The Tree of Humanity sheds leaves every year and blooms leaves every year.
Yip Man teaches moral virtue, and similar to Shaolin styles, Wushu’s philosophy centers on Wu de, which encompasses martial ethics: respect for instructors, politeness, trustworthiness, and humbleness.
The key points, similar to Shaolin styles, are inner/outer balance, inner energy with external strength, speed and control, and movement and stillness.
Then there is conflict resolution, which prioritises peace over aggression, and self-cultivation through perseverance, mental focus, discipline, and high moral value. These are the main aims of Wushu philosophy.
The core Wushu skills and attributes are stances – the horse stance, bow stance, empty stance, and drop or crouching stance.
Hand and arm techniques, like punches, palm strikes, and blocks.
Leg techniques, including stretches, snap kicks, and balance kicks, are also essential.
Body skills, such as waist/torso movement, jumps, and acrobatics.
Key physical attributes developed and honed with Wushu:
Flexibility of muscles and joints, strength building (especially core strength), and endurance through stances, and coordination of hand-eye and body awareness. The power that must be built is explosive and instantaneous, and speed must be enhanced by having quick reflexes with fast movement and execution.
Balance, which is critical, is maintained by centering gravity during complex routines.
These are the main core Wushu skills and attributes, and the key physical attributes.
As the leaf represents a person, the Grandmaster asked about the reason for kicks: as a discipline to attain accuracy, power, speed, and balance.
This requires strength, flexibility, endurance, and stretching. The leaf asks the question every day, “What kick have you practiced and perfected?”
The leaf is not just a limited specific question. Yet it starts with a kick, and this leads to the breath of life and return to the earth as the leaf breathes until it sheds from the expanse of the tree.
So wherever you see a tree, remember that Yip Man asked about the next step towards mastery of yourself, through the practice of not just kicks, but also the stances, strikes, punches, and blocks. The last kick to attain greatness involves helping yourself: ask the leaf the question of the struggle to fight and teach others how to kick back after action.
Yip Man, from the tree of humanity, was the leaf that asks yourself, “Why aren’t I learning to kick?”
The best part of achieving legendary status is the it takes a Don to know how to fight the evil within the world and mastery over themselves, the evil within every human has to be defeated. Enjoin good and forbid evil just like Yip Man, the leaf that still blooms every season.