Annual Summer seminar 2010

Report & photos Reading, Berkshire, England 2010

`8th international wing chun British summer seminar`

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:

A good chi -sao should be like a small play... but played seriously!

it is the same attitude for ...

When you fight should be like a small play...but played seriously!!!

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.

If you have any comments for the 8th international seminar please send an email to Lucas at: lucascastrouniswingchun@hotmail.com alternatively, you can post a message at the members forum.

We look forward to seeing you at next year’s, 9th International Summer Seminar. Next year’s the 9th international WING CHUN seminar will be for a week on 15th June 2011 in RHODES, Greece.

Reservations & hotel bookings for the this seminar it must received well long in advance to secure a place.

For more information please visit the website www.teamwingchun.co.uk

or send email at: lucascastrouniswingchun@hotmail.com

Date to be confirmed soon.

Comments

Just a few words about the 8th summer seminar. It was a great 3 days going over the concepts of the 3 advanced forms (Dummy, Long Pole and Butterfly Knives). Your delivery and explanation of the concepts were second to none. Even with the absence of Franco Regalzi (due to unfortunate circumstances) the demonstrations with your instructors and seniors from the Reading Kwoon were excellent.

I took away with me the concept of don't just try to hit and fight with your opponent in front of you, but to avoid their centre-line and position oneself on one's centre-line for the shot. A hard task I must admit when trying to move around a moving opponent, but now and then it did work by following the concepts.

Was great to meet the new beginners (I'll always be one myself) and of course the seniors who have helped me over the years. And to the Wing Chun brothers from France and Italy. It was a pleasure training with those I did during the 3 days.

Congratulations Lucas for another successful seminar and showing the beauty of Wing Chun.

All the best

Rob Chung

Excellent seminar i'd say the best i've been to so far and even though i only know the first form, by the last day of the seminar i was pulling off techniques from the woody dummy and long pole with relative ease, i think i got the most from the dummy because of the focus on footwork i feel it helped my chi sau alot and learning the pole was really fun and i can see alot of application for free fighting, takedowns locks etc and doing the knives was cool if a little complicated (i guess thats why its the last thing you learn)

I like the way the way Lucas focused on the same few techniques most of the time (kwun sau, bong sau, gan sau, tok sau mostly) and used them as a starting point for a drill which made it easy to get the hang of things and kept bringing it back to the basics from the forms

dummy = move around your opponent/partner and bounce off them dont just stand in front of them

pole = straight line power, thrust and pull the arm and use the legs to generate power

knives = use your arms/hands like a blade by using a cutting movement to damage the arms or legs

well that's what i picked up at least although i'm sure i've missed something along the way, it was great seeing everyone and meeting the new people and those who came from over seas i hade alot of fun and i'll see eveyone at the next seminar

Darren

This summer's seminar had an excellent atmosphere. Loads of fun, loads of chi sao and the seniors demonstrated the knife and pole forms!! Never seen that before.

Big thanks to Lucas for sharing and explaining all that info over the three days.

Who's up for another belly dance??

Robert Williams

Thanks Lucas for a fantastic summer seminar.

It was great to mix with so many different students from all the schools of the Reading Academy, as well as those from Italy and France. It was a unique opportunity to be shown the advanced techniques of Wing Chun, especially the long pole and knives. The way this was delivered was excellent as we were not only shown the forms, but also the links between these forms and siu lim tao, and the basic aspects of wing chun that we are taught from the start, like the punches and structure. Therefore, if, like me, you are not ready yet to learn the advanced forms, there is plenty you can take from them to experiment with in the meantime to improve your Chi Sao and Wing Chun overall.

Thanks again Lucas, and special thanks also to Robert Williams and his incredibly erotic belly dance. Nice boobs.

Patrick Marks

It was a pleasure to be at the seminar it really makes u appreciate and realise the true depth of the system, u made the more advanced techniques accessible to all levels hope u enjoy the token of appreciation lol, i look forward to many more seminars in the future :)

Nice one sifu.

Oliver Thomas