About Conditioning... Part II

by Sifu Vyvial

and Mary Ceallaigh

If you have been challenging yourself through regular training and endurance conditioning, you are probably noticing that you are building mental toughness that is helping you in all areas of your life.  As for the physicality of conditioning, your fighter's fitness development is reverberating after class through a variety of bodily sensations and brain states.  Let's explore this in a little more detail.

SENSATIONS & DELAYED SORENESS

Tough conditioning in Ving Tsun is diverse, and it may mean many minutes of non-stop punching, standing in Jin Ma (wide legged standing squat) intensively, or circuit training resistance movements that mimic the non-sedentary lifestyles of ancient human movement.   Through training in the uncomfortable zone (involving extreme discomfort but not sharp pain), this will, over time, actually rewire your neural circuitry and increase your energy levels and coping abilities. The sensation of pain does not necessarily mean injury, but if you push too hard through sharp pain you will be setting up for injury, so practicing self-compassion means knowing your limits.  Acute or sharp pain should never be ignored, and activity should be ceased if that occurs.  In other words, muscle soreness should make you deeply ache, not gasp in pain.

And then the next day when you feel like you've been pummeled by a yeti, or that your knees are partially disabled, you have to WILL yourself to move around and practice again.  That, too, is conditioning, the kind that also builds mental toughness. Just a few hours after finishing new conditioning challenges a student will start to feel a stiffness come over them which begins with a slight twinge of discomfort, often located in the largest muscles of the body. As time rolls on, the soreness increases to true discomfort.  And this reminder of your conditioning has an official medical name:  Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (surprise!).

This type of soreness affects most individuals after a bout of rigorous exercise and includes symptoms that differ person-by-person.  Muscle soreness can cause areas that are painful to touch on the body, slight to moderate swelling, and redness.  Feelings of swelling, stiffness, and loss of strength commonly occur within 24 to 48 hours of performing rigorous exercise, according to the University of New Mexico Department of Exercise Science.  

If this is happening to you, you are not alone - you are yet another warrior in training, joining your classmates and countless others since ancient times who have persevered in training the mind to connect to the body through plunging the depths of self and changing phenomena.   If you are training with your whole self, you are finding yourself challenged to go beyond just the pleasant and entertaining zones of training and showing up to the unpleasant and uncomfortable as well.  The more you do this, the more you strengthen your foundation as a responsive rather than reactive warrior.   

ACTIVE RECOVERY IS THE BEST REMEDY

The intention of Ving Tsun training is pure strength and dynamic mobility.  Post-conditioning muscle soreness sensations are often part of the process, and are temporary and tolerable with good self-care along with continued mindful movement to support circulation.  

Muscle soreness during and after conditioning exercises is unavoidable for beginners at any new exercise. Since we need to stress our muscles to increase strength capacity, some soreness simply happens because we're exercising. In Ving Tsun, the severity of the soreness is lessened with the good circulation and mind-body strength of practicing Siu Nim Tao before and after the conditioning as an active recovery practice.  In addition, we discover a new realm of positive self-discipline, that of choosing "active recovery" rather than zombie-like lounging and negative thinking.

By far, the best post-workout focus is active recovery, where we continue training, or practice movements that bring blood and circulation to the areas that are aching and reverberating.    Blood circulation is the best remedy, and active recovery will give you this without any side effects.  This may be the last thing you feel like doing, but it can clear the clouds and make a huge difference in your recovery time and general attitude.  

Some of the best physical training exercises to complement your Kung Fu training are the basic squat, the deadlift, and power clean.  Using many tools, such as a barbell, kettlebell, heavy balls, sandbags, a toddler, etc.   The movement matters, not the tool.  These exercises can be done in just a few minutes, do them with deep nostril breathing.  If done right, they train your whole body.  

If your knees are stiff, getting into a squat may seem the last thing the knees might be able to do - and if your shoulder blades feel fiery or your arm joints are aching, lifting weight with them may not seem very enticing... but the body actually appreciates this kind of complementary exercise.  Discovering the harmony created by it is pretty wonderful too.

