Relax into the movement

One of the most difficult and important issues in wing chun or any kind of movement is relaxing as much as possible during each movement. When people start any new kind of movement, they tend to clench their bodies up as their mind tries to do the movement "perfectly".

Unfortunately, its impossible, you can't do new movements or activities perfectly the first time. This "trying" causes all kinds of problems. I think most people attempt to get a new movement down "correctly" and then the relaxation comes later. It doesn't.

The relaxation part is a core part of skilled movement. It needs priority over other aspects of the movement.

What that means is that when doing something new whether it be plucking a guitar string or throwing a punch, it should be done as relaxed as possible from the very beginning. In order to do this, the movement itself will probably be somewhat "incorrect" (it's debatable that there are any incorrect relaxed movements) or sloppy.

Sloppy is great. Be sloppy until you personally feel reasons to move differently. You can't copy someones movement over your own movement. You can only copy the mental state and principles they are using.

One way to speed up this process is to breathe out and let go as you do any new movement. Don't breathe out and relax and then start, do it at the same time as the motion. Breathe out AS you punch. Breathe out and let go as you start chisao. Do it as you jump to dunk the basketball (ok, that's a joke, I can't dunk no matter how much I breathe out.)