Siu Lim Tao is the first of the three empty hand forms in Wing Chun. It translates as "Little idea form". There are several interpretations as to what this means. One which I like is that everything in Wing Chun can be found in Siu Lim Tao, all the basic hand positions and theories, so if you are ever stuck on something Siu Lim Tao can give you a little idea. Another obvious meaning is that because Siu Lim Tao is the basic form, at that level of training you will only have a "little idea" of the system. Another is that it translates as "little idea head" or "to have little thought in the head". This states that Siu Lim Tao should be used as a form of meditation which leads me on to explaining the first section.
The first section was traditionally called "Three Prayers to Buddha". This is because you perform 3 Fook Saus on each side. This section should be done as slowly as possible (Yip Man used to spend up to an hour performing it), I recommend somewhere between 10-30 minutes. This section trains correct elbow positioning and builds up the correct energy. By performing it slowly not only are we builing up our Chi, which has many health benefits, we are also training the correct pathway very precisely so that it is fully ingrained into the neurological pathways of our brain so we can perform very fast movements later on. After a few months of practising Siu Lim Tao you should begin to feel a tingling feeling in the hands while performing it. Later on this will spread and you will feel a warm feeling in the pit of your stomach (this is the Dan Tien, where the bodies Chi is stored).
The second section trains you how to correctly release energy by only tensing at the end of a technique. You may have noticed that the end of the first section and the beginning of the second section all teach us emergency techniques, this is because at this level you wont have fast enough reactions to stop an attacker at the first gate. We start with an inside Pak Sau and palm with same hand. Then we take it one step further imagining the opponent has got even closer and attempts to apply an arm lock on us, so we use the side Gum Sau. Again we take it even further imagining the opponent has got hold of us from behind so we must use a groin strike. After this we go on to learn the basic blocks performed with both hands to save time. These can be used in any order against any number of punches, but it is advisable to counter as soon as possible.
Section 3 teaches us how to put together basic blocks and counters. We start with Pak Sau and a palm. The application of this would be to turn with the Pak and then lap and palm. Then we do Tan Sau, low Garn Sau, scooping Tan Sau, Huen Sau, low palm. This shows us that with one turn we can block multiple attacks and that we can strike low. We then do Bong Sau, Tan Sau, palm. This shows us that it is more advisable to turn with each block and then to counter. We finish by learning how to get out of an arm pin and then oerform 3 punches.
This is only a basic analysis of Siu Lim Tao and these are only some basic applications, we could spend years pulling the form apart coming up with different explanations for each movement.
The first section was traditionally called "Three Prayers to Buddha". This is because you perform 3 Fook Saus on each side. This section should be done as slowly as possible (Yip Man used to spend up to an hour performing it), I recommend somewhere between 10-30 minutes. This section trains correct elbow positioning and builds up the correct energy. By performing it slowly not only are we builing up our Chi, which has many health benefits, we are also training the correct pathway very precisely so that it is fully ingrained into the neurological pathways of our brain so we can perform very fast movements later on. After a few months of practising Siu Lim Tao you should begin to feel a tingling feeling in the hands while performing it. Later on this will spread and you will feel a warm feeling in the pit of your stomach (this is the Dan Tien, where the bodies Chi is stored).
The second section trains you how to correctly release energy by only tensing at the end of a technique. You may have noticed that the end of the first section and the beginning of the second section all teach us emergency techniques, this is because at this level you wont have fast enough reactions to stop an attacker at the first gate. We start with an inside Pak Sau and palm with same hand. Then we take it one step further imagining the opponent has got even closer and attempts to apply an arm lock on us, so we use the side Gum Sau. Again we take it even further imagining the opponent has got hold of us from behind so we must use a groin strike. After this we go on to learn the basic blocks performed with both hands to save time. These can be used in any order against any number of punches, but it is advisable to counter as soon as possible.
Section 3 teaches us how to put together basic blocks and counters. We start with Pak Sau and a palm. The application of this would be to turn with the Pak and then lap and palm. Then we do Tan Sau, low Garn Sau, scooping Tan Sau, Huen Sau, low palm. This shows us that with one turn we can block multiple attacks and that we can strike low. We then do Bong Sau, Tan Sau, palm. This shows us that it is more advisable to turn with each block and then to counter. We finish by learning how to get out of an arm pin and then oerform 3 punches.
This is only a basic analysis of Siu Lim Tao and these are only some basic applications, we could spend years pulling the form apart coming up with different explanations for each movement.
No comments:
Post a Comment