Annual Southwest WC/VT/WT Gathering

For those that can attend, the Annual Southwest Wing Chun/ Ving Tsun/ Wing Tsun Gathering, hosted by Dai-Sifu Don Grose of the Tucson Ving Tsun Academy, will be taking place on April 22nd, 2006, in Phoenix, Arizona. Contact Dai-Sifu Don for more information regarding times and location.

The Gatherings are basically a "get-together" of the various WC/VT/WT families around the local areas, as well as anyone else that wishes to attend. There's usually a bit of introductions to everyone in attendance, and then we branch off to discuss various concepts and work through drills, forms, applications, etc.

The primary goal is to allow for interaction between the groups and to examine in detail what everyone does. Because we all get caught up in our day-to-day lives and responsibilities, sometimes it's easy to lose touch with what everyone else does, and we find ourselves doing what we always do without any change. With the Gatherings, we get to experience the uniqueness of our kung fu family in other lineages and teachings, so it's always very eye-opening when we get to "touch hands" with others outside of what we normally experience.

For example, last year's Gathering was very informative concerning the Hung Fa Yi Wing Chun teachings. I had only heard of it and seen "bits and pieces" through website research, but to experience it first-hand was really great.

And the year prior, we all got to meet many of the WC, VT and WT families in the valley, which soon led to more interaction and "bridging the gap" between the distance that sometimes results between families.

In short, I have yet to see anything negative from the Gatherings; on the contrary, every year we walk away with a renewed sense of "family." And with that, we become more open-minded and our own expressions of what we do become even more useful in real life. As the noted motivational speaker James Kennedy once said, "If all you do is what you've always done, then all you ever get is what you already got!"

By experiencing what other family members do, we get to "break out" of our views for a while and learn about other viewpoints.

So if at all possible, please try to make the 2006 Gathering. It's sure to be an event worth attending! (and yes, for those that can't attend, you'll see a complete breakdown available on AWCAOnline afterwards)