Looking Back on 2017

Today marks our final working day of 2017 and, as Sifu and Chief Instructor, I just wanted to reflect on the last 12 months and share with you my hopes for 2018…

2017 has been quite a year for Cambridge Kung Fu. In the summer we had a big party to celebrate our 10th anniversary as Cambridge Kung Fu in style and as a ’housewarming’ for our new home, the CKF HQ. We had hundreds of people attend and even the weather was on our side. A year ago we moved into the Cambridge Kung Fu Headquarters, which has marked a big step forwards for us as a company. It feels like a good place to work and train and there is still so much to do to make it even better in 2018! We have recently purchased some new training equipment for our adult members to benefit from, including Wing Chun Wooden Dummies, Wall Bags and Knives. We also plan to knock down some walls to make the training space more user friendly and hopefully we’ll also be upgrading our office environment taking it to the next level and making it an even better place to work for our team.

There have been a number of new things happening in 2017… We have started new kids community classes on Fridays for Tigers, Dragons & Warriors, as well as new schools classes at St. Mary’s & Landmark International School. We have launched the ‘Friends of Cambridge Kung Fu’, which is currently in its infancy but will hopefully grow in the years to come. The aim of this initiative is for students and families who have the resources available, and believe in what we are trying to do, to invest their money and/or time to help us reach more people and reach people who maybe don’t have the resources to attend our classes under normal circumstances. This could mean running workshops for schools and groups, offering full or partial scholarships for people who are passionate about martial arts but who would otherwise not be able to attend, to being able to expand our provision of Adapted Martial Arts for those people who require more attention to learn and make progress. If this sounds like something you’d like to back/be involved with please get in touch.

It is a continual curiosity to me that we have grown to the extent we have. As it is never something we have focused on, it has genuinely happened in a natural way. In fact we could grow much quicker if we had more instructors to run our classes because as I’m sure you are aware getting a place in our classes is not an easy task these days! Even our evening Adults Wing Chun classes now have a waiting list, although we plan to start a new beginners class in 2018 on Tuesday evenings to alleviate this pressure. This Autumn we regularly taught 1169 students each week! I still remember the early years turning up to teach a handful of students and hoping we were going to make it and now we really have made it as a real business. When I quit my PhD to dedicate myself to my passion of Kung Fu back in 2002 I did not envision helping to create what CKF has become. What I did envision from day one was focusing on teaching Kung Fu in a way that was both authentic and engaging at the same time. I literally had a dream on the night I made the decision to pursue Kung Fu as a career about the perfect way to teach and to this day I am still unpacking that dream and bringing the principles that have been known for millennia into 2018 for the city of Cambridge. I am so thankful to my team for compensating for my weaknesses allowing us to build an integrated and resilient business that is focused on quality martial arts teaching and I am constantly aware that things can be improved and am searching for and implementing those improvements.

2017 has personally been a big year for me, probably the most challenging of my life to date. Having struggled with my sleep since my son was born five and half years ago, it became a real problem for me this year. I have essentially had to relearn how to sleep. Sleep, along with food, is only beaten by breathing, hydration and exposure in terms of survival. It has been an obstacle that I feel has come the closest to breaking me of anything in my life so far. In the last month or so I have turned the corner and it has led me to gaining a deeper understanding of Kung Fu and my purpose for training. I have realised that I/we train for the future battles, for the inevitable trials that each of us must face in our lives due to the chaotic nature of reality. Kung Fu training can provide the skills needed to navigate the worst that life has to throw at us but only if we are skilled enough. This year I came to the edge of my strength and now I am preparing for the next unknowable challenge with more vigour than ever before because, having overcome this challenge, I know that I may well face, in fact it is likely I will face, even bigger challenges than five years of broken sleep. I need to be ready and I know of nothing better than my Kung Fu practice to make me strong and skilled enough to get over the next great challenge that I may face one day.

We have many things to look forward to in 2018, along with upgrading the CKF HQ we will be running our first ever Summer Camp away from Cambridge! In the week beginning 20th August we will be running week-long summer camps for Adults, Youth Kung Fu and Kids in the Suffolk seaside town of Southwold, which is my family’s favourite place. I hope you can join us, it’s going to be fun! Self Defence is something that is very close to my heart, the duty I feel to be able to defend myself, my family, my friends and others is one of the chief motivations that started me on my martial arts journey when I was a scared teenage boy, and it still keeps me motivated to this day. It is a subject that I have dedicated thousands of hours of practise and contemplation to for over two decades. I know this is a similar feeling for my partner in crime, Col. We will be sharing our experience at our annual free Self Defence Seminar in January and I feel 2018 is going to be the best one yet! A few years ago we did some work with the NHS working with children who had suffered from traumatic brain injuries. It resulted in us presenting at the national conference and, to this day, two of the students who took part in the initial study still train each week with us and they have come so far! We will be continuing this exciting work in 2018. We are so proud of this work and of our pioneering work into adapting martial arts practise for people who previously would never think it was something that they could do! Kung Fu is an individual journey, it can provide a scaffolding to help us keep moving forwards towards fulfilling our individual potential.

Thank you for being part of the CKF journey, we will continue to give our best! Thank you so much for the nourishing support you give to us and please let us know if we fall short, or if you have suggestions on how we could improve, as we grow from constructive criticism as well as from praise. We have an anonymous form on our website if that is something you would find helpful.

To live well we need to have self esteem, without it we are miserable. Self Esteem can only grow in a person who has self respect. This is the most important lesson I have learned this year. Take action that increases the respect you have for yourself. Self respect builds the foundation upon which self esteem can grow. Action that builds self respect and in turn self esteem is action that requires bravery, it is action that brings ever more meaning into our lives and perhaps it is meaning that is the antidote to the chaos and pain of existence. Kung Fu is a path to building the skills needed to be brave, to act with courage and to earn the self respect needed to live a meaningful life, which is perhaps the best life we can attain.

With all the very best from the whole Cambridge Kung Fu team and me. We’ll be back on Wednesday 3rd January!
Ross