What's been happening and whats to come in 2022

 

Apologies for not updating our blog sooner, I admit I'm not the most computer literate among us and tend to use the more popular social media platforms of Facebook and Instagram for class and lesson updates.

Overall so far 2022 has been an excellent training year, classes are reasonably well attended and everyone is clearly improving their skills and knowledge in the fundamentals of Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun Kuen - we have finally got a class of students who are happy training all areas from form and footwork to sticking hands, partner drills, barefist and gloved sparring work or clinch and some have also worked some long pole and wooden dummy drills also....everyone can see and feel more and more how these areas gel together and support each other in our system with our unique body structure methods underpinning everything.

My coach Aaron Baum and his student Sam Rusbridge came up to visit our club in Sudbury, Suffolk in July to hold a  3 to 4 hour training workshop covering form/structure and partner drills/sticking hands/clinch and gloved body sparring.

 Everyone was pushed and pressured enough to test what they had learnt so far, as always robustly but safely and all the students received gradings to reflect their level in CSL Wing Chun and Chinese Boxing to date. A very hot, sweaty but fun time was had all round and all attending left buzzing and wanting more!!

We still offer two main student classes per week - Monday 6pm to 8pm at my Training shed/Garden when space allows and our Wednesday evening venue of The Stevenson Centre Sudbury same times which is the main session new starters begin with when they join us.

As always, we as a club have had alot of people start in the last two years but drift away and fall out of the training habit which has led me to hand out Student Feedback Forms to see if I can more effectively attract new students and retain the ones that clearly love the training but struggle to stay regular students past two months or so and also plan to offer a Womens Self Protection short course in a daytime slot in September at the Stevenson Centre if we get enough interest to make it viable.

Contact me by phone/email for more information or to book a trial Wing Chun class

Paul - 07891 699272 - next.levelenq@yahoo.com 

Private Training with my Coach Aaron Baum

 

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. 

Return TO the Jedi - Episode 2 "Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun Kuen"

 

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.....well...four months ago anyway, as explained in my previous club update I made a return to Applied Body Mechanics Ving Tsun and the Wong Shun Leung system.

 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.