ADDITIONAL SELF-CARE MEASURES

The natural health tradition has many helpful additional measures, such as the principle of good hydration through it all.  Hydration is essential for a strong physiology, and includes pure water (spring or filtered is even better) as well as electrolyte solutions.  Though commercial electrolyte drinks are easy to buy, many of them have inferior ingredients and even unhealthy ones.  Plain coconut water is electrolytic, and very east to assimilate (try Zico, which is super-fresh tasting, and not canned).  Much more economically, you can make your own electrolyte drinks as a daily habit, and can pour them into your travel container to take on the road with you.  

Here are a few brew recipes:  

#1 Into one big glass put:  one lemon fresh squeezed (or 1/4 cup of Santa Cruz organic lemon juice), juice of one orange, about a teaspoon of raw honey, four shakes of sea salt.  Stir it up, and add water to fill up the glass and stir it again. 

#2 Into a big decanter or empty gallon container put:  2 cups of coconut milk (not coconut water), 1 teaspoon of sea salt, 1 teaspoon of raw honey or Stevia, 1 liter of filtered water.  Mix it up.

#3 This one is just tart:  Into a big decanter or empty gallon container put:  1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/4 cup lime juice, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 1 whole squeezed orange (or 1/2 cup of non-concentrate orange juice), 1 liter of filtered water.

#4  Another awesome electrolyte brew is made from a concentrate of 64 mineral-rich himalayan salt-saturated water, 1 teaspoon added to each cup of water in your water bottle.  Recipes for this can be found online.

Additional comfort measures:  warm water immersion to enhance relaxation (a hot foot bath is more effective than a hot shower or bath for a circulation boost), and topical ointments like Arnica gel, Chinese medicine balm, or Traumeel.  When necessary, in order to maintain your commitments when your schedule doesn't have enough flexibility for the optimal remedies, pain relievers such as white willow bark capsules or aspirin which contain salicylic acid will assist in blood circulation and inflammation reduction, and give you relief so that you can do what you have to do.  

From a Chinese medicine perspective, the salicylic acid of aspirin is much easier on the liver than acetaminophen or ibuprofin.  If you take aspirin, which gives quick & easy results, be mindful of how often you are doing so and try taking it as infrequently as you can, focusing on active recovery measures as the main course.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Staying in the process is the goal of our training.  Traditional Ving Tsun was about an intensive commitment of 5-7 hours a day, most days of the week, training with your sifu and sihings one way or another and living the kung fu life.  Though few of us can afford that kind of weekly time commitment, we can make the most of the precious time that we do have, and live the best kung fu life we can over the years of basic training and beyond.

For the next month, try practicing Siu Nim Tao each morning and evening in the days in between classes.  This will support your circulation, energy, and post-conditioning attitude as you navigate active recovery, self-care measures, and making healthy choices.  Superior all-levels health enhances training and is a continuous process.  

About Conditioning... Part I

by Sifu Vyvial 

and Mary Ceallaigh

Traditional Ving Tsun kung fu techniques are based on the natural law of the body's structural power and don’t rely on physical strength. This makes the study of Ving Tsun great for people of any stature, as can be seen in the diversity of our students in the Moy Yat schools around the world.  We also train our kung fu habits through the challenges of various methods of endurance conditioning.  

Why do we do this conditioning stuff?  Because comprehensive embodiment through a variety of conditions increases our capacity to respond easily & quickly in many circumstances.  We are also exploring our training of the relaxation response that is so essential for the flow of self-defense and life in general.   Conditioning works with the truth that the human body is built for survival and will adapt to better handle sweat, stress, pain, temperature changes, emotional surges, and just about anything you can throw at it. Through challenging conditioning, you will build mental toughness, fighter's fitness. 

Physiologically the body starts to last longer, meaning we physically adapt and our muscles fail later and later until we surpass perceived limitations and are training at a new level.

