The national Wing Tsun for Ireland, Dai Sifu Rainer Tausend returned to Dublin in December 2011 to deliver a series of seminars for students and instructors. The instructor seminar took place on Saturday the 3rd in the Blanchardstown Wing Tsun School and was attended by instructors from the Dublin City Centre, Blanchardstown, Belfast and Wexford schools. Also in attendance was Si-Hing Nicolas Maraite who lives in Luxembourg and travels on a regular basis to Sifu Tausend in Germany for training.

The seminar started at 1pm with Sifu checking and answering questions on the Wing Tsun forms. Following this the class worked on applications taken from the forms and the final two hours were spent with participants working on their individual programmes. Chris Donnelly, Declan Brennan and Robert Nipshagan, all 12th student grade (SG) were tested by Sifu Tausend for the final part of their 1st Technician Grade (TG) exam which in Wing Tsun is the equivalent of Black belt. Chris and Declan are instructors in the Blanchardstown school with Robert an instructor in the Dublin City Centre school.

The student seminar started at 1.30pm sharp the next day in the Dublin City Centre school with Sifu again checking and answering questions on the Wing Tsun forms. Students were then brought through a series of applications focusing on grabs and non Wing Tsun curved attacks. Following the break Sifu Tausend conducted gradings with students for 1st - 12th grade. Congratulations to the following students who successfully passed their grade. If you name is not on the list please let us know and we will include it.

Finally Sifu Tausend presented Chris, Declan and Robert with their 1st TG certificates. All three guys have been training hard for an average time of seven years and since receiving their 12th student grade about 18 months ago, they have been working hard on the requirements for their exam. With the attainment of their 1st TG all instructors will start working on the programme for their 2nd TG. This involves study of the Biu-Tze form as well as further study of chi-sau by working on chi-sau sections 5 - 7.

Sifu Aidan, Michael and Nicolas took private lessons from Sifu Tausend the following day before Sifu and Nicolas flew home. All students and instructors in the Irish Wing Tsun Organisation (IEWTO) would like to thank Sifu for another successful visit and look forward to his next visit in the spring of 2012.