Dear Roland,

I was just about to raise my right middle finger and start stabbing the keys on my laptop for the July editorial, when your report on our Chi-Sao session in a wind-blown Tarifa saved me the trouble by becoming a guest editorial!

Strangely enough, it is specifically on the subject of "Chi-Sao as a preparatory stage for free-fighting" that I plan to write a great deal in the coming months – both editorials and books.

In my view this is urgently required, as more and more Technicians and even
Practicians are confusing the Chi-Sao sections with reflex training, and are under the wrong impression that it is the key to reliable self-defence or free-fighting.
But just as practicing the forms is neither intended nor able to provide this, it is not the purpose of the Chi-Sao sections, which Grandmaster Leung Ting and I refer to as "two-man forms", to develop reflexes. That is not what they are for. There are other teaching methods for this, though – General Kwan knows why – they have somehow become forgotten although I already introduced them in the 70s and first explained them in 1986, in my book ”On Single Combat”.

In my editorial for the last edition of WT-World I promised to raise the true Chi-Sao capability within the EWTO to a level previously unprecedented anywhere. Private lessons and instructor seminars are now beginning to show that I am keeping my promise.

Frustration begins with the realisation that one has not understood the real "secret" of WingTsun at all, if that is what we want to call it, and that one has not seen the wood for the trees. The second bout of frustration occurs once one has understood that the treasure chest one sought was empty, and that the secret lies elsewhere or was never in fact hidden, but was always there. But this time it is an enlivening frustration, as it is accompanied by the solution to everything and - freedom.

You are correctly informed; I am currently travelling around the globe to show that it is possible, and also how. That it is much, much simpler than one might think. And above all simpler than those who cheat themselves and others with complicated movement sequences would have you believe, who disdain to BECOME better and will always remain bunglers who KNOW better!

And now over to Roland. The photo shows me teaching his son Raoul how to assert himself lovingly without shedding blood.

I wish you all a good summer!

Your Si-Fu or Si-Gung
Keith R. Kernspecht
(72.8 kg)

Hopefully the frustration will never end!

Today I intend to interrupt the theoretical aspects of our Chi-Sao for a month and come down to hard facts.
The reason is a visit by my Si-Fu (Keith R. Kernspecht) to my home in Tarifa/Spain following his seminar with Victor in Barcelona. Tarifa manifested itself in all its uncorrupted honesty on this occasion, which means that during Si-Fu’s visit we had three days of high wind at force 8 to 9 on the Beaufort scale. Those who know that storms of force 12 or more are referred to as hurricanes can imagine what force 9 feels like on a beach.

In a storm like this, both the water and the sand are whipped up into a frenzy. After we had watched my eldest son Raoul windsurfing, which is a battle similar in nature to one against a human attacker, but against the wind and water, I had the privilege of doing some Chi-Sao with Si-Fu in a force 9 gale – probably for the first time in our lives in both our cases. I immediately noticed that Si-Fu’s ploy of always standing with his back to the sun during Chi-Sao changes to the opposite when the wind has more power than the sun. As a result of this pragmatic adaptation I therefore not only had a force 9 gale blowing in my face, but also the sand it carried along with it. Since I was obliged to keep my eyes closed, this meant that I was able to concentrate fully on my tactile sense. And what happened next? It literally did me no good whatsoever. As has been the case for the last 23 years, I stood around like a fool and had the same feeling as I always have, namely of being a plaything. At that time I still entertained the ludicrous hope that this might have something to do with the mixture of wind and stinging sand.

Shortly afterwards we repaired to my terrace, out of the wind, and continued our Chi-Sao there. Anybody who has repeatedly had the opportunity to do Chi-Sao with Si-Fu knows that the feeling is always the same: while you are going along with things as well as you can, you feel that you are being totally controlled. If you try to avoid the constant flurry of gentle hits, or even worse the caressing strokes, and tense up, the flurry continues just the same. Whatever my efforts to rid myself of my own ego, and for all my mental, character-building persistence training, it has always been the same for 23 years.

This time, however, it was significantly more frustrating than of old, for Si-Fu made his movements in slow-motion – which compounded my difficulties rather than making things easier.
So while I tried to do as well as possible and not to move all too awkwardly, a terrible thought suddenly came to me. I realised that with the greatest perfection and at the highest level, Si-Fu was doing what I have been striving to achieve for a number of years. He was doing what I fully understand on a theoretical level, what I have been formulating into words and arguments for the last two years, and what I have been at pains to communicate to the school owners and instructors who learn from me – simply doing it, and hugely enjoying my poor attempts to cope with it even to a small extent.

Although I am naturally unqualified to judge or assess what my Si-Fu was doing with me, I will hazard an opinion. It is that in addition to the very familiar feeling of being hopelessly inferior in tactile terms, I believe I recognised a completely new quality in the Chi-Sao of my Si-Fu. Every single second (when things were not going far too fast for once)I reflected on what was happening. Nonetheless I was completely unable to do anything about it. Not even when he intentionally made his moves in slow-motion, as I have already mentioned. To my great relief I later learned that at present he does this with everybody, however senior their grade.

How do I feel about it? The same as always. The more my teacher is ahead of me, and the more frustrated I become, the more determined and motivated I am. Which means that all the more, I try to do what I really enjoy: putting what he does into words and explanations which can be readily understood.
What were my thoughts after his visit? I realised the extent to which we WT people are still scratching the surface, and how much there still is to learn and do. I also realised what those who criticize our long "waiting times" between grades will come to understand, namely that these are necessary training and preparation times, and that in future they will wish they had at least this much time available – on no account should it be shortened even further.

What will our so-called competitors and former members have to say about this? Well of course, you only need the above training time if you have the requisite amount of material to teach!

Roland Liebscher-Bracht
5 th PG WingTsun
Tarifa/Spain