March 27th, 2020

I get knocked down, but I get up again...

Its very easy to feel sorry for ourselves at this time and let it get us
down. I am already missing seeing and training with two of my best
friends Mark and Jon, something which we done without fail every week
for about 15 years. I miss the club, a group of great students we have
nurtured over the last 5 years. And I miss my Alexander Technique
training; I was meant to start training three times a week from April
but the has been postponed until the crisis is over. But, if we have
our health, and our friends and families, then we will get through this
and come out stronger on the other side.

I've decided that I will not lay down and let this beat me, it is an
opportunity to go deeper into our own training and not be diverted by
the distractions. So my plan it to keep the Sung ethos going by running
online training twice a week just as we have always done. I've bought a
webcam (its not great but it does the job), I've resurrected an old laptop, I've put a big
monitor in the garage; I am ready to get started. You cannot learn CST
wing chun online, but if your are already a wing chun student you can
use an online forum to train with others, to discuss and to delve deeper.

So how will it work?
I am not entirely sure to be honest, it might be rough and ready but so am I and so is Sung. Here my ideas for starters:

1. Instead of standing practice at home, a chance to do it together and
feel part of a group.
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2. Guided form practice.

3. Q&As, a lot of people email asking me questions which I cannot
answer well by typing, this will give the opportunity for people far
away to use our group as a sounding board for ideas. Share our
collective knowledge. In my view there are no secrets.

4. Homework - There are tons of videos online which we can discuss and
disect, Also I have a large archive of unseen footage of CST. I can
share this before class so we can discuss. Maybe Mark can provide
translations?


5. Have you read one of my blogs and thought 'what is he on about'. Here is a chance to ask.


6. Guest teachers - we have friends everywhere, Nima, John Kaufman, Eddie Chan, Ada, perhaps they want to join us and offer some ideas. I am sure I can twist some arms...

I plan to either do this over Skype or Zoom. Skype has the advantage of
not needing to join the platform, I can just provide a link for
participants for each class. I have started a private Facebook group
where I will provide the link to each class, it will be a place where
students can post questions which we can discuss later and I will put
unseen footage. You could even post videos there of your own practice
which we can discuss in the class.

I am hoping it will not just be local Sung students who join us, we have
friends all over England, Wales, Czech, Netherlands, US, HK and Australia.
Imagine what we can share together to develop our wing chun at this time.

I think that it is fair to ask for a voluntary contribution of £3 to those who are able, that is less than half the price of a normal class. However if you cannot afford this because of the virus has affected your income
then it will be free of charge. Payment can be through Paypal or bank
transfer and I will out details in the group.

So, here is a link to the FB group, join it and I will provide the link
for the next class. We will keep the usual times of 8pm on Tuesdays and
Thursdays.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/215495706329262/?epa=SEARCH_BOX&__nodl