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Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. Oscar Wilder |
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Welcome to the home of the WingTsun News Letter.
The (chilly) winds of change are blowing and bring new opportunity (to train in the dark). For every door you walk through you must walk past many others, so choose carefully and don’t let the weather decide for you.
This months edition has the second installment of Grand Master Kernspecht's thoughts on timing. In part one he spoke of the emotional aspect of human reaction in a physical confrontation. This reminded me of a cataclysmic car accident I had years ago. Even though the events transpired in a few seconds, my memory of them is like a slow motion film; time seemed to slow down. This effect is caused by the flood of adrenalin and other neurotransmitters our body produces at times of stress. This effects our ability to engage in the moment and can enhance concentration and reaction time. It happens in a time frame much quicker than conscious thought. Our thoughts must play catch up and the ability to physically react can be hampered or completely suspended by a “startle response”. Like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car. This is also a very common human response to a stressful situation and can have the effect of giving us a front seat, slow motion view of our own demise. The practice of WT enables us to take full advantage of these physiological responses while not being overwhelmed by them. The Blitz program and de-stress training, the solo and partnered forms and training sets all contribute to this end and the benefits go far beyond a fighting context. The more we practice the better we can engage with life on our terms. The message is clear once again. Practice practice practice ..!!!!
Also in this Newsletter
Si-Hing Peter brings us a wrap up of the last grading seminar (check out Pics here)
News from the Waterloo school and the first “Student spotlight”; where we get inside the heads of people you train with.
In future editions we’ll be bringing you the writings of WT practitioners from around the world, on a wide range of topics featuring: Technique and application, Wt principles and theory, Health and wellbeing, personal experiences from some of your WT brothers and sisters as well as all the usual info about classes and seminars. If you want to contribute writings, pictures or suggestions please contact myself or Si-Hing Peter via our contact form
Fond regards
Your WT brother John Hessey
In this Newsletter:
- WingTsun Headquarters Waterloo
- WingTsun in the News
- Student Profile Kim Marshman
- Surviving with the right timing Part 2
- Why WingTsun Grading Seminars?
- The reinvention of John
- Seminars 2009
WingTsun Headquarters Waterloo
Waterloo school
The new headquarters has been a hive of activity over the last few months. The new rooms are more spacious and we now have a much bigger administration area and conference rooms, male and female change rooms, showers, a kitchen and more room to house training gear.
On Anzac day Si-Fu rewarded those who help with moving into the new premises, with a seminar on defense against glass and bottle attacks. Every one who attended is now better equipped to deal with this kind of encounter. Yet another example of how our Si-Fu strives to bring all students training that is based in real world scenarios and has usable, practical application.
Si-Hing John started a new class at 6.30 on Friday nights giving us training options six days a week. John is fully qualified to instruct WT with a certificate 4 in workplace training and St Johns ambulance training as well as being a committed, experienced and enthusiastic member of the instructor training program.
Numbers seem to be increasing as winter draws near with many people returning to regular training after being distracted by summer and life’s many demands.
Welcome to all new comers and welcome back to all prodigal sons and daughters.
WingTsun Lunch Time Training at HQ
Energize yourself over your lunch break with a 45-minute Power WingTsun class.
Starting on the 14th of July the WT HQ will offer two lunchtime classes per week on Tuesdays and Fridays at 1pm. The 45-minute class will give you all you need to power through the rest of the day. This the perfect way to get more training in when the week nights are getting full of all the other activities that need attention.
The Power WingTsun class will have a different structure to the regular class due to time frame. But no less action packed than you have come to expect from a regular WT class.
The new HQ is located at 67 Botany Rd Waterloo Sydney.
New Friday Class at Waterloo HQ
On Friday 17th of April at 6.30pm will commence a regular WT training class. Sihing John Simonides, who is one of Si-Fu Fischers dedicated Instructor Students, will run the new Friday night class. The HQ now has training 6 days a week. All those students on unlimited training passes can now revel in training Monday through to Saturday.
Master Fischer Featured in Blitz Mags’ Instructor Special
Don’t miss out on your copy of the Blitz Magazine Instructor Special (OUT NOW). Read the two page interview with Sifu Fischer and see the technique work shop where Sifu Fischer shows us defence against a side kick.
Student Profile - Kim Marshman
John: How did you first hear about WT?
Kim: Through Corrin (WT girlfriend) I was talking to her, because I hate going to the Gym and I used to play netball, but my knees were getting too sore and she said why don’t you come and do the trial week. So I went to the Demo and signed up the next week.
