After the post about Summer Camp 2008, follows now the video:

Enjoy!

Posted under events, fitness, self defence, styles, teaching

I was recently invited by my friends at Cambridge Kung Fu to an “Escrima concepts” seminar run by master Steve Tappin. Escrima is a martial art originated in the Philippines and it’s predominantly a weapon based system that teaches fighting by using sticks, machetes, knifes and daggers in various combinations of one of two weapons handled at once. The same concepts, moves and drills are applied regardless of the weapon used by the practitioner or his opponent in order to develop automatic reflexes that would work in any situation, at least in theory. If you heard of Kali, Arnis, Doce Pares or Cadena de Mano they are all similar styles: in fact I was told by an instructors that in the Philippines there are literally hundreds of different flavours of this styles, some of which are kept secret and developed among single families.

I heard great things from different sources about master Tappin’s skills: he is one of the (if not the) biggest experts of weapon based martial arts in the UK, with a large number of followers around the world and his seminars are always fully booked. This was an opportunity not to be missed, in order to improve my limited experience of weapon handling that is mostly limited to nunchakus, katana and sai, weapons used by Okinawan styles. When I first saw him I could not believe to my eyes: master Tappin is a large stocky men in his fifties that looks more like a large door security person rather than a martial artist as I was used to think of one until that day. In any case, within a few minutes into the seminar it was obvious that appearance is some time misleading.

The first exercise we were asked to perform was to face, armed with one stick, an opponent with two: the concept was to attack first, one stick at the time, to create space and allow getting close to the opponent and eventually disarming him. We then carried on working in various possible scenarios of one person with two, one or no stick facing another that as well can be armed or bear handed. All concepts explained were amazingly interesting as they could always be transferred across without thinking in what situation our opponent was attacking us. Master Tappin, with his 36 years experience of weapon handling, pointed out and repeated many time that when you are facing a weapon the correct technique makes the difference between walking out of that situation and being killed. A stick or a bottle can break your skull while a knife or a machete can seriously injure you or kill you: the quality of the concepts and the techniques practiced is vital.

It is obvious that a four hours seminar cannot teach stick fighting or defence against weapons: in fact I believe that fighting against a weapon cannot be guaranteed safe in any situation even after years of training. At the same time I was impressed by how many important concepts can be learnt in such a short time and by how many things can be overlooked unless you are taught by a real expert.

Posted under events, styles, teaching

Get a bunch of great people, passionate about martial arts, put them in a pleasant location of Hungarian country side and get them to train martial arts for 14 hours over a period of 5 days, in temperatures ranging between 27 and 38 degrees Celsius. Blend in some great activities like see sighting, wine tasting and eating most meals in a good restaurant and, no doubt, you get a successful summer camp.

The CARISMA Summer Camp 2008 was the fourth on a row that we organized: main purpose of the camp is having a great holiday in an unusual location and at the same time enjoy an important amount of highly focussed training hours. This allows all participants to learn new things, train, practice and correct mistakes about their own techniques. All sessions were outdoor, on grass, in the shade offered by a couple of large oak trees.

Day 1 – Thursday – Cambridge to Csokonyavisonta

Soon after their arrival all participants were allocated to their accommodations: within half an hour the first session started, at 5:30PM. Following a light warm up we started combinations of punches and kicks. Knowing that everybody was up early, had a long trip and was acclimatized to temperatures in the teens or low twenty of this year’s dreadful British summer there was little point in pushing this session into power work, given the afternoon’s temperature in the high thirties.

The underlying principle of this session was to be light and fluid trying to extent accurately all limbs while using proper guard and footwork. Next part of the session was about coaching each other, again to work on footwork and proper guard with the coach calling combinations of punches from the attacker. Followed about half hour of light, half speed sparring: as we were an odd number there was a person that at each session had to spar against two people at once, just to make it more interesting.

We concluded with a few exercises of tai chi – chi kung just to cool down and relax. Dinner at the local Korona Etterem (restaurant) and an early sleep was due. Meeting arranged for the following day at 9AM, ready to start.

Day 2 – Friday

While warming up I checked with the various participants what topic they were mostly interested in covering during the next 4 session, lasting 3 hours each. Here is the list of topics to focus on:

• Multicombat (4)
• Basics about round kicks (4)
• Endurance (1)
• Jumping kicks (1)
• Mix, including Wing Chun and Tai Chi (3)
• Various Techniques with detailed explanation (3)
• Footwork (2)
• Sparring (3)
• Sparring two vs. one (1)

Having a total of four instructors, 3 black and one brown belt, in a group of eleven people surely added great value to the whole camp and lower belt truly appreciated the level of attention they received at all time.

The Friday session covered the following topics, more or less in this order: Round kick clinic: we explained and demonstrated all little details about performing a correct round kick, putting emphasis on the footwork, how to open correctly the hips and coordinating the whole movement together. While we opened this topic we moved over to side and hook kicks that share a good part of the principles with round kick and are usually causing the same problems to people that do not perform well on round kicks. Foot work practice: one person coaching the other, stepping back and forth at different distances every time ensuring that the attacker positions him/herself at the right point before striking jabs and crosses. The second half of this exercise was about pivoting around a central point, alternating the coach or the attacker in the centre, while performing hook punching techniques. Sliding kicks: we practiced various combinations involving sliding round, side and hook kick, and various punches. We finished by cooling down.