The newbie student wants to know WHEN the delayed onset muscle soreness cycle (DOMS, more about that in Part II) or emotional triggers are going to lessen – and sifus will tell you it’s more about HOW we commit to stay in the process, and arranging your lifestyle to support this transformation  with good self-care, self-discipline, communication with your sifu, and the application of wisdom.  Training as a beginner in the new postures and movements of our Ving Tsun kung fu system will create soreness for sure, but once your consistent training has built up a foundation in your deep tissue and joints, you WILL be at another level and have to challenge yourself in order to feel any soreness!  In the meantime, keep in mind that the best response to post-training soreness is continued training and movement.  It will actually move you through your Ving Tsun conditioning much faster than erratic practice.  If a student doesn't experience any sweating and aching in class and/or post-training soreness, it means that effort must be intensified in horse stance and everything else.  And you can find a way to do that from the inside out.

LONG MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT

The long angular muscles developed in traditional Ving Tsun training assist the free flow of biodynamic energy.  These sinewy muscle groups are the muscles that already exist in typical female anatomy - and they tone the body into a healthy, open conduit for chi energy, fortifying the immune system and strengthening the internal organs.

These Ving Tsun muscles are flexible and characteristically relaxed compared to the lumpy, tight muscles of Calvin Klein models or developed in bulk-up weight-resistance training or hefty physical labor.  Bulky muscles are tense and inflexible, restricting the flow of power in the body, and even completely blocking it.  Typically, new students with or without muscle bulk will use strength and tension-based movements during their early Ving Tsun training until they realize that this is counter-productive to the flow of real kung fu based in the power of the body structure and joint movements - a realization that may take a year of training to arrive at, as old habits are hard to break.   

Until learning this, the student’s sparring partners will not be able to experience the receiving end of “soft force” when training with this student.  (And all is not lost – there are personal training benefits to being on the receiving end of a muscle-bound or hard-force training partner, as it creates an opportunity to practice one’s own commitment to “soft force” in response, which is a likely situation in the world outside the studio). 

RELAXATION FOR WARRIORS

Ving Tsun training emphasizes the primacy of relaxation, and it applies equally to both the body AND the mind. The relaxed toned body is healthy and permits power to flow through it unrestricted.  But the mind must also be reconditioned towards an alert relaxation.  The value of aligning the mind and the body has long been known in Eastern cultures for purposes of physical healing, spiritual liberation, sexual harmony, and long-term vitality.  And today mental training is being reexamined as perhaps the only real permanent cure for stress and the many ailments and addictions that accompany stress.   Some examples of mental training that we do in class are Siu Nim Tao, the 5 minute single punch meditation, and breathing practices - all developed to train the mind to unite with the body, which is basic to self-defense conditioning.   Siu Nim Tao will warm you up and cool you down, as needed.  If you do nothing else on days you are not in class, do Siu Nim Tao.

SWEAT

One of the signs that we are working new ground is sweat.  Each student has their comfort level related to sustained endurance in certain postures or movements, as well as dealing with  environmental factors such as air temperature/circulation. Everyone comes to class having had a particular kind of day, at a certain level of hydration, and having recently eaten certain foods - the lighter and water-bearing foods being helpful for intense training. 

In Chinese Medicine, the water element is what we orient to during transformation and harvest.  Sweat is part of flow. Water's Yin energy is held in the kidneys, and its Yang is in the bladder.  When conditioning, you will notice an increased capacity to release the kidneys’ stored water through salty sweat rather than through the bladder. In Chinese medicine, the kidneys are revered, as they contain the root energy of all your organs and spark the energy of the whole body.  Sweating detoxifies the liver and the whole body, which is a great health benefit.  

