It is not the first time I said it but here it is again. One of the key lessons from the practice of 6-Blocks is to learn how to put the Ancient Bell Body principle from Grandmaster Wei Shuren’s Yang style Tai Chi into actual practice.

It took an empty MILO bottle for Paul to finalize “see” this point years after he first learned the exercise.

The thing about learning is you have to practice. If you are good at observation, like have a good eye that can spot differences, then you can make the learning journey on your own. If not, then you should rethink how you learn.

When you practice there are two aspects to the practice. One is your practice leads to improvement such as your ability to remember the sequence and perform it smoothly. The second aspect is that you pick up unintended habits, habits that will hamper your ability to progress further as you move down the road.

So you practice and you practice on your own. You check your own progress. You think you got it. Time passes. However, you still fail to have insights.

Why is this so? Part of the reason is that you did not practice enough to generate questions, generate doubts as to what you are doing. You need to practice and then find yourself asking, wait how does this transition to that. How do I actually change here? What am I missing? Should it be this way or that way?

When you have questions then you investigate and try to find answers, then put them to practice and see if this resolves your doubts. If it does not, then you repeat the process.

The easier way is to practice and ask your teacher questions. That’s what I used to do but I don’t ask shallow questions cause that would indicate that you did not practice as much, and just want the easy way out. The questions you ask will tell the teacher if you really did practice.

Some teachers will give you clear cut answers. Some will give you vague answers and make you work for the information. Yet some teachers will tell you to steal the information, meaning watch and observe, then put together your own practice, test your understanding, analyse what you know, watch again, practice again, and keep on doing until you finally succeed in acquiring the secrets.

You may not think it but time flies by quickly. The practice of 6-Blocks is not meant to be a practice of years or decades, but of weeks. If self-defence material takes too long to be mastered, then it is basically useless to the person learning it.

Why did it take Paul years to see the point about Ancient Bell Body? A visual examination of his performance gave an indication.

The practice of 6-Blocks is not just about moving the arms. Instead, it is about moving the arms, getting the body involved, the timing and coordination of the arms relative to the body, the physical angles being controlled and the mental angles under surveillance, how to change from one block to the next, where the actual openings are, how the opening can be closed in an instant, how the blocks can be an attack and how a block can morphed into an attack in the timing of one count.

Seeing Paul’s performance I decided that its time to go back to basics, the very first step. Still, a study of solo movement is just that – moving in relation to nothing. Something had to be done about the nothing. This is where the MILO bottle came in.

The one thing I wanted to highlight is the flow of 6-Blocks. The second is when do we change from one block to another block. So while holding an empty MILO bottle I had this idea, thought about it, and the next day made a short video.

I send Paul the video and he caught on to the insight about the connection to Ancient Bell Body. Now the only real question is – now that Paul knows it will he be able to improve his performance and infuse it with the nuances that should be in attendance during the movements.

Practice. Analyse. Check. Practice.

And just like that it is now the 2nd day of 2026.

2025 has come and gone. And so where are you today after the last 365 days in 2025? Did you make any progress? Did you learn anything new?

Time is a flow. Once time flows by you it is no longer coming back. Before you hit the age of 50 you look to the future. Past 50, we tend to begin the countdown to the unknown expiry date. So whatever you want to do, want to learn, want to master, know that time will not wait for you.

Did you make a resolution at the end of 2025? Were you able to fulfil the resolution of the year before? It is easy to make resolutions today that we soon forget tomorrow.

I once had an art teacher, Mr Lee. He was so “famous” that before I was transferred to his school my fellow students opted to take double mathematics or science subjects rather than study art.

In our first class Mr Lee laid down one rule – if we fail to submit a homework do not make excuses, just admit that we did not do it. And sure enough, soon enough, a student also by the family name of Lee (no relation to Mr Lee the art teacher) was not able to hand in his homework. Student Lee started to give an excuse, only to be cut short by Mr Lee who reminded him not to give excuses.

So there you go, you can make excuses for not practicing, not learning but in the end if you did not do it, you did not do it and end up where you are a year ago.

In learning the easiest rules to observe are :-

1) Practice daily
2) Strive for improvement
3) Study carefully what you are doing

The above are governed by your attitude and aptitude towards learning. As long as you do not get caught in mind traps of your own making you will be fine.

There is a new book that was released in the 4th quarter of 2025 entitled Water Mirror Echo : Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America. The journey of Bruce Lee’s learning of Wing Chun and how he subsequently evolved to JKD is a timely reminder of how we can learn more effectively. I have read about Bruce Lee’s learning in other books but this book fleshes it out better, maybe its because the author was able to access the source material.

