The Three Refinements: Training for Simple and Effective Wing Chun

The Three Refinements: Training for Simple and Effective Wing Chun details a unique set of mind-body training principles and exercises for putting into practice the foundational concepts of Wing Chun.

What are they?

The 'Three Refinements' cycle is a tool for simplifying and solving complex problems. Its three steps can be repeated continually to improve one's situation and guide one's responses when engaged with one or many problems, at any level of complexity.

They were developed initially as a framework for teaching students of Wing Chun kung fu, in order to provide students with the ability to find useful and truthful answers to the constant, inevitable questions:

"What do I do if...?"
"What do I do when...?"
"What do I do now?"
"How do I get more (power, speed, strength, advantage, protection, confidence, resilience, sensitivity, efficiency, clarity of purpose, peace of mind)?"

Through disciplined practice of the Three Refinements, the answers to these questions become self-evident.

Where did they come from?

There are no secret mysteries here. The Three Refinements have grown from the 'Eternal Springtime Song' of Wing Chun Kung Fu; if they have been hiding, it has always been in plain sight. The ideas are everywhere embedded in the empty-hand sets, drills, training techniques and oft-repeated 'Maxims of Wing Chun' and in the ever-evolving metaphors, analogies and similes which practitioners have used for generations to communicate, question and discuss the practical application of the seemingly atypical approach to 'Siu Lim Tao' (The Little Idea) which makes up the core practice of our particular Wing Chun lineage.

These concepts, sayings and practices have been handed down to me through my Sihings (senior fellow students), my Sifu (teacher) Francis Der, his father and my Sigung (teacher's teacher) Ben Der, his Sifu Kenneth Chung, to him from his Sifu Leung Sheung and Gungsi (Grand Master) Ip Man, who was a pioneer in the preservation, transformation and reformation of the traditional Wing Chun, which he brought with him to Hong Kong from Southern China.

The culture of Scientific Kung Fu developed by Gungsi Ip Man added such principles as testing hypotheses, open and shared experimentation and peer review to the discipline and practice of Wing Chun.

A wonderful resource for learning more about the origins and development of Wing Chun is Judkins and Nielson's 'The Creation of Wing Chun: A Social History of the Southern Martial Arts'.

Additional insights into iterative thinking were provided in Jeff Sutherland's classic work. A veteran combat pilot, proponent of John Boyd's 'OODA Loop' (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act, Repeat), contributor to the Agile Manifesto and a founder of Scrum software development, he is the author of 'Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time'.

Drawing from these deep wells of knowledge and insight, and informed by my own research, reverse engineering, testing, training, and the constant help of my teachers and fellow practitioners, I have worked to distill an effective and efficient set of concepts which can be easily remembered and, importantly, accessed when needed.

This simplified approach helps to reduce mental clutter by continuously emphasizing what the focus of the practitioner's mind should be at any given moment. It provides a cohesive, understandable framework which can be used to effectively train the mind and body together.