"My Way. Or My Way With a Black Eye"

"My Way. Or My Way With a Black Eye"

For about 17 years I worked as a Dolly Grip, making movies, TV shows, music videos and more. I was working on a TV show called 6 Feet Under and we were shooting on stage at Sunset-Gower Studios in Hollywood. One day, we needed to move our equipment and carts from one stage to another. Space around a film set is at a premium with everyone fighting for prime real estate in order to be able to efficiently work and service the set. The grips have the most equipment, the biggest equipment and the most dangerous. Well, this day as I was saying, we started pushing our equipment, carts and everything to our normal spot, we came across a Gold Room. It was right there in the middle of where we needed to be.

A Gold Room is a room for the props or set dressing departments to store and secure their valuable junk. We normally have a good relationship with these departments, but the fact of the matter is that there are two Unions you don't cross in the movie business - the Teamsters and the Studio Grips. We both have the useful ability to make anything look like an accident, but we are also the guys you go to when you need things done.

This is pretty much what I did while working as a Local 80 Dolly Grip

So the Key Grip (my boss at the time) showed up and saw the situation and called over the set-dresser or prop-master, same thing really, and asked what was going on and why they decided they needed to take a space that had already been claimed for quite a while. Obviously the explanation wasn't good enough because the end of the conversation had my boss saying, "There are two ways this can go, MY WAY or MY WAY WITH A BLACK EYE, your choice!" The next day, the choice was apparently the "MY WAY" option, since we had our spot back. Pretty much a regular occurrence on set with the grip crew.

So what does this have to do with Kung Fu?

Something I overheard my Sifu say a few times in the past is that there are really only two answers  to every question in Ving Tsun: A1. Play More Siu Nim Tao and A2. Do You Want To Be Knocked Out?

The "Play More Siu Nim Tao" is the "My Way" and the "Do You Want To Be Knocked Out?" is the "Black Eye".  But what does this really mean? Do we punch people in the face for asking questions? No, of course not, but what is really being said is that if you have a question about Ving Tsun, the first thing you need to do is study your Sui Nim Tao and look for the answer within. Siu Nim Tao contains the entire system of Ving Tsun. If you study it hard enough, you will unlock all the secrets of the Ving Tsun System. Now if you say that you don't have enough time or focus for that, we do have another way to transmit the secrets of the system. There is an old saying of Ving Tsun that says, "Some techniques I can't teach you unless I hit you."

This does not mean that we are going to brutalize our adult students - that is not what we do. However, if a student wants the process to go quicker than normally advised, Ving Tsun has options.

As far as asking questions, that's fine. It's not taboo like it used to be in the old days. I can actually say that I have asked my Sifu a total of six Ving Tsun specific questions in the span of my martial arts career, 4 of those questions being about my students' training. Most martial art teachers nowadays are more than willing to share their knowledge and are happy to help, but the one thing you should make a habit of, is to formulate an answer before you ask the question. This will help you grow in your kung fu much more than getting an easy answer from your sifu.

--Vyvial Sifu
We are all alone in this together
Moy Yat Kung Fu Academy

Neil Plays Siu Nim Tau at Moy Yat Kung Fu Academy