HAR CH’UAN
CHAPTER FIVE
I said earlier that Long Har Ch’uan is where we learn to forget about
technique and take all that we have learnt and put it inside. This is
where our technique becomes subconscious so that our body and
mind can work as one unit. This method must not be taken for actual
fighting technique because then it becomes just that, another technique
to learn. We must treat this as a training device to teach us
something. Some of these techniques could very well be used as
fighting techniques but we prefer them to become sub-conscious reactions
rather than a planned line of defense.
This is the hardest of all areas for people to learn, especially those
who have studied another ‘external’ martial art. The most common
questions asked by students from other schools ii. “What If!" We
call these “what if” brigade. I always invite new students to DO
WHAT IF and see what happens, then they say “But you did something
completely different!” Then I explain that the techniques that
they are teaming must not be taken as strict rule, they are only training
devices. Devices that teach us to change our tine of defense automatically
as the fighting situation changes. ‘No Form’ means that
we change to suit the form of the attacker; this is what is meant by
‘sticking to and not letting go’ from the classics.