VING TSUN STANCES

Horse Stance

The basic standing posture of the Siu Nim Tao form, called Horse Stance or Goat Holding Stance or Yee Jee Kim Yeung Ma, is one of the primary exercises used to enhance the endurance and strength of the legs and the power center (dan tien) awareness of the belly, as well as the mental training of the mind learning to accept the new sensations and new center of this posture.  Called "Horse Stance," this standing practice emanates from the hip joints and creates a unique training for the knees, calves, and ankles that is carried into Ving Tsun body motion, and is often quite strenuous during the early years of training.  It not only busts the bronco-rider of excessive ego and creates the humility required for a peaceful warrior - it also works with the internal life force or biodynamic "Chi" energy.  Life force moves into the legs as the students learns to sink this energy into the ground.  Students might start learning this by standing for only 10 minutes at first, slowly building up the time to an hour over the course of several months, according to individual conditions. This stance tones the nervous system of the entire pelvic floor, and aligns the prostate, uterus, and ovaries, which increases sexual vitality and general health.  Yee Jee Kim Yeung Ma deepens your roots so that more energy can be unleashed into the circulation to express Ving Tsun with great power.

Low Horse Stance

The strenuous Low Horse stance or Jin Ma training has long been a tradition of Chinese martial arts, considered essential for full-spectrum vital energy mastery, as it develops Yang and rejuvenates Yin.  Jin Ma is phenomenal for training posture balance in all sorts of conditions, and was originally practiced for seafaring fighting legs on boats.  It brings enormous speed and grace to the feet when crab-walking and rising up from the floor.   To seriously cultivate your Jin Ma, you need to deeply relax in the process while also maintaining good body structure, and concentrating the muscles that support you in the seat and pelvis. Working Jin Ma into your daily life can begin with 3 minute stays, adding an extra minute every few days, according to individual conditions.  

"We practice for perfection."  ~ Sigung Moy Tung 

For the next week, orient your mind & body to have kung fu habits throughout your endurance conditioning.   Keep bringing your attention back to the moment-to-moment process, and your endurance will naturally increase.   Most of all, enjoy developing your purehearted strength and dynamic mobility, the essence of Ving Tsun kung fu training.

Martial Arts at the Park: The 4/28 Recap

Martial arts is portable, and we train and condition in order to be able to respond well regardless of environment.  But there is a special power to practicing outside, with the dirt and grass right under our feet – maximum Chi, as they say.  Last week, Sifu Forrest Caudill, head instructor at Austin Impact Jeet Kune Do, invited Moy Sifu Vyvial to guest co-host at an ongoing and FREE monthly event where teachers, students, and the general public gather outside at Ramsey Park.  The intention was to offer a taste of the martial arts that both sifus specialize in, and the unique connection between JKD and Ving Tsun through our shared Uncle, Sifu Dan Inosanto (Moy Yang Yee) and the Bruce Lee legacy.  A great idea, and a blast for those who were able to show up.  

The exchange supported by this event was community education in full effect.  Also wonderful was the diversity of the crowd in ages, ethnicities, and body types.  Some Moy Yat young masters were continuing their class practices on the fringes of the grown ups, and among the adults were some that had shown up because they’d just seen a flyer, including one elder (a basketball association organizer and retiree).  Outside of the main participants, various park-goers could be seen curiously standing around and watching the martial arts action, not an everyday thing in the park… There were also spring breezes and happy dogs, always good.  And some power-heavy metal sounds wafting out of Sifu ipods and car stereos, along with the many voices of children at a playground under the giant oak tree.

To top it all off, the event closed in a picnic, with food generously provided by Sifu Caudill and whoever else wanted to pitch in.  

Due to the short notice around Moy Yat Academy, and our same day FB announcement, our Saturday class students hustled to get to the park, two miles away from the school, and many Moy Yat students didn’t even know the event was happening – so we wanted to be sure to post the recap for your benefit, because it was a lot of fun.

The morning began with Sifu Caudill introducing JKD with an obvious love for the form, distributing a ton of protective gear that he brought for people to use while practicing.  For VT students, it made us appreciate even more the simplicity and directness of our form, while being an exercise in adaptability.

