Shaolin Chin-Na June 2008

[Simon]

I'll be arriving in Jun Kota Kinabalu at 17.20 on Sunday 8th if anyone wants to share a taxi to the venue.

Hope you're all getting your joints warmed up and stretched!

Simon

[Zhang Wuji]

I arrive on the 8th just before noon. Anyone I can share a cab with?

[Luo Lang]

This will be, I am quite sure another historical course. A course where Sifu not only shares his deep knowledge ans experience, it's a course where he shares one of his I guess own specialities.

All that in the land of the Sabbha Tiger. Truly fantastic.

Happy training!

[Adam Kryder]

Dear All,

I will be arrivng in Kota Kinabalu one June 7th @ 12 noon.
Please let me know if you would like to share a cab!

Best Wishes,

Adam Kryder

[Molly]

I know this shall be a wonderful course, and I wish you all a fantastic time!

Twisting your wrists in spirit ,

Molly

[joko]

Yes!
It will be great! Congratulations.

[Damian Kissey]

Dear All ,

Happy travelling and see you in Sabah soon .

Sifu , Roseline and me are on a driving trip and are now in Sandakan : will be seeing all of you on the evening of June 8th at the Perkasa Hotel Kundasang at Mount Kinabalu .

Best regards ,

Damian .

[Andrea]

So many unique opportunities in one year . Isn't it wonderful that our family has grown so much and to such a level that yet another secret will be shared !

Wishing you all an amazing and blessed course !

Andrea

[Zhang Wuji]

I have been home a little over 24 hours and it is time for me to pen (type) my review of the 2008 Qinna course. I took a little bit of time because I was catching up on lost sleep and I was organising my thoughts.

It was and is a wonderful course. Together with all the course participants, I am so grateful to Sifu for teaching us the priceless art of qin-na, and to Dr Damian, Dr Rosaline and Bernie (Adam on this forum) for making the course even more enjoyable.

Let me begin with a broad outline of the course syllabus as it was taught to us - as you will notice, when written out, it is brief, but when we were training......

A. Day 1

1) Review of One-Finger Shooting Zen
2) Remedies for internal Qin-na injuries
3) External Qin-na training
4) Remedies for inuries from external training
5) 5 combat sequences (5)

B. Day 2
1) Internal Qin-na training - Fierce Tiger Cleanses Claws
2) Combat Sequences (10)

C. Day 3
Combat Sequences (11- 25?)

D. Day 4
Combat Sequences (25-45??)

E. Day 5
1) Bone Marrow Cleansing
2) Combat Sequences (45-72)

As you can see, there were a LOT of sequences to be learnt. On the first day, we were rather optimistically thinking there would be more than enough time to learn the sequences, on the (now proven false) assumption that the 72 sequences would be incorporated in a maximum of 20 sequences. But no.....there was one sequence for each of the 72 sequences....This must be something of a record. If you thought cramming 16 combat sequences in 5 days was bad.......

OK, some back-story, as it were. Before I arrived for the course, there were two questions in my mind.
* Was the course title "Shaolin 72 qin-na techniques" a misnomer? Surely, we were not just going to learn just techniques?
* Would we be learning counters to the techniques?

I actually knew the answers to both questions even as I held them in my mind but it was nice to be proven right

* With regard to the first question, one of the most important principles we took away from the course was: Techniques are not as important as our internal force training, a point often stressed in our basic training, but even more significant at advanced levels. I will go more into this in a while, but before I go on, I would like you to read this post I wrote a while back, and which contents were fortified during this course.

*As for the second question, well, let's just say, I would welcome (after sufficient practice) any Aikido or Jujitsu exponent trying to lock and hold me

Duty is calling (ie, the kids) but I would like to slip in a very fundamental lesson that was drummed into me in the course of the sequences training, and that is: the basics - moving correctly in stances, safety first, and daily practice - are the most important of all. Anyone who attempts qin-na without a sufficient foundation in the basics is just wasting his time. He will end up with a host of fancy but useless techniques.

And now, the crying is getting louder and incessant so I really must go. Tune in tomorrow for the next episode...

[Alex]

Photos! click for slideshow