The Wing Chun of private Ip Man student Chow Lok Ji 1976

Comments From Patrick Chow - 1976

By Ray Van Raamsdonk

Patrick Chow was a slimly built individual who was a private student of the late Grandmaster Yip Man. His family was wealthy so he could afford the fees. When I met him, he was teaching various people with eight to ten years of martial arts in different styles like boxing, Hung Gar, Choy Lee Fut, Tai Chi and others. He asked people to come up and try anything they liked on him. What impressed me was that he handled the attacks in a very controlled manner without relying on speed or strength. He was very, very relaxed and supple in his actions. He said that Wing Chun was small circle Kung Fu. He said other Kung Fu systems also have many of the techniques, but teach them at a much later stage. He said Wing Chun just disposed of the big movements. In 1976 Patrick Chow charged $50/month which was more than double what anyone else charged. He had no intention of teaching the complete Wing Chun system. He said, "None of what any of you learned will work on me." I will teach you just a bit of Wing Chun but I guarantee it will improve your skill. Because of Patrick's skill level, everyone thought it was worthwhile.

For quite a few months, practice consisted of getting into the Wing Chun pigeon-toed stance or goat-restraining stance. Then students would slowly (very slowly) bring the Tan sau out, do a Heun sau, and slowly bring it back. Then do the same with the Fook sau. We did this for one hour straight each class. I didn't know why at the time. All I knew was that Patrick was incredibly relaxed. He had very short range powerful hits and he always outmaneuvered everyone else. He never hurt one person in a fight. For seven months straight, we only learned part one of the "Siu Lim Tao" form plus some applications.

Here are just a few of the things he said:

To be good you should do daily sticking hands practice.

Keep the elbow in. This determines the circle size.

In Wing Chun we never take the hand back to hit.

Never put the head and knee forward like other styles. If you do, you will certainly get hit.

Step right in the center of the opponent's legs, then hit.

Always protect your center.

Attack the opponent's center. Punch at the nose. Always face the opponent.

The stance must be very active or mobile. Yet at the same time it must be very rooted.

Either foot from the pigeon-toed stance can kick.

Always use a straight line attack. A straight line attack is the shortest distance between two points.

Wait for the opponent's movement. When it comes then counterattack at the very same time. Never block, just counterattack.

The stepping punch determines success in Wing Chun. It is just like an arrow shooting from a bow.

In the old days, sticking hands were not that important. (Note: Patrick was quite good at it though.)

In Wing Chun you go to the next step only after you have mastered the previous step.

The first part of the "Siu Lim Tao" is the door to the Wing Chun system. It represents one quarter of the whole system. I had to practice this part for two and a half years before I got taught anything else.

If you practice nothing else, then practice 500 double punches every single day.

If an opponent from the side surprises you, then turn and do a double punch.

The top punch is as high as your nose. Even if you do not hit the opponent, at least you protect your own nose.

In an engagement with a Korean kicker, the kick came fast but my Gum sau to his kneecap almost shattered it.

Against a very quick jab that someone threw, Patrick applied a light Pak sau to the outside of the arm and then punched the nose with the same hand.

Against a kick to the knee, Patrick was very quick to sidestep and simultaneously kicked the opponent's rear leg.

Patrick's students in Hong Kong specialized in different things. One was good at clawing techniques, one was good at the use of the palm, and one was very good in his Wing Chun kicking skill.

Yip Man was better in kicking than with his hands. His fellow students were much better with their hands.

Patrick suggested hitting the sand bag for one year. No more than this or you may develop arthritis. Patrick thought this killed Bruce Lee, because your body is just like a machine which wears out if you over train. The sand bag at first has peas or rice in it, then it is filled with sand, then it is filled with small BB-sized steel or iron balls.

Patrick said other styles have the defect of having their knee and head forward and their elbow out.

When I asked Patrick if it is good to practice a few different styles at once, Patrick said if you practice one day with the elbow out and the next with the elbow in, what will you use in the real fight when you have no time to think? You will lose the fight because your mind will hesitate. You use what you practice, so you have to make up your mind what you want to practice.

