Thanks for the perspectives, guys! SiHing: I'd love to hear more about your WT experiences --- feel free to ask about anything Aikido-related; I train in Aikikai style. Devon: Interesting thought --- I've read (and experienced) the benefits of the adrenaline rush (or "seeing red") you speak of...I suppose that what I had in mind was (ideally) being able to separate my emotions as much as possible in order to avoid being clouded by them or losing focus during actual combat. Perhaps I've been watching far too many samurai movies. ;-)

Hello! Congratulations to your Wing Chun experiences. Im coming from the other side: I am a Wing Tsun man with five years of practice, at the beginning of my instructor´s "career". Aikido has always been fscinating to me due to its elegant movements. I have a pal who did aikido for some years before he started Wing Tsun and he showed me some techniques. It is very interesting to see a man from a different style beginning WT. If you like I can answer some questions about WT principles - and you can help me get a deeper understanding of your style? P.S. You must excuse some language problems, for I am from Germany and out of practice in speaking english.

I think your instructor is trying to tap into something my instructor likes to call "controlled anger". Let's face it, if you get hit by someone or attacked by someone, it's going to make you angry. Aiki is a way of harmonizing energy. Harmonizing is simply blending. Sure many say that using Ki can only be done with seeing perfection. I've made this quote before. We are like Jedi searching to perfect this use of energy (force). Except that there is no darkside or lightside. Both avenues of approach are developing the use of Ki, which is what we are trying to achieve. Leave the darkside, lightside crap for the movies. Now back to reality. If I get into a fight I would much rather have practiced in "controlled anger" than to get overwhelmed with adrenaline and anger and not know what to do. If you've ever been in a real fight, you will know that andrenaline causes you to get hyper and angry and strong. I loved the fact that my instructor made us learn how to control this anger and be able to actually think while fighting instead of the common "black out" type anger people get. I am fully confident that I could use my brain even when I am angry and overwhelmed with adrenaline. Now if you only train to "try" to keep peace within yourself, you are setting yourself up for failure. You seem to be reacing out to become a well rounded martial artist, and this portion of the training is going to make you just that. Good luck