Have you done twenty push-ups in the back of class? Been pulled up by your Si-Fu in front of everyone?  Now, do you remember what you got in trouble for?

The issue of discipline in class is not designed to oppress you or teach you humility, but to continue the lesson of control (or “self-control”).  Control is central to the Wing Chun system and the learning of control is critical to your development as a practitioner, as well as being important to regular life.

Bruce Lee referred to control of your own mind as the most important aspect of martial arts training. “No illusion and no imagination..  No excessive action is needed..” (Full quote in “My Life with Wing Chun” by Grandmaster William Cheung). The bottom line is that you won’t achieve difficult and important things in your life without being deliberate and thoughtful. This means that you must be resistant to distraction (see meditation article). This is a problem by itself, but it is in order that you can focus as much of your capability as possible on the objective at hand.

In my work I have to maintain behavioural control (focus, avioding distraction) both for political reasons, as well as to ensure the quality of my technical work. This does not mean repress yourself and lie about your opinion. Rather it means fully represent what is important to you without getting distracted on little things (like how someone speaks to you rudely). As a child I was not brought up in an environment that fostered such behaviour. One of the reasons I am able to participate now is the range of lessons and training ‘tricks’ given to me in my Wing Chun training.

Sil Lum Tao (“Small Idea Form”, your first form in traditional Wing Chun) begins this lesson by teaching you to maintain a difficult (initially awkward) stance while doing different things with each arm (and different things again with one’s energy). While it is simple externally there are many more things going on internally. This form is invaluable, partly for this benefit.

The principle is extended to training hall behaviour. If you are listening to your si-fu with your hands crossed over your chest or wedged on your hips you are learning ineffective behaviour that will have a negative effect later. The body language you are displaying is aggressive and belligerent. You probably don’t mean it that way to your si-fu and she probably doesn’t take it that way, but someone else will, consciously or subconsciously. If you respond with “that’s who I am, how I do things” then you will improve more slowly than you otherwise might.

When your si-fu gives you a warning, then twenty push-ups for standing in front of her listening with your arms crossed, hands on your hips, picking your nose, scratching your scalp or otherwise distracted (rule of thumb is wrists below hips is good) she is giving you guidance. The idea is that you will decide that it is better not to be doing these things or showing such front when you are listening in class (or doing other important things in your life).

Once you become resistant to distraction in such ways you will have plenty of spare brainpower to spend on your effervescent forms, intricate drilling, fascinating wooden dummy exercise and the many other treasures of Wing Chun. And they won’t be nearly as difficult as they seem now.