Ving Tsun Concepts and Theories

Ving Tsun Gung Fu relies always on the three principles of simplicity, efficiency, and directness.  No theory, concept, or technique in this gung fu will ever escape or even slightly diverge from these principles.  Ving Tsun can be looked upon as a language where the individual techniques of Ving Tsun are analogous to the letters found in the English alphabet.  Ving Tsun’s theories and concepts then become the grammar that holds this language of combat together. 

Forms or set patterns within the Ving Tsun system, empty-handed or otherwise, will not teach you a predetermined set of situation-specific sequences.  Like the English language that utilizes a 26-letter alphabet to create a language of nearly limitless expression, Ving Tsun offers the practitioner a set of basic movements that, when combined with basic theories and principles, will give the fighter the necessary tools to defeat an unpredictable human opponent.

Physical combat is analogous to a verbal debate.  What your opponent says or does can never be fully predicted. And instead of practicing phrasebook-like combinations and situation-specific sequences, the Ving Tsun system offers the practitioner a complete language that can be manipulated to serve the simple, efficient, and direct act of incapacitating the opponent.  Ving Tsun is a simple, efficient, and direct language of combat.

In attempting to achieve a state of simplicity, efficiency, and directness during combat, Ving Tsun practitioners will adhere to concepts and theory particular to the Ving Tsun system.  Among the most important are the centerline theory and the perpetual forward movement concept.

The centerline theory in itself encompasses many of the specific concepts that govern the execution of  techniques and generation of power specific to the Ving Tsun system.  In general the centerline divides the human body in to two equal halves.  The centerline is the area where both offensive and defensive maneuvers are focused.  Attacks are targeted to the opponent’s centerline, while one’s own centerline is the focus of defense.  A conceptual plane is drawn like a curtain from the practitioner’s own centerline to his opponents.  This plane, dubbed the center-plane, is where all attacks and deflections take place.  Using the system’s triangle structure, a Ving Tsun practitioner will shoot through the center-plane to intercept his opponent’s attacks while focusing his own offensive maneuvers toward his opponent’s center.

In connection to the centerline theory (as all theories and concepts within the Ving Tsun system are interrelated), is the concept of “perpetual forward movement”. This concept is embodied in the most important of Ving Tsun’s maxims, “loi lau hui song lut sao jik chung,” or “accept what comes, send what leaves, when the hand is free, blast forward.”  In essence, this Ving Tsun maxim teaches the Ving Tsun practitioner to focus on perpetual forward movement toward the opponent’s center.  No matter what direction the opponent tries to manipulate you, as soon as there is an opportunity (either one that opens, or one that you create) you must blast forward into your opponent’s center.  A Ving Tsun practitioner must act as water to crashed or flow forward perpetually through an opponent’s offenses and defenses.

To achieve simplicity in combat is no simple task.  We are instinctually blinded by inefficient movements and actions when we are faced with violent situations.  Ving Tsun’s unnaturally direct approach must be drilled to take over as a new instinct.  To think in combat is too late.  To survive, one must react in a manner that is the most simple, efficient, and direct.  Training  in Ving Tsun is not about learning sequences upon sequences of set routines.  Training in Ving Tsun is about replacing inefficient actions with efficient ones.  Ving Tsun’s concepts and techniques are instilled to give the practitioner a simpler, more efficient, and more direct way to react.