Last weekend (16th/17th September 2023) I attended Alan Orr Sifu's Brighton Training Camp on the Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun Kuen/Chinese Boxing system.
Although I've trained in this system for over 3 years via some private tuition from UK head rep Aaron Baum and Sifu's excellent Online learning platform for the entire system, this was the first time, barring Zoom sessions, that I had met Alan Orr in person to learn from him, mainly due to the Covid situation and him being unable to fly over from New Zealand for his yearly visit.
I will give a brief run down of what was covered, but far too much and too lengthy to go into much detail as you would have needed to be there to understand fully.
Day 1 we began with a full breakdown of CSL WCK (Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun Kuen) empty hand forms, Siu Nim Tau and Chum Kiu. Our forms are more holistic than most and have Qigong attributes interwoven in via breathing focus, opening the joints of the body (7 Bows), mind focus, tendon development and whole connected body structure, linking/delinking etc so this took some time with around 30 in the room to check and correct the feeling, position and connection of peoples form actions.
This first 2-3 hours also involved partner exercises to help test and check the quality and function of many of the actions found within these forms, as Sifu says on a regular basis there are many layers to develop and uncover and with Siu Nim Tau especially being our standing pole internal training this takes daily work , ideally for up to an hour alone to truly benefit from, in a similar way to a boxer that jabs a bag for 5 mins a day isn't going to get anywhere - time and effort as always.
After a short water break we then began to explore some Clinch positions and transitions from two common situations we find in close range fighting and Chi Sao - the partners arm pulled across their body and an attacking hand on the inside of the partners arms .
Sifu, with the help of BJJ black belt and long term student Pete Irving (Itapava BJJ Newcastle) ran through around 10 examples of how to pressure, control the clinch to strike possibilities or takedown and transitions via anatomical handles (wrist/elbow/shoulder/neck/hip/knee etc)
Personably I felt this segment would have been well received in any amateur or professional MMA club as the level of teaching and breakdown was world class, but for our system and approach to Wing Chun, close in during sticking hands or sparring drills, where many Wing Chun approaches, strike and then back away, or just charge forward and reset, we have the option to tie up, clinch, take balance and position all the way to ground control or submission (as would happen in MMA and possibly needed in the street). Sifu did a very good job of explaining the adjustments for a real encounter versus that in a competition fighting one person with a referee and gave examples of each.
We ended Day 1 in live Chi Sao trying to utilise the clinch exercises we had covered that day, and all tired and very hot and sweaty, but smiling left to recover after 6 hours ready for Day 2.
Day 2 began with the Biu Jee form and similar breakdown depth and exercises to test the actions , I learnt a lot from the first 2 hours and there are significant differences to the other versions of Biu Jee I've trained over the years which all make sense and highlight the depth of quality in this system of Wing Chun, there were certainly many carryovers to the Internal focused Chu Shong Tin method in terms of, not "trying" to elbow, opening the body, sinking and rising at the same time internally , transfer of mass etc. (some nasty aspects in there also such as the ginger shaped fist and phoenix tooth which I still have bruises from even training it lightly and controlled from touching distance!!!)
The remainder of this second day we worked various higher level entries in Chi Sao which utilised the second form and third form thinking and skills when the more simple idea gets jammed , as is the wheel of progress, eventually these layers come full circle and the skills you acquire from regular training allow the basic entries you first learn to still be successful as skill accumulates and the body awareness improves. Good basics ARE the advanced level!
The last 45 mins or so was Live Chi Sao/Gor Sao and had some intense testing rolls with Sai Jun Mak and Aaron Baum - both long term seniors under Sifu and very skilled, as well as many others who all helped and pushed me to some degree.
I was very happy my student Henry Tsang also attended and got alot of experience under fire from the weekend, these things you cant explain, you need to be there and go through it and like Sifu spoke of at the end "Guys will no doubt say - ahh gutted I wish I was there etc - but they could have been, just chose not to, a year in the planning, £10 a week put away would have more than covered it and family, job etc would have still been there when you got back after 2 days but he said with a wry smile - but its fine, I get it, if you don't want to improve don't come...one guy, Jim made it over from America just for the weekend and another from Holland to experience what was being covered and gain that in person experience
A very intense but enjoyable and informative weekend - Alan Orr Sifu is without doubt a world class level teacher and can demonstrate fully what he talks about, he is a hard task master as you would expect having been in the company of high level fighters and masters from other disciplines in stand up and grappling arts and on contact feels like a tree with very soft hands, no doesn't use his size or localised strength, doesn't just push off the ground, doesn't just rely on mechanical alignment - all of which I have read about on forums about him from people who haven't even met him , the one downside is soon he will be back in New Zealand but for now I have plenty to process and try and pass onto my small training group in Suffolk.