John: Had you done any other kind of martial art before?
Kim: Nothing at all.
John: So you were looking for something athletic to replace the netball.
Kim: I Hated going to the Gym and everything else was team sport and you had to depend on someone else. This was something I could do and not have to rely on anyone. And …. Its different.
John: so the main reason you started training was physical fitness?
Kim: Yes.
John: What do you like best about training now?
Kim: learning new techniques. The people. The instructors. Fitness and self defense. Fitness was the main reason I started but then I started learning about self defense. And the psychology behind it. I like the doing … the practical part as well as the theory.
John: How has WT changed you.
Kim: Its given me more confidence. Walking down the street and with people in general. WT helps me to be myself and not judge other people.
John: That’s interesting. Its given you new ways of looking at your relationships with other people.
Kim: There are reasons why people do what they do and its not always obvious.
John: Is there anything you don’t like about training?
Kim: When it finishes. Maybe some people are difficult to train with but there is really nothing I dislike about WT because its common sense. Its just so logical.
John: Do you get many injuries?
Kim: No. I don’t mind getting sore muscles cause that lets me know I’ve actually worked them.
John: Do you think it’s an easy thing to learn?
Kim: No it’s not easy, but that’s why I like it too. It’s a challenge that’s achievable. It looks easy but actually physically doing it is another thing.
John: Do you have any specific goals.
Kim: To get as far as I can and to be really good. Not to be just good. To be excellent. To represent the T-shirt.
John: What’s the difference for you between training with men and women?
Kim: Most men have more physical strength so you have to get you technique down pat. It’s a martial art for women and its all about technique and using you opponents strength against them.
John: Thanks for letting us inside your head Kim.
Kim: No worries mate. See you in class.
Timing – Part 2: Timing beats speed
"Timing is the ability to seize an opportunity when it is offered.” - Bruce Lee.
Timing beats speed
Most fighters will not be able to define it precisely in scientific terms, but somehow they know what is meant by "timing”. Bruce Lee called it "the ability to seize an opportunity when it is offered”. Timing is the (almost Aristotelian) requirement to be in the right place at the right time, so as to strike the right target with the right weapon at the right speed and with the correctly metered energy. If our timing is good, this is apparent from its effects. To the victim and the spectator it seems that a miracle has happened: the opponent is struck like a bolt from the blue, and he is flung several metres with no apparent effort on our part, as if it happened of its own accord!
When the opponent commences an action; I am already there to intercept everything he does. When the opponent moves, I anticipate him!
Age, speed and physical strength lose their importance.
A timing expert is able to beat his opponent even if he is only half as fast. Timing beats speed almost every time. Speed is a very fine thing, but it is not a decisive factor in WT. Neither must it be, for otherwise WT would only be suitable for young people and those who are genetically blessed with above-average speed thanks to fast-responding muscle fibres.
With the right timing the old master can say to the young man "I am already there", even though he is by no means as fast as he used to be. All that is important is that all the factors producing the effect are timed to come together to the millisecond: the gap in the defence, the angle, distance, concentrated force, looseness and balance. Timing is not the same as speed, but even the naturally fast benefit from timing – though only if they possess patience in addition to speed. More haste, less speed should be a WT motto. Otherwise there is a danger that we will run up against a door that is still closed in our haste, warning and frightening the opponent who was just about to open it to us.
In WT we never beat down closed doors, we patiently wait for an invitation and then enter the door without haste. Our Man-Sao (the arm that points towards the opponent, looking for contact) asks the opponent, "Please show me where you want me to hit you".
We are sensitive to the cadences of the opponent, and even breathe in the same rhythm, to lull him to sleep like a child or a domestic pet. But we also try to induce our own cadence in him.
As you can see, having a vague idea of timing is not enough for us to learn or teach, as we need to know what we can achieve with timing, what it encompasses and what it takes to acquire timing.
How else are we to know whether we have researched the field of timing adequately, and whether it might not be possible to achieve the result in only one third of the training time.
The 3rd part of the series on Timing will appear here in the next newsletter: "The high art of timing".
Keith R. Kernspecht
Have you ever had to stand in a hall with your Si-Fu, Sensei or Special Guest Master in front of you and 80 or so of your fellow students behind you? Then had to perform all that was required for your grading, perfect, first time no exception? It can be a very nerve racking experience for most people. Not the best position to be in, wouldn’t you agree? This can result in some very poor performances from students, who don’t deal well with that kind of pressure and which could cost them their grade.
