look closely – the walls are running with sweat
Not outside, the British weather did that all by itself, but inside. Even with the doors fully open the sweat was literally running down the walls at yesterday’s chi sao gathering in Redditch. Dread to think what it smells like today………
150 people from across the country filled the room, travelling from as far as Yorkshire and Dorset. We even had an international flavour with folks making the trip from Wales…..
With well over a hundred people training in close proximity to each other for six hours it is testimony to the friendly and non confrontational approach encouraged by the chief instructors of the various groups represented that there was only one minor accident in the whole day and everyone had almost permanent smiles etched on their faces throughout the day.
It was great to see so many people with such a wide range of experience
happilly training with each other, from almost total novices to seasoned instructors and it was a real privilledge to have had so many Sifus and senior students under one roof at the same time. Everyone who attended the day had a great time and I’m sure everyone is eagerly looking forward to the new year in anticipation of the next chi sao gathering.
A big thank you once again to everyone who came along and made it such an enjoyable day.
I’m sure that the saying always used to be never bring a knife to a gun fight…….maybe they were wrong. Interesting reflection on how quickly the gap closes in a real fight and how relying on a concealed weapon to even things up is a big mistake. I hear so many people say they carry this or that, from sprays to kubotans, to protect themselves. As this fairly dated video shows unless you’ve got your self defence weapon in your hand already when the attack begins, you might as well forget it
Just added a calendar to the Worcestershire Wing Chun Kuen web site. All class closures, events and such will be posted to keep you informed. Already added the chi sao gathering!!!
Chi sao today – coming along nicely
Just done some training and after working my elbows for a few rounds I thought I’d post this up.
Training elbows is always an awkward one. The solid bone in the kinetic chain means that there isn’t enough yield to practice on the wall bag without jolting yourself to pieces. Focus mitts are okay but you need a partner to hold them and there isn’t always one about when you want to train. Best bit of kit that I’ve found for training them is the maize bag. When you add sand to the bag it gets really heavy, really quickly. Mine is just on the border of needing someone else to help me lift it when I decide to take it down. The fact that the bag can swing is great for creating a moving target and for taking just a little bit of the jarring effect out of the impact (it’ll still make your teeth rattle if you pack the bag with sand though!) but of course the trick is to hit into the bag and make a nice dent without the bag moving away.
There will be a video of me training elbows on the maize bag going up in the members area of Worcestershire Wing Chun kuen in the next few days, its only a short clip but it shows me working up a sweat…….
BBC News – Karate punching power \’all in the brain\’
via BBC News – Karate punching power \’all in the brain\’.
The BBC are running an article that suggests training in martial arts helps to build brain cells!
Admittedly for combat sports that train full contact all the good work is probably undone by regular blows to the head, but for the rest of us this is just another piece of evidence that helps to support the idea I’ve always subscribed to that martial arts are good for your health. It may be a stretch but increasing brain matter seems to me to be a good way to lower the risk of adverse brain related conditions in later life.
So the olympics are over and the football season is nearly upon us. Pundits on every media stream are telling us quite rightly that footballers can learn alot from the olympic atheletes and we have government campaigns aimed at getting more people involved in sport especially youngsters. I think the message from the olympics should be much more than that. The various stories of atheletes overcoming hardship to follow their dreams are inspiring and cross the boundary of athletics or competitive sports into other areas of life from academic studies to arts and crafts. If you want to be good at something the only person stopping you is you (within the bounds of finances and the law). The genuine satisfaction shown by atheletes who missed out on medals but performed a personal best is a reminder to us all that the only person who you need to compete against is yourself, that if you do your very best then you can be proud of yourself (and quite honestly who else matters?). Obviously this applies as much to training Wing Chun as it does to anything else. Of course as someone who is officially middle aged, who would be considered well past their peak for most if not all competitive sports it helps that Wing Chun can be practised well into old age and the olympics has inspired me to train even harder. I won’t ever get a gold medal, or even a bronze one because we don’t have them in Wing Chun but that’s cool, I’ll just be as good as I possibly can be happy in the knowledge that its a personal best.
Thanks to one of my senior kung fu brothers I now have sissy grips on my knives!!! Before anyone says anything it seemed like a good idea at the time.
In all fairness the grips do make the knives much less slippery when your hands get sweaty and so add a lot more oomph to the various actions (meaning that my newly mounted tyre is taking a beating). On the downside because they’re more grippy they are more difficult to spin and twirl, but at least I’m not in danger of them slipping out of my hands at an inopportune moment and causing irreperable harm to both the house and my marriage.
No, not around my waist (although I really do have to step up the cardio and ab work ahead of the holiday later in the year). Having seen various videos of folks using tyres in their training I was inspired, so I popped along to a local scrap yard and got myself a nice shiny used tyre – well ok it was dirty, smelly and full of stagnant water but I was excited.
I initially hung the tyre from the ceiling with some sturdy chains and proceeded to give it a good hiding with my knives.
Unfortunately the swinging of the tyre meant that it wasn’t really working so I went to plan B. Armed with my trusty hacksaw and jigsaw I set to work cutting the tyre in half. All I can say is that it’s not a task for the feint hearted, the folks who make these tyres do a great job. Anyway I finally managed to get the thing cut through and mounted onto the wall and it was well worth it. Hours of fun to be had with the knives. I did a workout yesterday and the feedback through the blades is amazing when you really go for it. Not sure what the neighbours think as the impact makes the whole house vibrate. I’ll post a vid as soon as I can but for now here’s a pic of my new toy.
sifuian 