| Dear members,
For those who have not heard, we have yet another piece of bad news. Our beloved Professor Wally Jay suffered a stroke on Tuesday the 24th of May. The life support was turned off on Saturday the 28th May, as he had earlier instructed. He passed away peacefully on 2:20am Sunday the 29th May with family and friends around him. He was just two weeks short of his ninety fourth birthday. He will be sorely missed by his family, close friends, students and all those who were lucky to meet him. Professor Wally Jay conducted his first seminar at our HQ in 1985. He was one of the most widely experienced, knowledgeable and exceptionally skilled martial artist that ever lived. He had met or trained with just about all the famous martial artists that were known to the western world. Even the late great Bruce Lee was his close friend and used to work out with him at his house. He showed us how the holds and throws can work much more efficiently with the improvements he had made to them. Prof. Wally Jay was a very big hearted man who would genuinely share his knowledge with his fellow martial artists regardless of style, making him a very popular person across all systems of martial arts. He always believed in the potential of the younger martial artists and encouraged them by calling all of them 'Champ'. Throughout the years, Prof. Wally Jay taught at many of our seminars in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, Christchurch and Invercargill. We have also taken big groups to Hawaii and San Francisco for his Birthday Conventions where top martial artists from all styles teach or demonstrate in his honour. Prof. Wally Jay's Small Circle Jujitsu is now headed by Prof. Leon Jay who has also conducted many seminars here at our centres. Grandmaster/Prof. Leon Jay had informed me that he will hold a Prof. Wally Jay's Tribute from 15th to 17th of June next year. We have a very large number of senior members wanting to attend this event. There should be more information by September. Please make preparations now as we will want confirmations by November. NZ$3500.00 per person should cover the convention, food, airfares and small excursions for around the ten days. Change your US$ while the exchange rate is good. Our tournament and seminar weekend went very well at the Rolleston Community Centre. We had very good numbers for the seminars and even though the numbers were down on previous years due to the tragic events beyond our control we had enough entries to have fairly good matches for most divisions. The Tai Chi seminar was on the the three stages in learning Tai Chi Chuan. Namely, 1) the basic principles and moves, 2) relaxing, healing and strengthening the body, 3) martial arts functions. It should give all our members a clear perspective in learning the art. As for the Kung Fu seminar, we reviewed the points defining our system as discussed last year. The the senior members were finding that 'the stress-free way' was the best method of achieving real sustainable speed and power. We also practiced trapping arms and legs. In the black belt session, it was good to see that everyone were getting some improvement from the methods discussed. We also worked on the 'Circle Form,' with Master Simons, Master Lord and Grandmaster Chan dividing the black belts into three groups and giving tuition to each black belt, one at a time. We paid homage to our much loved and missed, recently departed Miss Penelope Lake and Prof. Wally Jay by wearing arm bands during the weekend. Even though there were pleasing achievements throughout the weekend, we never forgot the sombre happenings in recent months. Tournament Results:
The standard of skill was noticeably better with more variation in technique and better timing. Thankfully, there were again very few injuries. The officials did a very good job injudging and refereeing and the administration ran like a well oiled machine as usual. The numbers attending the Annual Camp in Auckland really took us by surprise. It was great to see your interest and commitment, with people travelling from as far as Invercargill, Greymouth and Sydney. It was a really difficult job to book extra rooms at a seperate hotel and fit everyone in at the last minute. However, Master Mike Kinney and his merry men did an amazing job to make everything work. Inspite of those and other problems, almost everyone found the camp very beneficial. Mr O'Toole gave the potential black belt candidates the usual tough challenges and Mr Rob Wilson took the morning marches to new standards. Master Bruce Lord and Mr Wai-Hoe Chan gave me a big hand in teaching different groups of students. The main thrust of the camp was to get everyone to explore the higher levels in performing our basic techniques. We also introduced the additions to the Circle Form and its applications. It was really good to see that finally, the majority of students were able to understand and follow the philosophy of our system and even experience a little of the difference. The instructors will need to follow up the inception of these ideas especially for the advanced student. If this method of training is sustained, it is very likely that the general standard of the our students will be radically better than the already improving standards of the last few years. We can say that the future of Chans Martial Arts is looking very bright indeed. After careful consideration, it is also time to announce the candidates invited to sit Black Belt grading this year. They are:
This year, the senior Black Belts will be sent private invitations. Congratulations to you all and best wishes in your preparation and grading. As for the rest of you, take care to train in the stress free way. May Chi be with you. | Coming Events
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