Australian Kung-Fu (Wu-Shu) Federation Official Victorian Branch Newsletter Issue 3.3 – September 2005

Chairman’s Report Dear Members, I would like to say how honoured I am to be sitting here writing to you as the newly elected Chairman of the Victorian Branch. Charles Tsui-Po has left some very big shoes to fill but I will do my best to support all the Victorian members and continue to provide you with strong and effective representation. If there is anything that you would like to raise with me regarding how the AKWF is, or should, better provide for its’ members please feel free to contact me at any time. I would also like to congratulate Dana Wong on being elected Vice-Chairman. In the short time Dana has been with the committee he has contributed so much for the Victorian members such as being the initial author of the National Code of Conduct, a representative in the negotiations between WTPA and AKWF and acting as Sanctioning Officer for the recent Festival to name a few of his achievements. I know that Dana will certainly keep us all on our toes as well as being a strong voice for the Wing Chun community. The last three months have been very busy with sanctioning of the WTPA Wushu and Tai Chi Festival for the first time, preparing a 2006 National Calendar of Events, assisting with preparations for the National and Oceania Championships in Sydney as well as organising our own 2005 Victorian Open Kung Fu and Sparring Tournament – the first in 25 years, not to mention the Corporate Governance Review, drafting a National Code of Conduct, insurance and other matters. The Victorian Branch committee is working extremely hard and could certainly benefit with some more members. If you have some time and more to the point, want to influence the way things are done in Victoria, please let us know. I hope to see you all at the Victorian Open Tournament – even if you just drop in to say hello. It will be a great opportunity to meet some new people in the Chinese Martial Arts community as it is open to non-AKWF as well as AKWF members. The AKWF Annual General Meeting is being held in Sydney on 17th September. If you cannot attend, and would like issues raised on your behalf please contact either me or Dana Wong. Tara Brayshaw Chairman AKWF Victorian Branch

Your Victorian Representatives Victorian Chairman Tara Brayshaw Tel: (03) 9527 7377 Mob: 0407 941 101 Email: tara.brayshaw@thinking.com.au Victorian Vice-Chairman Dana Wong Tel: (03) 9731 1789 Mob: 0408 038 885 Email: sifu@qianlidao.com Victorian Administrator Thomas McKail Tel: (03) 9560 0217 Mob: 0416 165 555 Email: thomas@sdca.com.au or admin.vic@akwf.com Victorian Secretary Ian Hadfield TeL: (03) 9560 0217 Email: ian@sdca.com.au Committee Members Terry Lim Tel: (03) 9759 7187 Mob: 0418 809 808 Email: terrylim@dodo.com.au Shao Zhao Ming Tel: (03) 95690881 Mob: 0402 962 266 Email: mingshao@digisurf.net.au Newsletter Coordinators Thomas McKail Tara Brayshaw

Victorian Athletes Competing at International Selection Trials

The Selection Trials for the 8th World Wushu Championships will be held in Sydney on 17th September with a very strong representation from Victoria. We wish each of the athletes every success and hope they come home victorious. We would like to remind you that the Victorian Branch Committee will be providing $1000.00 to be divided equally among Victorian athletes (with a maximum of $500.00 for any one athlete) who compete at the 8th World Wushu Championships in Vietnam, December of this year. Funding the travel, accommodation and competition fees for an event such as this is an expensive business. Many of our young athletes are struggling just to pay their bills so if you know of anyone who is interested in sponsoring an athlete, in cash or kind, please contact the Secretary-General Wushu – Mr Han Jin Song on wushuaustralia@yahoo.com or (03) 9889 9999.

2005 AKWF Victorian Open Kung Fu & Sparring Tournament

The Victorian Branch Committee is pleased to announce the running of the 2005 AKWF Victorian Open Kung Fu and Sparring Tournament on Sunday 6th November 2005. This Tournament is open to ALL members of the Victorian Chinese Martial Arts Community irrespective of their AKWF membership status. Through this event, we are hoping to encourage a greater sense of cohesiveness and camaraderie within the Kung Fu/WuShu community, to foster the development of support networks between schools, give athletes an opportunity to form new friendships and break down some of the barriers that were part of “the way it use to be”. Please feel free to invite anyone you know to participate. You should have already received notification and registration forms via email but if they have gone astray you can download them from www.akwf.com. If you have any questions or require any additional information, please feel free to contact Terry Lim – terrylim@dodo.com.au or Shao Zhao Ming – mingshao@digisurf.net.au We look forward to seeing you all on 6th November.

