My day began around lunchtime with Jason coming over to mine early so we could have a couple of hours training before the camp to go through any areas I needed clarification on and to tweak certain aspects of the foundation level.
In this session Jason provided a comprehensive breakdown of the correct stance set up and mechanics needed to fully integrate the stance to the upper half, adjustments to footwork, frame and punch line leverage, full triangle hitting and how those same mechanics are used in the kicking ensuring a direct line from ground to target via power from the waist.
We also worked Dan Chi stationary with the isolated striking mechanics focus, again stance use came to the fore and the clarity of balance, leverage, targeting and recycling apparent - then progressed to adding a step and attacking as one unit.
In this time we also ran through some spine and hip mobility work - activating the whole body but mainly the core and spine fluidity of movement and opening the hip girdle as a pre cursor to the kicking flows.
Lastly we ran through a small amount of the legacy Pak Sau Timing Drill, Lap/Lop Sau and ABMVT version of Chi Sau or CPT (connected partner training) in which I got to feel a true sense of why I chose to explore this avenue of Ving Tsun development in the first place, effortless power release, core VT concepts such as Taan, Fook, Chiu Ying coming out naturally...Jason is strong, fast and powerful but I must add he didn't use any of these natural and developed attributes when training - in this method there is no arm grinding, no forcing the elbows into uncomfortable and unnatural positions, no hand chasing and no stress at all on the shoulder musculature - just simple full body striking mechanics and stance supported framework.
Without repeating myself the main training camp followed a similar format, Jason presented the information in a clear, concise manner and was open to any questions that arose during the day.
In the same vein as our Discovery Day, it was a sheer pleasure for me to see the guys eyes light up at times and both myself and Jason literally saw everybody in the room improve to some degree from start to finish - that in my experience is special and something I have not witnessed in 20 years of attending these type of workshops or seminars.
This method, as all worthwhile skills, also needs constant attention and hard work, the bigger muscle groups such as the thighs and hamstrings, glutes and midsection get worked to large percent in all we do, cardiovascular conditioning comes as a part of the training process to some degree but assistance work will be beneficial to all training the ABMVT modules in order to maximise your potential, everybody has limitations to some degree, either mentally, physically or time, family constraints..so its uber important to make sure you give 100% effort and focus to when you are at training sessions and try to attend on a regular basis with some ancillary work in your own time ideally - remember these are perishable skillsets - and the magic happens OUTSIDE your comfort zone...as a coach I do my utmost to get one to one training time with you all and help you to understand what we should be focusing on - but for all you esoteric mother hubbards out there - 50% comes from your teacher - 50% must come from yourself - meet me halfway at least and be prepared to work your asses off at times for the betterment of the group - before you even begin swanning on about Bruce Lee, Wong Shun Leung etc remember they put a huge workload in on a daily basis, as did any well known martial artist or fighter who got anywhere...no shortcuts fellas....hard, consistent but enjoyable training..while we were all enjoying our camp content - ABMVT Salisbury coach Adam Gerken was being put through his paces to literally vomiting alongside Kev Bell in Southampton via a prowler session (a very heavy metal sled you load with iron and push across the room) and walking dumbell lunges with 33kg in each hand...leading by example if I ever saw it...
Everyone got to feel and understand their movement and body to a greater degree whilst enhancing their skill development and that of their training partners - make them - don't break them!
A truly egoless training modality...
If you look at pretty much all other endeavours from transport to nutrition, sports science to medicine or computer programming - everything has evolved leaps and bounds from where it was 50 years ago - yet Wing Chun/Ving Tsun is plagued with training that harks back to these times for the sake of tradition and nostalgia more that efficiency and practical evolution...or teachers add other systems in the hope of filling a perceived void, thus complicating and adding skillsets which dont always marry together in a natural harmonious way without contradiction (but may sell like hot cakes as a marketing model)
In my mind ABMVT provides a sane cure to much of this when it comes to modernising the training methods that comprise our front facing, close quarter fighting system that is VT.
For more information please check out the link below for details of the International branches and future training camp information
