Good afternoon.

As promised I will give a few more details about the forthcoming seminar. Each day will be teaching particular parts of the Wing Tsun – but the difference from classes is that I will be teaching in far more detail than is ever normally taught. On the Wednesday, for instance, I will not only be teaching different punching methods and the reasons for there differences, but also the famous ‘inch punch.’ For those who are interested in knowing about this I will actually be teaching where this particular punch originates in the Wing Tsun system (from which part the ancient teaching programme of course) and the important Chinese name for it.

I should point out while many people profess to be ‘experts’ in Wing Tsun there are very few people who know how many attacking movements that we actually have. Please know that, for example, there are an exact number of punches, kicks and elbows in Chinese Wing Tsun. Each has a different technique with a different mechanism and a different force generating it. I will, of course, be teaching about this… (Incidentally I personally think that it is hard to master the system if you don’t know the exact number of the strikes. In Chinese Wing Tsun very little is there for no reason – every little part has its purpose. So the challenge is first to find out the details and then to understand what they mean).

With regard to the kicks, they are generally misunderstood, and without doubt, neglected in Wing Tsun. If you look around you will find that very little is written about that subject – unusual perhaps for something that is part of the basic weaponry for almost all martial arts. Indeed, when I studied the western version of the art I can sincerely say that less than 1% of the time was spend on kicks. As use of kicks is 30-40% of the system this potentially causes a problem, as well as unbalancing the overall aim of mastering each part of your body. Indeed, this part of the seminar will complement, and lay the ground, for the Chi-Gerk seminar which takes place in September.

The whole of Saturday is dedicated to defence against multiple assailants. There are a number of reasons for including in the seminar programme, including: 1. it an increasingly important skill to develop; 2. it was one of the most requested seminars; 3. it gives the students who missed out last time and those who more recently joined the school a chance to catch up. This day will be divided into groups so that those who attended the seminar last year will be able to build on their skills and learn to apply it to more difficult (and dangerous) situations.

The Sunday will consist of the Wing Tsun sparring for those that have attended the whole seminar or a recap of earlier teachings for students that could only make part. Intensive training on the basics is needed for sparring to be both productive and useful. It is a very long and controversial subject so I do not wish to discuss it any further at present apart from to say it is rare to find sparring Wing Tsun taught correctly. In short it is useful if taught in the appropriate manner and when the student has the achieved the requisite degree of skill. It is never taught until the advanced grades for this reason and I only ever teach this to my private students, so the seminar will be an excellent opportunity for students to experience this.

As time does not permit otherwise I have only selected a couple of parts of the seminar to discuss, but those that attend will find out how much more is to be taught

Sifu