The first Animal Day was BRUTAL (but also fun)!

Madness after a grueling 68-minute battle of will and conditioningLast Saturday we finally had our much-anticipated Animal Day.  The Animal Day challenge is based on a fighting formula that I got from Sifu Chris Collins (www.chriscollinsaction.com) in Hong Kong.  It consists of three phases, namely 1) guo sau (chi sau/lat sau sparring), 2) free-fighting, and finally 3) ground-fighting.  

Sweeps in Guo Sau are standard!In order to complete the grueling 68-minute challenge without hacking up a lung, we had all the fighters (started with 12 - whittled down to 8) participate in a 12-week training camp.  This included 5 workouts every week that gradually increased cardio, conditioning, heavy-bag work and bodyweight calisthenics.  Even non-fighters participated in the 12-week challenge and their reward was that they were able to watch the fighters do Animal Day.  We had nearly 20+ particpants in the 12-week challenge and I was very happy to see everyone (fighters and non-fighters) train so hard for three months.

The first phase (guo sau) consists of three 9-minute rounds (!) non-stop.  Each round of guo sau focused on another aspect, for example applying certain concepts or techniques against your resisting partner.  As this is full guo sau it includes lat sau, kicks and sweeps as part of the deal.  This with only one-minute breaks in between.  Total time for phase 1 with breaks was 30 minutes.

Always defend your center! Brutal elbow by EugeneSome junior students had some difficulty with phase 1 but stuck it through anyway.  CWT Trainer Craig Savino was by far the most technical and aggressive in phase 1.

The second phase (free-fighting) consists of two 8-minute rounds of fighting WT vs. non-WT attacks all while using a limited number of movements from the repetoire.  Participants wear full equipment to allow realistic pressure and intensity to be used.  Every minute the attackers and defenders switch roles to ensure that it's not a WT vs. WT melee as seen in most WT schools.  This is done with two minute breaks in between.  Total time of this phase is 20 minutes.  Sifu Nicole Daniels was an absolute phenom in this round.

Phase 2 unfortunately put Craig out of commission as a pre-existing rib injury was aggravated by a nasty knee strike from Sifu Nicole Daniels.  Since we were down a fighter I had to throw on the equipment and get in their and fight myself.  Luckily I also was training and working out so my conditioning was up to par to fight with these guys.  I ran an anti-WT clinic (using my knowledge of other arts and WT to counter my student's WT) on all those who I sparred with.  As Craig himself blogged:

"My Sifu has Jiu Jitsu, Tae Kwan Do and of course Wing Tsun chops. Plus he knows everything we might pull and how to counter it. It’s basically the most beneficially educational nightmare you could ever have."

Putting an educational "nightmare" on Roland :)

The final phase is ground-fighting where the students are stripped of using any WT striking and must solely use concepts to escape the grapplers attempts at pinning or controlling.  Taking away the devasting striking arsenal limits the WT fighter use body mechanics and WT tactics to escape in addition to good old-fashioned conditioning and grit.  Two 7-minute rounds of this with a 2-minute break.  Total time of phase 3 is 18 minutes.  The total Animal Day challenge is 68 minutes non-stop.

Craig about to bring the knee up... Phase 1 chi sau sparring.This was the first time we staged this event and I was very pleased with the results.  All 8 participants performed excellently and have learned very quickly what aspects of the game they need to work on.  I'm very proud of the hard work, preparation and the final perfomance from my fighters.

We will be holding more such events in the future.  Our Saturday Dynamic WT fight class is truly a highlight of the WT week.  I use modern training and fighting protocols (same as in MMA gyms) and applied them to WT fighting.  I'm very pleased with the results!

To see more photos from this awesome event, please visit our CWT Facebook page. 

Animal Day Graduates:

• Sifu Nicole Daniels
• Craig S.
• Pete M.
• Roland B.
• Eugene T.
• Brian C.
• Vincent P.
• Joseph L.

You guys are beasts!!

More updates to the midtown CWT facilities

Mike Yee can barely contain his excitement about the new floors :)It's been a construction zone yet again at CWT as we renovate our lobby area to better serve our students and guests.  After installing the mats on the 4th floor (see older blog posting), we are now installing a new floor for the waiting area and lobby.  This will give the school a much more streamlined look.  Just like our WT, we never rest on improving and moving forward.  No one wants a shabby school that hasn't changed in 10 years!

The upstairs facility has also recently had an upgrade on the floor.  More training equipment is on it's way.  There is no WT school in the USA that is better equipped than CWT.  Better facilities and better equipment give student more opportunities to push their WT skills with a wide variety of training partners.  

My goal of making CWT the premier WT center for North America is almost achieved!  

More projects on the way!

CWT is on Tumblr now!

