My Experience: Simon Butler (far right)
bugsymalone42@hotmail.com
1. Why did I want to do it?
I have always wanted to go to China to train Kung Fu.
I have always had an interest in it even though I have never had any training in the UK other than a few Karate classes at school. Martial arts have always interested me, from early days watching the Karate kid to later days watching various stars of Kung Fu. I wanted to do something physical as well whilst I was away.
2. Why Kungfuexperience?
Once I decided I wanted to learn some kung fu on the trip, I looked into the costs via the web. A quick search reveals a wide variety of places that offer training. Most can be quickly ruled out on price. Some of the places charge huge amounts of money for literally only a weeks training. The amount of money asked for was a lot by English standards, let alone Chinese. My search was quickly narrowed to two sites offering good value for money. In the end I chose kungfuexperience because it had that English link. The other site was foreign and I felt more comfortable booking through an English site. More importantly, kungfuexperience is run by someone who has been to China and who has experience in Martial Arts. I therefore felt I was more likely to get a good and authentic experience. They have also checked standards of accommodation etc so in all, I felt kungfuexperience was a better site to go through. Finally, if I had any problems I had an English person who I could go to.
3. Why Wing Chun?
The other good thing about kungfuexperience was the variety of training they offered. I decided that I wanted to learn Wing Chun. I chose it because of a number of reasons. Firstly, I only had a month to spare and I felt that I could learn a reasonable amount of Wing Chun in that time. For some other styles of fighting that would not be enough. Secondly, it appealed to me. It is a no-nonsense, direct style of fighting. It is also firmly about engaging with your opponent and doing as much damage as possible as quickly as possible. It is about fighting, pure and simple, as opposed to other styles that might have more of a self-defence focus. Not that there aren’t values to Wing Chun and its proper use, but I just felt it was more of a practical skill and one that focuses solely on its aim – and that is a way to fight.
4. Arrival and the Set Up
I arrived in Foshan one cold morning in February after a long bus journey. On arrival, I rang one of the contacts I had been given and was picked up a short while later. After a traditional Cantonese Dim-Sum breakfast, including Chicken’s feet, I then spent the first day checking in to my hotel and sorting myself out.
Once settled, the training quickly began. My Sifu/Master, or Uncle Ben as he is also known, is very flexible but we soon established a training routine. Essentially, we had a two to three hour session in the morning leading up to lunch. We would then go to lunch at a local restaurant before dropping me back at the hotel. We then had a short break for Uncle Ben’s siesta before another training session in the afternoon. Sometimes we would also have an evening session as well. It was very flexible and Uncle Ben is happy to do as much or as little as you want. In addition to the Wing Chun, we also went to the gym or went running a few times too. Uncle Ben’s friend has a multi-gym in his flat and there are also a number of parks to run in.
The Wing Chun training can take place anywhere. All you need is a small open space. We trained mainly in two places. The first was on my hotel roof. There is an open space on the top, which was great for training. It was private with 360-degree views of the City. The other place we trained was at a school that Uncle Ben teaches at. There he has a wooden dummy and a number of pads to train with.
Kungfuexperience are flexible and food and accommodation can be included as part of the price. My food was included and Uncle Ben took me to restaurants for lunch and normally I ate with his family at their house in the evenings. In this way, I think I have tried everything Chinese cooking has to offer! I ate very well though, often eating fresh vegetables, meat and fish, as well as plenty of rice!!
Accommodation was also arranged. I stayed in a hotel not far from Uncle Ben’s house. I had a twin room to myself with a TV, all for a few pounds per day. If you wanted cheaper or more expensive accommodation then this can be arranged. In all, the set up was very good and I was very comfortable.
5. Wing Chun Training
The training itself began with learning the open hand forms of Wing Chun. They are set forms you learn but they are not set moves to learn to use in a fight. Wing Chun does not believe in that. The forms are merely learnt as a way of learning the tools of the trade, so that you can remember them. You first learn ‘Siu Lim Tao’, which means little idea. It teaches you the building blocks of Wing Chun, such as the blocks. Once you learn the form, you are then shown how to apply each of the moves in the form. Once you know how to apply them, then you practice them through instinctive hand exercises to make them natural responses. For example, Uncle Ben would throw a punch or combination at you, which you had to defend using the blocks you had been taught. I really liked this as it feels like you are learning something that is real and effective. You practice your reactions and skills, rather than learn set combinations that you would not be able to apply in the chaos of a fight.
After Siu Lim Tao, I then learnt Biu Gee and Chum Kiu. Again these are further forms to learn but you progress to include footwork and kicks. The great thing about Wing Chun is that it is always based on science or common sense. From applying physics to punching technique or anatomy to the best way to punch, Wing Chun always looks at the most effective and efficient way of doing things. A good example is with kicking. They believe high kicks are slow and easy for an opponent to read – so they don’t do them. Instead, all Wing Chun kicks are aimed at below the opponent’s waist. They are mainly a short direct kick at the opponent’s leg or groin, that when up close are hard to see and will be delivered before you can react.
