Nino bernardo

The design of the Wing Chun syllabus

By Nino Bernardo

If you tell someone from Hong Kong that you are studying wing chun, they will always ask you two questions to see how good you are. The first is: “Have you been shown the second form yet?”

If you answer yes, they will invariably ask you a second question: “Have you been brought close to the wooden dummy yet?”

These questions are significant because the syllabus of wing chun is designed in a chronological order. Students are only meant to move from one stage to the next once they are ready.

It’s important to realize that everybody develops at their own pace. Some people progress through the syllabus faster than others. It’s important to put in a significant investment of time at each stage so that the subsequent stages are built on solid foundations.

The first thing that beginners are shown is the first form, the siu lim tao. They are expected to practice it and practice it and practice it until it looks more or less correct. They are also shown how to do a straight punch from the horse stance and while stepping. Again, they are expected to practice and practice and practice.

The early stages obviously involve a lot of hard work. If a beginner enjoys the work, their progress will be easier.

When the student is ready, the instructor will then get the beginner to work with a partner. Everyone is expected to spend a lot of time practicing the whole range of basic two-man drills before they move onto chi sao (sticky hands).

Chi sao is often misunderstood. I call it a combat-like game to be played by friends. At the higher levels, it has the subtleties and tactical awareness of a game of chess.

All this section of the syllabus works on the same principles. We are expected to lock our hips to keep the torso like a solid mass, bring our elbows into the middle, have a constant forward energy and defend and attack the centre.

Once a student has reached a good understanding of this part of the syllabus, it is time to move onto the second form (chum kiu), which teaches us how to move our hips, use oblique angles and introduces us to the footwork of the system. The test for seeing whether or not a student is ready is to see whether they can punch with a swing of the hip.

The dummy form is only shown to students who have a good understanding of the second form. That’s because it’s impossible to practice the dummy without a good knowledge of the system’s footwork, which is based on a good understanding of the horse stance.

The dummy is often misunderstood. It is basically a big lump of wood. We use our bodies as precision tools to move around it. We can develop ideas from each form of wing chun on the dummy.

Students who have begun the second form and the dummy often notice a huge improvement in their chi sao as they incorporate the footwork into the game. At the higher levels, we can learn many things from chi sao – how to cheat, how to manipulate our partners’ responses and how to work out what they are thinking.

In my opinion, all these elements form the true wing chun syllabus. All the exercises mentioned above work from the same principles and mechanics. The rest of the syllabus is a slight deviation from this.

A lot of this comes down to the third form (biu gee), which was traditionally only taught to students who had a very mature understanding of the core syllabus and were mature themselves. These people were taken aside and shown the third form behind a closed door, away from the rest of the school. They were told that this form deviates from the mechanics and principles of the core syllabus and that a lot of the moves involve whiplashes, which are dangerous.

My understanding is that the moves of the third form are not recommended. They are to be used only as a last resort once the rest of the syllabus has failed. In the old days, it was shown to mature students behind closed doors so that the beginners and intermediate students wouldn’t misunderstand it and copy it.

Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, some students are shown the form before they are fully mature and without fully understanding its dangers. They deliberately put themselves into bad positions in chi sao in order to show off what they perceive as fancy moves. Other students who haven’t completed the system are sometimes impressed by this and incorporate it into their own practice. In this way, the mechanics of the core syllabus can become corrupted.

The system also contains two weapons forms. The pole form teaches us to develop linear power. Traditionally, it was only shown to people who could complete ten lengths of the hall in a very deep stance. This exercise is extremely difficult and is designed to test students’ fanaticism.

I myself was one of the handful of students to learn the pole form from Wong Shun Leung in the old-fashioned way. Anyone who learnt the pole from me had to pay the same price, including all the Basement seniors. I remember one student of mine told me he always liked to pay slightly over the odds. He completed 11 lengths of the hall. I love this attitude.

The final form of the system involves the knives. This form is a study in pure mechanics. It teaches us to understand the path of the blade. We learn what it is to hack, chop, slash, thrash, slice, etc.

No matter how far you get in the system, it’s always important to return to the basics. It’s recommended to practice the first form every day. The true practice of the form is when you are by yourself and relaxed as you can reacquaint yourself with the mechanics of the core syllabus. It’s good to practice first thing in the morning or if you can’t sleep at night.

Another implication is that grandmasters and beginners are both studying the same movements. The only difference is the depth of their understanding.