14/03/2019
🙏🏻👊🏻
Understanding Structure – Sil Lim Tao Stance
Sil Lim Tao Stance
YEE GEE KIM YEUNG MA
Lik Chong Gerk Jang Sang
Whole body structural alignment
1. Ankles
2. Knees
3. Hips
4. Spine
5. Shoulders
6. Neck
7. Elbow
8. Wrist
Cantonese Translation:
Kim Sut – Knees In. Creating the lower triangle with legs.
Lok Bok – Dropping shoulder. Isolated, relaxed shoulder.
Lok Ma – Lowering Horse. Sinking / rooting the stance.
Jang Die Lik – Elbow under strength. Stabilising and sinking the elbow.
Fong Song – Relaxed extending arm.
Ting Yui – To straighten the back. Flattening the lumber area of the spine by stacking the vertebrae’s.
Dung Tao – Upwards lifting head. The straightening of the neck and head at the top end of the spine.
Tei Gong – To make solid. The lifting of the a**s muscle and tilting of the pelvis to engage the hips – uniting lower triangle (legs) with upper triangle (body).
Tie Seung San – Uplifting upper Body – the sensation of the upper body being held up by string resulting from Dung Tao, Ting Yiu and Tei Gong.
Ting Bok – Straight back shoulders. The back held back isolating the shoulders and forming the upper triangular structure.
Nim Lik – Force of idea / Intent. Mental focus in the application of structure.
San Ying – Body Structure.
Lut Sau Jic Ching – Forward springing force.
Gung Lik – Trained Strength. Maintaining the correct arm position / angle.
Tseung Kui Ma – Elbow position maintained (fist distance from body)
Mai Jang – Forwarding of elbows inward and forward.
Man Sau / Wu Sau – Correct hand positing using relaxed use of tendons / ligaments to give structure to arm.
Lik Chong Gerk Jang Sang – Power originates from the heals – meaning structural power through the alignment of the 6 major joints.
*The following explanation of The Stance is written by Dan Knight for GM Samuel Kwok's site.
The stance, Gee Kim Yeung Ma
Wing Chun Sil Lim Tao stance is called Gee Kim Yeung Ma and comes from the first form of Wing Chun Kung Fu.
The Wing Chun Stance | Gee Kim Yeung Ma It must be stressed that the Wing Chun training stance is not a stance in which one would fight. Wing Chun Sil Lim Tao stance is called Gee Kim Yeung Ma and comes from the first form of Wing Chun Kung Fu.The stance is used to develop the leg muscles and balance from simply standing (It's an isometric strength training exercise for those who wanted to know, that means it trains muscles to be strong without movement). The first Wing Chun form, Sil Lim Tao or "Little Idea", is performed with the practitioner remaining in the training stance throughout the form. All of the other hand forms start in this same training stance. So what is the training stance? The training stance can be seen as the practitioner standing feet shoulders width apart with feet pointing inward to form an imaginary triangle, the knees are bent, and the hips are pushed slightly forward, but not to the extent that the practitioner loses balance. This will put stress on the calf and other leg muscles, thereby strengthening them.
Getting into stance or Hoi-Ma, is done by starting with the feet together. Then the knees are bent so ones feet are only just covered i.e. cannot be seen by the practitioner when looking down. The hips are then pushed out. The feet are then twisted on the heel outward so the toes are pointing to the left and right of the body At 180 degrees. Pressure is then put on the balls of the feet before the heels are rotated out from under the body. The feet should then be shoulders width or just over shoulders width apart, pointing into a position approximately one meter from the body, forming an imaginary triangle.
A good stance means the practitioners supporting leg will be strong when kicking which will help power generation and balance. One way of thinking about the training stance is that is like training 2 back legs. ie each leg is in the position your back leg would be in when in a Wing Chun fighting stance.*
