Lost Treasures
Fond memories
Trained properly, are never lost
Have you ever been chatting with someone, and then out of the blue, your mind goes back to something you had at one time, but have no idea what ever happened to it?
I’m guessing that not one of you, haven’t done this.
Well, the other day, while driving my daughter to an event, I switch on the radio, and the station was playing a slot called ‘First 45’s’.
I was happy as at that moment, because when I turned on the radio, it was playing my first 45, well of course she had no idea what a 45 was.
For the younger readers, I’ll explain what a 45 is, and by the way, it has nothing to do with firearms!
Records used to be vinyl (I explained to HER), small ones and large ones, the large (twelve inch), being LP’s, ‘long players’, playing at 33 rpm, whereas the small records (seven inch) were called 45’s as they played at 45rpm, at this point, looking at the confusion on her face, I decided to avoid explaining 78’s.
When the song had finished, she asked the question, “Do you still have the record?”
No, no I did not, and as always, had no idea what could have possibly happened to it.
This trigger sent my mind reeling of all the things I loved in my youth but have no idea what happened to them.
Things such as an old 35mm camera with a long lens, that, get ready for this, was so long that it mounted on what looked like a rifle butt!
A blue shiny jacket that had the appearance of being from NASA (I was very young, ok?), a Chinese vase I bought in the late 1970’s when my interest in the martial arts took its firm hold, as well as all the equipment that went with training.
If you think of your list, I bet it would go on and on too?
So where am I going with this and what’s the connection to Wing Chun?
The answer is quite simple.
We’ve all heard it said that once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget, well I think this is the same for your training, provided, it was done properly in the first place.
Well, last year, while giving seminars in Philadelphia, a student called Ben Morris flew in from Utah, a student I had taught in the UK, over 25 years previously, and he’d not trained since then.
Even though he had only trained with me for a short while, he was great!
Great positions, great stance, rolling, Chi Sau and even Forms, he was true testament that when you train properly, and are trained properly, you will have no fear of losing it, like you did with all those things.
‘With the right teaching, Wing Chun will be a lifelong companion’
I met with Ben again earlier this month in Hong Kong, and was just as impressed, not only by his ability to develop himself, but how he was able to help others, even assisting with one of our US students when he was in Chicago.
It is so rewarding to see that our family is not only growing in quantity, but also continuing to grow in quality.
At 101 years old, Master Ip Chun will be so happy to see his Wing Chun,
continuing to spread around the world through our fabulous community.
