Kung Fu Coaching - Leif Erik Wollenweber

China is the oldest high culture in the world. Unlike the Western world, Chinese culture does not separate body and mind, state, business, and individual, but sees everything as part of a greater whole. With this worldview, this culture is at least equal to ours. Therefore, it is worth taking a closer look. Kung fu is particularly intriguing as an Eastern source for coaching and training because it expresses the aspiration to perfect thinking and acting in unity. It combines physical strengthening with the cultivation of mental clarity and control. Asian, especially Chinese martial arts are not just a collection of different attack and defense techniques, but represent a system with well-founded principles that can be applied to other areas of life. This is particularly useful for situations where individuals or businesses are in competition. Among the numerous Kung fu styles, the southern Chinese Wing Chun is especially suitable and effective with its four strength and four combat principles. What is special about coaching based on an ancient martial art is that its knowledge is easy to grasp - literally. Many exercises show even those with little athleticism how surprisingly easily and quickly seemingly stronger opponents can be overcome. Once someone has experienced for themselves how intuitively and simply the Wing Chun principles achieve their goal, they will be convinced that they will also have an impact in the business world. However, they must first be understood and mastered. As simple as the following strength principles of Wing Chun Kung fu may sound, they are not easy to implement without mental openness, concentration, and effort: The Strength Principles: 1. Free yourself from your own strength. 2. Free yourself from the strength of your opponent. 3. Use the strength of your opponent. 4. Add your own strength. Given the limited scope, we will only consider the strength principles of Wing Chun below. They may sound familiar, but it is not about mastering a single principle, but about their sequence and interaction. Let's take a closer look. Free yourself from your own strength. This first statement is perhaps the most surprising, as the usual belief is that one should become big and strong as quickly as possible. By doing so, we overlook the serious disadvantages of size, as it leads to a loss of speed, sensitivity, and agility. Furthermore, those who have the ability to assert themselves forcefully against others are inclined to do so more and more often. Just like someone who has a hammer sees nails everywhere. Means such as wisdom, diplomacy, dialogue, persuasion, and perhaps even vulnerability or retreat, which could lead to success more effectively - faster, more efficiently, and more gently - may wither away. The worst may happen when such a power-hungry individual encounters someone similar. Because both can only move forward and do not know how to retreat. On the other hand, someone who is free from their own strength can choose whether, when, where, and how to use it. They are already superior to the weaker ones, but do not have to show their strength to them. And even against the strongest opponents, they can win if the opponents do not know how to use their strength as skillfully as they do. Free yourself from the strength of your opponent. This principle works in two directions. When the opponent appears overpowering to us, we are tempted to give up the fight before it even begins. Perhaps also to alleviate this fear, the Bible tells us the story of David and Goliath. Resistors from Gandhi to Che Guevara, Solidarity, and the Serbian Otpor, to the Arab Spring have proven that individuals or small groups can overthrow entire states. It follows that we must take every opponent seriously, no matter how small and inconspicuous they may seem. Those who disregard this end up like IBM with the PC, Kodak with digital photos, or Nokia with the iPhone. No matter how strong the opponent is and what they do, we must have an answer and be able to keep control over the course of events, the law of action. We achieve this by taking every potential opponent seriously, observing and analyzing them as accurately as possible. To quote Michael Corleone from "The Godfather": "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." Use the strength of your opponent. Everything has two sides. Here, it is about learning how to not only neutralize the strengths of the other person but also to use them against them. If they are large and sluggish, we act quickly and flexibly; if it is the other way around, we focus on size advantages and restrict their room to maneuver so that agility does not provide an advantage. If they want to be cheaper than us, we make them appear cheap. If they offer more, we focus on the most important aspects. Add your own strength. We also have our own strengths. Using them against ourselves is difficult because we have already learned to free ourselves from them. So, once we have found the weakness of the other person, we exploit it by concentrating our efforts on that point. In this way, the first three principles serve to find the best place and time to use our own strength. The presented principles may sound martial and could be understood as an essence of the teachings of the Chinese general and philosopher Sun Tzu. However, they are not aimed at confrontation; rather, the goal is to achieve success as peacefully as possible. Moreover, someone who is prepared for the worst can make decisions more calmly and reflectively. Therefore, Kung fu coaching is particularly suitable for strategic and competitive situations.