Paradigm Shift: From 2-dimensional Direction Dichotomies to 3-dimensional Angular Degrees
To attain the level of internal martial arts, paradigm shift is mandatory. And it is equally true in life pursuing the good.
One of my students asks: “I am right-handed. Supposedly the difference between movements by my right and left should be great, in terms of power and smoothness. However, during Wing Chun practice, I didn’t feel the difference that great at all! I remember you mentioned something similar before. Is that related to the way Wing Chun generates power?”
I recall an episode. Once I asked my Sifu (Grandmaster Chu Shong Tin), when he delivered a punch, would his right punch be more powerful than his left punch, since he was right-handed and thus the right mechanism was supposedly stronger. He said, no, the same; to him, no difference.
This is somehow counterintuitive to our normal experience. I try to offer an explanation.
Muscle Memory Leads to 2-dimensional Direction Dichotomy
Let’s assume that before taking on Wing Chun practice, you solely rely on muscular contraction to generate power for delivering a punch. Being right-handed (or left-handed), the muscles on the right side are more involved in giving out the strength (let’s accept this assumption for the sake of simplicity). That means they are more attuned and more reflexive than their counterparts on the left side. Or simply said, better muscle memory in them.
If you want your left punch as powerful as the right, you’ll certainly have to dedicate separate training to the left muscles; that is, to instill the same memory in them. We may say, movements based on muscular contraction adopts the paradigm of direction dichotomy (left/right, up/down, front/back, etc.) — a change in direction to the opposite in a dichotomy demands instilling new muscle memory into the related, different muscles.
Joint-rotating Leads to 3-dimensional Angular Space
In the Wing Chun way, movements are initiated by joint-rotating. To a joint, which connects the end of a supporting bone to the head of a leading bone (mechanism made simplistic here), the paradigm of direction dichotomy doesn’t apply. The joint rotates the leading bone to a position now described by the degree of angle in the 3-dimensional space. To it, there is only difference in angular degree (extent), no need to specify a direction (within opposites) beforehand.
In a punch, the central skeletal part initiates the movement, up to the shoulder joint, to the elbow joint, to the wrist joint, and finally onto the fist structure. You can imagine, whether it is a right or left punch, the initiation is the same. Actually, it happens at the same time to both sides, as obviously seen in continuous punching: when the central rotates the right shoulder joint at an angular degree (seen as “forward”), it effectively rotates the left shoulder joint at another angular degree altogether (seen as “backward”). There’s no need for joints (the skeleton) to memorise.
Then, the softened muscles go along the “direction” (a stream of positions in the 3-dimensional space) set by the joints, adding their momentum to result in solid power so delivered. No muscle memory on where to contract is necessary.
Paradigm Shift in Life
A paradigm shift is a change on the foundational level — something fundamental and elemental must be replaced. In this case, our normal sense of direction opposites in the 2-dimensional space becomes irrelevant and is replaced by the sense of angular continuum in the 3-dimensional space, as realised in the muscular initiation replaced by joint-rotating initiation in the physical.
Changes brought by a paradigm shift are, however, enormous. You don’t need to alter shapes one by one, nor moves one by one, nor forms one by one; they will re-develop “naturally” upon the new paradigm foundation. This is amazing!
Should we then not yearn for some paradigm shifts in other realms of our life so that changes towards the good can become enormous, not piecemeal, and new qualities can re-develop “naturally”, albeit a hard process?