Then Moy Sifu Vyvial was introduced to the crowd, and took us through the power points of VT self defense principles, calling upon Sihings Neil and Heath for demonstrations.  The audience responded with a whole new level of riveted attention at the simplicity of the centerline, and the visuals of effectiveness as Sihing Heath nobly received Moy Sifu’s punches and pushes.  The highlight of the VT segment was the triangle headgrip crumple, for which Sifu Moy Vyvial jumped Sihing Neil to demonstrate a quick takedown.  This was followed by 6 more examples as Moy Sifu Vyvial invited all the female students to practice on Sihing Neil, and they sure did!

As one of our Moy Yat students wrote in:  “This was fantastic!!!   People recognize Ving Tsun as the real thing when they see it!”

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. 

The Acorn & Siu Nim Tao (part I)

by

Sifu Aaron Vyvial

& Mary Ceallaigh

"Whatever we do lays a seed in our deepest consciousness - and one day that seed will grow."  

"Mighty oaks from little acorns grow."

These statements reflect on the potential within people that is concentrated and carried within. The oak tree's acorn is a fruit, which contains one seed.  This seed, like Siu Nim Tao, has encoded within it everything it needs to become a strong, peaceful warrior in the forest, once the multifarious conditions of natural law are right for it.  Within the acorn is a powerhouse of nutrients and information for the seedling's success.  It is encoded not only with mighty strength, but also the flexibility to persevere through trials and hardships. And all the droughts, frosts, and catastrophes that can happen with life on earth.  


The acorn holds a secret map about the art of living, which reveals itself over seasons, and eons, through the ups and downs of life.  Being that human existence on planet earth in the last 100 years has been one of unprecedented wars that have killed around 35 million people, the conditions for humanity have been harsh.  And far exceeding that is the number of people eliminated by absolutist governments through genocide and forced famine that has exceeded all wars (and is the equivalent of a nuclear war in and of itself).   


In China, upwards of 60 million of its native people were killed for the various dictatorships since 1900 (through genocide and murder through famine), referred to by scholars as the Chinese Holocaust.  Many well-known martial art practitioners chose to escape these conditions and migrate with their families to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other parts of the world. Those masters started to teach within the overseas Chinese communities but eventually they expanded their teachings to include people from other cultures, an adaptation to the conditions they found themselves in.  It is from both the incredible tenacity and aware accessibility of Ving Tsun Kung Fu that Sifu Moy 10 Tung Vyvial and the Moy Yat Kung Fu Academy in Austin and Houston came to be.

If Ving Tsun kung fu is an oak tree, the practice of Siu Nim Tao form that we do before every class is the acorn that contains all the information needed for full maturation of a student. The Nim Tao is your mind/soul for lack of English word. Siu Nim Tao trains the way of the Nim Tao. When you start your training, the little nim tao becomes big Nim Tao and your big Nim Tao eventually can become a great NIM TAO just like an oak tree.   Siu Nim Tao is the small beginning or seed that grows your Nim Tao into the oak - the acorn is the present moment becoming The Future.  

Through the 108 moves of Siu Nim Tao we train the Nim Tao, our thought process, and we develop Ding, or the vast potency of quietness/stillness, in an internal alchemy according to the moment as it is.  The way of Siu Nim Tao is about thinking just enough and restraining from overthinking so that the natural process is freed up.  Or, in other words, deepening our relationship to natural law.  


So, Siu Nim Tao is the most important component of Ving Tsun and we need to spend the time working on this acorn so that our Kung fu can grow naturally into the mighty oak that it should be.   In your own personal training try to spend a few weeks focusing on slower Siu Nim Tao practice. Make sure all of your forms are at least 5 minutes long or as long as an hour.  Relax the body and relax the mind, this will take your training to a whole new level.

Moy Yat Kung Fu Women's Self-Defense Training

Have you been disillusioned with martial arts? Have you been training according to "what if" scenarios? Martial arts means more than learning by rote to match a set number of moves to predictable situations. Nothing goes according to plan in real life. Self-defense is more than a set of physical moves. You must learn the psychology of potentially violent situations. You must learn to build confidence, but not overconfidence. 


