Master Cameron Seminar
Master Cameron Seminar Nov 14th & 15th Wing Tsun Kung Fu Seminar
Master Cameron's weekend Martial Arts seminar has been a roaring success! Despite everyone being exhausted by the end of it, especially those who attended both days, we all feel as though we have had our brains filled to capacity.
The subject of the seminar was this rotation's Phase Two subject of Anti Ground Fighting. The art of Ground Fighting is one Wing Tsun Martial Artists need to be wary of. As Dai Sifu explained: We are not specialists in fighting from the ground! Instead we must become specialists at getting back to our preferred range! Master Cameron gave us the benefit of his immense knowledge of human body mechanics and over the two days detailed how we may use our scientific understanding of our bodies to increase our chances to escape or make the best of this type of situation.
On the Technician's Seminar on Saturday 14th, Dai Sifu Cameron began by observing the standard of the Forms of our region's current and future Technicians. As our forms are the foundation of our Kung Fu system, technicians must understand the principles that the forms teach us. He gave us important pointers on how to generate explosive power in our neutral Forms without sacrificing any of our flexibility. You need to be able to go from 0 to a 100% and back down to 0 in the blink of an eye! At the end of the Forms session Master Cameron was very pleased with the quality of our training and teaching of the forms. There's nothing quite like being scrutinised by a Master to sharpen focus.
The rest of the day was spent investigating the technical aspects and dangers of ground fighting. Dai Sifu Cameron split his instructions down into segments that introduced us to ground fighting, as other martial artists know it. While we accept that we are not ground fighting specialists we must have a working knowledge of floor work so we can defend against it. Dai Sifu proceeded to put us all into a variety of uncomfortable positions so we could get a feel for what it is like to be pinned to the floor in a solid lock or hold. As he showed us the most common ground fighting techniques, Master Cameron explained how we can use and adapt our Wing Tsun principles of motion and power to either avoid or release our selves from danger. Lots of focus was given to being more aware of the windows of opportunity and how to use sensitivity to read our opponent's intentions, act upon given impulses and how to create them. Some time was dedicated to showing how we should recognise when our lines of fighting have been compromised and how we can adapt to regain or change them.
Sunday's seminar was open to students of all grades, and was exciting and fresh for everyone involved. Again, as on the Saturday, Dai Sifu Cameron's emphasis was on how our Kung Fu system's principles work in action. About a third of the gathered students had not studied our anti ground fighting programme, so for them it was a chance to begin to understand how the science of body mechanics can be applied to physical confrontation as well as gaining an introduction to the tactics and strategies of ground fighting. For the rest of the class, Master Cameron showed how we may revisit all of our programmes and see how we can bring together our understanding of the Wing Tsun principles. Anti ground fighting is an excellent vehicle for explaining the technicalities of Wing Tsun, as combined awareness, sensitivity and short-range power are all paramount in dealing with this type of situation.
Dai Sifu began the morning with running through the basics of Wing Tsun strategy in ground fighting and how we must articulate our bodies to take advantage of our opponent's given impulses.
He went through the most common positions associated with floor work: Guard, Half Guard, Mount and Half Mount, as well as the most common locks and holds. Each time he did so Dai Sifu demonstrated the adaptability of our system and for the lower grades introduced the importance of how keeping or recreating our lines of attack keeps us as safe as possible.
After lunch, Master Cameron went through attack line strategy in more detail, this time from a standing position again with an emphasis on articulation of the body and our principles of power.
The second half of the afternoon was spent looking at dealing with grabs (particularly as Winter is setting in, with grabs to clothing). Dai Sifu explained in fine detail the creation and use of levers (a subject which he touched on earlier in the day) for escaping from an opponent's grip.
In summing up: The weekend has been an extremely beneficial and fun one to be a part of. It is always good to have our students from across the region in one place. From the jokes and stories being passed around on both days it was clear that spirits were kept high and jovial, despite the seriousness of our material. These events are always great for building bridges between people from all walks of life to everyone's benefit. Everyone was grinning when the sessions closed on both days.
In regards to our learning: Normally students and entry technicians are taught the curriculum of ground fighting in an ordered format. This is so we can learn the A, B and C's of the movements; usually we gain understanding of the underlying system slowly through out our martial art careers. So to have so many hours of intensive training in combining our A,B,C's with our principles has been valuable indeed. Both of Master Cameron's seminars gave us insights to how to apply the system of Wing Tsun to adapt the techniques we already know. To paraphrase Dai Sifu: It is the job of the Master to open your eyes to the different aspects of the Wing Tsun system, and to show the material you have learnt from new angles. He has certainly succeeded.
From all of the Wing Tsun Schools of Mastery:
Thank you Dai Sifu, we look forward to your next visit!
