James Lynch
I thought it was a great day. Even before it happened it provided a focus for training- really good motivation. The day itself was great fun. The atmosphere was very positive- friendly but competitive. Just being there gave me a great sense of achievement and I hope that the competition gets even bigger next year and just keeps going from strength to strength.
Jeremy Hall
Personally I thought the chi Sao comp was a giant leap forward for Wing Chun in this country, we haven’t had much in the way of inter lineage pressure testing in the UK for a long time now apart from the odd chi Sao exchange which has never been allowed to get out of hand and occasional, very, infrequent fights between practitioners.
What a full contact event offered from my point of view was an opportunity to go full power to really see what works and what doesn’t. I learned a lot from my fight and found it quite difficult receiving forces that are coming from a determined opponent, not a compliant training partner. I have heard criticism that there was no Chi Sao to be seen but I disagree with the comment, Chi Sao at this level becomes much more akin to a real fight, with your first entry from the roll really where the main part of the skill is used. I found that I was not as fit as I needed to be which was something of a personal wakeup call for myself, during the third round I had to really dig deep just to finish the fight, this obviously is a reflection on the state of my own personal Wing Chun and fitness level, but I shall be pursuing a higher level of fitness and conditioning as a result. I believe people will see what had happened this year and go away and begin to work on some of what they saw (and felt!) I know I will, two things I found hard to deal with was the Thai clinch and standing guillotine. My hope is that as the comps and competitor’s progress, the more extravagant techniques such as these will harder to achieve as the competitors skills of structure, sensitivity and self-preservation will increase.
Obviously disallowing throat and head shots changes things but I think in terms of creating an opportunity to hit/ or defend the current format worked well, to allow head shots even with head guards and mama gloves would be too dangerous as unlike mma or boxing a Chi Sao event would allow for the fighters to be in perfect range to have the heavy headshots without any need to close the distance. All in all the rules and regulations were well suited to the event and worked well on the day. Possibly a change of name from Chi Sau to Gor Sau would change peoples perceptions on what they understand is trying to be achieved, with starting from 3 rolls allowing the combat to mature until the fighters break or ref stops the action.
There was a good atmosphere in the arena amongst fighters and I think there was a good crowd also. It was a good get together of various schools that may not normally mix and even if that was all that was achieved it is glorious prize. I hope it will consolidate people into a belief that our martial art is more than just a single lineage or school and that we all have something to offer each other and that it will wake people up to the fact that if we don’t get real and seek the truth within our art and ourselves via pressure testing we will lose what we have.
Personally I would like to see this event expand, possibly with various regional bouts leading up to a finals session at Seni, but it is not my place to make such bold suggestions.
The event was well run and I thought it was a very good idea to have judges from various lineages as opposed to just one school, thus avoiding charges of favouritism and cheating.
Therefore it is with great pleasure that I say thank you to yourself Alan for organising the event and doing the refereeing on the day and also to your students who helped set up the event and the sponsor Pagoda.
My thank you also goes out to all the judges, Mark Phillips, Alan Gibson, James Sinclair and Mick Yates. I believe you did a good job and judged fairly.
Thank you to everyone who competed and had the guts to get involved with the comp, others may come after but we were the first, stepping into the unknown.
Thanks to my friends from all over who came to support me. Especially Aidan T, and Al P.
My last thank you goes out to my opponent Aaron Baum, who taught me so much in so little time and proved to be a real gent when I spoke to him the next day.
If I’ve left anyone out I'm sorry, hope to see you all next year.
Simon Liste
The event was a great opportunity for various Wing Chun schools to come together and exchange ideas on the concept of Chi Sao. The organisation of the event was excellent, within an arena that attracted a lot of interest. It was nice to see that Wing Chun was being shown to the public in its martial and artistic manner. It was an honour to have Robert Chu Si Gung, Alan Orr Sifu, Alan Gibson Sifu Mark Phillips Sifu and James Sinclair Sifu judging the event. The event itself produced some great Chi Sao, with no ego or political arguments that has been so rife within the Wing Chun community. It is nice to put Wing Chun back on the map and for the public to see it's true potential and beauty.
Paul Conway
First of all well done too all fighters job well done. What did I learn about the competition (1) is having a good structure when under pressure hold your ground good
Punching skills and know how to move your feet, and don’t put your heart and soul in the first fight control yourself and only strike when the moment is right. It made me look at myself about when we train our Wing Chun we do these drills the forms etc, but when we train we are looking for a good response and doing the job as quick as possible. So going back to the forms drills they are to me a collection of ideas and reference points, they in turn help us be better fighters and help us to act in a more effective way. About the format I think the format is fine but more head shots (with control).
Sai Jun Mak
I thought the Chi Sao event was very well conceived
and organised - i very much had an enjoyable and fun
day and i believe most of the fighters really enjoyed
the day too. I felt the rules were appropriate and the
format provided a great platform for Wing Chun
practitioners to really test their skills under
pressure within a safe environment. One thing i've noticed since the event are a few
rather predictable negative comments posted on the
internet regarding the event and the performance of
the fighters. I feel this very importantly highlights
that many practitioners only seem to have an "idea" of
how Wing Chun should perform functionally - in this
case the Chi Sao Open provides a perfect opportunity
for such practitioners to showcase and pressure test
their Wing Chun skills against a "live" opponent. I
feel that for many competitiors, the full contact
amateur NHB rules of the event will positively change
how they perceive Wing Chun to perform in application,
this is something that a casual observer will simply
not be able to appreciate. I feel the Chi Sao Open is a very positive event for
the future of Wing Chun. All fighters seemed to have
great respect for each other for coming forward to
represent their schools and it would be good to see a
larger number of schools entering in the future.
Ben Bracegirdle
Thanks for organising the Chi Sau event. A pioneering
event that I think has the potential to grow and grow
in the future. I really enjoyed competing. It was the first time I
ever took part in a combat sports event and It gave me
a huge Buzz. The improvments I made during training in the 3 months
leading up to the fight Have helped me in all aspects
my Wing Tsun and life in general (I lost 10+kg to get
down to weight). It has certainly spurred me on to
train just as hard in the future.Can't wait to get stuck in again in 12 months time.