Merry Christmas from all of us at the Qian Li Dao Academy –  our heartfelt thanks for your participation and support throughout this, our 10th year of operations; we couldn’t have reached this milestone without you! It’s been a busy and exciting year for the Academy and we hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have – sharing, training and discovering more about ourselves and our Wing Chun.

We have finished classes for this year, and will resume in the new year as follows:

• Adult classes in Werribee will resume as from Monday, 6 January 2014, and Thursday, 9 January 2014 only.
• Adult classes in Hoppers Crossing will resume as from Tuesday, 14 January 2014 – full schedule resuming this week for the Western suburbs classes.
• Bentleigh classes will resume as from Wednesday, 15 January 2014.
• Children’s classes will resume as from Monday, 3 February 2014.

Whatever your holiday plans, if you travel, please do so safely and may you share good times with good friends making great memories. We look forward to sharing, training and exploring Wing Chun again with you in the coming New Year. May 2014 bring you and yours good health, much happiness and good fortune – Happy New Year to all!!!

    Just returned from another trip to Foshan, to train with Sifu Kwok Wai Jarm, son of our late Master Kwok Fu, and the clan. I must say that it was a most informative and fulfilling visit this time around, with Sifu Kwok spending extensive time alone with me before the guys arrived, and then giving my students who came from Australia (and one from New Zealand) special time and attention as well, when they arrived the following week.

We spent days training with him, and some of his senior students, in the mornings and early afternoons and then returned in the evening to participate in their group classes in the local schoolyard playground across the street from his home.

But the trip wasn’t all work – we took some time to visit the beautiful mountains of Guilin and trekked the mountain paths at the Longji Rice Fields there, too, meeting with some of the Yao tribal people who live there.

Some R&R in Yangshuo and relaxing at the Xinyinzhan hot springs on our way back to Foshan and Guangzhou made for a great ending to a spectacular trip!

For those of you who couldn’t/didn’t make it, you missed out on a trip of a lifetime, filled with heaps of kung fu knowledge, Chinese culture, great cuisine and good times! You’d best be ready to come on the next one!!!

Check it all out here!

Stopped in to see our brethren in Philly again, and spent some time going over some new ideas for improving their stances and to get more power from their structures and steps. As usual, Sifu Kelly Knight and the crew at the Martial Art & Fitness Center were up for the training.

Over the weekend, we burned out quads and hammies, not to mention some calves and ankles along the way as we ran through a number of partner drills and exercises to help strengthen the legs and stances as well as to improve their stepping and mobility and explosion. Needless to say, some were walking a bit funny by the time we finished the weekend.

Had to intersperse some single-arm and double-arm chi sao drills amongst the leg work, so that everyone was able to make it through to Monday. But in the end, a great time was had by all. Another fabulous time with the guys from Philly! Always great to drop in and work with good people.

To see more from the weekend, click here.