UK Summer Camp 2016 - Community Thread

[AlexBaranosky]

I always love reading the course reviews. Thanks for posting them.

[understanding]

The Secret Is Out?

Dear Family and guests,

Editorial Note: Sifu Barry Smale's questions were asked before the UK Summer Camp 2016. But because there is a long waiting list, the questions and answers are only released now. The UK Summer Camp 2016, which was held in June this year, was a great success. The organizers intend to have the same courses for the UK Summer Camp next year.

Incidentally, the questions here show how much thought and practical care the organizers put into the UK Summer Camp. This, without doubt, was a crucial reason why the UK Summer Camp 2016 was a great success.

Selection of Questions and Answers, September 2016 Part 1

This is great news! Now people who missed the awesome UK courses this year might have another chance to seize them.

I expected the Fully Alive Team propose something groundbreaking again, but I guess the course this year proved to be an "Essence of UK Summer Camp" event (yes, it really could be branded as the essential bits and pieces of earlier years), which made the guys comfortable enough to ask for another iteration and see what comes out. This, I suspect, is the real kicker: innovation within innovation. Drawing from the extensive catalog of our school's rich tradition, it could feature a completely different set of techniques to teach the same fundamental skills! Even more, some courses like the "Applying..." could by its nature also provide completely different practical skills without missing the essence of applying the fundamental skills.

This was heavy speculation on my part, but personally I'm very excited to see what may come up. Even if it was an exact duplicate event, it would still be immense fun and benefit to have go through it all again.

With sincere respect,
Olli

[Tim]

‘Quite good courses'

It became a little bit of a joke during this years summer camp that when something appeared to be ‘awesome’ it was described as ‘quite good’. Not wanted to over egg everything Sifu taught as “THE MOST FANTASTIC, AWESOMENESS THING YOU HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED.” So, it became quite good instead!

As most of you also know we like to play jokes on you innocent folk, like when we asked Sifu to teach the first lesson of kung fu as ‘super strict Sifu’ of the olden days. Alas, some of you actually enjoyed it and made a honest plea for all classes to be taught like that. Some of my long standing students such as Chris, John, Richard and Matt will remember the days when an hour class would consist of 1 hour stance training (in horse stance or goat stance). Yes, those were the days

It’s all part of the fun to demonstrate that these arts aren’t serious, they are practical, everyday and definitely not mysterious or weird. We were very clear on trying not to make or pass them on as something weird

So when we engaged in conversations with Sifu about what he likes teaching and how he got to where he is today a number of key things came up. These key things were then put into the summer camp so everyone who came would directly receive the benefits. And even if they didn’t realise it at the time they would be receiving the very essence of the arts we practice.

So why did we pick what we picked to be taught. Well, in simple terms we wanted Sifu to teach things we would find useful in everyday life, have the opportunity to explore them at a deeper level and come away with the skills to apply them in everything we do.

Of course in many respects Sifu has been giving all of this to us in all the courses he teaches. It’s just in that in the summer camp we presented some ideas to Sifu about what it is he does teach, and more importantly what it is he actually puts into practice everyday, which gave him the opportunity to unpack it for us all to understand.

We knew at the time of putting it together that it would likely be life changing for us and those that attended and that it was something we would want to continue to pass on.

(When Fully Alive came together (Mark Appleford, Barry Smale and myself) we had some very clear ideas about what it was we wanted to contribute to the world. We wanted to help do our part in making the world a safer, healthier and happier place to be. Not just for ourselves but those that come after us as well. We realised that the teachings and practice of the Shaolin and Wudang arts are an integral part of that process.)

So Olli discovered on Sifu’s Q&A that our intention is for the same courses to be taught at next years summer camp - Selection of Questions and Answers, September 2016 Part 1 well, he is not wrong. Thanks also for your comments Olli.

I expected the Fully Alive Team propose something groundbreaking again, but I guess the course this year proved to be an "Essence of UK Summer Camp" event (yes, it really could be branded as the essential bits and pieces of earlier years), which made the guys comfortable enough to ask for another iteration and see what comes out. This, I suspect, is the real kicker: innovation within innovation. Drawing from the extensive catalog of our school's rich tradition, it could feature a completely different set of techniques to teach the same fundamental skills! Even more, some courses like the "Applying..." could by its nature also provide completely different practical skills without missing the essence of applying the fundamental skills.

Whatever course I have ever taken with Sifu has been beneficial, and I am grateful for that. But after more than 30 years training in martial arts I got to the point, as did Mark and Barry, where the practical benefits of the arts outweighed learning more sets (that we don’t practice regularly enough to benefit from them.) What we wanted was to develop greater skill at using the arts, in everything we do.

We realise that the course descriptions may not have fully conveyed all that someone would get from doing the courses. We figured though that by doing the courses again the ones that weren’t able to come, or chose not to come, would now realise what they missed. When I say missed, what I really mean is having the opportunity, like we did, to get to know what it is we practice at a much deeper, more practical, and more beneficial level than they knew before.

It would also give those that did attend, us included, to further hone their skills towards high level mastery.

So thank you once again Olli for highlighting our intentions and giving more people an opportunity to plan ahead and come to the UK next summer.

Oh, I almost forgot to say, some of the courses may be tweaked to give even more ‘quite good'ness’

[understanding]

Hi there Uncle Tim!

Thank you for your fantastic response. It all brings me back to Guildford and experiencing how unbelievably well we were instructed to develop our fundamental skills. The courses before and after in Dublin and Helsinki had more memorable displays in terms of scene, intensity, and condensation. Actually, only now I realize just how everyday-like I felt during the UK Summer Camp and that I should be seeking that instead of those otherworldly peak experiences. Mind = blown!

In terms of benefit, the UK Summer Camp 2016 has definitely been the best course for me so far in terms of lasting benefit. I got the "WOW!" instantly at every other course, but what we learned in Guildford has been and still keeps opening like an endless sea of lotus buds. The practical value for what we learned is immeasurable. I mean, we can practice Cosmic Shower and Merging with Cosmos every once in a while, but life goes on 24/7 (yes, even sleeping), so you better be prepared to deal with what comes up and not lose the fundamental skills in any situation.

Dear Fully Alive Team,

A thought came to me this morning. It would be fantastic if you could write a historical retrospective of the UK Summer Camp's teachings so far: what was taught in each year, what really was the essential teaching of each course, etc. I think this might be "quite good" for you and maybe even help you realize something worthy of "tweaking" or having another look at.

With sincere respect,
Olli