We Want You!

Don’t forget we are always desperate for tournament volunteers. We’re sure that there are a lot of schools out there who would love the opportunity to contribute their time to this great event. If you have the time and would like to help out, please contact Terry Lim on terrylim@dodo.com.au

Loong Fu Pai Martial Arts Tournament

Sunday

23 October 2005

Registration - 9.00am Carwatha

Secondary College For more information please contact Terry Lim on terrylim@dodo.com.au or 0418 809 808 or visit the website www.loongfupai.com.au Loong Fu Pai was established in Victoria, Australia in 1981 and has classes throughout the South Eastern suburbs and offer Karate, Kung Fu, Weaponry, Aikido & Kickboxing in a friendly atmosphere open to all who wish to participate.

7th WTPA Wushu & Tai Chi Festival – Sanctioned at Last!

After many years, the WTPA (formerly ANWTA) received AKWF sanctioning for their recently held 7th WTPA Wushu & Tai Chi Festival. The AKWF Victorian Branch Committee were delighted to be able to sanction this event as it now enables Victorian athletes who compete at this event to be eligible for entry in International Selection Trials. This milestone in Victorian wushu was in no small measure due to the hard work of Rob Fennell, Hean Low, Dana Wong and Terry Lim. They managed to resolve a lot of long standing issues between the two organisations which will hopefully lead to a stronger working relationship for the development of Australian wushu as a whole. Hopefully this signifies the beginning of a new era in Australian wushu where we work together in the common goal of developing and promoting this incredible sport throughout Australia. The AKWF Victorian Committee had the great honour of attending the festival and strongly recommend that all Victorian wushu athletes participate in next year’s event. The Festival is not only an example of outstanding organisation and professionalism but fosters a great sense of community amongst all who participate. Our thanks go to Gary Jackson, Hean Low, Liu De Ming and Angelina Chung for making us feel so welcome.

MCMAC Instructor Repeats His Success in the UK

‘Melbourne Chinese Martial Arts Club’ instructor, David Peterson, has recently returned from his second trip to the UK this year (his fourth in two years!) to spread the ‘Wong Shun Leung’ Wing Chun system. Organised by the Sifu Ged Kennerk of the ‘Stockport Wing Chun Academy’ and Sifu Alan Gibson of the ‘Wing Chun Federation’, Peterson conducted seminars and workshops in Manchester, Newcastle and Southampton, attracting students from all over England and from Canada. He has developed a large following there since his first visit in 2003 and is about to return for the fifth time this September! In recent years, he has also been invited to the USA on two occasions, teaching in Los Angeles, Seattle, Dayton, New York, and throughout Florida. Apart from his profession as a Chinese language teacher, freelance writer and principal instructor of the ‘MCMAC’, Peterson is working on re-publishing his very successful book, ‘Look Beyond the Pointing Finger: the Combat Philosophy of Wong Shun Leung’ and conducting classes at the new home of the ‘MCMAC’ in the Melbourne CBD. For further information about the ‘WSL Method’ you can visit www.wslwingchun.com or www.citywingchun.com.au

National Coaching

Accreditation Scheme

Level One August 13th was the last scheduled Melbourne NCAS course for the year and drew very large numbers. The course proceeded extremely smoothly in no small measure due to our own Ian Hadfield, who ran the entire course. This is a lot of work for Ian so if there is anyone out there who would like to enquire about running some components of the course (for a fee of course), please contact Ian Hadfield on (03) 9560 0217 or ian@sdca.com.au If you would like to get more information regarding the NCAS courses planned for next year, please contact the Victorian Administrator – Thomas McKail on (03) 9560 0217 or thomas@sdca.com.au

