Interesting … a post about White Crane … by Keith no less … and I do White Crane … hmmm
The people in this vid are those of Sifu Lee Kong.
Snake-like? … sorry don’t see it myself.
Connection to Wing Chun? Maybe in a few cursory movements and appearance.
But we are not looking at the external rather in internal.
I’m not downplaying or missing anything. If one looks hard enough, I bet they can find technique & shape similarities to those found in wing chun in a lot of arts, some not even from southern China. But that doesn’t mean they have any connection to wing chun what-so-ever. My understanding of Wing Chun is that’s it isn’t defined by the techniques or shapes we see - it’s defined by it’s principle-based concepts that drive what we do. Since White Crane clearly doesn’t operate under these same ideas, seeing some similar techniques doesn’t really mean a whole lot, historically or otherwise.
But I guess those looking for what they want to see applies to forum posts as well… since you only cherry-picked a few ‘leaves’ in my post to reply too, you obviously missed the whole ‘tree’ (point), let alone the forest. Ahh well.
Agreed, sadly many will “tack on” a connection to suit their own purposes here … at least that’s what I am guessing from this post. Maybe an attempt to have a sly dig and also to back-up some of that which Hendrik has written … who knows the motivations and means of others.
Pretty much betting my post will also be cherry-picked to pieces too!!!
Wing Chun is Wing Chun, White Crane is White Crane. If only people would leave it at that then these arts would grow far more than they appear to have on this forum. Stop looking for a “magic bullet” or "Holy Grail’ … as Master Huang Xingxian use to say “Learn less, practice more”.
Training Baihequan develops the ability to bring a powerful surge of energy up from the ground, through the trunk and out of the extremities. This can speed
up development of jin (elastic-force) in students at an early stage of their practice. The reason is that training to produce the surge of energy up through the body does teach people to connect effectively to the ground, but that connection comes from a co-ordinated contraction of a chain of extensor muscles.
This hydraulic-like expansion, often accompanied by a spiral movement, can be used to hit or throw people efficiently and strongly and be used to absorb and return opponents energy.
How many people know that a stretching muscle is up to 10 times stronger than a contracting muscle? How many utilise or even understand the information that the force produced by a contracting muscle decreases with the increasing speed of the contraction while the force produced by a stretching muscle increases as the speed of stretching increases? Who can claim to train the White Crane in such a way that the jin passes rhythmically through the body in waves of stretching muscles and who, under the stress of an aggressive force, can be so internally relaxed that every muscle in their body elongates and actively stretches under the pressure, rather than contracts and shortens (or holds - unchanged) in a tense resistance? But these interesting questions barely touch on the matter. he basis of the White Crane is just this: jin is motivated by the Yi, energised by the Qi, issued from the Root and transmitted through the body in a wave of stretching muscles.
White Crane Gongfu works quietly on producing waves of movement through the body as a refinement of and a natural progression from the more commonly taught whole-body-moves * as-one co-ordination. "All fluids move in wavesand, “Forces pass through fluids by the production of waves”. the impulse to move beginning at the feet and the effects of inertia and momentum as this travels through the body. Thus, a light initial elastic-wave like movement of the body being followed by a potentially elastic-wave as the body settles on to ground and the outer momentum is absorbed. The forces are stronger within this second the distance and time of absorption is much smaller than corresponding factors during the initial impulse - so the forces proportionately greater. This second wave can also absorb the opponents, increasing its power even further.
It is usual for students to wish to control the process of their learning. If this is allowed then most will just choose those elements of the teaching which fit with their superficial idea of White Crane and themselves, protecting the superficial structure of their ego and inhibiting their deep inner contact. This is incorrect teaching and incorrect learning, the responsibility for it resting with the teacher, not the naive students. During that initial time the only hope for the students to escape themselves lies with following exactly what the system prescribes, rather than their own ‘bright ideas’.
Master Huang Xingxian taught that:
There are no hidden secrets in White Crane - just things too small to be readily seen by those not looking"
The last set performed in the video (starting at 8:15) is like Southern Crane’s predecessor of the Wing Chun SLT form set. Not the usual awkwardness in appearance although visual WingChun is just as awkward looking in light of many other kungfu styles. If this is , in fact a TCMA White Crane set, which I wouldn’t doubt, then I have to agree with Keith, only without any stylized snake form present. Interesting, considering the Shaolin “Snake” temple right in White Crane City. Monkey style from Mt. Emei is what is mixed with Crane style to originate most WingChun styles. By the time it arrived in Foshan though, most of the monkeyness had disappeared from the forms, leaving, essentially a mix of crane and some of the other popular Southern styles. More or less.