This was following a two year stint studying and beginning the process of adapting my Wing Chun via Alan Orr and Aaron Baum of the Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun Kuen family, mainly via his excellent online study courses while putting the lessons into practice with private students and later classes when we were able to in the current Covid19 situation.
All was well and then I began to realise there was a huge amount of depth in their system and admittedly panicked that I would be unable to absorb and pass all of this on effectively and like a security blanket, returned to past training habits.
This is not a post to negatively talk about past training or the politics already rife in WC/VT circles, and Ernie Barrios was excellent in terms of trying to get his thinking and reasoning across to me about the changes he made and why but after a mere four months I had come to the simple conclusion that my Wing Chun views on how the system can be trained and my body handling and coaching had changed too much to return. I always fully agreed with the views and training methods provided by Sifu and Aaron and others in CSL Wing Chun and myself and the students also missed the Chinese Boxing gloved sparring drills and the buzz that provides as well as the carryover into all the other training areas and body structure skills we were developing.
To cut the story short, I exchanged some messages with Alan Orr Sifu about my predicament and he kindly informed me his door was still open if I wanted to return and after discussing the matter with some close students made the decision to cut my ties with the potential learning of ABMVT and set my coordinates for the Dagobah system ...Hahaha (Star Wars reference's ..and if you don't understand shame on you!
The messages of support from other students as well as Sifu and Robert Chu Sigung already welcoming me back to their tight knit family group makes me see what I would have left behind.
The depth available to explore is truly awe inspiring but these layers and details wont or cant be learnt and internalised overnight anyway, so the message is clear, for anyone wanting a solid, fully pressure tested Wing Chun system with something for all there are few if any more complete than what we have here and everyone from part time hobbyist to fully absorbed Wing Chun geek will gain at the very least a very sound foundation of real skill and ability, have fun, get fitter, be taken out of your comfort zone at times but essentially be part of a valuable family unit where we work and grind and grow together.
I'm aiming to meet up with Aaron Baum the CSL UK head representative again within the coming weeks and I've already signed back up to the Alan Orr Wing Chun Academy Online learning platform and have picked the study back up to complement my coaching and solo training.
We have a great atmosphere in the training sessions, everyone working well with each other to improve, some returning students and new faces as well as the small few that have been a constant for the last 5 years or so. Its a great time to get involved if you're thinking of it now the pandemic situation seems to be easing here in the UK
So enough talk...LETS TRAIN!!! May the Force Flow be with you..always.
