Wing Chun is not a style. It is a System of Principles that can enhance any art.
Wang Kiu
The title of this post is a quote for Wang Kiu, a student of Ip Man’s and Herbert Maier’s teacher.
Maier’s book Bai Sao: Wing Chun’s Taproot is not an easy read. In fact, although I bought it back in 2007, I only finished it this weekend. I’m afraid its pretty dry and academic.
But at its heart, it has some very valuable ideas which I think deserve to be heard.
This is the only place I have ever heard about “BaiSao.” Maier says it is a “little exercise” which his teacher Wang Kiu called a “demonstration hand.” The book was worth its price just for the insight or new perspective of this simple demo.
The hands are placed like so:
As Wang Kiu said, “I have two hands, you have two hands. One hand is outside, one hand is inside. Where else will you find so many options?”
