Master Tse’s Wing Chun Notes #77

Hoi Ma 開馬

Everything we do in Wing Chun starts with Hoi Ma opening our stance. In all Chinese studies whether it is calligraphy, cooking, reading or even eating, our posture and attitude is very important. A good posture will create a good internal energy and so a good circulation. Then we can relax and our mind will be clear and so our thinking will be good. Also, everything starts from nothing Wuji and creates something – Taiji 無極生太極.

We start our forms with our back straight and our legs closed together. With the back straight the mind will be clear and with the legs straight our spirit will raise up. This is a good beginning. Then we bend our knees so that they do not go over the tips of our toes. This places our weight on our legs and allows us to relax our upper body. We then place our fists either side of our chest and this means we use our hands at this level, which is the Wing Chun fighting area. We then open the toes 45 degrees, which is half of the stance opening. We then continue to open with the heels and finish with them further out than the toes. We must not open them too much otherwise we will create too much tension and stiffness in the knees. This creates a triangular stance and the distance between the heels is the same width as your shoulders.

This is the Wing Chun stance Yee Zi Kim Yeung Ma 二字鉗羊馬 and we must make sure all the joints are loose and the back is straight.

Michael Tse