The “Little Idea Form – Siu Lim Tao”

This article talks about the main ideas contained in the first form of Wing Chun. This form is called the “Little Idea form” or “Siu Lim Tao or “Siu Nim Tao” in Cantonese.

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PART 1 – THE FOUNDATION

1.      STANCE

Triangle shape like a pyramid. Bend the knees. Be able to stand in a lowered stance for 20 minutes.

2.      CENTER

Cross hands down and up to define the center line. These movements also have a fighting use.

3.      PUNCH

Straight mid-level punch – hit the punching bag everyday! Develop the inch punch.

4.      ELBOW

Elbow in for protection and for economy of movement. Don’t have flying elbows!

 PART 2 – POWER DEVELOPMENT

5.      POWER

Relaxed “Wet Noode” power in all techniques. Stiff actions are weak and slow. There are 13 actions here.

 PART 3 – 4 QUADRANT DEFENSE

6.      UPPER DEFENSE

Pak sau and Tan sau defend the upper gates.

7.      MIDDLE DEFENSE

Tan sau, Huen sau and lower hit to ribs.

8.      CHANGE

Change between Tan sau and Bong sau according to the direction of the force. When stuck change. If the hands are stuck then move the body.

9.      LOWER DEFENSE

Gan sau defends the lower gates. Chinese martial artists often hit low.

10.   CONTINUOUS ATTACK

Wing Chun emphasizes continuous strikes with a variety of techniques. The idea is not to win with 100 chain punches. This is inefficient and does not work. Chain punching is good to train the muscles of the back and the triceps.

 Train this form every single day or else no progress will be made.

Above is one of my versions of the form. We were asked to do the form in less than a minute for as Chinese New Year show so I was practicing a quicker version. The slow version of the form can take 30 minutes to do and nobody likes to watch that. Totally boring. Wing Chun is not an art for nice looking forms. My form characteristics has changed over the years. This is my version at age 74.