Grandmaster Tse’s Wing Chun Note 464

Whenever we perform a Wing Chun form, whether it is Síu Lihm Tào 小念頭 – Reducing Thought, Tsum Kìuh 尋橋 – Looking for the Bridge and Bīu Zī 標指 – Thrusting Fingers, we will always punch and then withdraw our fist. Withdrawing the fist is called Sáu Kyùhn 收拳. Sáu收 means withdraw and Kyùhn拳 means fist. Even though we do it so many times, a lot of people are still missing a lot of detail and so not getting it right. The meaning behind Sáu Kyùhn seems quite simple, just withdraw the fist and bring it back to the side of the chest. However, all traditional Chinese martial arts, think about health and fighting skill, not just about fighting. This is the difference between traditional martial arts and modern-day ones, modern ones only think about fighting and winning. They are only concerned with fighting in a ring and competition and there is no consideration to health, they will consider fitness, but fitness is different to health. As long as they win, they this is considered a good martial art. Traditional martial art think about fighting and also about health. In fact, health is even more important than fighting since we are not allowed to fight in day to day life, only in a sport.