1. Chi sau in honor of our ving tsun family and friends in Hong Kong
2. Why keeping a notebook is important to your ving tsun practice
3. Why these two students use notebooks for their Ving Tsun training and you should too
4. Why learning the Cantonese terms for Ving Tsun is essential for passing the art on correctly
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Is this you?
Here’s a short video of Sifu Matt Johnson talking about why he practices and teaches ving tsun kung fu just as it was taught to him by Sifu Ip Ching.
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Today’s post is really all about the video.
Because let’s face it, who is reading anything any more?
Easier to watch or listen. Ah yeah , multi tasking… sometimes it is okay.
Anyway, we will make this brief.
Here is a thing we talked about yesterday in class. It’s not the first time and sure as shit, it won’t be the last.
So the question is, once we can stop trying to emulate movie kung fu as a model for real self defense, can we learn to practice our art with great and focused intention to be a little better every time and specific to ving tsun, to do simultaneous defense and attack? Because WHY do two moves when you can do one?
Want to try it? Come in and try a free class. Ask questions. Bring your best game. We got this.
The best defense? Good daily training.
In Ving Tsun we have Siu Nim Tau, the first form, which can be translated to Little Idea or Little Beginning. It’s from this first form, this little idea, that everything else in the system comes.
Every week Sifu Matt offers these blogs, these little ideas, as reflections from his practice to help support yours.
Thanks for reading.
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Last weekend was the first of four training camps at the academy. There will be one each season. Last weekend was the winter camp. Next will be spring, summer and fall camps. I put these on so students can have two full days of total immersion in the practice of the art of Ving Tsun. Two solid days of six to eight hours spent in deep practice. No phones. No Distractions. Just ving tsun.
When I’ve trained like this in my own practice, I’ve always gotten better. A LOT better. Sharper. My skill grew noticeably. So I knew that by creating an experience like this that my students would have the same experience. And they did. Many good questions came up that, when answered, took everyone in the room, to a deeper level of understanding. We went through all the forms in the system and went very deep in our practice.
In the camps, I try to give students an idea of how I train. I don’t do six to eight hours every day, mind you. But I do get in a good three to four hours every day. Students ask what I do with that time. Is it all ving tsun? Sometimes, yes. They ask, what else do you do?
Well. That’s complicated. Certainly a lot of time is spent polishing my Ving Tsun. But, I do many other things as well.
It’s my belief that a martial artist should be fit and healthy. It does take a certain level of fitness to perform any martial art. But being fit and healthy is its own reward. One of the major benefits of Ving Tsun practice is that it helps us get to that more fit and healthy place, physically and mentally.
In fact, every single master I’ve ever been around here in the US, in Hong Kong, or China, says that kung fu practice is first and foremost meant to be a health regimen. It’s meant to protect us from physical violence, yes, of course, but even more to protect us from poor health.
It’s time for strengthening the body as well as the mind. Daily practice of forms, weapons, sparring, chi sau; all of these will certainly help keep you fit and healthy. But a practitioner should do more to enhance what they are doing in the kwoon. (school)
Things like cardio work, weight training, go a long way to help not only with performance in martial arts, but fitness training also has other benefits like fighting depression. As we age, we lose muscle tone and strength, bone density, joint function, and so on. Exercise in the martial arts and in the gym fights all of these.
For me, daily and weekly routines, encompass many forms of exercise to keep me fit and healthy. In addition to my my daily Ving Tsun practice, I do my best to walk 10,000 steps every day. Every week, I incorporate two sessions of weight training at the gym, I do three or more HIIT (High Intesity Interval Training) cardio sessions. Some days I swim. Some days I run. One way or the other, I’m always moving. In fact, aside from my daily meditation practice (which I highly recommend for everyone) I really can’t stand sitting around.
I love all forms of movement and exercise. I believe these are keys to a happy life. At 51 years old, I weigh what I did in high school and am down to the same pant size as well. I feel like I’m 25 again. And I don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
I’m always moving. In fact, before I sat down to write this, I went through all of my ving tsun forms. I can’t wait to be done writing because I want to do more, go for a long walk, or do more work on the wooden dummy…anything that will get my ass out of this chair and moving.
Sometimes, people are taken aback at my level of activity and ask where I get the energy for it all.
My answer?
Simple.
Diet.
I follow a whole-foods, plant-based diet.
