Welcome to the Year of the Ox as we bid farewell to the Year of the Rat – and what a year that was! This year’s artwork is once again based on an original drawing by Yevheniia Mikheenko, with storyboarding by Instructor Sharon Ngo.
The oxen shown are native species in several parts of the world – but what unites them is their steadfastness in the face of attack. It takes some courage to stop running and turn to face down a predator but that is what these animals do – if flight does not work it is time to engage fight. And forming an outward circle of those fearsome horns to protect the herd is to be respected from a prey species.
So let us come together as a predator and prey species to face down the global threats we have to confront.
We are teaching and training online (using Zoom) during lockdowns whilst following WHO and Government guidelines for COVID-19/Coronavirus.
Whenever we are able to return to in-person training we will do so in COVID-secure environments. Please contact your Instructor to find out more.
Not a member yet? Instructor Karim Daoud will answer your questions on how to start your training with us.
Be up-hearted. Stay safe.
Are you breathing? Is your heart beating? That’s all you need to start training.
We teach the Classical Chinese Martial Arts of White Crane Kung Fu and Suang Yang Tai Chi.
They come to you in the hands of modern-day teachers, scholars, leaders, mentors – we call them instructors.
Come and find us. We’ll be here – still training, still breathing, our hearts beating.
Classics are shaped by successive ages in their own image: they endure despite, or because of this. The Art of War, attributed to Sun Tzu, is one such. It has been called the most “profound, comprehensive and transcendent” of all strategic works. It is concise, dense, structured around deceptively simple principles and overflowing with striking metaphors and analogies. This opens it up to a multiplicity of interpretations. In the last century, translated into English, it has been read as a way of understanding and defeating the Japanese military in World War II; as a post-911 manual for counter-insurgency; and as an instruction book for successful business management – to name only a few of the guises in which it has appeared. The Chinese, too, read it in different ways – and in different languages. Here we look at one lesser-known version of it, and ask what it meant to translate the Art of War in the eighteenth century, Europe’s famous Age of Enlightenment, just before the rise of Napoleon. Read More
All Members of FWC are invited to the Chinese New Year Celebratory Dinner. Friends and family are welcome to join us in celebrating at the famous Joy King Lau Restaurant in London’s Chinatown.
Read MoreThere’s no shame in not being able to do a correct press-up (Really? – Yes). You’d be surprised how many otherwise strong people struggle to do press-ups, for the simple reason that they haven’t trained them properly before. Luckily, there’s a solution to this problem: start where you are now, and get better by practising regularly. In other words – Train!
Earlier in 2018 Instructor Anna Wallen cast an engineer’s eye over the problems people have with press-ups. Her findings and suggested techniques were set out in two posts on what became Project Press-Up.
Not satisfied with just telling you all what to do, Instructor Anna now invites you to a press-up training challenge. The purpose of the challenge is for members who are interested to see how much they can improve their press-ups over a period of time by working all the elements of the press-up, and improving their technique and strength.
All Members of FWC are invited to the Christmas 2018 Celebratory Dinner. Friends and family are welcome to join us in celebrating at the famous Joy King Lau Restaurant in London’s Chinatown.
Read More“Crete was brilliant. I’m not usually one for superlatives – I’m much more of a “well it was good, but…” type of person. However in this case it’s appropriate for me to break character. My first Brilliant Crete camp, and that’s definitely the right description.
Why did I go in the first place though? It wasn’t complicated, I wanted a chance to improve my Kung Fu. And I already knew that spending a day in Dennis’ field makes a difference, so I wanted to see what I could achieve in a week. It also earns me some “cool points” in life and that’s always good. “Where were you last week?” “I was at a week long Kung Fu training camp in Crete, where were you?” Read More
Enjoy a selection of the 2018 competition photos.
The competition was well-run by the host Club, (FWC London South) under the leadership of Instructor Richard Wagstaff. As always the competitors were friendly but committed.
All these photos were taken by Club Members Ben Hallifax and Claire O’Keefe. Many thanks to them for the high standard of images.
We are looking forward to seeing you all again next year, plus many more who this year sat and watched but are now in full training to get up on the mats.
Click any photo to open in a gallery. Read More
We gathered in South London – Competition 2018 it is. We met as friends at the door, as competitors on the mats, and left as friends at the end of the day. That’s the way we like to do it. So now it’s time to find out whether our competition diarist, Louis Beazley, achieved the results he was going for. Did his training and preparation pay off?
“So here we are. Another competition over and I hope you all enjoyed it. I also hope that all bruises are fading and any headaches are long since departed.
I’m sure you’ll all be glad to hear this will be my last article for a while, but I couldn’t just leave without letting everyone know how the competition went, and as a result whether my previous pearls of wisdom were valuable information nuggets or just a waste of your time. Read More