The Value of Weapon Training in Your Art by Sifu Dana Wong

Weapon training, in particular, blade work, is an excellent way to really boost your martial arts training, regardless of the style you practice. Because the difference between offence and defence in edged combat can be so very subtle, a slight movement of the wrist can be the difference between a successful counter and a severe cut to your limbs or worse. Everything is multiplied and speeded up in edged combat and therefore, one’s reflexes and co-ordination must rise to the occasion or the consequences will be grave. Blade work is an excellent way for any martial artist to bring a breath of fresh air to his/her training because a heightened sense of awareness must be present at all times in edged combat, something that often goes astray when we practice our empty-handed forms and patterns, or even when we train our weapons forms, if we have no real applications for what we’re doing or if we practice without intention. Knife fighting, as opposed to doing forms with a weapon in hand, can do wonders to raise one’s martial competencies on many levels. I know that many Chinese arts in particular will often say that practitioners are not capable of doing weapons training in the early stages because they’ll lack the required co-ordination and reflexes to train safely with weapons. Tradition is a great thing, as it allows us to receive great things that have cherished value from a historical perspective. But in terms of martial functionality, I would beg to differ in this case, and have given weapons training concepts even to beginners in my Wing Chun classes and have found that it has actually done the opposite. By putting a training blade in a student’s hand, all rules of combat suddenly change because a blade has power unto itself. Years ago, my first kung fu instructor, the late Hung Gar Master Kwong Tit Fu said to us, “you can train 20 years and still get cut by a man with a knife; he doesn’t have to be good, just lucky.” Because a blade has only to touch you for deadly effect, everything has to improve. Reflexes quicken, footwork becomes light and with purpose, and co-ordination improves as one learns to make both hands work together to deal with not only the weapon hand, but also the empty hand of the attacker. Vision skills develop faster, and balance and timing will also improve as one learns very quickly that any move or technique either works or it doesn’t. There is NO debate here at all – one either gets free and/or counters, or one gets cut. From the “attacker’s” point of view, one’s co-ordination improves as one learns to manipulate an inanimate object with intent. Co-ordination is further enhanced as you develop strategies to feint with your weapon to open up empty hand strikes with your other hand. Functionality and practicality come to the forefront when training with weapons. If those are your reasons for practicing your martial art, then you might consider looking at weapons training, if you haven’t done so yet. Given today’s environment of drug-related crimes, with syringe attacks quite common, this type of training is also quite timely. Besides, done correctly and safely, it is also a fun and different way to keep your training fresh and alive, such that you can add more years of productivity, development and health to your lifestyle.

Weapon Training

Workshops

Dana Wong runs many workshops and seminars on weapon training especially blades, both here and in New Zealand. You may want your students to have “an edge” by hosting one of Dana’s workshops. For enquries please contact Dana Wong on (03) 9731 1789 or sifu@qianlidao.com

Special Interest

Seminars for AKWF

Members The Victorian Branch committee is looking at running a variety of special interest seminars in 2006 for AKWF members. The seminars are intended to cover areas such as teaching people with heart conditions, teaching the disabled, child safety etc. If you are interested in any of these or would like to recommend a topic of interest please contact Terry Lim on (03) 9759 7187 or terrylim@dodo.com.au

Coaching Tips for Your Trainee Instructors…

The Australian Coaching Council has a great range of help sheets and booklets available to assist you in training your new instructors. If you would like more information please contact Thomas McKail on thomas@sdca.com.au

Your Expertise is

Needed!! If any Victorian members have skills in drafting proposals and submissions to corporations or Government bodies and would like to contribute to the development of Wushu in Victoria could you please contact Tara Brayshaw on 0407 941 101 or tara.braysahw@thinking.com.au

We are desperate for people who can give us a little bit of time putting together material for NOAS and VicSport submissions.

If you have products or, services you

want to promote or

equipment to sell please feel free to

use this space.

For more information contact Tara Brayshaw on 0407 941 101 tara.brayshaw@thinking.com.au or Thomas McKail on 9560 0217 thomas@sdca.com.au

We hope you have enjoyed this issue of the AKWF Victorian Branch Newsletter

W arming up gets you ready for action

A fter training, cooling down helps

you relax and recover

R ecovery after a training session

helps you get ready for the

next session

M assage, relaxation and sleep are all part of

effective recovery

U se the warm-up and cool-down to discuss plans and

objectives with the team

P roper warm-up and cool-down should be a part of

every training and competition activity

Warming Up and

Cooling Down

1 Text by Wayne Goldsmith