I feel that it’s an optimum form of nutrition that gives me all the energy I need. I love eating this way. I eat almost zero animal products. There’s the occasional bit of cheese or chicken or perhaps fish, but 95% plants. Lots of fruit.
I always get asked the same question: But where do you get your protein!?
That’s no problem.
Everything we eat has some protein.
Some of the largest, strongest animals on the planet don’t eat anything but plants, so I’m not worried. We can get all the protein and nutrition in this way of eating. The science is out there. This mode of eating reduces and prevents and can reverse several of the major health issues plaguing western society which eats a standard American diet (SAD) comprised of junk food, fast food, soda, etc. and which causes health issues like diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, cognitive issues and a serious killer, obesity.
Eating plant-based is also better for our planet. Animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of pollution and a major contributor to global warming. If you are a person who cares about what’s happening to our planet, like me, know that making the change to a more plant-based diet makes an immediate positive impact beyond our own personal health.
There’s also the matter of the animals we eat. As I’ve gotten further into my zen practice, my compassion for all living beings has grown. I see now the suffering the consumption of meat causes. If I can do my part to help by reducing my intake of animal products, I will.
Don’t take my word for it.
Take the time. Do the research yourself. It’s all out there, in books and on-line. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
I confess, it took me some time to make this change. It wasn’t an overnight thing. But I did the research, and over time I made changes in how I lived and ate and I felt better and better as time went on. My ving tsun performance skyrocketed. For me, there’s no going back. It’s a win on all fronts.
These are my choices.
Everyone has to do what they feel is right and best for them.
So, this is my daily life these days. Lots of ving tsun practice and lots of general exercise. And lots and lots of plants to eat.
Hopefully, this lifestyle will keep me practicing and teaching the art I love and have been so fortunate to learn, well into my advanced years.
Hopefully, I’ve inspired you to be fit and healthy too. So you can practice more of whatever martial art you love, and to be the best you can be.
What is the driving force in my life? the art of Ving Tsun.
And like I said, I don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
And days off ? I take Sundays off. Sometimes. Occasionally. Okay, so a few times a month. Or a year… Okay, so almost never.
Thanks for reading.
See you in class.
In Ving Tsun we have Siu Nim Tau, the first form, which can be translated to Little Idea or Little Beginning. It’s from this first form, this little idea, that everything else in the system comes.
Every week Sifu Matt offers these blogs, these little ideas, as reflections from his practice to help support yours.
Thanks for reading
I’ve taken up photography.
My wife is a wonderful photographer and she’s showing me the ropes.
I’m not good at it just yet but I do my best and I’m having fun. And the fun? That feels like the most important part right now. I have this great Fuji X100 and I admit, I feel like a guy who’s got great car, a Ferrari, but doesn’t quite know how to drive it yet.
There’s f/stops, shutter speeds, “film” speeds. I do a lot of experimenting.
Then there’s this whole business of looking, of seeing.
It’s interesting learning what takes my eye, what makes me want to take a photo of something. To learn that and to learn about photography in general, feels a lot like the learning process of kung fu training. You must have what’s known as beginner’s mind, a concept from Zen practice. Beginner’s mind is a state of keeping the mind in a fresh, learning, open state. It’s about forgetting or putting down what you thought you knew about something.
This kind of mind can be applied to anything and everything.
With beginner’s mind, you cast away assumptions, prejudices, any preconceived ideas.You’re always in a place to take in new information. In Zen practice, it’s always a process of going back to beginner’s mind.
Beginner’s mind.
Students hear me say all the time that in order to be good at kung fu you must always go back.
Back to the start.
Back to the fundamentals.
You must also go back on the inside.
Do the inner work on yourself, on your ego. On all the mental things that will keep you from getting any better. You may have fear, anger, lack of confidence, a fragile sense of yourself or an overblown sense of yourself.
If you can’t go back into yourself to do this deep inner work, you will never get better at the physical techniques.
Unexamined internal life holds us back.
Our ego holds us back.
These character issues? Ditto.
Because that’s the process. Train the physical skill long enough to get good, then go back: back to the beginning or the basics, and back into yourself.
Going back is key. Those that do the inner work find themselves not only better at the techniques, but becoming a better people as well. And THAT is what martial arts training does best. It makes us better people. Better physically and mentally. Better members of society.