There is a better option.  Moy Yat Ving Tsun Kung Fu Academy's Women's Self-Defense Training is a two-year program designed to help women build confidence and trust their bodies by incorporating a broad spectrum of tools into the framework of their daily lives. The result is an entirely new self-image.   We do not recommend programs that try to provide a self-defense "quick fix". Flashier situational types of training can provide a false sense of confidence that can actually work against a person if a real-life situation does not precisely match the training situation. Some other programs also emphasize fitness over self-defense. This is fine if fitness is your actual goal, but Ving Tsun is the sensible choice for women who want to build a solid foundation in self-defense. It is a long-term commitment that will pay off in many ways.

   
Ving Tsun Kung Fu is a system of ideas that work, a system that allows individuals to develop their own style, one that works best for them. We know what "one size fits all" really means. A style that fits everyone actually fits the majority of people very poorly. What works best for most women is an individualized style that they have developed and adapted to their own strengths, weaknesses, and body style. 
  
Why study self-defense at all? The answer is different for every person, and a women's self-defense system must allow for individual differences. Different people have different objectives, and other factors – age, size, body type, lifestyle – all will affect individual needs and goals. With Ving Tsun Kung Fu you will train your body, not with rote movements or a rigid style. You will develop a routine through practice, and you will train your central nervous system to respond naturally in real-life situations.   Avoidance and awareness training are key elements in self-defense and flow naturally into Ving Tsun. When avoidance is not possible, the next strategy is to de-escalate the situation. And if all alternatives have been exhausted, confrontation will be necessary with the goal of allowing the person being attacked to escape.

It is your street, your neighborhood. You have the right to walk down your own street with confidence. Learn to be confident.   The tools in self-defense are the same for everyone. There are not separate tools for women and for men. And while the tools are the same, the expression of those tools in the Ving Tsun system will depend on the individual. Anyone, including those with disabilities, can learn to use the tools. Ving Tsun Kung Fu does not rely on size or strength for success. It is a system, a toolset, not a style. Students will adopt their own style based on individual strengths and weaknesses.
   

You have a right to be free, but everything in life must have balance, and freedom comes with responsibility. You are ultimately responsible for your own safety and well-being. We want you to be free and to feel safe in the choices you make as you enjoy your freedom.  Ving Tsun Kung Fu is a martial art for those who value education as much as training.

She's A Ving Tsun Woman

by 
Mary Ceallaigh

Moy Yat Kung Fu Academy in Austin offers the only Women's Self Defense Kung Fu program in Texas. Ving Tsun, pronounced "Wing Chun," is a martial arts form originated by a woman. It teaches grounding & environmental awareness, internal strengthening self-care chi gong, highly concentrated centerline punching techniques for success across muscle mass/height disadvantage, and various tricks for supporting a powerful response to unexpected situations.  (Scroll down to see videos of this in action).

In honor of the countless peaceful & fierce women warriors that have lived on this earth since ancient times, let's explore the 400 year-old story of a young woman who became known as Ving Tsun and, even more interesting, the practically unknown elder Shaolin nun named Ng Mui, who gave her the teachings of a self defense kung fu that does not rely on size or strength to be effective.  It is important to remember that, in Ng Mui's time, most people still relied on the oral tradition to learn history and spread stories, so the "Legend of Ng Mui" is certainly more the truth than what high tech people consider a legend.

Another critical thing to keep in mind (and that Women's Studies scholars in universities the world over specialize in researching) is that the stories of females have often been eliminated, ridiculed, and dismissed by male lineages in religion, academia, and government. In the case of Ving Tsun's story, the very real reasons for her self defense training are downplayed by some and dubiously called her "romantic problems" which led her to seek her teacher. This disconnection from the very real social & political contexts of women's development, and the denial of sexual oppression by brute force with its general degrading attitude towards those who are considered physically weaker (be they female or male, adult or child) continues in our present global society and cuts across race & class lines worldwide. 

