During October 2012, Sifu Chris Thompson asked once again (3rd visit in 3 years) to bring a few of his regular students up to our club in Bury St Edmunds to afford them the opportunity to experience different teaching styles and opinions on how Wing Chun can be practiced.
The key aspects covered on this training day were;
1/ Generating simple attack lines
2/ Bypassing defensive barriers
3/ Structural springs and leverage
The students were given partner drills to develop structural integrity using the Fook Sau (subduing) concept to cut off an opponents straight attack using power from the elbow, generated use and connection of the waist and support from the ground, working on the basic idea of attacking the attack rather than the often used, less direct method of - defend with one hand while striking with the other.
As the drills opened up and the partners began to respond being forced to defend themselves, we covered how to bypass these barriers by taking a new direct attack line, minimizing the need for additional Paak (slap) or Laap (pull/deflect) actions, instead utilizing Jut (jerk/drag) when the initial punch was forced out from centre.
This led nicely onto the importance of maintaining a simple attack minded approach when barriers present themselves and also the need for correct distance to allow for the full use of leverage and structural springs to assist in taking and controlling the partners centre of mass, keeping them off balance to prevent them successfully defending or counter attacking at close quarters.
Sifu Chris Thompson's students are always an open, receptive group to teach and the feedback was very positive with some interesting ideas for them to take away and research, yet all along similar lines to how they are currently being coached. Hats also go off to Chris who himself had just got off a flight back from Hong Kong and Thailand earlier that morning and was a little blurry eyed yet still made the effort to help out where needed during the session.
We all look forward to the return visit down to sunny Southend to see their new full time training facilities and martial arts supplies shop (Shaolin Martial Arts Supplies - Southend) in the coming year.
More info for Sifu Chris Thompson's club can be found at www.southendwingchun.co.uk
On a last note, the club T-Shirts and Hoodies have been ordered now so should be with us by early December all being well i'm told.
Sunday classes break up for Christmas on Sunday 16th December (last class) then we restart on Sunday 6th January 2013 for another progressive training year.