Your learning is your journey. How you choose to make that journey will determine the subsequent outcome.

I would have written more except I am working to revamp a work website.

So onwards 2026 and don’t let time slip by you again.

Its time to check Paul’s learning progress. If he has been practicing regularly there won’t be a need to prepare for this. Just do it on the fly, setup the phone and hit record.

Perform 5 sets of the sequences below. The 1st set is like a trial run to get into the flow, the 2nd and 3rd go at a smooth even pace, and the last two sets the timing can vary if you are visualizing an application, or demonstrating control of space and lines, even as you are using power.

6-Blocks one after another
Step forward with right leg, perform single right hand 6-Blocks.
Then step forward with left leg, perform single left hand 6-blocks.
This is Set-1, repeat for 4 more sets.

6-Blocks in Sequence
Step forward with right leg, perform single right hand 6-Blocks 5 times in a row.
Then step forward with left leg, perform single left hand 6-blocks 5 times in a row.
That’s it.

6-LH, 3-WS, 3-NS one after another
Step forward with right leg, perform single right hand 6-LH.
Repeat for the left side.
Next step forward with right leg, perform single right hand 3-WS.
Repeat for left side.
Finally, step forward with right leg, perform single right hand 3-NS.
Repeat for left side.
Repeat above for 4 more sets.

6-LH, 3-WS, 3-NS in one sequence
Step forward with right leg, perform single right hand 6-LH, followed by 3-WS and 3-NS.
Repeat for the left side.
Repeat above for 4 more sets.

6-ES
Step forward with right leg, perform 6-ES.
After ending right 6-ES your left leg will be forward; now perform left 6-ES
Repeat 4 more times.

That’s it. In future progress check we will examine the 2-handed versions of 6-Blocks, 6-LH, 3-WS and 3-NS. We may also look at the long pole.

Do you want to be soft?

Or do you want to be hard?

Or somewhere in between?

And no, this is not a post about erectile dysfunction…………..

Maybe its because I learned Tai Chi first that I somehow ended preferring the soft approach. However, saying that one wants to learn the soft arts won’t get us very far.

Why?

Tofu is soft. So is noodle, wet or dry. But have you seen anyone get hurt by tofu or noodle?

On the other hand take a strand of wire. A wire is soft in that it can be bent. Put a few strands of wire together and twist them together.

Now they are soft and also strong, resilient. I used to have a few bunches of these twisted wires from an engineering project but I threw them away due to the rust. However, they were useful for conditioning the body.

So to say that you want to be soft is meaningless unless you define exactly what this means.

A useful definition of being soft is to define it as follows :-

i) Bending with external pressure without collapsing
ii) Using sufficient and necessary (minimal) strength to perform the task

This definition allows us to examine what principles and training methods allow us to achieve our training objective to be soft yet functional.

First, we ask the question – what do we mean by using sufficient strength? For example, when performing the Sam Bai Fut section in the Siu Nim Tao are we using just enough strength, too much strength or even strength that is not necessary to do the movements.

From here we can work towards achieving the objective of using sufficient strength. If you are on the right track you will feel that your movements are effortless. Yet when pressured by your opponent your structure won’t collapse.

When your opponent’s pressure is very strong and causes your correct arm structure to deform do you resist or does your arm automatically bend with the force and move into another strategically advantageous position? If yes, then you are like a willow bending with the force and returning it.

This is only the first part of the learning of being soft. The second part is how to use softness to be hard or to focus or amplify the force that you can now harness by not wasting unnecessary strength.

The first part of this post offers an alternative way to practice the Siu Nim Tao.

The Opening sequence serves up a method of compress and release using the principle of converting potential energy to kinetic energy.

For the Punching practice we can redefine the practice as follows :-

2.0 PUNCHING

2.1 Left vertical fist moves to centreline. Ensure the wrist-elbow-shoulder alignment is kept so that the power can move smoothly out. Prime the Dan Tian by compressing it

2.2 Release the Dan Tian and let the left fist punch out naturally along the body’s power line (this is why getting the basic stance correct is important) using the Dan Tian

2.3 Fist change to palm up

2.4 Perform Huen Sao, change into horizontal fist, re-prime the Dan Tian

2.5 Pull left fist back to side of body; keep the Dan Tian primed so that you can punch any time even as you are withdrawing your arm

Repeat for right fist

Learning and practicing individual exercises is an easy way to pick up skills. However, there are some who are like me, prefer to practice a form over a number of solo drills.