And now, I’m going back again. This time to learn photography. And I’m fine with that because I trust this process. I’m very curious and don’t know where photography will take me. Maybe I’ll be able to show my pictures some day. But that’s down the road. Right now, I’m enjoying the journey.
I’ve always enjoyed the process of going back. I’ve seen the results in my Ving Tsun and in my life. Ving Tsun teaches me something new every day. And it will teach you too if you’re listening and looking.
In Ving Tsun we have Siu Nim Tau, the first form, which can be translated to Little Idea or Little Beginning. It’s from this first form, this little idea, that everything else in the system comes.
Every week Sifu Matt offers these blogs, these little ideas, as reflections from his practice to help support yours.
Thanks for reading
February 3, 2019
photo by Hillary JohnsonRecently my wife got the job of taking photos of a remarkable man named Jack. He’s 91 years old and still plays tennis nearly every day. My wife needed an assistant but nobody was available so I went along.
This guy really impressed me. First of all, he didn’t look anything like 91. More like 61. Watching him play tennis was like watching any master. He made it all look easy. He moved across the court with the grace of a man who’s taken most of his life to master this game. I was blown right out of my shoes watching him.
We had lunch after the photo shoot, so I was able to sit and talk with him a bit. During our conversation he said something that’s stayed with me ever since. We were talking about the game of tennis and he said, “In tennis it’s all about keeping your eye on the ball You take your eye of the ball and the game’s over.”
Wow, I thought. Isn’t that true.
Later when I was sitting at the cafe having my usual cup of coffee before teaching my evening class, those words came back to me with such force I had to write them down in my journal to reflect on.
“Keep your eye on the ball.”
My dad used to say the exact same thing to me when he was trying to teach me how to hit a baseball. I was very young, maybe seven or eight years old. We stood together in the front yard, in the pools of shade of the giant red maple my dad had planted years before. I clutched a yellow plastic bat in my hands. He stood about six feet away and would toss the white wiffle ball to me underhanded. “Don’t take your eye off the ball,” he’d say as he tossed it. When I would miss it, I’d get frustrated. He’d say, “ Don’t get frustrated, that won’t help. You just have to keep your eye on the ball.”
So, it’s not like I hadn’t heard it before.
But this time, when Jack said it, it was different. It resonated deep within me. It occurred to me that this is something that applies not only to sports like tennis and baseball but to everything, to life itself.
Setting goals and having the discipline to go after them is one way of keeping your eye on the ball. Staying focused and not letting anything pull you off the path you’ve set for yourself is keeping your eye on the ball.
In kung fu practice, keeping your eye on the ball means making sure you make the time to practice most, if not all days of the week. It must be something you do every single day. Skill in kung fu is cumulative. It builds slowly over time with consistent practice. To have good skill, one must make it a daily routine. You must keep your eye on the ball. This is how you progress in Ving Tsun. And this is how you progress in all aspects of your life as well.
Because the way we do one thing, is the way we do all the things.
photo by Hillary Johnson
Are you looking for real self defense classes?
Do you wonder if you have what it takes to really be able to protect yourself if you had to?
Every week we add new short videos from class, showing students of all skill levels training. They also give you a pretty good idea of what the school is like.
Give them a watch and give us a call to arrange for a visit to the school.
Only action will lead you forward.
We are the only school in Chicago offering authentic, no boloney ving tsun in the lineage directly from Ip Ching in Hong Kong.
Being able to defend yourself takes practice and a complete, integrated system of martial art. That is what we offer here, all in an environment that is inclusive and supportive.
Come see for yourself.
In Ving Tsun we have Siu Nim Tau, the first form, which can be translated to Little Idea or Little Beginning. It’s from this first form, this little idea, that everything else in the system comes.
Every week Sifu Matt offers these blogs, these little ideas, as reflections from his practice to help support yours.
Thanks for reading
JANUARY 27
Iron is full of impurities that weaken it: Through the forging fire it becomes steel and is transformed into a razor sharp sword. Human beings develop in the same fashion.
– Morihei Ueshiba
Kung fu training is a transformative practice. Over time it it has a unique way of transforming our character. Not only have I seen this in many, many students, I’ve seen it in myself.
Through the time spent training and teaching, I’ve seen lazy people who used to give up easily, transformed into people with strong determination. They are no longer lazy. I’ve seen fearful people become more brave. People that lacked self confidence become strong, empowered, and confident.
