Ving Tsun Kung Fu: Focus On The System

There are thousands of Moy Yat Ving Tsun practitioners, but very few of them will achieve the caliber required to become a legitimate Moy Yat Family Sifu. It takes around ten years of dedicated training under one’s Sifu and literally thousands of training hours (10,000+).

The Sifus of the Moy Yat Family put an extraordinary amount of work into passing down the Ving Tsun system. Grandmaster Moy Tung has spent his entire adult career dedicating himself to the art of Ving Tsun under his Sifu, Moy Yat, who did the same with his Sifu, Yip Man. Sifu Moy Sup Tung of the Austin school continues that tradition of hard work, dedicating himself to his Sifu, Moy Tung, and the Moy Yat Family by passing the pure, unchanged Ving Tsun system down to his students and grandstudents. Because of the dedication of Sifus, the Kung Fu that is taught today is the same as the Kung Fu that was taught to Moy Yat by Yip Man.

In order for the Ving Tsun system to continue to be passed down to future generations and preserved in its purest form, it is important to remember that the focus of our school should always be on the Kung Fu.

During the course of your training, you will encounter distractions. One of the most common is the temptation to socialize. Talking during class should be kept at an absolute minimum out of respect for the Ving Tsun system and to avoid disrupting the focus of other students. The Ving Tsun school is a place of study, not a social club, or a networking opportunity for students to build their own interests outside of Kung Fu. 

Another common distraction is the tendency of students who are young in their Kung Fu to compare their progress to others’. Seeing other students playing more advanced forms or working on chi sau can be exciting, but it can also distract by making you want to skip over your current training to “advance” through the system more rapidly. It’s good to be excited about what you’ll learn in the future, just be sure to stay focused on the Kung Fu that your Sifu wants you to work on at the moment. Everything else will come in time.

Remember that your Sifu is passing the Ving Tsun system down to you. The details that he teaches have been acquired over the course of decades of study with his Sifu and the Kung Fu family. It’s these details that combine to make up the Ving Tsun system; they’re very important and students should pay careful attention to them. If Sifu gives a detail in class, it should spread through the school like wildfire, with students putting effort into actively focusing on that detail until it becomes ingrained habit.

While details should be shared between students, it is never a student’s job to teach another student. Only Sifu, or people he has specifically trained to instruct the system, should be teaching. This ensures that the system is being honored and passed down pure and unchanged.

Do your best not to fall for any distractions you may encounter inside or outside the school; stay focused on your Ving Tsun. To show respect to all the dedicated work of your Sifu and the Sifus that came before him, all you need to do is show up to class on time, wear your uniform, pay attention to what’s going on around you, train consistently, and represent the school well. This Ving Tsun work ethic will serve you well in all areas of life.

The Acorn & Siu Nim Tao (part II)

by Sifu Aaron Vyvial 

and Mary Ceallaigh

"The purpose of Ving Tsun Kung Fu is to lead you to be free and relaxed. This can never be achieved if you are tied physically and emotionally to techniques. You must free yourself from dependence on mechanical expression
 and trust your body, your kung fu to protect yourself..."  Grand Master Moy Yat

In the view of eastern wisdom, a student is an acorn sprout that is connected to both the past and the future, with commitment as its taproot.  In Ving Tsun, this root is also experienced as the horse stance.  Different students may have different learning styles, and any given individual's practice on any given occasion may fluctuate according to a variety of conditions such as weather, diet, hormonal cycle, biological cycle (circadian and lunar), metabolic state, etc.  Some students may fluctuate more than others, but eventually, every acorn that sprouts and grounds grows a stabilizing tap root that can endure much and stabilize itself.

A Sifu who teaches students to cultivate their Siu Nim Tao may have the opportunity to see the process of a human version of a whole new oak tree unfold within their own lifetime.  As to the students who may not commit to practice, the acorn laying dormant for whatever reason, the Sifu understands that everything has its own time and that it is all connected like the oak's unique root systems of many hundreds of miles in length.  Students find Siu Nim Tao as part of a long journey, and teachers parent the moment as it is, varying student-by-student, body-by-body, mind state-by-mind state. Teachers teach Siu Nim Tao, and trust the inherent process in each student, regardless of outcome.  Like the story of the elderly master who was planting a little oak tree:  A neighbor saw her as he passed and said, ‘Old woman, do you know you won’t have a chance to see that tree grow?’  ‘Yes,’ she replied with a contented smile. ‘I know.’

Longevity & Fertility: The steadfast oak can grow to an age of many centuries, leaving little acorns with the capacity to multiply into many worlds.  On our earth at this moment are some ancient oaks still standing in Britain and northern Europe that are well over 1000 years old.  Like that, the authentic martial artist embraces the secrets of aging well (and the fact of dying).  The elderly martial artist has a vitality, luminosity, and lucidity that outlasts many a peer, and graces their last breath.  

Preciousness:  Each acorn nut holds one fruit seed, unlike the seed-pods of other great trees like the pine, tamarind, and banyan which contain many seeds.  Each time you practice Siu Nim Tao, you experience preciousness, because you are the acorn in action.

Sustainability: The oak outlasts all trees. The more a student understands Siu Nim Tao and the path of the Ving Tsun Code of Conduct, the more that sustainability is cultivated in body and mind.  This deepens the practice of skillfulness so we understand the necessity of living the kung fu life, both as individuals and in committed partnership.  Practicing self-cultivation and relationship just like we practice Siu Nim Tao, life gets renewed rather than depleted.

Variability:  Each oak tree's production of acorn fruit can vary strikingly over a given area. Most years, only a few acorns are produced.  Many new acorns are eaten by birds or later by animals on the forest floor (or, in the case of the human tree, the conditioned self-sabotaging habits of individuals).  Like other trees, the oak tree has its super-abundant years, which remain mysterious to modern science.

Synchrony:  Amazingly, oaks across long distances have highly synchronous years of abundance, this is known as "acorn synchrony."  In Ving Tsun kung fu, a family style system and a pure form from the heart have made geographically distant schools into a closely-knit world family. 

In your own home life, experiment with cultivating a daily practice of Siu Nim Tao form each morning and evening, as recommended by our Great-Grand Master Yip Man.  Even just a quick 3-minute flow each sunrise and sunset will change your life for the better, and make you strong.