Annual Summer Workshop 2007

15 Year Anniversary of the Reading Academy

Between the 29th June - 1st July the Reading School (Kwoon) in Berkshire was host to the Reading Academy's 5th Annual Summer Workshop. This year's workshop was an especially important event because it was a celebration of 15 years of Lucas Castrounis teaching Wing Chun and Kali at the Reading Academy; the workshop was attended by nearly every member. In addition, we were joined by Lucas Castrounis' close friend and Si-Hing Franco Regalzi, two students from Franco's Wing Chun school in Italy - Pietro Garibaldi (attending for the second time) and Phillipe, and Alain Nguyen from Paris, France.

The workshop began with the Kali stick flow and moved on to dealing with body structure and counter-attacking. Throughout the 3 days we covered concepts from Chum Kiu, Biu Gee, and Wooden Dummy techniques, as well as enjoying a lot of awesome Chi-Sao training and improvisation. Finally the workshop closed with the concepts of the Biu Gee free fighting techniques and improvisations.

Next summer workshop will be again in Reading Berkshire in July 2008. Do not miss it, as we are expecting more guests/students from Franco Regalzi's school in Italy as well as the new students of our Wing Chun family. Reservations for the 6th Annual Summer Workshop will open in January 2008. To avoid disappointment please reserve a place as early as you can.

Some words from Lucas Castrounis

Students of the Reading Academy, from both past and present, attended this year's annual summer workshop and it was a great pleasure to see them all together. It allowed me to revisit and share a lot of good memories ranging from the Garage days (when I first started training myself by teaching) right through to the present day.

We were planning to have the 3-day workshop outside but unfortunately this year's bad weather and rain stopped us. Luckily, on the first day we did at least manage to have half a day training outside and a wonderful BBQ, with the help of Tony Hopcroft, by Caversham River. The second day we all went to a local restaurent during the break for lunch, and it was wonderful to see some many people united together, like a big family, under the Wing Chun system. We celebrated on the last day with a good Chinese meal in Reading Town and everyone had a great time, having gained lots of knowledge during this 5th annual summer workshop.

Almost all of the Reading School (Kwoon)'s new and old students were present. There was a nice mix of all the senior and junior students.

It was a great pleasure to be joined by my good friend and Si-Hing, Franco Regalzi, who teaches Wing Chun in Tortona, Milan, Italy. We were also joined by our special guests/friends Pietro Garibaldi and Filip (from Franco Regalzi's Wing Chun school in Italy), and Alain Nguyen (from Paris, France).

It was good to see Kevin Peel (one of the Garage days' first students, a good friend, and hosting provider for the Reading Academy's website), other good friends and students Neil Thomas and Tony Hopcroft, and Dave Munro with some of his students from the High Wycombe School, Robert Williams and Patrick Marks.

Thank you to all those that couldn't make it but sent their best regards and wishes: Ormond Arnold (currently living and teaching Wing Chun in Thailand), Sosthène Grosset-Janin (currently living and studying in Barcelona, Spain), Leigh Walton, a few other old students of the Reading Academy, and Sifu Santi Pascual (teaching the Wing Chun system in Barcelona, Spain).

The students of the Reading School (Kwoon) - Nick Ratcliffe, Craig Harry, David Munro (who since October 2006 has been the representative/training guide of the Reading Academy at the High Wycombe School), Dan Creswell, John Hawthorn, Brian Hames, Alex Metaxas, David Tilly, Nick Gallagher (also the website designer), Matt Dunckley, Rob Chung – provided great help for the junior students. I very much admire and I appreciate their help and assistance.

As happens every year, the annual workshop was another opportunity to discover new talents at the Reading Academy, such as Cristian Bloomfield, Mehdi Benali, Dimitar Tochkov, Matt Goodbourn, Simon Neil, Steve Kindy, Jamie Lyle, Robert Williams, Patrick Marks, and others. The workshop is also presented the opportunity and the pleasure to watch the progression made by those students who attended last year's workshop: George Jones, Rob Chung, Bhavini Patel, Gil Perry, Sam Bartlett and Priya Kang.

I would like to thank every one of you for being there and for the great time.

- Lucas Castrounis

Photographs

Comments

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to attend your summer workshop, it was an excellent experience for me and really opened my eyes to the beauty of the system, which in my eyes is its huge effectiveness via simple, yet direct actions; if only it was as simple to train the body to behave that way!

Your demonstrations with Franco on body energy and how this is channelled in good Wing Chun through a good stance and footwork, in which body structure is maintained as you move both in and around the opponent with the relentless attack and counter attack of the system, has really renewed my determination to capture as much of this as my body will let me during my Wing Chun journey.

It was also very good for me to see Franco join you in your workshop, as it helped remove any last excuses from my mind about how my size might make Wing Chun impossible for me! I can no longer have that excuse! Looking forward to some more good training.

