What is Gūng Lihk 功力? Most people will not have heard of this, but they will have heard of Gūng (many people write it as Kung) Fū 功夫. Gūng 功 means “work”, and Fū means “man 夫”. So Gūng Fū means “a person who works”, but what does this person work on? This depends on what they do; they might be a chief, a carpenter, or a martial artist. If a person has good skill, then we say their Gūng Fū is good. Today, however, in the West, most people will think of Gūng Fū as martial arts, mainly because of Bruce Lee, but Gūng Fū can be used to describe anyone who has skill.
In Gūng Lihk, Gūng means “work” and Lihk 力 means “strength”, so it means “work on the strength”, and because it refers to martial arts, it describes someone who has good strength. In Chinese Gūng Fū, it does not just mean someone who is strong only; it refers to a martial artist who knows how to use strength well. This means they can be strong and soft. For example, they can hold power against power, like when someone tries to push a master and cannot move them, and the master also knows how to redirect their opponent’s energy. So Gūng Lihk can be used to control in many ways, directions, and speeds.
Grandmaster Tse’s Wing Chun Note 518
If we take a close look at all three of these forms, we will see that Bīu Zī is in all of them.
Grandmaster Tse’s Wing Chun Note 517
The hardest part of the training is holding the leg up and keeping the position. As we get tired, the leg will start to drop.
Grandmaster Tse’s Wing Chun Note 516
When we kick, we do not just consider the kicking leg; we need to maintain our balance and not move the upper body very much.
Grandmaster Tse’s Wing Chun Note 515
Before we can use the punch, we must practise connecting the whole body, from the stance to the waist and then through the body,
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