Internal Wing Chun? What exactly is internal Wing Chun? I first started my Wing Chun studies in 1993 with Sifu Colin Ward of the Ip Chun lineage. It wasn’t until years later that I met Sifu Daniel Parr from the lineage of Shu Shong Tin. As it happened, I had actually met Shu Shong Tin years earlier through a meeting organised by my then Sifu in Leeds, UK. Here’s a picture from the meeting.
I recall being slightly confused at this particular meeting because we were being shown an alternative use of the bong sau. Previously we used the bong sau (wing arm position) to draw in an attack in and counter. But in this seminar, we were being shown the bong sau being used more forcefully. When I say forcefully, it was actually relaxed, but strong. I couldn’t replicate this and after the seminar we continued training as before, so I largely forgot about it.
Internal Wing Chun – What Is It?
Internal obviously refers to something happening on the inside. As I have come to understand internal Wing Chun, since training with Sifu Daniel Parr, it has a different focus than my previous Wing Chun training. My previous understanding, although soft, didn’t have the underlying power which Sifu Parr can demonstrate.
This internal part of Wing Chun is something I later learned was something which Shu Shong Ting had deliberately taught in his later life, having noticed it was missing in his students.
Nim Lik – Internal Power/Mind Power
In this video Sifu Nima King asks questions about the topic of “Nim Lik” or mind power and chi.
This video also shows the same movements (bong sau), I was being shown in the seminar I mentioned earlier.
The internal aspect of Wing Chun is something which eluded me for years into my practice. It wasn’t until I began training with a Shu Shong Tin student, who specifically concentrated on this aspect of the system, that I began to understand it. Sifu Daniel Parr has a class in Sheffield, UK. From the hands on practice and patience of his instructors, I started seeing Wing Chun slightly differently.
What I found most useful was the testing – instructors placed their hand in the way of your arm. To move it with nim lik (mind power) required you to relax your muscles. This was counter intuitive because when an obstacle is in the way, you want to power up your arm muscles to push past it. However, this is a limited use of power. As I learned, by consciously relaxing the muscles while using nim lik, I could create more power and with less effort!
I had previously been told about relaxation. It was a large part of chi sau and first form (Siu Lim Tao) with my previous Sifu. But I had not developed nim lik (mind power) because this part of the system was not understood.
Shu Shong Tin Altered His Training
Chu Shong Tin (CST) changed his training and teaching methods over his 60-year career to focus almost exclusively on “Nim Tao” (internal mind/intent force). He moved away from traditional, external, and physically intense Wing Chun training. This shift was driven by a desire to teach the method of developing internal power that he discovered under Ip Man, and through his understanding of Siu Nim Tao (Siu Lim Tao).
He realised that the internal aspect was missing from his student’s understanding.
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