Wing Chun & Emei Qigong Report

Boston, USA 2014

As most already know this has been a busy week up here in Boston and its still going! Truly an incredible few days of learning, sharing and friendship cultivating. This will be a small write up on the past few days!

*Wing Chun practitioners started arriving on Wed.. The first to arrive was my good friend Delroi Flood. Delroi flew in from Bermuda. I picked Delroi up at the airport and brought him back to his hotel. Shortly after that Phil Romero arrived from New Mexico and Danny Horgan (host of Wing Chun Blast) picked him up. Later that night we all met in the lobby of their hotel and headed off for training. We went to my office/whse which was right down the street and began! After a brief discussion about the body and breathing we started training Yik Kam's Siu Lin Tau for a few hours and we finished the last thirty minutes by practicing Dr. Leung Jan's 1st Chi Sao set.

*On Thu Jeff Kehler arrived from Philadelphia and right after I finished work we met up and headed over to the BMAC which is where I teach Pin Sun Wing Chun on Tue & Thu night. We started off by reviewing Dr. Leung Jan's half body/turning Kim Yeung Ma as well as our Triangle Steps. From there we moved on to the two man training for the Small & Big sets, continued to practice the 1st Chi Sao set and then worked on some sealing concepts from the Pin Sun art. We finished the night off with more Yik Kam SLT and then headed to eat a Sichuan feast.

*Friday was another busy day for Wing Chun. Phil, Jeff & Delroi were picked up in the a.m. by Danny and then they headed to the Boston Commons to film an episode for the Wing Chun Blast Youtube show. The guys filmed for most of the afternoon and then went back to their hotel which was when I picked them up for more Wing Chun! We headed back to the BMAC and began training. We started off with a review of Dr. Leung Jan's turning/footwork and warmed up with Pin Sun solo training. From there we moved right back to training the Small, Big & Chi Sao sets... Over and over we repeated these actions burning in the details. We trained for three hours, went for Mexican food and then it was back to the hotel for some R&R. A few hours later I picked the guys up at the hotel and we spent another thirty minutes reviewing anything that had any questions. (We actually took over a room in the lobby of the hotel. Move the tables and started practicing!) We also reviewed a couple of the sealing actions we worked on and briefly discussed Pin Sun Wing Chun's close body concepts. Next stop! Dinner at a Brazilian Steak House with Grandmaster Fu and then back to the hotel.

*Sat a.m we all met bright and early at the BMAC for Grandmaster Fu's Emei event. Training began with Emei's "Heavy Pounding" Breathing (level one). After we learned the breathing GM Fu then had everyone practice a thirty minute warm up with the Heavy Pounding Breath. Next we began the 1st of the 12 Zhuang's. The Tian Zi Zhuang or Heaven set. Move by move and with great details GM Fu went thru every section of this set. Truly Incredible. Other than a one hour lunch break I would say about six hours of the 8 hour seminar was devoted to the learning and practice of the Heaven set. After the seminar finished everyone went back to their hotels and a few hours later it was another feast with GM Fu but this time it was at an Indian Bistro. This night we had only 10 people having dinner with GM Fu and all were Wing Chun family!

*Sun a.m. we started at the same time. We began with thirty minutes of Heavy Pounding breath and then more practice of the Heaven set. Then GM Fu began to explain the subtle differences between the Heaven and the Earth set so we spent time reviewing and practicing the 2nd Zhuang of the Emei system. Phil & Jeff left about half way thru day two but before they left I left them film me doing the YK SLT so they could have it as a study guide. GM Fu continued by explained in great detail the next two important aspects of the Heaven & Earth set; Breathing & Mind Intention. Section by section we went thru the entire set and reviewed all the fine details. 1st we ran thru for the breathing and second we ran thru for the mind intention. We continued the practice by performing the Heaven & Earth set over and over.... During the last hour of the seminar we reviewed the Heavy Pounding (level two) which GM Fu taught us but specifically asked everyone not to practice unless they complete two 50 day cycles of level one. GM Fu finished the day with an open Q&A and my only question to him was; Will You Come Back Next Year???

As a short summary; Wed/Thu/Fri we trained 8 hours of Wing Chun. Sat & Sun we trained close to 14 hours of Emei Qigong. Truly an incredible week!

A big thank you to my Wing Chun friends, my MIT Qigong friends and all the Emei Qigong practitioners that made this a real success. We all came to study this sacred system directly with the gatekeeper. Grandmaster Fu is not only a gifted practitioner but also a gifted teacher! I regard GM Fu as a living treasure and recommend anyone who has the opportunity to train with him to not think twice about it and go train with him!

Respect to Grandmaster Fu!

***

A few memories from this historic weekend!

To see a photo of the Emei Qigong Grandmaster Fu Wei Zhong reviewing the Siu Lin Tao Kuen Kuit just visit my Facebook site!

The picture is from yesterday (5/11/14). This was the second time over the weekend that I asked Grandmaster Fu to review the SLT Kuen Kuit and see if there were any elements from his Emei Qigong art contained within the poetry?

(This time I brought a yellow highlighter with me so there could be no confusion later.)

Grandmaster Fu went thru the writing line by line and page after page highlighting what he felt were from Emei or similar to Emei. Grandmaster Fu felt a large portion of part one comes directly from Emei and scattered throughout parts two, three & four were Emei signatures woven into the SLT KK. Grandmaster Fu then signed and dated the last page making this truly historic!

I know this was an important moment for the Wing Chun art as we have the gatekeeper of the Emei tradition stating many elements of our SLT ancient writing was from or similar to their writing. Combine that with numerous physical similarities that are/were just too similar to be a 'coincidence', you can only come up with one logical conclusion. We are related, or an offspring, of the Emei art.

A little background. In 2007 I visited Grandmaster Fu to study and interview him. The article I published after that meeting was translated into Chinese and published on Grandmaster Fu's own webpage. I will once again be writing a detailed article on this weekends research which I will publish in my Wing Chun Illustrated column...

Btw: We recorded everything! The entire event was filmed and we will be releasing a short highlight clip soon!

What an incredible weekend!!!

Respect to Grandmaster Fu and the Emei tradition!