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Home | About WingTsun | How to Join | WingTsun for Women | WingTsun Schools | Gallery | Shop | Links | Contact ®2003-2008 by Australian WingTsun® Network Pty Ltd T/A WingTsun Australia ACN 71 125 601 087 http://www.silvaback.com.au | http://www.nsdpowerball.com.au |
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Welcome to the WingTsun News Letter for November 2009
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 96% how I react to it. Scipio Africanus
Greetings everyone, the year is almost gone! So this will be the last WingTsun newsletter for 2009.
This month’s edition has the third instalment of Grand Master Kernspecht's thoughts on timing. We also have a chat to Rod Rush in our series of student profiles. Rod is one of the Waterloo schools most senior students and is proof that you can teach old dog new tricks. With the WT System having Two sets of principles as it foundation, the WT power Principles are explored in a non physical realm in “ Stay Free”. Dates for the last round of Australian WT grading seminars are also posted. The new stock of Shock Dr Groin Protectors has arrived in all sizes, so check the www.silvaback.com.au site to your early xmas presents. We wish everyone in our extended WT family a very happy and safe Christmas and a brilliant New Year. See you all in 2010!
In this Newsletter:
- WingTsun Headquarters Waterloo News
- WingTsun Brisbane News
- WingTsun at the Australian Hapkido Alliance
- WingTsun now in Adelaide
- Student Profile Rod Rush
- Surviving with the right timing Part 3
- Stay Free
- Seminars 2009-2010
WingTsun Headquarters Waterloo
Si-Fu has added a new set of weights to the school and has been showing us how to train with them in many unconventional ways. Traditionally weight training is not stressed in wt and most isolation type exercises don’t benefit our power delivery methods and in fact can make you slower and less effective. However, there are ways to incorporate heavy objects into our training regimes that increase core strength and agility without negative effects. (pic of novel use of weights)
Yoko graded on her 5th student level at the last grading seminar and has left us for a while to live, work and train in another land. We wish you good fortune, practice your forms and come back to us soon.
John S and Rod Rush both achieved black shirt status in the last few months with successful grading on the 10th Student Level Program. This is no small achievement as both can testify and represents years of dedicated training. More info on the student training program can be found here .
After John returned from his travels to Europe we are glad to say that the Friday class is back on as usual.
WingTsun Waterloo Christmas Opening Times
WingTsun HQ at Waterloo will be closed of the Christmas New Year Period, from the 20th Dec to 10th Jan 2010.
Last class: Sat 19/12/09
First Class: Mon 11/01/10
Still looking for a Christmas Present??
It was one of those special weekends again. In mid October, Australia’s chief instructor, Master Stefan Fischer, was in town to grade Si-Hing Juergen Baha’s WT students. Almost half of the Brisbane School students took the opportunity to prove that they were ready.
After lining up, everyone performed the Siu Nim Tao form. As usual Si-Fu Stefan, assisted by Si-Hing Jurgen, explained and demonstrated different aspects of the SNT form in depth. He pointed out common (beginner) flaws, and most importantly, showed how to avoid them.
For nine students it was their first WT grading. Some seemed understandably nervous at the beginning since it was their first time meeting their Si-Fu in the flesh. This changed quickly however, after they realized that they were not in an ordinary, nerve wrecking test situation where mistakes cannot be reversed. Attending a full day WT seminar presents students with an opportunity to have their mistakes corrected on the day of their grading and still attain the next level.
After a hard, six hour day of working through all the different aspects of their programs (Basics, Chi Sau, Lat Sau & BlitzDefence), the grading ended in the so called “Circle Of Death”. To be honest, no one has ever actually died in that circle, so the name may be a slight exagerration, but it definitely gets the adrenaline pumping. If you don’t know what it’s all about, well here is how it goes; One person stands in the centre, surrounded by all the others. She/he is then attacked by one person at a time, who may strike as they wish. Punches to the face, kicking the groin and “take downs” are all permited. However, all attacks are level appropriate. After the encounter reaches a logical end, the next person attacks, and so on…
So, in closing, congrats to everyone! Especially to Natalya Taylor who received the 8th student level. She demonstrated that she can more than hold her own in a fight with even the biggest attacker. Natalya is currently the second highest ranked female student in the Australian WingTsun Network (AWTN).
WingTsun at the Australian Hapkido Alliance
On October 11th, Si-Hing Peter Caro and John Simonides from the Australian Wing Tsun Headquarters had been invited by the Australian Hapkido Alliance to conduct a workshop at their Dojang in Liverpool, NSW. The aim of the workshop was to provide their students with an insight into the Wing Tsun system.