The transformation that occurs takes place over time as a person practices; as the days turn to weeks, the weeks turn to months, and the months to years. The fire of training forges our spirits, our bodies and our minds, in the same way fire forges steel.
Training forces us to go onward to face ourselves: our fears, prejudices, anger, etc. It shows us where our triggers are and in this process, doing the inner work that’s necessary to grow and get better, not only as a martial artist, but as a person as well. This is how kung fu training enriches our lives and makes us better people.
So, when people ask me if I’ve ever used my kung fu, my answer is simple, “Yes,” I tell them, “I use it every day.”
Humberto, by day he works at UPS. The rest of the time, he trains ving tsun and keeps very close ties with his family.
Humberto is a senior student at the school. He’s been studying here since about 2011. Originally he came because he made a new year resolution to be more fit and because he’d seen the original Ip Man movie which really inspired him; seeing Ip Man being so focused and relaxed in so many really challenging situations.
After the film, he did his research and looked for ving tsun schools. After his first visit to the school, the atmosphere just felt right and he decided that this was the place.
What keeps Humberto going? He says that every day there is something new to learn; Maybe adding to something you already know but you add something new to the puzzle.
He says, “I enjoy training. I came here to learn to fight but in time that changed. Now I see that isn’t about fighting really its about having a humble soul, having inner strength.”
Today his main focus is helping beginners to come up in the system and to complete his own training. He says this helps him be better too. He says, “When you know something and you teach it to another person, it’s like you get to teach yourself twice, which always helps.”
The things he learned here transfer to the rest of his life. Accepting when things go wrong, he learned not to panic but learn there’s always some way to fix the situation, just like in training and chi sau.
Sifu Matt introduced him to meditation too and that was something he’s stayed with since day one because it makes a difference in his kung fu and in his normal, every day life.
Every year he renews his resolution to train for another year, to stay in shape, to defend himself if necessary. He really loves that Sifu Matt doesn’t hold back in the way he teaches him and everyone else. He always shows him the right way in training.
“I never thought I’d be helping out in teaching but when Sifu asked me to do it I said I would try my best and now I help others learn and advance in their own practice. Its an honor to help out like that.”
Glad to have you with us Humberto.
So, confession time, we are definitely stealing a line from the great David Mamet movie, “Red Belt,” which if you haven’t seen, we highly recommend. It’s a story about the struggles of a traditional martial artist to survive in the world which devalues tradition but who ultimately comes to prevail in the same way he teaches his students to prevail.
There’s a great scene in which the instructor is working with a woman who had been raped, teaching her how to successfully turn the knife on her attacker. He says to her, to affirm her status as a fighter not a victim, “It’s alright. There’s no one here but the fighters.”
photo by Hillary Johnson PhotographyThis is Matt Johnson, the teacher at the Ving Tsun Self Defense Academy. He first started studying a martial art at a very young age as a solution to intense bullying he experienced at school.
When he found ving tsun, finally, he felt all his questions had been answered in looking for an art that was complete and comprehensive. He discovered what all serious traditional martial artists eventually do, that the art would refine not only one’s ability to prevail physically against external threats but also refine the inner person to be gentler, calmer, more patient, disciplined and determined. He learned we can prevail against the inner and outer enemies.
The practice or path of ving tsun is a Way, in which the whole person comes to be cultivated, following a code of conduct and martial ethics which guides all aspects of behavior. The idea is to be a better person in the world. Be of service. Do no harm.
Many people think training in a martial art is first of all about the fist. And yes of course, there are very practical applications for all that self defense training but more important is the inner work. The fist is the way in, the beginning, not the final destination.
All students who walk through the door here are fighting a variety of battles in their every day lives. It’s part of who we are as human beings. Everyone has stuff going on; struggles of all kinds professionally, personally, spiritually.
Here at the VTSDA Sifu Matt works hard to teach ving tsun in a way that helps each student learn to prevail not only physically but in all these other areas of life too; to be able to deal with whatever comes along the way with more grace, grit, determination and resilience.
So here too, it’s alright. There’s no one here but the fighters.
We will introducing you to more of the students from the school in this series, we call, “No One Here but the Fighters.”
We hope you enjoyed reading this. If you did, please feel free to share. You can follow the school here and receive our blogs each time we publish, as well as on Facebook and Instagram.
Matt Johnson Ving Tsun/Chicago 