Dr Dennis Lowe

My name is Dennis Lowe. I’m currently practising as a doctor, brain doctor, neurologist and eye surgeon in the middle of the city. I’ve been doing Wing Chun for some years now and came back to it two years ago. I’ve reached a certain level where I now appreciate the art in a more subtle way and in a deeper form.

I believe that the art of Wing Chun relates to a form of relaxation which is both from a physical and psychological point of view. In order to learn the physical art of relaxation, there are several things that one has to do in Wing Chun training which take several decades [to master].

It’s important to remember that in order to relax any muscle in the body in any position, in order to keep it in a certain position, we have to contract certain muscles. What Wing Chun tells us or tries to develop is the art of having the angle of our muscles and the position of our body such that the muscles on both sides of whether it’s the arms or the spine, are equally relaxed. The antagonist and agonist muscles are equally relaxed in certain angles. That’s why we develop the ‘optimum angle’ when we are performing [Wing Chun].

Having reached that level where we know that we can relax certain parts of the body both psychologically and physically, that allows the blood vessels which surround those joints and muscles to expand, because there is no contraction of those muscles. Once that happens, there is an increase in blood flow which in itself gives energy to those muscles to perform certain acts.

The second thing that happens is that the whole body has to align itself in a position so that when it moves, it can move en masse - in one form.

The brain has learnt ever since we were very young, certain forms of fighting or reactions to anger, stress, fights, etcetera. Wing Chun has to undo all that. For example, when someone is attacking you, the natural reaction is to retreat and try and protect yourself. Well, Wing Chun does exactly the opposite; instead of retreating, you learn to advance, so you have to put down that shield. That is another thing that one learns in this system – in fact, the reflexes that one learns are completely the opposite to what one has learned since childhood, which are usually the natural reactions that one has to pain, fear, attack, etcetera.

All testimonials on this website were volunteered by participants and were not scripted or paid for by the International Wing Chun Academy.