If you take this first strength principle too literally, you can end up with strange forms of muscular behaviour. Being completely free from one's own strength would mean lying on the floor like a jellyfish and being unable to move, as all use of one's own strength is forbidden. So how can I stand upright, let alone move. Even though we tell powerfully built students to leave their strength outside in the changing-room with their street clothes, there is something not quite right about this. Everybody knows that an opponent is more likely to fall down as a result of a punch delivered by powerful muscles than by one with lesser muscle power. The point cannot therefore be to do without strength altogether.

So what does this first and most important principle of strength mean?. To find this out, it is important to remember that as a principle in WingTsun, it must have something to do with WingTsun movements. We have already established that it cannot mean carrying out these movements without any strength at all. What forces are important in WingTsun movements? Let's consider which WingTsun movements might help us to answer this question. Without doubt those forming the basis of WingTsun, the Siu-Nim-Tao, the first and therefore most important form in the system.

What is noticeable when we do the form, and what difficulties do many have when they start their training? Presumably the best example is the Fook-Sao in the third set, where the elbow should be positioned in front of the chest so that the forearm is angled outwards. This position has tortured many a beginner, and will continue to do so. Why do so many WingTsun followers, particularly powerfully built ones, find it so difficult to adopt this position correctly? The reason is usually the large pectoral muscle (pectoralis maior) . When the beginner tries to pull his elbow in front of the chest, the muscle expands and prevents correct positioning. The conscientious student doggedly tries to work against the force of this muscular obstacle and place his elbow in the right position. Or let's take the Wu-Sao. If the contractor muscles of the wrist and fingers are too short, these cannot be brought into a position as upright as necessary. The extensors fight to do their job against the pull of the contractors, and it is precisely here that we can find the answer to our question about the meaning of the first strength principle.

It specifically refers to the positions defined in the form. It states that the WingTsun student must first train his body so that he can adopt the positions occurring in the form without any significant resistance from antagonistic muscles. Once the WingTsun student is able to adopt the positions easily he has freed himself from his own strength, and it is only then that he is equipped to satisfy the second strength principle, i.e. to free himself from the strength of his opponent. While he is still working against the power of his own antagonistic muscles, he cannot free himself from the other's strength because he is much too tensed-up to adopt the necessary positions.

In WingTsun ChiKung we also free ourselves from our own strength, though in this case the limits are not defined by the Siu-Nim-Tao, but by the angles defined by evolution as it constructed our bones and joints. WingTsun ChiKung people develop an even greater freedom of movement which in turn helps them to adopt the positions required in WingTsun, i.e. to free themselves from their own strength as defined in the Siu-Nim-Tao.