Besides the three external harmonies of feet, body and hands, a practitioner must also attain the three internal harmonies of essence, energy and mind. His form must be elegant, his qi (chi) focused at his dan tian, and he is calm and fresh. If he is tensed, panting for breath or distracted, he would have missed these three internal harmonies, and would perform below par in his combat.

When responding, ensure that your spacing is correct. If you move too far away, you may avoid an opponent's attack but miss a good opportunity of counter-attacking. If you are too close, you may not be effective in neutralizing his force, and worse, you may be hit.

Beside spacing, timing must be correct. Of course if you respond too slowly, you would be hit. But responding too fast is also incorrect. The timing may be at the initial stage of the attack, when the attack is in he middle of its progress, or when the attack is about to be completed. If you are at the beginning stage of our combat training, you need not worry about these details. Begin your response when the attack has started, not before.

Many martial artists respond too quickly to an attack. As soon as an attacker makes a movement, they instinctively bounce away. If the attacker is skillful and trained, this can be a weakness. The attacker may abandon his initial attack, move in swiftly and attack deeply following the momentum of the retreating responder. Moreover, responding too quickly negates the effectiveness of counter-attacking if the attacker offers this opportunity. Thirdly, it negates the training of shen, or mind.

A common mistake amongst beginners is to use “Single Tiger Emerges from Cave” to block an opponent's attack. This pattern is not a block, but a leaning technique. You “lean”, not block, your Tiger-Claw on the opponent's forearm. When you block, you use force against force; but when you lean you need only minimum force. This is a useful tactic to avoid an opponent's powerful attack and prevent him from further attacks.

Notice that Grandmaster Wong starts with his back leg, rotates his waist and complete with his punch -- the three factors (feet, body, hands) constituting the three external harmonies. Notice also that Grandmaster Wong asks the way with his leading hand which ensures his own safety first, and his punch spirals out from his waist with the force exploding from the dan tian.

Remember that in combat training, the one in front of you is not your deadly enemy but your sparring partner. You should, therefore, help each other.

The “thread” is an effective technique to realize the tactic of using minimum force against maximum strength. First, Grandmaster Wong shows the application of the thread with wrong timing and wrong spacing. Then Grandmaster Wong shows its application correctly. Notice that it is not a block.

This video clip shows a common mistake made by many students, i.e. moving into an opponent's guard hand. It is a free-offer. The opponent would just strike you as you move in.

Here are more examples of free-offers. When moving in to execute a low stance arrow punch as in the pattern “Precious Duck Swims Through Lotus”, students often move in too close, thus moving into an opponent's strike. They also fail to cover the opponent's guard-hand, thus exposing themselves to counter-attacks.