Training log

August 23, 2011

NYC Earthquake!

August 20-22

Weekend "Intensive Personal Training Program" (IPTP) with new VT friend who came to visit us from Georgia.

  • Day 1: SNT, Dan Chi, Pak Sao, Stepping footwork supporting ideas of "line of force", balance, leverage, centerline, facing, elbows-in, relaxed forearms, relaxed/pinned shoulders, LSJC.

  • Day 2: Review of Day 1, reviewed visitor's written notes; lop-sao, basic dummy actions. Drilling so these no chasing hands.

  • Day 3: Our visitor friend got a chance to practice on his own with some of the weeknight guys... basically just to work out stuff on his own. same Dan Chi, Pak Sao , Lop Sao..plus we added the pak-sao facing entries. Great training.. hope to train with him again. Some photos we took here..

    it's all about Applied Body Mechanics...
    Some ideas we reinforced..
    Checks and feeling the line of force/leverage using the first Tan Sao in SNT
    Checks/Tests for chasing hands, balance in pak-sao/facing drill
    Checks/Tests for elbows in Tan, Gaan, Fuk, Bong in SNT and Dan-Chi
    Checks for balance,leverage, line of force, LSJC when drilling LopSao.

    August 2011 -

    playing on double actions in lop-sao; if first action get stopped we continue to second.

    Huge rain storm... a weekend of flood

    July 30 - August 5, 2011

    Was up in Toronto with family on vacation. My new friend who came up from Canada last week called me and we did a early 6am two hour training session.

    July 29, 2011

    Visitor from Ontario, Canada came down for a training session.

    July 6, 2011

    The past six months been really busy, so i haven't update the website for a while. In April 2011 we hosted our second ABMVT New York City seminar. Ernie came down to New York to train with us. Another awesome training as usual.

    Around the same time in April, three new members joined with us.

    Most of May and June was focused on the new members. at the same time training was reinforcment of the core basics... mainly getting/feeling the correct leverage/angles and how it correlates to all the drills and training we do. That first Tan-sao we do in SNT is the same tan sao whether we do it in our pak-sao drill or in our attacks in lop-sao or translating that idea to a pow-bong action., it's still the same punch.

    late June we had a training session in Mount Vernon.

    New Brooklyn training space is in the works.

    July - Howard from ABMVT LA visited us and we trained briefly with him. Liked Howard's quote, something to the affect: "Ving Tsun is like a a sophisticated game of chess, that requires intelligence and thought." Thanks Howard!

    Things to work on: bringing in the other half of body in all actions. Really need to focus on going beyond the physical aspects and more on mental aspects on focusing on the hips, wrists and elbows; Being less attached to the physical point of contact. got to dive deeper into the being more aware of the details and translate it into our training framework where there are checks and balances.; Inspiring words from the past and thoughts about our training approach: it's no longer about fighting but a game of chess requires intelligence. Same drills, but we are beyond the physical and it's more mental & thoughts now.

    November 2010

    11/4: Worked on lop-sao, second consecutive action (over and over/under); worked on lop-sao, inside pak and closing in/chasing using diag footwork (being more accurate and closer with the punch);
    11/1: Filmed video
    11/5-11/7: IPTP in LA (Leverage, Balance)
    11/8: Worked on lines of leverage reinforced in DanChi drill.
    11/23 - Met up and trained with two french WSL guys from BASE. Great Chi-Sao / Lop Sao practice. Photo here,

    October 2010

    10/22

  • Lop Sao top attack and follow up w/ second action; focus on loose lopattack and second action.
  • Pak to tan on high attacks down center, burst/check, deattach, and follow and finish.
  • Lop Sao to pow bong (w/J). found there's an opening if you go ahead on. Use diagonal footwork to cut off second action. 10/21: lopsao powbong tan attack, follow up actions for opp's bong and if opp's hold center; worked on under bridge attacks
  • Pole and BJD practice.

    Sept 2010 Double hand chi-sao

    August 2010

    The goal for the next couple of months is to get the new guys get the basics down for Lop Sao. For Jimmy, Kwan and myself, we will train for refinement along with some lop sao isolated sparring..

    July 2010

    Will work on Chi-sao flow and changing actions.

    June 2010

    Got most of the main ideas down from last seminar. (pop/retracting, maintaining frame); understanding is clearer than ever.

    May 2010

    Training stuff from seminar, first the Tan Sao..ideas/words: POWER, ELBOWS., EXPLODE, BURST, DONT HOLD, leverage, balance, under, low to high, checks and testing our frame...correlations to Dan Chi, pak-sao, lop sao, sparring, wooden man, Dragon Pole. we're starting to see the improvements already! New possiblities are opening up.

    April 2010

    ABMVT New York Private Seminar - Ernie and a couple of the LA crew came down to New York for 2 day seminar and a couple of extra days to hang out. This is the first time the guys here got to meet Ernie, and the LA crew. The guys here are still raving about it. They really felt the power and intensity from Ernie and the guys.

    November 2009`

    LA trip training with LA Crew (this my 10th training trip to LA)

    May 2009

    LA trip training with LA Crew

    Examples of training approach

  • Proper mindset - having a realistic view of what Wing Chun is; setting goals; tracking progress of our skillset development.

  • Concept based versus technique based - our training in Wing Chun is concept based and not technique based.

  • Systematic training approach - Our training is systematic in that we follow a certain logic and order in our training. Basic actions have to be refined at the rudimentary level before we can add more complex motions.

  • Feeling our actions - An action has to be felt. That feeling is a connectedness to our body and to the ground as opposed to performing isolated hands action. We learn to cultivate proper body mechanics.

  • All actions are trained with the following aspects: Structure, Angles, Timing, Distance, Feel and Power/Explosiveness.

  • Active thinking - There is a saying that Wing Chun comes from the mind. By consciously thinking we can be more aware of our actions; acknowledge errors; We learn to be problem solvers.


    • Example of a typical training session

    Forms - Sil Nim Tao and Chum Kui are done slowly and carefully. When someone first learns the forms, I

    Drills -
    1) Done without resistance (learning the sequence, done with exactness like in the same way we do the forms, nothing is self-intepreted.);
    2) Done with one or two variables of resistance. eg, attack gets stopped, and we need a follow up action. (does our follow up action follow #1? Within the confines of our drill, did our attack not work because our position was not correct or our structure or timing was bad? these are the things we look at. After we get one side down, we work on the other side-- both right and left sides. We don't want to be a lop-sided Wing Chunner.)

    Free play -

    I feel the WSL method acts as self guide and has checks and balances as long a you follow the core concepts and ideas.


    Training material

    Here is a glimpse of some training material from my review on training with Applied Body Mechanic Ving Tsun group:

    "Power" - this was the main focus and included Dragon pole training. The best part was feeling how to exert power from the elbows/hips/stance and using correct body alignment.

    Reinforcement on the idea of "Springy energy" (LSJC) and idea of "Receive what comes in and send off what leaves".

    Ideas of "Pow Bong Sao" and adding it to lop-sao, pak-sao and chi-sao skills.

    Various details in Lop-Sao, Dan Chi-Sao and Double Chi-Sao.

    "Direct lines of force" - reinforcing this idea and seeing how it relates to forms, various drills and sparring.

    "Progressive Isolated Sparring" - a training method that systematically takes the ideas from drills and isolates it in sparring situation.

    Finishing and not holding/control in sparring - advice for getting rid of bad habits in sparring.