Good morning

 

I would like to firstly say thank you to all those that attended the Chi-Sau seminar for making it such an enjoyable weekend for me; it turned out to be everything I had hoped for and more. It was certainly a fitting end to the seminar year and was nice to also have a large contingent from the Dulwich school as part of this.

 

The photos from the seminar will be put in the gallery in due course. I will notify you when this happens but, as I am told there are quite a number of them, this may take a bit of time.

 

For those that weren’t able to attend (and as a recap to those who did) I thought I would briefly go over what was covered. The seminar started, as usual, with theory. As I alluded to before, this allows you to put the information into perspective, as well as understand both the purpose and the best way of applying it. The theory therefore, covered the overriding principles involved, its position in the Wing Tsun system and the different levels (not just grading levels) in Chi-Sau. This was then followed by a definition of Chi-Sau (again crucial in understanding and application), the force involved and more specific principles in its application. I know Western Wing Tsun always talk about 4 Principles and 4 Maxims of Power, but Wing Tsun is far more in-depth than just that (and to be honest these principles on their own can be misleading).

 

The seminar was divided into three different groups to make sure that everyone could learn both the material relevant to them and get the maximum progression out of the available time. All the groups both consolidated and better understood existing knowledge, as well as learnt new material.

 

On the Saturday I also taught, as promised, the number of sections involved in Chi-Sau in the Wing Tsun system and the reasons for them. This was also followed by a brief resume of the Wing Tsun syllabus so that all the students could put their information into perspective and also know what was expected from them as they go through the grades. On the last day this was followed by my teaching about the spiritual side of Chi-Sau. While this is little known and rarely taught I believe that it is at least as important as the physical training. Furthermore, if you don’t know its teaching it is very hard to be able to develop that side of the art. As I keep repeating, Wing Tsun is far more than just punching or kicking …

 

In addition to the Chi-Sau techniques I also taught on the last day how to relate these reflexes to practical situations. This included not only how it to apply to gun defence, and indeed the relevant section (see an earlier post for more details on this subject), but how to apply all the techniques learnt when blindfolded. The last technique of the seminar put all the training together with the students defending themselves whilst seated and blindfolded. It is interesting how effective the blindfold training can be – by the end of the day every single person was far faster and more effective than even the beginning of that day. It just goes to show that the ancient Chinese methods still have a place

Perhaps the most important thing to understand is that Ch-Sau training is a continual process. Even when you have learnt all the sections, you are still trying to improve yourself. This takes a lot of will-power and motivation – but if you can do this truly great things happen.