Dublin Kung Fu Seminar; an article by Chief Instructor Mr Russell Suthern

Dublin Kung Fu Seminar.

By Mr Russell Suthern
Chief Instructor
WCMA

Recently I had the honour of being invited over to Dublin to teach at a seminar hosted by the Chief Instructor of Dublin White Crane Kung Fu, Eddie Walsh.

I had never been to Ireland before & it was high on my list of places to visit, so I not only jumped at the chance, but I also made sure I included an extra day either side of the seminar day so we could explore the city!

Dublin is a beautiful city with, as you would expect, lots of places to eat & drink, as well as lots of great architecture. I would highly recommend it to anybody is thinking of paying a visit, you won’t be disappointed!

The seminar itself was great fun & a great success.
Mr Walsh’s students were very friendly & made me feel right at home. They also worked very hard & picked things up very quickly, they are all a credit to their instructor!

I spent the morning teaching the White Crane Six Stance Form, which is a very important basic pattern as it teaches not only the fundamental stances, but how to flow from one stance to the next. The form is really hard work on the legs, but the guys really rose to the challenge & I was impressed that they had the whole form learnt in one morning!

(A video of the form will be published soon- watch this space!)

We filmed the whole group performing a synchronised performance of the pattern & they looked like a group that had been practising for months rather than mere hours!

After lunch we changed tack & I taught some grappling & ground fighting techniques, with the emphasis more on traditional street application rather than competition fighting, although I did throw a few “flashier” moves in for good measure!

It is a common misconception that the Chinese arts contain no grappling.
In fact many practitioners of the Chinese arts often resort to training Japanese Judo or Ju Jutsu, Western wrestling or Brazilian Ju Jutsu to supplement their stand up routine.
While there is nothing wrong with this, it is often overlooked that the Chinese do have their own tradition of grappling arts.

The main core of what I teach is a mix of Dog Style Boxing, Shuai Jiao wrestling & Chin-na holds & locks.

These combined create a very effective ground fighting/grappling style.
If the techniques look similar to those found in other styles- that’s because they are!
The human body is the same across the world.
A punch is a punch, a kick is a kick & an arm bar is an arm bar, whether you are Chinese, Japanese, European or Brazilian!

I have always felt that there is more to be gained from examining the similarities between all the different styles, rather than nit-picking all the differences.

I have to say I felt very worked by the end of the day & was very happy to find a Chinese restaurant for dinner followed by an early night.

I do hope everyone else who was at the seminar ached as much as I did the following day!

All in all this was a fantastic experience & one that I hope I will be able to repeat on a regular basis!