Taking an objective look at sexual assault against females, we see that is common around the world, and, as most readers already know, at least 1 in every 3 women on planet Earth has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused during her lifetime just due to being female in a man's world (east or west, urban or rural, these crimes occur everywhere). Inhumane codes of conduct are a vicious cycle of personal lifestyle & institutional habits based upon the specific values and a distinctly male-identified sexuality that excludes the true feminine force and source in us all.  This exclusively male-bodied view of reality and sexuality is not shared by all males. And neither are females blameless: the fact is that it is females who gestate males and instill a chunk of maternal DNA structure related to beliefs/assumptions, females who overwhelmingly teach young children, and often females who betray other females when resources are low and suitable partners are few. And, the male-identified view of an inhumane reality is not shared by all females.

That said, in the U.S., 1 in 6 men experience sexual assault in their lifetime, and at least double that number of women (1 in 3) will be raped in their lifetime. There were 19,000 sexual assaults in the U.S. military in 2010.  And 99% of the time the perpetrator will be male. Though over 80% of assault predators are male acquaintances, nearly 20% are strangers.

It was the latter that devastated Central Austin in January 2012 when a beloved community activist, Esmeralda Barrera, was attacked and murdered by a male stranger in a home invasion in the dark morning hours of New Year's Day. Another woman, a homeless citizen who agreed to a prostitution proposal was also murdered that morning, by a male stranger in a violent attack behind closed doors. Her body, however, was found in a dumpster. The sadness of both these stories haunted and disturbed people, particularly women, the first weeks of the year, especially those living alone with all surrounding neighbors away still on holiday through mid January (yours truly), during the long dark nights of winter. It didn't help that an additional assault and another unrelated home invasion against females had occurred on New Year's Day, or that in the following weeks a few opportunistic copycat incidents were attempted, with women waking up to a male intruder in their bedrooms.  

But a lighthouse in the storm was out there too: Moy Yat Academy's Free Women's Self-Defense training program which was being offered for two months of weekly classes for any lady who showed up (and the program later got extended to three months!) This innovative approach to accessible women's kung fu training was the first of its kind in the world, and gave the students who flocked to it usable techniques and self-training awareness from the first class on. It did so in a unique women's-only student environment, generously providing the immeasurable benefits of the refuge known as community spirit and emotional support, particularly for those students who were already part of the aforementioned 30%.

Speaking of which, back to the Ng Mui and Ving Tsun story. Because different versions of it were passed around to confuse enemies during the time of the Qing Dynasty, its folkloric effect has grown accordlingly. But we are not concerned with that. It is the beneficent female quality of this martial arts, and the ethics of the Ving Tsun code of conduct that we experience in our own bodies and minds, which embolden us and inspire us to train.

That said... let's begin with the Shaolin nun named Ng Mui.

Ng Mui was a survivor of a scary, violent raid at a Mahayana Buddhist monastery during the times of the Manchurian massacres. The Shaolin forest monastery where Ng Mui lived was in the mountain range that included Mount Shaoshi (the location of Ng Mui's specific monastery is disputed as to whether it was in Henan or Fujian). There may have been various enclaves. Historians agree that in 527 C.E./A.D. the first abbot of the monastery was an Indian saint named Buddhabhadra, who had traveled from India over 30 years earlier and taught Mahayana buddhism, the path of compassion for all beings and devotion to the ideal of monastic life in the wilderness. He settled into the Shaolin monastery, and started teaching monks to incorporate "exercises" to balance out their long hours of seated meditation. These exercises that included the usual chinese boxing and more, were a value system that played a significant part in the evolution of the Shaolin Kung Fu that Ng Mui later practiced.

Historians also agree that this monastery later became a refuge for many hundreds of men who were resisters of the Manchu regime that shaved their heads and became sort of undercover novice warrior-monks (not priests) in the daily schedule of the monastery (chanting, meditation, meditation, tea, work, one meal, a little exercise, meditation, tea, meditation, sleep). As is often the case with male-written accounts, the question of how many nuns were also taking refuge in the nun's compound for the same reasons, or because they were part of a revolutionary couple, goes unmentioned, but common sense would allow for a number of them. All this made for a rather non-monastic undercurrent around Ng Mui,which she certainly would have been aware of and had deep insights about, being that she was a serious meditator.