“ I would rather fight 10 skin heads than do a grading in front of my Si-Fu!” That quote is from Master Fischer relating his experiences in his early years of WT training.
The WingTsun System has adopted the seminar approach to grading to help alleviate the problems associated with the style of grading mentioned above. In Australia Master Fischer conducts all the grading and puts the students through a 6-hour training seminar to assess their readiness to proceed to the next level. This method has a variety of benefits for the students.
To start with the average student gets over half a months training delivered in one day, intense it may be, but we have found no one who comes out of it without a better mental and physical understand of WT than when they started. Students who don’t want to grade can come and just train their relevant programs. Over the course of the day should the student not be perfect with certain parts of their program, they can train any short comings out of their system, with the constant guidance from Master Fischer and his Instructor Team. The 6 hours also allows Master Fischer to assess the students overall performance in all aspects of their program. This way of grading has proved to be very successful, with a very high passing rate.
So if your first WT grading is coming around. Don’t sweat it! (Although! Actuall, you will sweat a lot). Check out some of the happy people in the photo in the article at the end of the last Sydney WT Grading held at WT HQ in Waterloo.
The reinvention of John: What you are never changes; who you are never stops.
New year’s day three years ago I awoke in the St Vincent’s neurology ward with tubes coming from my nose, to find the world I had known replaced. The world that greeted me each morning, that I had taken for granted, now looked and felt different in ways that I often struggle to articulate. My discharge report reads “acute by-lateral occipital infarcts” with the effect of legal blindness (dead brain bits). The areas of my brain that process information from the eyes has been severely damaged by lack of oxygen; caused by some kind of blockage of normal blood flow. At first I couldn’t see anything and found walking difficult. Brain injuries are often mysterious in their effect. I spent a month in a rehab ward getting my balance back and having a battery of test to find any abnormalities; of which they found many including a hole in my heart and missing arteries, but none they considered relevant. I was being observed to see if I only shaved on one side or thought my right arm belonged to someone else, as happens to some stroke sufferers. In the end they came up with a blank page of definitive explanations. Another anomaly? Maybe not. My idea of normal has gone through some changes. I have come to understand that it’s the way you look at things that makes them what they are and each of us looks from a different place that is subject to constant change. What you are never changes and who you are never stops. After a year of rehab and white Cain training with Guide Dogs and a weight increase of 40 Kg I felt a calling. I have always had one thing that I do on a regular basis that seems to make everything else OK; that brings peace and some amount of internal harmony. It’s taken various forms: surfing, hang-gliding, yoga. I started training at a gym in the city. I wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms, but I am tenacious if nothing else. I took the kickboxing classes and then Brazilian Jujitsu. My childhood fascination with the martial arts rekindled; having trained in boxing, Wrestling, Judo and Tae Kwon Do as a kid. What I was looking for was some thing new and Google (my computer talks to me J) took me there.I accepted the offer of a free week of classes and the more I learnt, the more intrigued I became. I knew this was something I could do. I bought and devoured every book on sale at the school and watched every video I could find (in slow motion). I scoured the planet as best I could and found mountains of information (and not a few minefields). In the last three years of training I’ve suffered injury and self-doubt. Just getting to class is an ordeal that often takes hours. My Seeing Eye Dog Angie gets me there now and saves me the regular frustration of late arrivals and missed classes.
To this day I search for truth and meaning and have found it elusive. I have trained with many Wing Chun masters in Sydney at schools and behind closed doors and have always returned to Master Fischer and my WT brothers and sisters.
I have been practicing WT now for 3 years and every day brings something new to understand and learn. I no longer grope around in the dark for I have found new ways to look at the world and move around in it. Wing Tsun has made me fitter, faster, smarter and more comfortable in my own body.
Sa. 15th of August 10am-4pm |
Grading Seminar Waterloo |
02 96986540 |
Sat. 22nd of August 10am-4pm |
Grading Seminar Melbourne |
0404688684 |
Sat. 17th of Oct. 10am-4pm |
Grading Seminar Brisbane |
0403749790 |
Sa. 12th of Dec 10am-4pm |
Grading Seminar Waterloo |
02 96986540 |
WingTsun Ground Fighting Clinics GFC |
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Frid. 14th of August. 7pm-9pm |
GFC Waterloo |
02 96986540 |
Fri. 21nd of Aug. 7pm - 9pm |
GFC Melbourne |
0404688684 |
Fri. 16th of Oct. 7pm - 9pm |
GFC Brisbane |
0403749790 |
Frid. 11th of Dec. 7pm-9pm |
GFC Waterloo |
02 96986540 |
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