Reproduced by kind permission of Kevin Bell. See original post here.

Well after a very anxious night wondering whether I was going to make the 5 o’clock wake up I finally hauled my ass out of bed and headed to the airport to rendezvous with the rest of the Southampton mob Alan, Chris and John. After a quick coffee we boarded rather pensively a small plane that didn’t look unlike a first world war Bi-plane…

On landing in “Mad”chester we were greeted by the warm smiles and hand shakes of David Peterson and Ged Kennerk. Somehow we managed to cram six people into Geds medium sized family car and headed back to the warm hospitality of the Kennerk household. Allow me to digress slightly from the story folks for I sincerely recommend Mrs Kennerk’s Bacon rolls and believe them to be the best in Manchester.

We spent the next few hours drinking lots of coffee and of course talking Wing Chun. An ugly moment also nearly arose when Ged’s wife came in with a plate of biscuits for us all and it developed into a near Mexican standoff as to who was gonna make the first move. I knew David like me has a “sweet tooth” and I valued my mortality I was just safe in the knowledge that I can run very fast. :-)

Much coffee and Chi Sau in Ged’s living room later we headed off to Ged’s school to have an afternoon of Wing Chun whereby David very kindly broke down and demonstrated all the Wing Chun forms and applications and, I got to say we were all awe struck and grateful for the detailed analysis. Obviously we discussed slight different variations of interpretations etc and was pleasantly surprised to see our footwork was more or less exactly the same after all the fluff and nonsense floating on Internet forums confusing the matter.

Ok. After checking in to our hotel and freshening up we headed down to the restaurant to meet up with David, Ged and some of Ged’s students for dinner. I wasn’t quite sure of the names of the Chinese food I was eating but it was very nice and a very pleasant evening ensued with one of the waiters, David I think was his name, showing us some wicked card tricks. After a couple of hours we bade David, Ged and students good night and headed home. Funnily enough as we made our way back to the hotel there was some drunken nut bag pushing his women around and we ran over to intervene. Not a very nice situation to see but one I felt that couldn’t really be ignored.

Anyway Saturday morning the day of the first seminar (well really our second seminar after the few hours in Ged’s unit the day previous). After a hearty breakfast and a walk into the local town we arrived at the hall for the start of the first seminar. We met and were introduced to some more of Ged’s students and the ice was broken. David decided to base the first seminar on applying WSL Wing Chun concepts to today’s urban environment. Topics ranged from the five types of footwork, Man Sau – Wu Sau, line-ups, Lat Sau Jik Chung, fighting the person not the hands, Chi Guek to name but a few. What impressed me was David inviting people to wantonly attack him, not pussy footing but actually attack him, whilst he demonstrated time and again the effectiveness of WSL Wing Chun. A great time was had by all. At the end of the seminar I had the good fortune to indulge in an informal share/compare Chi Sau session with a gentleman from outside the WSL fraternity and yielded some interesting insights into how other Wing Chun families apply their thinking.

Shortly after heading back to the hotel I received a phone call from Ged asking us if we (the Southampton mob) wanted to hook up with him and David for a beer. A quick meal and shower later we met up in the bar at around 8pm. For the next few hours we had a good old laugh and a joke. What happened next was quite interesting because beer was being put in front of Chris and myself and for some strange reason we proceeded to get absolutely hammered. I can’t recall too much conversation but I did smoke two of Alan’s cigars and coughed profusely. After this my memory is an absolute blank and I woke up the next morning with an almighty headache and a raging hangover.

A couple of Paracetamol, breakfast and a shower later and we all set off for the second (our third) seminar. The order of the day was to be Chi Sau. David proceeded to systematically breakdown Chi Sau demonstrating in great detail the actions and concepts of Taan, Bong and Fook Sau into individual actions emphasising Lat Sau Jik Chung and building the drills up until we were practicing Double Sticking Hands. I had the good opportunity again to Chi Sau with David and like other WSL instructors I’ve trained with he felt VERY threatening. I’ve got to be honest and say I was mightily impressed with the way David a man who I hope he doesn’t mind me saying weighs considerably less than me was able to pull me around and mix it big time.

Unfortunately time went to quickly and all to soon it was over. There’s so much I’ve probably not catalogued due to tiredness etc but am happy to answer any questions or add anything I remember in the forth-coming days.

A very special thanks first off to Si-Bak David for a very enjoyable informative weekend . At this moment in time its kind of difficult to put into words the gratitude I feel and the good fortune I’ve had to have the opportunity to have spent time with this very talented gentleman. I would, and will, recommend to anyone that you go and train with this man as you will come away just feeling blown away.

Lastly, to Sifu Ged. Where do I start. The gracious hospitality and courtesy you’ve extended to myself and the other crazy guys has just been second to none. You are a complete gentleman I don’t know what else to say really other than on behalf of the Southampton crew just a very big thank you for everything you’ve done for us. We hope at some point in the not to distant future we can return the compliment down here on the south coast. Keep in touch mate and all the best .

Regards,
Kev Bell