New Venue

Our new second class venue, in Bury St Edmunds town centre, St Johns Church Hall, St Johns Street, BSE will now begin from Tuesday 2nd March 2010 - 7pm - 8.30pm (£7 a session or free for those paying £35 monthly tuition fees).
Unfortunately we had to delay the starting of this class due to Insurance documentaion not coming through in time.

I hope all members and friends had a good Christmas and New year and look forward to a progressive, action packed training year ahead in 2010.

See you all in class soon - first class of the new year is Sunday 10th January - 4 - 6pm at Moreton Hall Health Club, Mount Road, BSE

Sifu

Make a resolution to improve yourself - Bruce Lee did!

After all the festivities which most, if not all of us are about to enjoy at the end of this year, many of us will write resolutions for the coming year...of which, a large percentage will be health and fitness based or to do with our hobbies or habits aiming to change or improve some aspect of our life for the better.

As martial artists we may choose to improve a number of aspects which relate to our interest, ranging from attending more classes to working hard on our approach to Wing Chun and setting short term goals, maybe to complete the next hand form or drill our footwork or Chi Sau to a better level.

Bruce Lee himself transformed himself greatly after one fighting challenge which although he won, realised he didn't reach the conclusion in a very effective way due to his lack of fitness conditioning and therefore set about writing a disciplined exercise and nutrition regime to work towards reaching the intensely high standards he expected of himself.
The proof as they say is in the pudding and now his training philosophies and physique are legendary and for the most part unparalled, even today.

In the modern era, fitness conditioning is being more and more recognised for sports as an essential aspect to reach your potential, with even golfers and snooker players hiring strength and conditioning coaches to improve their game and set a clean nutrition plan in action, so for combat, whether in a sports or street arena it becomes obvious that a certain level of improvement in body unity, strength, endurance, flexibility, speed and power should be considered.

I myself am aiming to drop almost 2 stone in bodyweight and trim down to a lean 12 stone (or thereabouts) by putting into action such a plan containing elements of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with the Carlson Gracie Revolution Team, Muay Thai with Phraya Pichai camp BSE, Running, MMA & Boxing drills, Skipping, Bodyweight exercises and Weights, while maintaining a little and often approach to my nutrition using methods which professional fighters use to get in competition shape...by posting it on here it gives me more incentive to live upto my words as I aim to work towards hitting my peak and goal by May 2010 and maintaining it throughout the year.

Whatever you choose to improve this year, remember there are no tomorrows, our destiny and health is in our hands and can be acted on from this moment forward.

2010 is a potentially exciting year for our club as we have further upcoming seminars with WSL coach Alan Gibson and hopefully others in the Wing Chun community...our grading syllabus begins...our new T-shirts and merchandise will be available and Im looking to double if not triple our member base with lots of local advertising and hard work.

So enjoy the Christmas and New Year excess and get ready for a progressive and full on training year in 2010!!!


Sifu Paul Blissett

Christmas Holidays

Just a short reminder to all members that our last class before Chistmas is - Sunday 20th December 2009 at the usual time of 4pm - 6pm. We may all go for a drink of Xmas cheer down the road for those who wish to after class.

Classes start back in the new year on Sunday 10th January 2010 (giving us 2 Sundays off) and also a reminder that our second venue in Bury St Edmunds town centre opens on Tuesday 26th January at St Johns Church Hall, St Johns Street, BSE (opp Gymophobics) at 7pm - 8.30pm - this class is free to those paying £35 per month and £7 per class to all others - please try and support this class on a regular basis.

I would like to wish all members a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2010. Sifu

'An Open Mind'

''By opening your mind you open your potential'' - Sifu Paul Blissett

You will often see various Martial Art groups describe themselves as having an open minded approach to their practice...but have you ever thought what this entails?

After many years of study, teaching and research into the skills of 'Wing Chun' and seeing or experiencing first hand seven distinct and different sets of methods to the practice of 'Wing Chun Kung Fu' and with knowledge of several other branches, I feel I have 'an open mind'  towards my perception of the art.

Since the worldwide explosion of MMA (mixed martial arts) encouraging students of combat systems to pick up a core of four or more martial disciplines to be successful, the knock on effect in many martial art schools is to attempt to prepare and provide for the ripple effect of this requirement - but are you planning to fight in a cage???...maybe...maybe not...

I believe Wing Chun is a complete system in its own right and perhaps following one path will answer all our questions - but rather than profess to have all the answers myself I actively encourage my students to maintain an open mind and search as I do for what works for them - even if it means they follow a different path to get there, either by cross-training in other arts or researching other Wing Chun schools of thought.

An open minded person is someone who is willing to consider ideas, opinions and arguments based on their merit.

With Wing Chun being conceptual in nature there are many and varied ways of applying these concepts and these can be explored as Wing Chun is, or should be, a lifelong quest for knowledge and progress.

So as a final note, remember on your journey on the path of Wing Chun beware of anyone who claims to offer the 'best' or 'only' way to practice...there is more than one way to cook your potato!!!

Chi Sau - the skill of 'Sticking Hands'

'Wing Chun' is renowned for its close range fighting methods and a key area to the full development of this is working on and more importantly, understanding the Chi Sau (sticking hands) drills.
What separates Chi Sau from other areas of Wing Chun such as the forms is the endless nature of the practice, there is always room for improvement, the subtle skill development never ceases, meaning you can continue to practice into old age.

