News from the Backyard

A lot of changes are in the works and happening already.

1. We will resume Student Grade (SG) testings every two months, or at least once a student has attended twelve lessons since his or her last testing. The Lesson Plans on the Meetup website (for the first five lessons) cover the entire material needed to pass SG2. That means that the rest of the twelve lesson will be for practicing what you have learned. Should be plenty.
2. The Teaching Outline (also on the Meetup) currently goes to SG-4. At SG-3, you are already beginning to learn the first section of two-armed Chi Sao. That's downright heretical by current European (and even Chinese and American) standards. Back when, Chi Sao started at SG-6, about a year and a half into your training!
   
3. Salomon is a trained carpenter. Yeah!! That means, time permitting, he will help us put up a fighting platform very soon.
   
4. He can probably also build us a wooden dummy. I have the specs and plans, and he has the skills. That will really lower the price we have to pay for the darn thing considerably.
   
5. I am starting free Saturday self defense classes at Discover Green in downtown Houston (1500 McKinney). Current students are free to participate, of course. That will be great advertising for us.
6. I have just ordered the first of a series of WT DVDs from Germany that teach the entire system - and it's not garbage like all the other ones are that claim to do the same thing but never deliver. The only problem is - they're in German only, so far ...

As you can see, there's a lot going on. I will also start making contacts with other Wing Chun schools around town so that when you guys are more advanced (very soon), you have other people to practice your Chi Sao with. It keeps us from committing martial arts "incest" by only practicing with people from our own school all the time. I hope they're not too skittish. I really don't want this to turn into a "who's school is better?" kind of thing. I have no interest in that. I just want you to learn and practice.

More news to follow soon, I am sure.

Until then,
Sihing Alex
awallenwein@gmail.com