Thanks to the effort of our new social media director Kristy Elene (Vogue Gone Rogue) we have now established a presence on Tumblr.  The Tumblr page will include special photos, postings and musings from us here at the CWT HQ.  For those of you who don't know, Tumblr is a fantastic blogging community which allows us yet another avenue to communicate with our community of followers.

Successful seminar in Augusta, Georgia

Southeastern WT Center - One year old and growing!!It's been a couple weeks since I updated my blog here.  In the last couple weeks we have been working very hard on a number of different projects, everything from finalizing the new website to revamping our social media, to improving our instructor training programs.  This has left me and my team running ragged, and finally today I have a bit of time to update you all.

Followers of my blog will know that at the end of April I taught my first seminar at the Southeastern Wing Tsun Center, our Network Partner School in Augusta.  The Southeastern Wing Tsun Center, led by my student Casper Fagerberg, just recently celebrated their one-year anniversary.  For a school that is only a year old I'm very happy with the progress.  The feedback from the students was extremely positive and I was also impressed with the general standard.  During the student tests, I tested them with the same standards as in my NYC headquarters and they all passed with flying colors.  This is all due to the hard work of Casper (and other branch instructors) teaching according to our criteria.

WT's famous "yap ma bo faat" (stance entering step)The first day was a standard WT seminar divided up by levels.  Beginners learned important footwork and defense mechanisms for applying WT on the street.  There are a number of common counters that non-Wing Tsun (i.e. street-fighters) attempt to use against WT's chain-punching.  I taught them the most solid counters and let them work it really hard to develop confidence against a resisting opponent.  The senior students worked on chi sau as well as free-sparring and defense on the ground.

On the second day I taught a small group private lesson on the topic of restraining and subduing an opponent without using WT's trademark striking.  This is particularly useful for those in law enforcement or security.  One of the participants was a ten-year veteran of MMA who was pretty impressed with WT's restraining methods - many things which he had never seen before in wrestling or jiu-jitsu.

In addition to the seminars, Casper and other students coming as far as North Carolina took many hours of private training with me.  Casper has also trained a number of women as well and they are technically skilled and vicious :)

All in all I'm very proud of the progress and continual growth of this very new school!

Check out the Southeastern Wing Tsun Center's website here.

Additionally, you can "like" the Southeastern Wing Tsun Center on Facebook here, and follow them on Twitter here.

"Ip Man 3" and WKW's "The Grandmaster" films underway

Promotional poster for WKW's "The Grandmaster" starring Tony Leung as Ip Man.The overwhelming success of the Ip Man films starring Donnie Yen have pushed producers to create the third and final installment.  Bey Logan (a close friend to Donnie) told me a few months ago that Donnie did finally decide to make the film.  This was big news since Donnie initially stated that he would not come back for a third film.  The focus of this third film will be on Bruce Lee, who is perhaps the most famous student of the late grandmaster.  While I'm all excited for the promotion and attention these films give our art, I hope they don't go overboard with the Bruce Lee storyline.  In the grand scheme of the late grandmaster's life, there was a lot more going on that his teaching the teenage Bruce for a few years.

The film is set to begin production at the end of this year.   There is no word as to who will play the young Bruce Lee.  Producer Edmond Wong said “Perhaps, we may cast an overseas actor. Actors who have played Bruce Lee in past films were Aarif Lee and Danny Chan. However, they may be too old to play a 16-year-old Bruce Lee. We will have to wait for director Wilson Yip to decide.”  They did state however that Ip Man will be the central character in the film.  

News reports also say that they will film Ip Man 3 in 3D.  The second film was already a big departure from the style and quality of the first film so I hope this doesn't indicate moving more in the direction of flash over substance.  The first Ip Man film was made as a long awaited labor of love with no expectations.  When it turned out to be a hit, the producers cashed in to make a formulaic picture for the mainland Chinese audience (the biggest market unfortunately).  The result was a poorly written and weakly-acted sequel which left me mostly turning away unable to watch.

This is Wilson Yip's last chance to redeem the franchise and I hope they do right by it.  At least I hope whoever the fight consultant is can finally get Donnie to close his damn fingers in the famous man sau/wu sau fighting position of WT (WC et al)!  When our own students have their fingers dangerously spread apart in the pre-fight we jokingly call this the "Donnie Yen pose".  

Wong Kar Wai's take on the Ip Man story ("The Grandmaster") seems to be slated for a Christmas 2012 release.  It stars non-martial artist Tony Leung in the role of the late grandmaster.  This release is long-awaited as the film was plagued with massive production delays, injuries, reshoots, re-cuts and the like.  The sheer amount of problems and production pauses for this film may indicate that it will be a cinematic mess.  It will also be Wong Kar Wai's first attempt at a martial arts film.  

In any case it looks like the art of WT will remain in the entertainment circle for a while!  Let's hope producers step up their games.