scenes as the demonstration takes place.
Chi Sao, also known as “Sticking Hands”, is primarily used to develop sensitivity. As one develops a greater sensitivity, through excessive practice of Chi Sao, one can begin to feel his opponents strengths and weaknesses which allows him to not only predict the attackers movements, as he goes to make them, but also see the openings(flaws) in the attackers structure that gives him the advantage of knowing when to strike. Chi Sao is NOT meant to be used in a real fighting situation the same way it is practiced, which is why so many people end up confused. Chi Sao is a very hard concept to simply describe with words. Videos are the only way to really show or explain how Chi Sao works, without actually being present. To fully grasp the concept, one must actually practice Chi Sao, even if only for a brief period of time, with someone else to understand how effective it truly is.
In Wing Chun there are three Empty Hand forms: Siu Nim Tao, Chum Kiu, and Bil Jee. Along with the three Empty Hand forms, there is also the Wooden Dummy. The Wooden Dummy is a device meant for alone time practice as it can only be used by one person at a time. The Wooden Dummy is NOT meant to be forcefully hit and punched, it’s meant as a means of learning angles, reflection, positions, footwork, and also body power. The Wooden Dummy is a unique device that should accommodate every Wing Chun practitioners home, if they can afford to give up the cash it costs and the room to store it.
Lately, I’ve been getting more and more into Wing Chun and I am considering getting my own personal Wing Chun Dummy. It’s not final in my mind, as to whether or not I will yet(I definitely will someday, if not very soon), but if I decide to get one then I will definitely post pictures of it with descriptions of how I came to get mine.
Here’s the real heart of this story, the videos:
Tags: demonstration > effective > martial art > Wing Chun > wooden dummy
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