Aaron Baum Sihing and Alan Orr Sifu
Just wanted to write a blog post on my recent private training down in Brighton with my CSL Wing Chun Coach Aaron Baum, partly for my reference and also to pay respect to a true legend of a man, which sounds maybe a little over the top considering this was only the second time we have trained together, but anyone who knows him will agree whole heartedly I'm sure.
I arrived in a rainy Brighton via 3.5 hour train journey around lunchtime and met Aaron in an underground parking area at his apartment complex with ample room to train undercover from the conditions.
I'll say at this point that when I first met him almost two years ago in March 2020 (Pre Covid19), I found him very easy to get on with, open minded but clearly knowledgeable but had a clear air, confidence (and nose) of a man who has experienced real fighting.
The occasional Wing Chun forum posts I had read leading upto this had sometimes painted a picture of a bully type figure with MMA fight experience who would rough you up so it took some small element of bravado I guess to some degree to meet up and take boxing gloves and a mouthguard with me but all that first meeting revealed is that in this sad internet age, people judge without knowing far too much and he was not like this at all and coached me safely but robustly in the basics of Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun Kuen like we had known each other years.
This lesson we built on that and I now had those two years of Online CSL Wing Chun Course materiel knowledge and testing some of the methods with my students and in daily solo training, which had stood me in good stead but doesn't replace time in the grind in person with someone more skilled like Aaron.
We began with a light mobility warm up and momentum footwork drills which fire up the 7 bows (arch of foot/ankle/knee/hip/shoulder/elbow/wrist). These drills I had worked before via his Zoom sessions but it was really only today that I began to see the depth and importance of these and how they relate to our Wing Chun body handling.
Aaron then checked and tweaked my Siu Nim Tau and Chum Kiu forms and we covered some stance shifting drills as the turning is quite different from my past Wing Chun training and needed clarification, this was an example of where a good coach can find a method of getting you to feel what the drill is trying to achieve...I was struggling a bit with coordination and feeling the sink press rise and body connection until Aaron handed me his holdall filled with training gear and asked me to do the Chum Kiu turns again...straight away I felt why and how I needed to allow my body to distribute the weight in motion. Simple but gold!!
We then covered a light kicking distance/timing drill dutch kickboxing style (one for one) and layered in some other areas as we went, an excellent way to complete the warm up and something I could take back and introduce in my classes.
Aaron went on to cover close body force and momentum handling work and then we put the mouthguard in and boxing gloves on and worked some body sparring using everything he had introduced in the warm ups, all controlled striking but robust enough to know you had to stay in the game and allow the body to surf the exchange's of force.
He layered in some clinch work to this and the kicking/knees we had covered and explained how to build live drills for learning in an open sparring type format but with limits so focused work gets done and there's no fear or flailing or trying to win, we did this with gloves and bareknuckle as well as isolated clinch games by working for different positions of dominance and reversing them in a constant flow so the working together component is there at first.
Sam Rusbridge and Aaron
Aaron's student Sam came along for last 25 mins or so to meet up in person and train with me for a bit, Sam works closely with Aaron in classes and privately for the last few years and has some solid skills and structure and again was a great, open minded student and good to work with. We did some body sparring, clinch work, how to introduce head shots safely in sparring drills as well as some free Chi Sao with Aaron changing in as the partner every few minutes, coaching all the time.
Overall it was an excellent day out and will certainly be back again soon for more of the same and I would urge anyone to go and see him and train, you wont be disappointed.
I also plan to arrange for him to come to Sudbury and coach a small workshop this Spring/Summer all being well so my students can gain some insight into his way of coaching the system and see what I'm talking about.
Aaron Baum is the Head of CSL Wing Chun UK and can be contacted directly on the details below and holds led Zoom sessions by arrangement and class training in the Lewes Road, Brighton area.
Ying Hung Wing Chun Kuen is the name given by Sigung Robert Chu to Alan Orr/Aaron Baum as the UK representatives of Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun Kuen system taught in their own ways but keeping true to the teachings and training methods of Robert Chu Sigung.
