Best Qualities for Grand Master Yip Man - Part 1
My First Meeting
When I first met Sifu Greg Choi, he spoke about how lucky we were to have met at this point in time. Firstly, at that time I was much younger with much more vitality to train very hard. I was also old enough to have intelligence and maturity to understand the teachings. On Greg's side, he was old enough to have accumulated a lot of years of experience, whilst still not too old, so he could still demonstrate the techniques.
This is very practical and makes a lot of sense, because if you look at some of the old footage of Grand Master Yip Man, some of the later footage shows how old and frail he really looked. After all, he did die a few weeks after the last videos of him were taken. So students who learnt from or copied the Grand Master at that time, were mimicking a weaker version of the man Sifu Greg had met and trained with almost a decade prior to the footage.
It is something to keep in mind when watching the footage, and I am not implying anything is wrong, but just suggesting it is an interesting idea how he would have looked on video 5, 10, 20, or 30 years prior or exactly the year of his prime.
Qualities of a Great Student
Anyway, along with the above conversation, Greg also mentioned to me qualities a student must possess before Grand Master Yip Man would even consider teaching you. After all, as he got older he also got wiser, and wouldn't waste his breath on the wrong type of student.
So if you want to be great at Wing Chun, then listen up. Because you need these traits to succeed.
1. You must have time to train
Let's face it. If you don't train, you don't improve. Enough said.
2. You must have luck
The story I explained above is about luck. It was a lucky time for me to meet Greg, as he taught me an immense amount about Wing Chun and Qi Gong. Without his first hand teaching, I definitely wouldn't have improved so quickly.
3. You must have patience
No need to keep pestering the Sifu for something new. Practice what you have got. Perfect it. As an example, check out some stories of Bruce Lee. He wasn't interested in learning anything new until he had mastered what he already had been taught. Study on this.
4. You must be interested in it
You all know the saying to do what you love. It makes perfect sense that when you love something, you are open to it, you never get sick of it, and you always want more. If you do not feel this way about Wing Chun or Qi Gong then don't worry. Try something else.
5. You must have enough intelligence
Wing Chun Qi Gong requires the intelligence to understand what the Sifu is teaching you. If you do not have the IQ to comprehend the message, then it will be impossible for you to practice properly, and hence you will never master the technique.
Upvoting
If you like this post, or this post has helped you in anyway, please upvote so that more people can learn about Wing Chun Qi Gong.
Sincerely,
Sifu Jordan
(Don't Worry, Relax, Be Happy, Concentrate and Do Your Best)