For the afternoon and evening we agreed to prepare, cook and eat a traditional goulash, so after visiting the nearby town Barcs and buying all we needed we went to one of the houses were the participants were staying. While a few people started to prepare a cold lunch based on bread, cured meats, cheese and fresh vegetables the others started cutting and chopping the various ingredients: the cooking of the goulash, in a traditional cauldron over the open fire, started at around 4:30PM. The cooking time, in excess of 5 hours was to be spent relaxing, having a drink and with Adam playing his guitar. The result managed to exceed expectations

Day 3 – Saturday

Luckily it rained overnight and it was a bit overcastted: temperature dropped in the low twenties making this session much easier than the previous day.

We started an exercise that both improves guard and foot work: one person attacking with jabs and the other replying with hook punches. We continued with combinations involving sliding kicks and punches. We did then rounds when one person was coaching the other, calling for punches combinations (2 round each person), kicks combinations (2 rounds each) and combinations of punches and kicks (2 rounds each). We finally practiced, from a kick boxer point of view, defending against a chain punching attack as practiced by wing chun practitioners. We finally cooled down.

We spent the rest of the day visiting Pécs a nearby town. During the afternoon we were sightseeing the city centre and then we had dinner in a nice restaurant.

Day 4 – Sunday

After warming up the session started with jab-cross, duck to avoid hook counter attack and jab-cross again. The remaining part of the class included: circular foot work by punching hook punch with both hands while either the coach was pivoting around a central point and getting the attacker to turn around or the coach was turning around forcing the attacker to pivot on a single point. We then practiced free combinations, alternating, of low contact kicks and punches. Combinations of punches and kicks always involving spinning back kicks. Sparring sessions, both semi and light contact. The remaining part of the class was involving simple win chun drills while 3 people in turn were sparring 2 vs. 1.

The rest of the day was spent visiting Badacsony, a winery hill north of lake Balaton: we first had some fine wine tasting from the local wine makers and then had dinner in a nice restaurant with a great panoramic terrace overlooking the lake.

Day 5 – Monday

Being the last day we decided to have an easy day (after training, the session was as hard as the others). Training was organized at the Barcs spa complex with the intention to spend there a good part of the day.

The session included: semi contact sparring, light contact boxing sparring against a wall top ensure no foot work and improve mobility of the torso, combinations of Multicombat that included knee and elbow strikes and some very basic wing chun drills.

At the end of the session, while cooling down we asked people how they felt about the overall camp and what we could have done more or better. While general consent was to be happy overall some of the answers included suggestion for next year:

• Longer staying, allowing 6 or 7 days of training instead of 5;
• Possibility of adding 1-2 extra afternoon sessions that might include meditation, yoga, visualization or very basic tai chi practice;
• More sparring.

The rest of the day was spent chilling out in the spa complex, swimming in the pools, and enjoying the sauna and the large Jacuzzi. Dinner in the local Korona restaurant was the followed by a little get together with a few drinks to celebrate Josh’s birthday.

Day 6 – Sunday – Csokonyavisonta to Cambridge

There was no training on this day as everybody had to get back to Cambridge.

Partecipant to the summer camp were: Adam, Andrea, Chris, Duncan, Hayley, Heley, Josh, Massimo, Robin, Si and Wez. Pictures courtesy and Copyright © Duncan Grisby.

Posted under events, fitness, self defence, styles, teaching

Wing Chun is a style of kung fu from south of China that was first brought to the west by the early Bruce Lee in the middle sixties.  Over forty years later Wing Chun is still somehow mystified and many aspects of its training are kept secret by the majority of teachers of this discipline.  In this way they ensure that the transfer of knowledge is regulated and they make a lot of money out of this process.  Luckily some illuminated individuals don’t believe in politics and like teaching top quality martial arts for the sake of spreading the knowledge more than building little empires.

When I first read “Why Wing Chun Works”, back in 2001, I was immediately amazed by the simplicity and honesty of the writer.  All essential concepts were there, in less than 200 pages: I found it so intriguing that I decided to write to the author, Alan Gibson, to congratulate for his great work.  In fact I went one step forward, I asked him to run a seminar with my club: I could see a little problem coming along by getting an expert of Wing Chun to explain, in four hours, the basic concepts of the art to a bunch of people that practice and train something completely different: kick boxing.  Alan accepted the challenge and, with his laid back but very professional approach, managed to involve people at all levels and to teach them some very important concepts that apply to any striking style.  That was the beginning of a nice and strong relationship between Alan and myself and a good number of “why wing chun works” seminars have been organized since.

The most recent one was last week and, once more, Alan managed to beat any expectation and demonstrate again how knowledgeable, practical and straightforward his approach is.  This time the group was of a slightly different kind: the majority of participants had some knowledge of wing chun, some of them being instructors or assistant instructors from other clubs.  Alan was capable of impressing everyone with his deep knowledge of the theoretical foundations of the style he teaches, together with practical application of any possible fighting scenario.  We spent the last half hour of the seminar with half of the people wearing boxing gloves and attacking the others that, bear handed, were there to apply Wing Chun concepts against the boxers.  In typical Gibson’s style there is no question that remains unanswered or concepts that are considered too advanced for the person who asked them.  Everybody was happy and totally satisfied of the seminar and several participants thanked Alan for his great work and me for organizing it.  If you have a chance of training with Alan or participating to one of his seminars make sure you don’t miss the opportunity, you are going to like it.

Posted under events, styles, teaching

I am simply overwhelmed: I have just spent two days checking what directions blogging is going to take and what to expect in the future.

The whole blogosphere might take a completely new shape in matter of months or years with all the new semantic web applications and the growing role of social networks. It’s nice to be part of it and let’s see what the future is going to bring to us.

Posted under blogging, events