Franco Regalzi & Lucas Castrounis in Tortona, Italy
Wing Chun kung fu Seminar, 11th - 13th April 2008
See video clips of the seminar, courtesy of Roberto.
June 2007: Franco Regalzi visited Reading, England for the first time to take part in a joint summer workshop with Lucas Castrounis to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Reading Academy of Wing Chun & Kali in Berkshire. Photos, reports and comments relating to this workshop can be viewed here: Annual Summer Workshop 2007.
Following the summer workshop, Lucas visited Franco in Tortona (Alessandria), Italy during September 2007. This trip was then followed with another visit to Tortona, Italy, by Lucas and some of his students, between Friday 11th and Sunday 13th April 2008 to assist Franco Regalzi in a Wing Chun kung fu seminar.
The seminar was based on advanced skills of Wing Chun kung fu, which included: applications from the first and second forms of the system (Siu Lim Tao and Chum Kiu); the use of spring loading energies, with a focus on precision during the practicing of drills and skills; and good sweating Chi-Sao sessions.
Approximately 60 attendees participated on each day during which, Franco’s and Lucas’ students blended together like one big family, discovering ways like good old friends. Everyone helped each other with lots of enthusiasm, sharing skills and information regardless of experience, and everyone at the seminar had a good time. After training, the students met to enjoy themselves and party in Tortona. On Saturday night we had a great party at a Chinese restaurant, which lasted to the later hours of the evening.
The friendship between the two schools has started to grow and more regular meetings will continue to take place in the future, including at the Reading Academy's Annual Summer Workshop 2008, which will take place at the Reading School (Kwoon) between 4th and 6th July 2008.
Besides the group of Franco's students from his Tortona School, and some students from the Reading Academy of Wing Chun & Kali, the seminar also included members from Franco's other schools, such as: Francesco and his students form Tuscany; Davide; Alessandro and his students from Savona; Emilio from Genova; Sandro and his students from Verona, and many others.
On behalf of my students and myself, I would like to say thanks to Franco Regalzi and his students for the well organized event and hospitality. Also, I would like to thank Pietro, Filip, Paolo and Fabio for their friendship and for the accommodation.
Thanks to my students from the Reading School (Kwoon) for coming to Italy: Nick Ratcliffe, Craig Harry, David Munro, Dan Creswell, Alain Nguyen and Nicolas Gallagher.
- Lucas Castrounis
22nd April 2008
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Comments
hi lucas. here its fabio (mad driver in tortona). first thing, please try to understand what i write coz my English its very bad. thanks for all lucas. Yours students are very good people and good wing chun player. I’m honoured that they was in my house (oh god i have to learn better english). i hope meet all u soon.. 4 good training and good life out gym. u r all very very very good people. thanks 4 your email...we r a family now and not only 4 wing chun time. u r brothers now and next time in italy i hope that u want come back to my home. ok ok ok i try to drive slowly...or equipped my truck wiht plastic bags (alian says this :)). Have a good day luca...you are great. hope see u soon. Many thanks form Fabio. Say hello to all your students...Italy need you
it's a honour! but the basis of everything is the friendship between you and Franco, what we did was already downhill ;)
it was very cool to chill out with the Reading guys after training. Fabio himself was impressed of how easily we could play together like old friends. that's the right attitude!
looking forward to come back to the sunny Reading again, a presto!
What a seminar!! Thank you Franco and Lucas for making it happen.
Indeed, I really enjoyed myself and I think we all have, judging by the chats I had with my English friends from the Reading Academy and our cousins from Italy.
So thank you all for the warm welcome, the awesome time we had together training and practicing Wing Chun, and of course, thank you for the great fun and wonderful time inside and outside the kwoon.
It was amazing to see how close our Wing Chun, attitude, and way of training are, despite the distance between our schools and the fact that we have never met before (except for our common friends Pietro and Filip). I found it also very stimulating to see how well Lucas and Franco get on with each other, they are true friends. What also helped to bring out the best of the training was the level of the attendees which was very high. Besides, we had 2 great teachers going around and correcting us, so what more can one ask for?
All these make me believe that somewhere/somehow Lucas and Franco must be doing something right...
So I am really looking forward to being at the next joint seminar in July and to seeing you.
Alain, from Paris, France.
PS: Special Thanks to Fabio and Paolo for hosting, driving, entertaining... basically, thanks for looking after us so well and introducing us to grappa !!
ciao guys!
we'd like to thank you once again for your visit! our seminar was so cool also for your presence. we hope we could keep on meeting regularly for training our loved wing chun, playing poker and drinking grappa...see you soon in Reading!
Was great to see you guys and train with you! I had a really great time - a lot of fun and awesome training. Thanks again to all of you for giving us a place to stay, making us feel welcome, and giving us the Italian flavour. I really loved my time in Italy.
Looking forward to seeing you (I hope) in the summer in Reading and we can return your generosity. Great thanks to Franco for the seminar and everything he did for us during our stay. It was an amazing time! Take it easy.
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Wing Chun Quotes
One great cause of failure is a lack of concentration and attitude.
- Lucas Castrounis
The repetition of Wing Chun training exercises will help you to improve your ability, discover efficient body movement, and to realise your self-potential.
- Lucas Castrounis
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The seminar in Italy was a weekend of both hard training and lots of fun, it was great to train with Franco and his students and share ideas together both in and out of the kwoon. We were shown excellent hospitality and I think I can speak for everyone when I say we are very grateful to be treated so well. The seminar in particular was like no other, Lucas and Franco make a great team and really delivered the goods that weekend. It was nice to see the two old friends training together again. Thank-you to everyone who was there and let's do it again soon!
Dave Munro