By John Crescione

Secret Techniques of Wing Chun (Siu Lim Tao) by K.T. Chao and J. Weakland. Written in 1976 in hard cover, 115pgs., dedicated to the Siu Lim Tao form, concepts, individual techniques and level of training. It is probably the best techniques/how to book on the subject fore its time period. All the techniques are individually performed and trained from a fighting drill perspective.

Chao claims to be a student of Yip Man in the 60's,and starts his book with a thorough history of Kung Fu, the burning of Shaolin temple, both the 5 elders and Yim Wing Chun story up until Yip Man.

The book then covers Wing Chun principles and Kuen Kuit with photo applications. All the black and white photos are of both Chao and Weakland demonstrating on each other.

His next chapter is on Horse stance and it's training. He gives us many brief Yip Man anecdotes throughout the book, as well as comparisons and stories from other schools of thought, like Tai Chi, Chuang Tsu and Wan Chung Yueh. In this chapter he tells how Yip Man, while in his 50's, was in a single leg stance and ropes where attached to the other leg as men tried to pull Yip Man off balance. They failed.

Other areas include making a fist, "elbow punching"-an elbow strike to the rear, the downward/upward motion in the beginning of the form as a breathing exercise, the "arrow" punch-drawing and releasing from a bow, relaxing the elbow so it cannot be broken, candle test punching, yin and yang knife hands-Yin is the palm up chop. Lop dar drill and the entire Siu Lim Tao form are shown, there is no side view of the form but there are many over heads shots as well as the standard full photo shots.

The real gem of the book lies in it's simple to follow lesson plan, as well as the stories and attempts at trying to illustrate the kuen kuit without getting too deep or philosophical.