Once you learn the forms and how to apply them. You then learn all the exercises to practice the moves and your reactions to them. This progresses on to another feature of Wing Chun, which is ‘sticking hands’. Here you practice reacting to your opponents moves with your hands in constant contact, hence the sticking hands. The idea is to make you more instinctive so that you get a feel for the movement of your opponent and so that you react naturally and instantly.
As well as all the above, you also have the wooden dummy to practice on. Again, it is another great feature of Wing Chun. It gives you something solid to practice against, other than someone else. It also forces you to carry out your moves in the correct position, so that you protect your centre line. Added to this, we also spent some time kicking the wall and punching bags. Your knuckles get sore but they do toughen up. After all Uncle Ben’s practice, his knuckles were like two lumps of steel.
Uncle Ben also has some locals whom he teaches, which is further proof of the authenticity of the training. It is good to train with others and I think the optimum would be to train with two or three students. This would give you more companionship and greater opportunity for training.
Foshan is also a good place to be for Wing Chun. It really is a centre for Wing Chun and you do get a feel for its kung fu heritage. One of the local temples has a small museum to Wing Chun where you can see its past and learn about Ip Man, who was from Foshan and was Bruce Lee’s Master.
6. Final Comments
All in all, my time in Foshan was a great experience. In just a few weeks I felt like I had learnt a huge amount of what there is to know about Wing Chun. Obviously it is then all about practice and perfecting the moves and making them reactive. That comes with time but in terms of just learning the ‘tools of the trade’, I covered most of it. What was also great was being exposed to real China. I was off the tourist trail and I spent time with real Chinese people doing things how they do them. Many thanks to Uncle Ben who often invited me to his home or introduced me to his family or took me to a local restaurant for lunch. This was all the added bonus of doing the course and what made the whole thing a real experience and not just a course.
By Simon (UK) - bugsymalone42@hotmail.com
Gags Chowdhary from UK
I was completely enthralled with the idea of ‘knowing’ Kung-Fu. I must have watched one too many Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan films. So after travelling China for 2 months, I decided to join a Shaolin Kung-Fu school in the town of Wudang. To be honest I had the idea in my head that I could stay there for around 2-3 months and come back fairly knowledgeable in the art of fighting. You know, be able to kick some arse (if need be of course). I actually ended up leaving that school after 1 week. The trouble with these Shaolin schools is that they just teach the different Shaolin animal forms, and not actually show you how to apply them in a fight situation. In fact the place I was staying at barely did any fitness training and taught such a small amount of basic punching and kicking techniques it felt like a ridiculous waste of time. What would I come out of that place knowing? These schools are more for the flashy experience of learning some visually appealing Shaolin animal movements.
Me, I wanted to get fit and basically learn how to fight. So after hours of searching Google I came across the Wing Ming camp in the city of Foshan, in southern China. I gave Steve a call and a few days later I started what was going to be the greatest, yet most challenging and cultural experience of my life, well so far! What drew me to this school was the fact that I could learn the traditional, yet practical, art of Wing Chun alongside Kickboxing/Muay Thai. So traditional Kung-Fu meets with real street fighting! I can’t find a single other place in Asia where you have the luxury of combing two of the most popular, yet opposing, martial arts in the world. Diamond in the rough!
I lived and trained at this camp for four months. Training was 2-3 times a day, 6 days a week. I had a big clean room with hot water and full kitchen facilities, located just a few floors above the training gym. The facilities in the gym consist of a big wooden dummy, weights, around 8 huge heavy bags, and other equipment to help with the Muay Thai training techniques such as using the knees and elbows. Although I was the only foreigner there at that time all the students were very friendly, even more so was the Sifu. I found myself invited for lunch or dinner at his house pretty much everyday of the week. Perhaps it was because I was the first foreign student there, but nonetheless he is an extremely friendly guy and if there are concerns with training or anything else, he will be more than understanding about it. As he cannot speak much English there were a couple or people who helped me with translation.
I was also invited to many traditional dinners with my Sifu and other friends and students, along with being dragged to plenty of drunken karaoke nights. It basically felt as though I was living the life of the Chinese for four months. It was amazing! This school is a great place to get completely submerged into the Chinese way of life, as up till now it has just been used to train the Chinese locals. Whereas the Shaolin schools have just been turned into a meeting place where foreigners train with each other, hmm?
I started off at this place without knowing any kickboxing or Wing Chun whatsoever. So of course it was a challenging time for me, especially when trying to follow the Kickboxing students with their training methods and lifestyle. I thoroughly enjoyed practising two martial arts at the same time. It was interesting to see how I could apply Wing Chun during a Kickboxing fight situation. During my last couple of months there I focused mainly on Kickboxing and I was shocked to see how much I was improving. I’ve come back to London not just a good fighter, but also very knowledgeable in my Sifu’ training methods, and I feel as though I am able to teach Kickboxing at a very descent level.
This camp is a diamond in the rough, just waiting to be discovered!
Written by Gags Chowdhary,
gag_c@hotmail.com