Wexford Lau Gar recently hosted a course delivered by Guardian of Lau Gar Jason Crabtree. Jason is a regular visitor to Ireland and his classes are always extremely enjoyable. Derek and students from the Navan club, Niall Whyte and Frank Burton, attended the days training and Frank has once again pen to paper to describe the day!
Following a leisurely cruise down to Wexford early Sunday morning, and a brief scenic tour of this old garrison town prior to establishing exactly where the training hall was exactly, we began a very enjoyable 4hrs of training with Jason Crabtree Guardian of Lau Gar.
The session commenced with a short and relaxed warm up, followed by two hours of stick training encompassing:
various attacks and blocks,
blocking and locking your attacker,
unarmed defence against your attacker.
This was most enjoyable and served to build on the sets that Derek has taught us at the monthly Sunday session. After a brief water stop we then progressed into some sticking hands exercises, leading of course into locking your partner. From a personal point of view – and a wonderful example of not being able to see the wood from the trees, Jason's explanation of some of the simple moves and techniques tying back into kay bon sau fa and jorn sau really struck a cord and the importance of not just knowing these sets for grading purposes but being able to understand and feel their flow in daily Kung fu hit home like a ging loaded punch!
At this point in the session it was time now for some Chi Gung and for Jason to spend some time focusing on the senior students. I sat this one out and was very content to sit back and watch as Derek and Niall went through the Two Man Stick set from the 3 rd Sash syllabus.
All in all it was a very enjoyable and valuable experience – one I would certainly recommend to others when Jason is next in the country.
Congrats to all who successfully graded at the recent sunday session in Dunshaughlin. All clubs were represented with new sashes from White through to Green being graded for. As usual the standard was execellent but remember, after recieving your sash the work only gets harder so keep at it!
Thanks to some sterling work by our roving reporter Frank, Boyne Valley Martial Arts clubs were recently featured in the Meath Chronicle.
Also, Stephen McDowell from the Navan club was recently featured in a trade magazine and gave an interview in which he clearly attributes his current success and happiness in life to his training.