The Depaul demonstration was one of
those rare ones, that we actually put together a program to
demonstrate Wing Chun. This was our first chance to see what
interest level we could generate for the class, and we were given a
full hour to show our stuff. We had spent the last
month spamming the campus with flyers about Wing Chun, and we really
didn't have any idea of what kind of turn out we could expect.
I believe the events took place early fall 2001 semester at Depaul,
and the demo was to be held were we currently teach, the Ray Meyer
Center.
The main thing we wanted to get
across with the demo was to define what Wing Chun was and how it was
different from other classes. I believe other
Martial arts classes are taught in Depaul, like Karate, Tai Chi, and
might as well toss in Hip hop fusion.
The demo took place at about 7:00
and we started promptly, by the time it hit 7:10 the racquet
ball courts where we did the demonstration was packed. The
first 20 minutes were spent giving them a taste of theory and
reality. The mpegs that we have of the Depaul demo show only
the Wing Chun applications. But, we demonstrated stuff, like
hook punch, push, front kick, etc, etc... How would Karate or Tae
kwon Do or other arts deal with countering these everyday attacks.
Much of the problem that we stated,
was these moves aren't bad, if your 6'4" 240lbs or equal to
your attacker's size. But, the problem there in lies if you
happen to be 100lbs Vs a 250lbs attacker. Is your art capable
of dealing with such a force? There's reasons for weight
categories in things that we see. UFC fighting has size
categories, in the Olympics Judo has weight divisions, and boxing
even has weight divisions. You'll never see DeLa Hoya Vs
Tyson, will you?
The point we made was Wing Chun isn't
concerned about how fast or how strong you are. Wing Chun
works coz it doesn't deal with muscle but with timing, structure,
and energy.
The mpegs on the Depaul demo cover
about the next 30 minutes of what we demonstrated. How would
Wing Chun counter the same attacks. Much to the surprise of
the crowd was just how efficiently we dealt with the same
situation. I think we hammered in the point that Wing Chun is
efficient and deadly. That there is no goofing off in Wing
Chun. When I think back to the demo there were several things
that made the crowd go ooooohhh and aaaaaaah and laugh.
One had to deal with the grabbing of
the arm. The way we demonstrated how other arts deal with
this, got a huge laugh. I'll see if in the future I can put
the mpeg of this up. The second thing was when I talked about
how people break boards. I showed how they had to take a
minute of concentration and yell as loud as possible. The joke
was, if this ever happened in the street, you could say, "hey Mr..
robber please give me a minute so I can generate a
fireball." That actually got huge laughs, and I'm
thinking to myself.... Ed Cruz starring at Zanies Comedy club this
Saturday. Oh well.
Now all that was the laughter part,
but the stuff they enjoyed the most is the 1 inch punch. While the
first 1 inch punch wasn't placed on mpeg, I really didn't put that
much into it, considering that it was Ed's brother in law.
However, the next volunteer really wanted to feel it, so as Emeril
would say, I kicked it up a notch. And, you'll definitely here
the crowd's cheer after that took place. Finally, most
told me they enjoyed the segment where I just showed Wing Chun
attacks at full speed. My last mpeg where I do a 80 hit combo
was the one the crowd enjoyed the most. Frankly, that kind of
demo is all flash, since speed is so easy to obtain and not really a
key element in Wing Chun skill. Its all about relaxing.
Well, we finished the demo at 8:00
and stayed another hour talking to students that were extremely
interested. How successful was the demo? Well, everyone
was talking about it the next day, and we maxxed our capacity that
Depaul would allow for students to the class. We still teach
each semester at Depaul now, and the class happens to be one of the
most popular that is offered.
For further information contact the
following.
Ray Meyer Center
2235 N. Sheffeild
Chicago, IL. 60614
phone number 773-325-4555