Good morning on another delightfully fresh day. Nowhere that I have ever visited can quite compare to being in the English countryside on a day like this. It is one of the greatest privileges of being a professional teacher that I am able teach on such mornings.

 

Today I would like to speak briefly about the forthcoming seminar on unarmed defence against weapons on 28^th February to 2^nd March. The brochures for this have been published and should be distributed this week. If you have not received one by Thursday, and wish to do so, please contact us and one of the instructors will send you out one.

 

As students who attend the seminar will find out, this is an in-depth topic. It is also one of the most misunderstood areas in the martial arts, along with one of the hardest skills to apply. However, before I talk about it at all I want to make my position very clear; there is no such thing as a guaranteed system of defence against weapons. The system that I learnt from my Sifu (and the one I will be teaching) is, in my opinion, by far the best I have ever seen. But for me the ‘best’ system means two things: 1. it allows you to develop the skills necessary to successfully apply it in the fastest possible time, while working with your natural body reactions and dynamics; 2. if applied correctly it decreases your chances of getting hurt as far as is possible. I know this is not what most people want to hear – indeed everyone wants a guaranteed system that can make them almost invincible, but, I’m afraid my position is to tell people what they need to know, rather than what they would wish.

 

The seminar is, therefore, aiming to equip you with good basic skills should you both faced with an opponent who has a weapon. Those students who attended last year’s training will be building on their existing skills and applying them to even more dangerous situations.

 

Onto the seminar itself: the first session will be covering the strategy, psychology and tactics of such defences. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s the techniques that are the most important- without this understanding the movements are useless. I will be recapping the information on subsequent days, but, as always, I suggest that you make this. The rest of the first day, along with the second day, will be dedicated to defence against knives. A lot of time will be spend on this subject as I believe it to be one of the hardest, and most dangerous, defences. It is also, unfortunately, an increasing common attack to be used in street crime.

 

The Saturday sessions will concern defence against other weapons, such as baseball bats, bottles and blunt objects. This will be followed on the Sunday by a topic that I have never taught before, not even to my most loyal and dedicated students - how to use everyday objects to aid you in your self-defence If you have a key, phone, or even a pen you can use this to your advantage.

 

To put the seminar in overall perspective, weapons defence is not actually on the Wing Tsun syllabus, it is rather a specialist niche. I was extremely privileged to be able to learn the weapons defence and its related areas in private from my Sifu. This is not just any techniques or strategy, but had been personally developed by my Sifu, based on some of the highest concepts of Wing Tsun, specifically to teach to the Special Forces all across Eastern Europe (which he and his top instructor have done for over the past decade). So, at risk of pointing out the obvious, you will not find any of this training outside Eastern Europe and, of course, our schools.

 

You should be aware that I do not have any plans to teach this again in the immediate future, and it is extremely are that I teach this topic in depth. In the whole time I have been teaching this is only the second time that I have done so. Even my top instructors and private students have never had the chance to learn this from me apart from at the seminars. If you are interested in this topic, my only advice is try not to waste this opportunity.

 

Sifu

 

Ps. On the unrelated topic at the beginning of my post - if you would like to read excellent works of literature about the appreciation of nature (something which I have always felt strongly about) I would suggest reading the highly talented Samuel Taylor Coleridge.