All the exercises mentioned in the earlier three posts can be practiced in the Siu Nim Tao form, which for the purpose of illustration I will use the Ip Man version (meaning the version I learned) as reference.

From the three posts we have the following exercises :-

a) Redefining the Learning
i) Huen Sao exercise

b) Redefining the Learning 2
i) Forming the basic stance
ii) Basic vertical fist punch
iii) Using the core to punch
iv) Side body punch (Pin Sun Chui)

c) Redefining the Learning 3
i) Principle of immoveable elbow
ii) Using the core to move the arm in Sam Bai Fut

Below I list the Siu Nim Tao sequence I used to teach to students :-

1.0 Opening
1.1 Feet together, palms up, arms extended
1.2 Perform Huen Sao, change to horizontal fists
1.3 Pull horizontal fists back to side of body
1.4 Open up feet to shoulder width
1.5 Sit into basic stance

2.0 Punching
2.1 Left vertical fist moves to centreline
2.2 Left fist punches out
2.3 Fist change to palm up
2.4 Perform Huen Sao, change into horizontal fist
2.5 Pull left fist back to side of body
Repeat for right fist

3.0 Sam Bai Fut
3.1 Left fist open to palm up, move to centreline
3.2 Slowly move left palm forward until it can no longer move without losing immoveable elbow
3.3 Left palm performs Huen Sao, change into Wu Sao
3.4 Slowly move Wu Sao back towards body
3.5 When Wu Sao is about 1.5 fist distance away from body, change into Fuk Sao
3.6 Move Fuk Sao forward until maximum range without losing elbow placement
3.7 Change Fuk Sao into Wu Sao and repeat 3.4 (for the Fuk Sao sequence perform three times)
3.8 Once Wu Sao comes back the last time, perform Pak Sao to right and come back to centreline
3.9 Execute Jing Jeung
3.10 Change vertical palm to palm up
3.11 Perform Huen Sao, change into horizontal fist
3.12 Pull left fist back to the side of body

Here is how I would redefine the practice of the Siu Nim Tao :-

1.0 OPENING

1.1 Feet together, palms up, arms extended

1.2 Perform Huen Sao, change to horizontal fists. To repeat the Huen Sao exercise, turn both fists so that the palms face upwards, open up the fists into open hand, and repeat the Huen Sao drill for 10 reps

1.3 Pull horizontal fists back to side of body

1.4 Open up feet to shoulder width

1.5 Sit into basic stance – check knee bent, check adduction, check tailbone tuck in, check Dan Tian configuration, check upper body

1.6 Open up both fists, extend arms forward and do Huen Sao as per 1.2. First hold the body posture and focus on Huen Sao. Later, as you become more familiar the Dan Tian should connect even as you do Huen Sao (do you feel the connection? Feel the power?)

This is the first part of how we can redefine the practice of the Siu Nim Tao.

P.S. – the part about doing the body posture can be a challenge even when I taught it in person so not to worry if its something that you don’t get right away. But like learning to ride a bicycle you just keep at it and success will come.

In Part 2 I mentioned to learn how to punch using the Dan Tian. This practice can be quite a challenge but doable as long as you stick to the practice.

In Part 3 there are two things a beginner should focus on.

The first thing is understanding the principle of the immoveable elbow. The easiest way to learn it is by practicing the 6-Blocks.

However, Block-2 is a technique that many Wing Chun styles do not have so we can reorder the six movements exercise into a five movements sequence using techniques that are found across Wing Chun styles as follows :-

Block 1 –> Block 6 –> Block 4 –> Block 5 –> Block 3 –> Block 1 and repeat.

Block 2 comes from an old style Wing Chun that I learned and is a technique that is commonly found in many other styles whether Southern Shaolin, Karate or Taekwondo. It can be useful when a particular problem arises in the practice of Poon Sao.

The second thing to practice is to take the Sam Bai Fut section and practice it with the use of the Dan Tian to move the arm back and forth. If you have practice how to use Dan Tian to do punching then this would be easier to practice. If not, just keep at it.

And that’s the end of Part 3.

We begin our learning by loosening the arms, training them to be like a willow branch. As the training moves along, we can convert the property of softness to be like steel cables. This is a story for another day.

A loosened arm facilitates the transmission of force. From physics we know that acceleration is one of the key components of the formula for force. A loosened arm can be used like a whip, picking up speed as the arm moves like a sine wave, then accelerates to snap the power out into the target.

