Nan Shaolin Wuzuquan (Shizu Kim Han) - COURSE, Exploring Sanzhan

The purpose of the course on Sunday the 8th October, was to try to bring a range of instructors and students together to practice and improve Sanzhan principles 'hands on' and with a variety of partners. We are pleased to say that this was achieved in a relaxed, respectful and considerate group that were enthusiastic about getting together to train. Before his passing, Grandmaster Han entrusted Nigel to keep the contact element of the Nan Shaolin Wuzuquan style taught to him by GM Chee Kim Thong (Malaysia) alive and to spread the art. GM Han would be pleased by the cooperation and open attitude of the participants.

We managed to practice the Sanzhan Form briefly before we moved to the catching to 'feel' the form. Less experienced students were helped and guided by the more experienced, helping to reinforce understanding 'sensing' objectives. We put some of the skills from the Catching into a free style pushing hands session that employed restricted foot movement to encourage a firm base and good posture. With a continuous change of partners, adapting to individuals became more intuitive for some. Then, more physical contact from practicing the limb knocking and Sanzhan Sparring Set ensued. Although, it was necessary to be careful with some newcomers, everyone experienced the discomfort of becoming familiar with the 'heavy hands' hitting and conditioning of the arms.

The result on the day could not have been better!!! Everyone working together to improve their standard using contact to test each other. The atmosphere was friendly and sharing, though competitive. Communication between partners was good and gaining experience from new training partners was a big success!

During the brief lunch break, people were very sociable as they continued to train and discuss what they had been doing earlier. Very positive!

Thank you to all those who attended from near and far, for example; Norway (Martin), Manchester (Dave, Belema), Birmingham (Andrew), London (Mark, Greg, Gareth, Sayeh and Dave CJ (White Crane)) and of course, Maidstone (Ian, Steve, Marcus, Folks, John).

Feed back was excellent overall although, we have had one negative comment, ie; 'The course was too short!'

We are now looking forward to the next opportunity to welcome more people in a get together with the same relaxed atmosphere of sharing Nan Shaoiln Wuzuquan (Shizu Kim Han) skills and knowledge.