Wing Chun Kung Fu & Kali Eskrima
In Reading (Berkshire, UK), Wycombe (Buckinghamshire, UK), Dartford (Kent, UK), Agrino (Greece), Paris (France)

Once again, Lucas Castrounis delivered one of the most successful and advanced wing chun three days international seminar in Reading, Berkshire. Lucas have held international summer wing chun seminars since 2002 .

The seminar was based on: A good chi -sao should be like a small play... but played seriously!

At this seminar Lucas covered , body structure, recovering of the central line, applications/techniques of the Wooden Dummy, Long Pole and Butterfly Knives & the forms.

This year was also a special occasion for the Reading Academy schools and for Lucas Castrounis as they celebrated 18 years since Lucas first opened the doors of the Reading Academy of Wing Chun & Kali training schools. Therefore, the seminar was also a celebration and a birthday party!

During this special seminar/event, Lucas were joined by most of his students and guests from other wing chun schools.

The seminar started on Friday 16th July, at the Reading Kwoon HQ

There were 40 attendees, most of whom were from the Reading Academy schools in the UK, "The Reading Kwoon HQ, High Wycombe with their Instructor David Munro, Dartford with their Instructor Alex Tang & from the abroad schools: Alain Nguyen from France", as well as Franco Regalzi students from Italy.

The seminar was based on the following theme:

1st day, Friday 16th July 2010

On the first day, we all met at 12.30pm at the Reading Kwoon HQ (Cow Lane, Caversham, Reading). The seminar began at 1300 hours.

The 8th International Seminar started with a demo from all wing chun forms & continue with drills of recovering the central line, then moved on to the Wooden Dummy form and techniques of wooden dummy, which was followed finally with the use of dummy techniques in Chi-Sao applications.

The evening (party-time): We all met at 19:00 at the jazz/beer festival, which was being held by the Caversham Bridge. This year’s beer festival in Reading was well-organised and well worth the visit.

2nd Day, Saturday 17th July 2010

We started at 13:00 hours and continued with exercises of low body strength, low stances straight punches, practising the long pole form and continued with chi sao and Wing Chun boxing applications.

Beginners and advanced members were very excited to be able, for the first time, to have a taste of such advanced Wing Chun training.

In the evening, after the seminar, we celebrated the 18th anniversary of Reading Academy in style, at the Turkish Restaurant (Mangal) in Reading town, which had live music & belly dancing along with beautifully cooked BBQ food.

3rd & Last Day, Sunday 18th July 2010

Meeting/registration at the Reading Kwoon HQ was at 12:30.

The Seminar began at 13:00, with a demonstration of the Double Butterfly knives form and footwork. Everyone was then given an opportunity to practice the Knife form. Later on in the seminar, the attendees also practised applications against the Long Pole and continued with free applications and chi-sao.

The 8th International Seminar in Reading, Berkshire (UK), finished at 16:30 with a two hour long chi-sao and free sparring session.

In the evening, we all met at 19:30 at a local pub/bar to have a good-bye drink with our guests from the UK and abroad (Italy, France and Dubai).

Special thanks goes to all senior & junior students of the Reading Academy of Wing Chun, for the help and support. Thanks to everyone who travelled from far away (Italy, France, Dubai, UK) in order to attend at this seminar & for the wonderful time.