"Being able to adapt to the situation at all times is one of the major attributes of WingTsun" – again and again the tutorial participants heard these words from the head of the international WingTsun family. And they were addressed in equal measure to the masters he was teaching on the tripodal dummy, the long pole or in Chi-Gerk, or the Technicians practicing the applications of the Chum-Kiu or Biu-Tze forms.
Grandmaster Leung Ting was repeatedly asked about the precise sequence of a section or minor details of a specific movement. Just as often the answer was "It depends!", a response which has driven many a WT-follower to the edge of madness in the past. The natural tendency of man to seek to simplify reality by constructing simple models is even prevalent in WingTsun, which seeks to take into account the complex reality of combat by being built on principles rather than rigid techniques.
It appears to be one of the most important tasks of a WingTsun teacher – and especially of a grandmaster – to constantly remind WT students of this special feature. As if living matter had to be constantly prevented from ossifying by being continuously fed with energy.
Statements such as "Who’s interested in details!" or changes to seemingly familiar movement sequences constantly meet with bewilderment on the part of WT students. Didn’t he show the section quite differently during the last lesson? Why is the same defence wrong now, when it was praised as correct very recently?
That is the nature of the "energy" with which a grandmaster continuously destroys the basis on which what is flexible can begin to harden and rigidify.

Text: Markus Senft