The wooden dummy is trained for two solid years. After that you will have the required skill and you can sell it. The wooden dummy should be the size of the practitioner.

Practice the slow Tan sau exercise to build up your forward flowing energy.

After the Bong sau deflection, you can do a palm up hit.

Practice at home can consist of practicing the first form very slowly, practice double punches, chain punches, turning the stance right and left with the elbow parallel to the floor, stepping with the punch (same hand and foot forward), elbow and palm practice on the sand bag. Everyday do Chi sau.

A bean barrel exercise is to drive the poking hand in (biu sau), then twist and claw at the bottom and pull the hand out.

90% of the Hong Kong police who train in martial arts, now train in Wing Chun. For bodyguards it is almost mandatory to know Wing Chun.

The second best Kung Fu system is the Bak Mei or White Eyebrow style. (Patrick felt they curved the chest in too much.)

A very famous Bak Mei master in Hong Kong just died from overtraining. All of a sudden he just spit up blood. So be careful in your training.

Patrick practiced hitting nerve points on the side of the opponent's punching hand using the middle knuckle of the index finger. It made the whole hand go numb.

Against very tall opponent's, Patrick sometimes resorted to a jumping, whipping uppercut to the throat. It is mostly used without the jump however.

In the single sticking hands, modern students use the Bong sau. Older generation students used the Tan sau to stay inside of the opponent.

Move the feet to get into an advantageous position.

After the single sticking hands, use a lot of force to hit your partner. Later also use the feet to step in and really try to hit.

Patrick felt that Tai Chi was too soft and Hung style was too hard.

The use of the Wing Chun knife is the same as using the hands. A spear can be trapped between the blades.

Wing Chun is a ladies style. You can't expect a lady to develop the same force as a large man. Many Wing Chun practitioners use too much force.

Many Wing Chun practitioners use the wrong arm angle. Their Tan sau is too steep. This means it can be pushed up. Some also have the Tan sau too low. This means you can punch over the top.

Someone threw a quick uppercut at Patrick and he used a double palm technique which resulted in the uppercut punch hitting that person's own face.

In the first form, the teacher can test the Wu sau coming back by hitting it at any time. If the student is too stiff or not concentrating, his whole body will move or his Wu sau will collapse.

Wing Chun people often grab the back of the head to force it forward, then hit the head.

The Huen sau can be used to escape a grab.

You can change the Huen sau into a side hit. But if you are countered with a high fist, you can use the Tie sau (lifting hand) to counter and hit the opponent's head.

For tournament fighting, conditioning is performed everyday by lightly hitting the student so that his resistance builds up. This works because each new generation of cells will become stronger when it replaces the old cells. The new cells are better able to withstand shocks.

Yip Man went to the Hong Kong police station to show them Wing Chun. He showed them part of the Siu Lim Tao. They all laughed at this display and said, "That's not a martial art!" Then Yip Man sat down on a chair and asked various people to attack him. They all failed and then they switched to learning Wing Chun.

Wing Chun initially got established in Hong Kong by knocking on various gym doors and challenging the instructors. The Wing Chun challengers usually won, thus attracting all the students.

[Yim] Wing Chun was quite a tall lady.

Don't punch, but throw the punch.

Two straight punches will handle a hooking punch. Hit straight to the nose, then hit to the eye area with the other hand. Other good alternatives are to use the elbow or use kicking.

Against a front bear hug, you can cave in the chest and thus create enough room to punch.

Wing Chun can handle Thai fighting but you have to train in the proper way first. People with a good fighting spirit can do the job. Many Wing Chun people don't train hard enough and hence will fail. Patrick said North American's are more strongly built and should be very good Wing Chun tournament fighters against other styles. A lot of money can be made in Thailand if you have a good fighter.

Hi Ray Van Raamsdonk, Can you share some stories from your time training with Patrick Chow. Also what was the most important technical aspect or concept of Wing Chun that you learnt from him?

