Master Tse’s Wing Chun Notes #17

Ging 勁

Ging 勁means power. This Chinese character is made up of three parts:

Field, Work, Strength

 

 

 

 

So all together, these characters mean “working in a field with strength”. Traditionally, Chinese people were farmers and so they had to work in their fields in order to provide for themselves. However, they could not just use force otherwise they would be exhausted. Instead they had to use skilful force. Therefore Ging means force or power with skill. This means it can be fast, slow, hard and soft. In order to develop Ging well, we must develop the body so it can change position, strength, speed and direction easily. It means that the whole body must be connected together efficiently from the head all the way to the toes and from the fingers to the heels. When we use Ging, everything must respond quickly whatever movement we do. So it means the entire body’s Qi must flow very well.

Wing Chun Stance TrainingIf the Qi flows in good condition then it means all of the body functions well. So then we can use power from any position and angle and that power will connect to the whole body, not just the fist or arm. In order to create more power, then we need to make sure our stance is good. A strong stance will create powerful Ging. However, for our stance to be strong, our bones need to be strong. That is why all traditional Chinese martial arts train the stance and legs.

In Wing Chun we train our stance through Siu Lim Tao小念頭. There is many ways to use Ging but the power always comes from strong bones. Ging is internal and comes from inside the body. So we call it Nei Jing 內勁. When we refer to internal power training, we call it Nei Gong 內功. In the first part of Siu Lim Tao first we train Nei Gong.

Michael Tse

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