This would be Part 1 of the learning.

Part 2 of the learning takes off in a practice we stand in the basic stance and learn to do the basic vertical fist punch without any force. Just focus on the movement. Learn how the wrist, elbow and shoulder align.

If you get this part, you can extend the alignment lesson by practicing the Pin Sun Chui. This practice helps you to understand the mass component of the force formula.

The next practice would be to learn how to do the basic punch by using the core. In Chinese martial arts we normally say that this is using the Dan Tian.

You can call it whatever you like, just remember that in a basic stance to do a punch means to consolidate the involved parts of the body to move as a mass, mobilize them by using the Dan Tian to move like a whip, then slam the fist into the target.

Using the Dan Tian to punch is not something that comes easily. It takes a bit of practice. Nah, cancel that. It takes a lot of practice, tons of it.

So much for Part 2 of the redefined learning.

In 2015 I released the eBook 2 Dots : Six Learning Steps for Mastering Wing Chun’s Kicking Model.

In the eBook I outlined a straightforward learning process based on what I had learned from one Ip Man lineage that focused on the use of kicks.

I recently met a Wing Chun practitioner whose lineage is from one of the Big Five Ip Man disciples. It gave me a snapshot of the practice of one Wing Chun today. And yes, some of the things I found in the past still persists to this day.

Interestingly, I found that the skills of the kicking model is still quite relevant today even if it was just applied to hand movements. However, I would make some adjustments today to the model with additional insights from some of the older Wing Chun styles.

This is how I would redefine the learning. I would start with a simple course of Huen Sao. Lots and lots of it, focusing on getting rid the arm of unnecessary tension.

This practice can be learned in a minute. A 7 day course of 3 practice sessions of half hour each session per day should address the malady.

I would move on to how to stand in the basic stance. Then go into how to use the core to connect lower body to upper body. Lastly, how to pose the upper body. This takes mindful and effortful practice.

In case learning the basic stance is too boring, try practicing Huen Sao while standing in it. If you keep losing the structure then you need to keep practicing until you can keep the structure.

This would be Part 1 of the learning.

If you want to get from Destination A to Destination B connected by an autobahn over a 300 km distance what type of car would you drive?

This is a generic type of question so the answer is pretty much any car will do.

If the question is modified to “if you want to get from Destination A to Destination B connected by an autobahn over a 300 km distance what type of car would you drive if you want to have a comfortable drive” then your answer could be a car with plenty of leg room, leather seats and great company.

And if the question is “if you want to get from Destination A to Destination B connected by an autobahn over a 300 km distance what type of car would you drive if you want to get there in the shortest possible time” then you would want a high performance sports car with low centre of gravity.

If you then modified the question to if you want to get from Destination A to Destination B connected by a river over a 300 km distance what type of car would you drive then obviously unless there is a road spanning the river you would have to cross by boarding a ferry (assuming that such a service is available) that can bring your car across or ditch the car and go for a boat.

Learning the martial arts can sometimes be like this. There is no one size fits all. You want to find the right vehicle to get to where you want to go depending on whether the destination can be reached via a normal road, a rough terrain, jungle road, river or even ocean.

Similarly, when I wanted to teach Paul how to develop arms that react like the proverbial willow tree branch in that when an opponent applies pressure on his arms they would instantly and automatically absorb, and spring back without hesitation to counterattack thereby optimizing the speed of response by converting the technique into an automated reflex action, I put together the 3-NS training sequence.

What I did not emphasize is to be soft or be like a wet noodle. Instead, the emphasis is only doing it over and over until one can perform it without thinking, without hesitation, from which point the arms are at. Not to mention that one need to tweak and refine as one goes along.

Why did I not put the focus of the training on being soft?

The reason is because to do so would defeat the purpose of training the arms to be like the willow branch. You might be puzzled as to why being soft is contradictory in this case. If you are, puzzle no more. In the old days I would recommend to head to the library or bookshop and go straight to the science section. Nowadays, you just do the search in Google and the AI would throw up the answers.

I first came across the explanation in a book on architecture. And of course, the same explanation can be found in mechanical engineering and physics. Yes, the answer is literally out there in these three areas of study.

When you understand the core principle you would grasp why trying to be soft defeats the purpose of training in this manner and why so many try to be soft yet still miss out on mastering the skill because they are focusing on the wrong thing.

The small, mundane things matter. The RELEVANT, small, mundane things.