As the story goes, soon after the new monks were accepted at the temple, a disgruntled elder monk chose to tip off the Manchu forces about the situation and the temple was then attacked and burned to the ground, with many of the monks & nuns and would-be rebels murdered. It is said that senior monks, probably given warning by their informant peer, fled and hid themselves in different mountains. As to if the senior nuns got the notice, well, nobody knows.

A surviving elder nun named Ng Mui (who was probably around 4 feet tall and a very lean lady) somehow managed to survive and make the perilous journey to the White Crane Temple in Wan Nam. There she codified the Southern Shaolin kung fu system and organized her knowledge in order to pass on the tradition. While there, she saw a snake and crane fighting, which gave her the idea to modify the kung fu that she knew. With the little we know about Ng Mui, it is clear that she was a great master: of her own mind, heart, and the natural law of kung fu within her. Rather than live as a victim-nun, crazed with grief, she stayed close to her practice and her path in the world within her and around her.

This was a time when male lineages were even more the exclusive authority on most everything, inequality between the privileges and limitations of monks and nuns was considered normal and unquestionable (as it still is in much of eastern temple/monastery culture), and martial arts systems were kept secret and limited to the sect. Ng Mui did something legendary: she taught the self defense form to a young woman who was not a Shaolin nun. This woman, named Yim, crossed paths with Ng Mui (some say because her family ran a tofu shop) and asked for help after having survived a sexual-bullying situation with a warlord - the common version of "courtship" by most powerful men at the time. (And warlords have continued to lord it through the recent times - in 1928 a warlord set fire to the rebuilt Shaolin monastery, and most of it was destroyed). Yim had brilliantly responded to the warlord's announcement that he was going to force her to marry him by telling him she would only do so if he could win at a one-on-one public martial arts fight with her, which distracted the warlord's ego enough to allow her to escape being bound onto his horse! Yim needed help to prepare for the fight, and her great faith in natural law helped her cross paths with the woman warrior Ng Mui.

Ng Mui trained Yim in the condensed and concentrated self defense kung fu practices and lovingly named her "Yim Ving Tsun" (pronounced yeem wing chun) which means "Beautiful Spring/Forever Springtime" in honor of Yim's physical and emotional transformation into a highly trained intuitive warrior in the rejuvenative arts of her kung fu. Yim Ving Tsun successfully beat the warlord, simultaneously shaming him so that he would look elsewhere for pleasure. Following this, Yim Ving Tsun married a man she loved who treated her right, a fellow named Leong Pok Toa.

She taught Leong Pok Toa the art, who fully received it and passed it on to Wong Wah Po. Wong Wah Po passed it on to Leung Lan Kwi, Leung Yee Tai, and Leung Tsun. Leung Tsun passed it on to Fung Wah and Chan Wah Shun. Grand Master Yip Man learned the complete system from Chan Wah Shuen and passed it on to Moy Yat, who passed it on to Moy Tung. Who passed it on to Austin's very own Sifu Aaron "Moy 10 Tung" Vyvial.

Here are some fun videos of modern Wing Chun women. They mean business:

Sources:

Washington Post article on stranger attacks and the Austin New Year crimes 

Rape Victim Advocacy Project's Sexual Assault Statistics, www.rvap.org
ACLU article on U.S. military stats

Shahar, Meir. The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008

Inside-Kung Fu article, The Shaolin Connection written by Eric Oram

A translation of three seals from the Kuen Kuit which detail the origins and lineage of the Ving Tsun family

A translation of Grandmaster Ip Man's essay on the "History and Origin of Wing Chun"

Mary Ceallaigh has a Bachelor of Arts in Human Development & Life Cycle Studies, is co-author of a 1999 NOW Resolution on Midwifery, and is a certified yoga teacher training in the two-year Women's program at Moy Yat Kung Fu Academy.