Steve Kindy

I just wanted to say thanks to you, Franco and everyone else for making it a great weekend. It opened up my mind even more to what is possible with wing chun and vastly improved my understanding of the forms and how you combine them with the right energies and body mechanics to make the moves work. What I like about wing chun is that it doesn't need to advertise itself - I've never seen any of you breaking bricks with your hands or doing back flips and spinning kicks, but when you simply do what is necessary and most simple the result can be devastating and impressive. It's like showing off at a party just by turning up - you don't need to start dancing and telling jokes!

Patrick Marks

How are you feeling today? A morning without training feels strange after the weekend, luckily I'm training tonight though! Thanks again for putting in so much effort to provide the best workshop so far! (in my opinion). The whole weekend was very inspiring and gave me a glimpse at how much more wing chun has to offer.

Dave Munro

I would Like to thank you for an awesome weekend, the concepts we worked on were great examples of how deep Wing Chun is. The boys and myself thought it was bloody brilliant, and I would like to thank the guys at Reading for their help. Especially Nick, Craig and Alex, Rob and Dan. Big respect also to the guys from Italy especially Franco!! What a combination, you and Franco blew us away this weekend man.

Thanks again,
Your biggest fan

Robert Williams

I just wanted to thank you for organising this summer's workshop, for bringing Franco to share his view of Wing Chun, bringing the whole school together and also inviting other students of the system to train with us. Im sorry that I had to miss out sessions, but I was also moving out that same weekend, however the sessions which I attended I enjoyed a lot, so thank you again and have a great holiday!

Dimitar Tochkov

I should start by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop. I thought that everyone was in a very focused and productive mood throughout. I feel that I have gained a lot, and am looking forward to training with the new ideas in the future. Thanks to Lucas and Franco.

Christian Bloomfield

Very, very interesting. Finally started to understand some concepts. Feel staturated now and have enough information to work on. fun, interesting, enjoyed it. Thanks to everyone!

Sam B

Lucas, many thanks to you for holding this workshop. I've learned more than I thought possible and had a great time. I think that what has helped the most is training with so many different people, and being able to exchange ideas with one another to see things from different perspectives. And especially thanks to Franco for his assistance.

Simon Nell

Was great to see everyone at the workshop...old and new faces. Being able to play with the concepts in mind will hopefully further my progression in wing chun. I found the training atmosphere very enjoyable which made the hard work much more fun. Special thanks to Franco for his input and to you Lucas for opening my mind to explore this fascinating system of fighting...but without fighting

Rob Chung

It's been a lot more relaxed than previous workshops. We were really allowed to play around with things. Bringing the Kali into the wing chun was insightful and enjoyable.

Priya

Nice to be back in sunny Reading! Great fun with chi-sao. See you at the next workshop. Ciao!

Pietro

Thank you Lucas, the most enjoyable workshop I have been to so far, along with very efficient training! It was amazing to have the whole group united together, everyone showing a brilliant attitude. The group is growing across the world now! Special thank you to Franco and his students and also Alain for travelling so far to train with us.

Dave Munro

Thanks for everything Lucas. I really enjoyed the workshop. I really think you give people the desire to learn and share your knowledged about this beautiful system. I hope we continue to traing this way for a long time again. Merci

Mehdi

I had great fun. Even better than last year - a great atmosphere and attitude from everyone. I learnt something from people of all levels and it was an incredible opportunity to have both yourself and Franco to demonstrate and give advice while sharing your experiences.

Nicolas Gallagher

Thank you for an excellent workshop. I had a really good time. Plus, the atmosphere was brilliant, it's so good to see everyone come together (including our friends from Europe), train, and have fun. Also liked the approach at the beginning of the workshop via the use of Kali sticks and looking at our structure and lines from different perspectives throughout the workshop. I feel I have learnt a lot from these three days and look forward to the future.

Bavs

All I can say is: respect to the concept of wing chun that Lucas and Franco want to teach (show) us..."keep the touch...create a bridge". So Pietro and I, we did it, and we found a family. Thanks to all.

Filip

Thanks Lucas for the great fun. A big thank you also to everyone for helping me improve my skills! It was so much fun seeing my wing chun brothers (older, younger, and from any level) sweating, playing, experimenting, and exchanging ideas about the concepts you and Franco explained and demonstrated so vividlu and passionately to us. And most importantly, we all had a good laugh together!

Before I understood some of the concepts behind Chum Kiu, now for the first time I could feel them in my body, mainly the hip twisting, the energy forward with support from the ground, which takes me back to Siu Lim Tao.

What I also noticed is that people have improved since the last time I was here...and that tells me something about your teaching. finally, a big thank you to your dear friends Franco, his mere presence and explanations gave this workshop something special...what a bonus!

Thank you so much Lucas. I am really glad our paths crossed almost six years ago now. And thank you to Jenny for all the "behind the scences" work which may not be "visible" but is as much important!

Alain