During the 1.5hr workshop, the Hapkido students were introduced to some of Wing Tsun’s unique tools – chain punching, the advancing step, the concept of sticking to your opponent, the lap sau / punch combination from the 1st Student Grade Blitz Defence program as well as some very basic reflex and sensitivity training. While 1.5hrs is very brief to discover the Wing Tsun system, it certainly provided a good taste of the System’s fundamentals.
The Hapkido students had shown great respect throughout the workshop for the tuition they had received and had also shown a good level of understanding for what was being taught. While the origins of Wing Tsun and Hapkido step from different origins in Asia, it was interesting to see that there were some brief similarities. The most notable difference was the fact that both systems address their problems not with set techniques but rather, through the use of principals.
Finally Leung Ting Wing Tsun School opens in Adelaide. The classes are conducted with Si-Hing Ralf Burger who has been studying WingTsun for several years in Germany and for the past year directly under Master Fischer in Sydney .Recently, Ralf successfully completed his Certificate 4 in Training and Workplace Assessment.
The school is based in the west, conveniently located in Croydon Park, 5km from the CBD.
The training is held in the Scout Hall on Pym St. The hall is clean, spacious and equipped with shower facilities. Training is offered on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday (coming in December) evenings.
The school gives women and men the opportunities to learn the art and science of Wing Tsun.
Please note we will close for Christmas Holidays from 24.12.09-04.01.10
Rod is one of the Waterloo schools most senior students and is proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks. He successfully graded on the 10th student program at the last grading seminar and now proudly represents a Black T-shirt as part of his WT uniform. Rod takes a no nonsense approach to training and can always be relied upon to give his best to his Si-Fu and training partners. His attainment of the 10th grade is a significant milestone and we take the opportunity to talk to him about how he found WT and why he still trains.
John: ”What was the incentive to start training in a martial art ?”
Rod: “The reason I started a martial art was that, at the age of 50, I could feel the onset of arthritis in my fingers and I got it into my head that a martial art may help. I had this in my mind and as I was walking down the street a local Karate school was handing out fliers. When I went up to him he basically ignored me; because of my age I imagine. I thought OK he's not interested I'll keep looking. I got the local paper and there was an add for WT that said For All Ages and I thought that's me, so I rang Sifu.”
John: “Did you know anything about WT ?”
Rod: “I had no real idea about any martial art. I had heard of Karate, of course, but I had no Idea what martial arts training involved.”
John: “What about as a kid ?”
Rod: “As a kid living in the western districts of victoria, in a little country town, the only martial art they had was boxing and I did a bit of that.”
John: “Did you play football? I've noticed that students who have played full contact sports are much more comfortable with Infighting and grappling.”
Rod: “I grew up in regional Victoria. My dad was the town baker and it was Australian rules in the winter and swimming,tennis and cricket in the summer. That was it. That's all we did.”
John: “So you started for health reasons mainly. What about self defense ?”
Rod: “No initially I didn't have that in mind. Sihing Otto did the demo and my first few lessons and as soon as he explained what WT was all about I new this was something I wanted to do.”
John: “In the 10 years youve been training, have you ever felt like chucking it in and going to learn something somewhere else ?”
Rod: “Not to learn something else, but at times it's very difficult to get out of the house; especially on a cold wet winters night or when I was tired. Up until a couple of years ago , I was shift working and I was always tired. Now that I'm retired I have much more free time.”
John: “What is your favorite part of a typical class? Fighting, Lat-sau, Chi-sau, the Blitz Program ?”
Rod: “I like it all because it all has a purpose. I like the anti-grappling and ground fighting; it scares me but when I'm actually doing it and its working for me, I really enjoy it. I like it all because its all beneficial. I like the people I train with and I have a high regard and great respect for all our instructors. I think our Sifu is a very impressive person and I fell fortunate and proud to be one of his students.”
John: “Have you suffered any serious training related injuries ?”
Rod: “No I've been lucky.”
John: “Do you have any goals or objectives with regard to your training.”
Rod: “I'd like to get to the Technician Levels ( Technician Levels 1 to 4 follow the 12 student grades) I just want to be as good as I can at what ever I'm doing. I'd be pleased with myself if I got through the student program to Technician.”
Thanks for letting us into your head Rod. See you at Waterloo.
