Fujian White Crane Kung Fu

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Seasonal Training. 

It’s been a mild Winter, but now it gives way to Spring. Time for a change in training. But why?

It’s a reasonable question. Most sports traditionally have an on-season and an off-season. Martial Arts don’t fit into that category. For a start Martial Arts are not sports*. And in the Good Old Days there wasn’t a league table for attackers and defenders, with a champion at the end of the season. In parts of the world which became impenetrable by snow and ice there may have been respite from attack, unless the hordes were already inside the gates. Further South there were the annual floods to keep invaders at bay (or trapped). There was never a reason to stop training.There still isn’t.

Given that Classical Chinese Martial Arts are trained all year round why do we change our training according to the seasons?

It’s about harmony

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This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Seasonal Training. 

Hurray! We’ve made it all the way to Summer. As we train all year round Summer training brings its own challenges. It is not in fact everyone’s favourite time for training. The heat gets to some, then there are the allergies, the quest for a tan, the food-filled lazy days of family holidays. Fear not, here’s how you can get the most out of our British Summer and max your Kung Fu and Tai Chi skills. Read More

This entry is part 3 of 6 in the series Seasonal Training. 

I have to own up here – my birthday has always been in the October half term break. So I have a great fondness for Autumn. “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” as Keats described it. But it’s so much more than that – the russet colours, the delight in sudden days of warmth and sunshine, the despair of early dark evenings (especially as the clocks always change to British Winter Time this week), reflections on Summer joys, anticipation of Christmas (what! already!!! – oh yes…). And so what are the delights and challenges of Autumn Training? Read More

This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Seasonal Training. 

It’s late winter.  We’ve had the Solstice.  We’ve had Christmas.  We’ve had the mid-winter holidays. We have in fact had whichever marker it is when your culture turns from darkness and the old, to lightness and the new – if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere.

What does this have to do with training?  Well, we are primates.  Do primates hibernate?  Some ursines do.  Some rodents do.  Some reptiles do it.  Even butterflies do it.  But we do not (though I acknowledge that some historical anthropologists argue over this one).

But the real question is, how do you feel?   Read More

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Seasonal Training. 

The Northern Hemisphere days are short and the nights are long. What better time than to sit in the house, eat large amounts of sweetened, salted foods, and tell tall tales of your glorious achievements in 2017? Everything starts to wind down now, and it’s nearly two weeks for the regular training sessions to fully re-start. Happy Holidays!! So why do these much-anticipated holidays become bliss for some and hell for others?   The reasons are complex, but Instructor Joshua Villar decided to take the mental bull by the horns and asked the other Instructors, “how do you stay sane and fit over the Winter Holidays?” So, in no particular order, here are the secrets they revealed… Read More

This entry is part 6 of 6 in the series Seasonal Training. 

Ah, the double-edged sword of New Year’s Resolutions.  If you make a good one and stick to it, you’ll be jolly all year.  But make one and break it, and it casts you down into the pits of despair. Most people make resolutions to eat more healthily, do some exercise and lose some weight.  Guess what, training at our Club can help you do all three – a bargain New Year’s Resolution!  But you still have to keep at it. Fear not, we know just what it’s like trying to stay motivated, and we have the knowledge and support to get you past those bumps in the road.

For those of you who want to start something new this year, here is FWC Instructor for London South, Richard Wagstaff, to show you how.

“New Year’s Irresolution

You’ve finished ploughing through the turkey sandwiches, mince pies, and Christmas pudding and you’ve just got over the disappointment of another highly-anticipated yet distinctly average New Year’s Eve party.   You have the whole year stretching out ahead of you – exactly the same as last year.

“No, this year is going to be different” you say to yourself. Read More