.... so .....hard....not.... to ...get ....drawn in......
Cant do it.
What makes you think YM didn't give CST any details?
Watch the above interview. CST never said he wasn't taught details. He questioned the meaning of SNT. He was encouraged to believe and train. He was relentless in his training.
CST lived with YM for 5 years and was one of the four first generation students that reached a high level. Most of the YM photos and antiques at the wing chun athletic association were donated by CST.
CST frequently attended Beimo fights together with WSL and Lok Yu. They would go together. CST recalls many times he went with WSL to fight. All of them would. He tells a good story of one time when they all went to fight. WSL won his fight easily and Lok Yu got beaten badly on this occasion. CST won his fight against a much bigger opponent. WSL was just way more active in fighting than others.
CST later years he changed his teaching approach. This is to be expected when one reaches a high level. All YM sifus will have taken there own direction. YM included. This can't be avoided. It is naive to think so.
Only two people were teaching YM's third generation students; CST and WSL. THere is no need to compare these two great masters who were great friends right up until the moment WSL died. They toured in Europe together. And one of CST most well known students who opened a huge chain of schools in Australia (Jim Fung) had WSL visit his schools several times for seminars.
YM used CST to demonstrate force concepts on other students and encouraged them to follow his example. YM was also quoted in a chinese newspaper as saying that CST had surpassed his skill. He said the same thing of HKM. I don't put much stock in things like this. I have heard of YM saying this about at least one other person. So it is apparent to me that YM was quite humble and openly praised his students in this way.
Regarding WSL's temperament. We can make some assumptions about what kind of person he was. He came in fighting from the get go and was active in Beimo throughout his training. To me this paints a certain picture of quite an aggressive and confident person. He would have been very outspoken and it is clear that he had huge influence in YM's school. He would have taken that aggressive approach to his wing chun and chi sao and his wing chun would have gone in that direction. This sort of personality profile doesn't strike me as someone who would be a cookie cutter follower of anyone. There is the famous story of him fighting a another kung fu stylist where he kneed the guy in the head. The other guy questioned whether this was real kungfu and he responded by saying his knee was close to his head and was the best thing to use. WSL would have taken that attitude with wing chun, discarding what he deemed useless.
While WSL had a really good take on fighting and application. He is missing some of the force generation concepts found in other YM teachers. CST had amazing force and power. He didn't make it up. He was taught this by YM. There have been a lot of people who got to meet WSL who were students of other YM sifus who found some of this power and force stuff missing from his chi sao. Nothing wrong with this. WSL had at least some force and structure. He probably figured that only a certain amount was required for actual fighting. That might be a fair assertion .... who knows.
But thanks for the info. That was very interesting.