Timing – Part 3: The preconditions for timing
"Timing may not be everything, but everything is nothing without the right timing!" Martial arts adage
The preconditions for timing
Before it is worthwhile to discuss timing in real situations seriously, the five preconditions on which timing is based must be in place:
- Consciousness
- Nimbleness, looseness, agility, deftness
- Physical balance
- Physical control, i.e. the ability to project one's entire force into the smallest movement
- Tactile sensitivity
Since everything is interdependent in the final analysis, and leaving fighting spirit apart for the moment, one could view timing not only as the sixth precondition for fighting ability, but indeed as the culmination, the overall, below-the-line result. The WingTsun master recognises timing to be the highest of all the necessary attributes: the king of all disciplines. While timing may not be everything, everything is nothing without the right timing! Or almost nothing, for we have to admit that even a WT fighter whose timing is not yet quite right has excellent chances against the average opponent if most of the other factors mentioned are in place. However, this means that he must compensate for the lack of perfect timing with speed, power, aggression etc. A student who fails to give the necessary attention to timing will find that his progress comes to an end in a blind alley. Timing, on the other hand, takes you from success to success, however old and naturally slow you might be. The 4th and last part of the series on timing will appear here next : “The hands of the clock turn differently in WingTsun.”
The great thing about being human (as opposed to say an ant) Is how good we are at learning how to do new things. With our amazing all singing and dancing minds we can examine the past and contemplate the future. We can change our routines through an act of will. Free-will; our biological advantage, the pinnacle of evolutionary achievement, some kind of magic that is our birth right. Or is it?
Ever feel like your life is just a series of routines? We eat we sleep we work we do the same things minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day. We speak the same few hundred words to the same few hundred people about the same few hundred things we find ourselves spending our lives doing with little mental effort.
It’s easy to become antlike if we get too comfortable in our patterns of doing, thinking and feeling. The human ability to reconfigure and adapt and learn how to do a new activity is based on repetition during the initial learning phase (other animals vary in their ability to learn). Once the skill or technique has been mapped in our brains and nervous system, it can be performed with little mental effort in comparison to the learning stage. The crown of human achievements is the ability to become ant-like at will. There is great comfort and security in a good routine and changing it can be unpleasant and here lies the danger. We get stuck in our patterns and miss out on life’s opportunities. Even worse, the ability to activate the learning centre of our brain, becomes more difficult the less we use it and this may account for much of the declining cognition of our aging population.
The WT system of training at the student level requires us to activate the ant within, in order to learn the basic techniques of the system through the forms and training routines. Once absorbed through practice and with careful guidance, they can be applied at will, based on our understanding of the Principles and concepts that are the foundation of WT. Each of us has an individual and unique expression of our WT and the process of learning, absorption and expression never ends. WT is a process of self discovery that can keep us young and free us from ourselves. (This freedom is expressed in the first Power Principle, to “free yourself from your own power”).
WT Power Principles:
1/ Free yourself from your own power.
2/ Free yourself from your opponents power.
3/ Harness your opponents power and use it against them.
4/ Add your own power.
WingTsun Seminars 2009
Sat. 28th of Nov. 10am-4pm |
Grading Seminar Canberra |
0415641498 |
Sa. 12th of Dec 10am-4pm |
Grading Seminar Waterloo |
02 96986540 |
WingTsun Ground Fighting Clinics GFC |
||
Fri. 27th of Nov. 7pm - 9pm |
GFC Canberra |
0415 641 498 |
Frid. 11th of Dec. 7pm-9pm |
GFC Waterloo |
02 96986540 |
WingTsun Seminars first half of 2010
Sat. 27th of Feb 10am-4pm |
Grading Seminar Melbourne |
0404688684 |
Sat. 20th of March 10am-4pm |
Grading Seminar Brisbane |
0403749790 |
Sat. 17th of April 10am - 4pm |
Grading Seminar Waterloo |
02 96986540 |
Sat. 15th of May 10am-4pm |
Grading Seminar Kaleen |
0415641498 |
Sa. 14th of August 10am-4pm |
Grading Seminar Waterloo |
02 96986540 |
WingTsun Ground Fighting Clinics GFC |
||
Frid. 26th of Feb 7pm-9pm |
GFC Melbourne |
0404688684 |
Fri. 19th of March 7pm - 9pm |
GFC Brisbane |
0403749790 |
Fri. 16th of April 7pm - 9pm |
GFC Waterloo |
02 96986540 |
Fri. 14th of May 7pm - 9pm |
GFC Kaleen |
0415641498 |
Frid. 13th of Aug. 7pm-9pm |
GFC Waterloo |
02 96986540 |
