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Seminar - 18 September 2005
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By Gavin King, 2nd Dan Go So Kempo
Normally at 1 O'Clock on a Sunday afternoon most would be tucking into a tasty Sunday Roast and watching the Eastenders Omnibus, not us we decided to spend a Sunday afternoon learning to bash each other, cool!
Sifu Dave Brown kindly agreed to host a joint seminar at his Kudos Academy in Benfleet, Essex. The seminar was broken down into three sessions, Wing Chun and Praying Mantis with Dave, Combat Arena with James Deegan and myself and finally Go So Kempo with John King.
Before I go any further, I'd firstly like to thank Dave for hosting the seminar in the first place, James and John for teaching, but mostly thank everyone for turning up and having such a great attitude. We had students from each of the three schools, and each and everyone of them left the ego's firmly at door. I'm sure I speak for Dave, James and John by saying how proud and impressed we were with the attitudes of all our students. At these sorts of events its so easy to let egos and stylistic difference ruin the learning experience, what we had couldn't have been further from that, just a group of like minded Martial Artists looking to exchange information. You all done yourselves proud and it was an absolute honor to be able to teach at the seminar! |
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First up to the plate was Sifu Dave Brown. Dave wanted to explain the fundamental principles used within Wing Chun and Praying Mantis.
Dave first explained the Centre Line principle and how to attack and direct your power directly at it. He described how to attack the core of the body and gave us a "warm up" to start practicing the principle. I use the words "warm up" in the loosest possible way, my legs are still killing me today! We had to pair up, go into a deep horse stance (very deep!) and try and push each other off balance.
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Dave demonstrating the Centre Line principle and the leg killing exercise that goes with it! |
This sounds simple in theory, your partner pushes, you turn your shoulders and the arm pushes past you. Then you push back. Easy peasy. I lost count how many times I ended up on my arse!
Next Dave explained the principles of the inner and outer gates, and gave us a slow drill to start playing exploring the gates. Then he built this up and explained the principles of simultaneous attack and defense. The thing that impressed me most about this was Dave's blistering speed, man this guy moves quick. We had a move round with each other slowly, again exploring the ranges and available targets.
Dave then demonstrated how to use the closest weapon available to attack with. Basically, if you've parried with a hand, that hand is going to be closest to your opponent. Therefore its the closest weapon available to strike with, and it most definitely makes sense when you see Dave do it! |
I've met and seen a quite a few Wing Chun guys in my travels, and in my experience they mostly have been extremely closed minded and had an an undeserved arrogance about themselves. Sifu Dave on the other hand demonstrated the most impressive and practical Wing Chun I have ever seen. For someone who rightly deserves to have an arrogance about his talents, he couldn't be more humble. If you are truly interested in learning Wing Chun or Praying Mantis in the Essex area, have no doubts this is the man to learn it from! Dave can be contacted through the Kudos Academy website.
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Dave demonstrating explaining how to strike the "core". |
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