Beginning students begin this process by learning 'Daan Chi Sau' (single sticking hands) which puts some practical use to the actions and concepts being learnt in the Siu Nim Tau (little/young idea) form.
This drill also introduces the correct use of energy when both attacking and absorbing incoming strikes and strengthens the basic stance to allow the hands to relax and 'feel' when and how to respond through a set sequence of continuous flowing actions training the seeds of the Wing Chun system - Bong Sau (upper arm deflection) - Taan Sau (spreading/dispersing hand) - and Fook Sau (subduing hand).

(Pictured: Grandmaster Ip Man playing 'Chi Sau' with a young Bruce Lee)

Students soon move on to the main Wing Chun Chi Sau exercise using a double handed approach, this is sometimes compared to a laboratory stage where a student can experiment with relative safety and control the more subtle aspects of the skills of Wing Chun and how the concepts learnt relate to close quarter contact with a partner, who is most likely  trying to find a gap in your defence in which to strike.

After a basic understanding has been achieved in this exercise it is important to always have in mind the maintainance of a direct, no-nonsense approach, drilling your reflex responses to adapt quickly and efficiently to the situation at hand in a positive, assertive manner.

By following the main Wing Chun concept/rhyme of 'Loi Lau, Hoi Sung, Lat Sau, Jik Chung' (meet what comes, follow what goes, lost hand, spring forward) a student learns to automatically find gaps in his opponents defence and exploit any mistakes in position or overuse of energy without thought.

Many Wing Chun practitioners still view Chi Sau as a method to tie up the arms of your opponent and/or to endlessly stick to their arms and nullify any attacks on their person with some kind of secret magic skill....to train with this as a goal only leads to poor, non direct Wing Chun and the often talked about habit of 'Jui Sau' (chasing the hands) rather than the centre.

Wing Chun Kung Fu is a simple, direct and sophisticated weapon and although health benefits and longevity can be gained from regular practice, the goal should always be to follow the core concepts and find an attacking line with minimum effort, maximum effectiveness.

In my class on every last Sunday of the month from November 2009, practice will be centered around the Chi Sau exercises for the entire lesson, in this way the skills have a better chance to be bedded in and understood and concepts can be expanded upon to increase your development and skill base.

Sifu Paul Blissett

Wong Shun Leung Ving Tsun - Seminar Report - October 2009

We were very pleased to welcome WSL Coach Alan Gibson of 'The Wing Chun Federation' to our Bury St Edmunds club on Sunday 18th October 2009 to hold a seminar based on the Wong Shun Leung Ving Tsun (wing chun) methods.

The event began with a short talk about the basics of the system and the fundamental importance of learning to use the correct stance and structures in our practice from early on, this would have been an obvious subject and something which all wing chun instructors would promote, though it was quite clear as we began the practical stance testing exercises that their base was much more stable, rooted and aligned than anything we had experienced in the past with various groups.

The seminar progressed at an enticing rate with each part building well on the previous aspects covered with Alan demonstrating the outstanding direct, efficiency of these methods time and again with the students he brought along to assist and various attending students - the main focus being tying the strong, yet mobile stances and soft, yet powerful bridge-arm structures with a dynamic positive fighting mentality to achieve your goal of subduing your opponent within one or two movements - rather than a mere showcase of skills to leave us in a bubble of awe and questions, everything was explained clearly and broken down so no points were missed and all areas were openly taught in a hands on manner so as to give us the keys, understanding and more importantly the 'feeling' to the fundamentals of this approach.

Having completed the Ip Chun Wing Chun methods with the Grandmaster himself before moving onto the WSL lineage Alan was in a perfect position to relate to any differences or difficulties we encountered and comprehensively explained and demonstrated how and why they prefer this approach, that is not so say other interpretations are incorrect or simply no good, but in my opinion you would be hard pushed to find a wing chun practitioner that didnt appreciate the sheer beauty and common sense found here.

It was like a breath of fresh air to see and train a wing chun method which so closely follows and encompasses the core concepts, principles and strategies like no other, although many groups pay lip service to these ideals, few actually follow them through into the teaching (often without knowing perhaps) and it would do no harm at all for many other practitioners of this facinating art from other lineges to drop their ego and status for a while to experience what this interpretation has to offer - afterall it is based on the real-life research into what works best in a real situation from the many challenge matches (Beimo) Wong Shun Leung took part in during the 1950's and adapted accordingly - a man who also had a very large impact and influence on the development of a man named... Bruce Lee.

I myself couldn't be more pleased that I took a daunting step and truly analysed what we had been practicing to realise some things didn't completely follow what I had read during my years of study into the wing chun system which led me to research into this lineage and approach Sifu David Peterson and in turn Alan Gibson and got the ball rolling.

Both myself and my students have thanked Alan and his colleagues at great depth and all look forward to his next visit in a few months, he has opened the path to us (and our eyes)..it is is now down to us to walk that path.

Alan Gibson has various books and dvd's available on the WSL methods and can be contacted through his website
www.wingchun.org

Paul Blissett

Alan Gibson Seminar Confirmed

The Wing Chun Federation's Head Coach - Sifu Alan Gibson (pictured) is visiting our club in Bury St Edmunds to conduct the first, of hopefully many, Seminars with the first being an 'Introduction to Wong Shun Leung Wing Chun Methods' on...

Sunday 18th October 2009 - 3.30pm - 6.30pm

at - Moreton Hall Health Club, Mount Road, Bury St Edmunds, IP32 7BL

£25 per student

Alan will explain the difference between the WSL approach and other common approaches commonly taken in this country towards the teaching and practice of effective Wing Chun and use partner drills to demonstrate these concepts further.

For more information or to book a place call Sifu Paul Blissett on 07891699272 or E-mail - nextlevel.enquiries@yahoo.com