Ray Van Raamsdonk Patrick Chow was a very a real gentleman. He never used excessive force or strength or speed to defeat me. He was like a chess master. He was in Vancouver because he did export and import with China. But he was just there for a short period of time 2 years. He first taught at a community college. One day when he was not present at class but one of his senior students was there, two Choy Lee Fut people came to his class to challenge whoever was there. They came up to the senior student and said, show me your girl hands, as an insult. Then immediately the person saying that came with a typical fast and strong swing to the teacher's neck to take him out. All the southern styles do this. But the Wing Chun guy already sensed their evil intentions. In Hong Kong there always was a rivalry between these two arts that started when Ip Man arrived in Hong Kong. As soon as the looping hook came in the senior student just did a right and left punch immediately to the eye of the attacker to stun him and send him back. The Choy Lee Fut people in Vancouver in the 1970's were pretty good strong fighters with some belonging to the underworld. After that incident the Choy Lee Fut people didn't bother Patrick Chow and his group anymore. Patrick himself said he would have elbowed the guy in stead. Patrick was very good with short range elbows.

Ray Van Raamsdonk Patrick really emphasized training the slow part of the first form for at least six months. We would be in our stance for one hour and just the Tan sau and Fook sau slowly coming out and in. He said that represented 1/4 of the Wing Chun system. In Chi sau he said he didn't use the Bong sau too much with Ip Man. He just used the inside Tan sau instead. At the time I didn't know why we did that but later understood it was to train a very strong rooted stance (which many people these days don't have or pay attention to in lieu of just fast hands). Then it trained to mind to be calm so was like a Chi Gong training. Then it trained always to have a forward energy toward the opponent, without excessive force. Then it trained the relax and tense part. Wing Chun quickly can change states between relax and tense where tense is for the attack and relax while maintaining the structure/position/arm angles for the defense. With the slightest drift of my force or slightest deviation off the centerline, I would be hit. So his sensitivity for that open center or crossed center kind of mistake was very good. Patrick said some Japanese guy he met during his export import business with Japan attacked him with a snap front kick but he was quick enough with the downward pressing hand and turn, like in end of the second form to injure the guys knee cap. He said the guy could not kick after that. When I tried to kick Patrick once, he was very good with his third form kind of circling footwork to instantly kick my back supporting leg. He said Ip Man was better at kicking than his fellow students but in his group classes in Hong Kong he tended not to teach that. He also said that Ip Man would stand by the door and invite people to try to bypass his kicking which they could not. He also handled someone's fast western boxing jab with just a simple Pak sau immediately followed by a hit to the guys nose. When I tried to hit him with my Hung style uppercut hit that Hung stylists are famous for, he applied a frontal pressing hand to knock it into my face. he uppercut is strong upwards but from the front it can be pushed into your face. He did that to me. so that was great. I always remember that. So in every way he was a super nice guy but were ggod technically with his wing Chun. He has a very relaxed sticking kind of felling and didn't offer me any stiffness to work with. He always was in a good stance but he was also always very mobilt in distance fighting. He said Wing Chun should be a very mobile art but at first you are stationary to gain confidence in the case that you cannot move or are crowded or in a crowded space.

Ray Van Raamsdonk I guess his art was very simple. I noticed that of all the first generation students of Ip Man. But simplicity takes a long time to develop. Wing Chun is all about trying to get the complexity out of fighting to gain a speed advantage. Mixing MMA with Wing Chun and mixing all kinds of other stuff into Wing Chun, he said is not good. He said various arts conflict with the Wing Chun ideas. So if one day your elbows are out and the next they are in, then what do you do in a real fight? If you jump around like a boxer or MMA stylist then when you do your Wing Chun, you will be a jumpy kind of fighter as opposed to a military type. The military doesn't train you to jump around. A Pit Bull dog also doesn't fight that way. It just goes in for the kill. In Hong Kong the gangsters used Wing Chun to take out people. The body guards also used it and had no time to fool around or to do 10 chain punches like Donnie Yen in the movies. That is not efficient because your brain gets caught up in the cycle to finish those 10 punches and in the mean time some hit can get you.

Ray Van Raamsdonk Now people don't think the forms are valuable and just want to get on with the fighting art. It works fine that way against average Joe Blow people but against people who can fight, you will be in big trouble.