Since I started training WingTsun many things changed. Unfortunately, I am not able to train this martial art more often, but even one whole month per year has brought tremendous changes into my life.
As a child from the village I didn’t have many opportunities to develop my talents, to travel nor to train a sport. Where I come from people are not much educated and have a rather narrow-minded view. My family tried in some way to resist this influence of our environment, but still the neighbourhood and the local conditions left a mark on my progress.
Last year, for the first time in my life I have travelled beyond the borders of my home country, I first time flew with a plane, met people of different nationalities, religion and understanding of the world and for the first time I had the chance to learn about WingTsun.
This year my adventure continued and I had the chance to make amazing experiences this August in Cyprus. I participated in the EWTO CYPRUS Summer Camp in Avdimou, taught by my SiFu – Alexander Olich for 5 unforgettable days from August 11th until August 15th, 2017.
Every morning we had lessons for 3 hours by the beautiful beach of Avdimou. I met my co-students who all came from different walks of life and spoke very different languages. As a very positive side-effect my English improved a lot.Besides a very effective way on how to defend myself should I ever need it, I have learnt many life-lessons during these WingTsun classes and even changed my views on the world in various ways.Those five days passed extremely quickly. The time that we spent on training was of an extremely high quality. My thoughts did not wander around, but were always 100 % focused on WingTsun. I have learnt a lot and after every training I felt a new dosage of knowledge and self-confidence conquering my body.Our friendly being together with the other students we would finish every day with a nice swim in the warm Mediterranean Sea, which made the Summer Camp even more of an amazing adventure.
The last day of the Summer Camp was definitely the most exciting one as we have put everything into practice that we had learnt the previous days. SiFu and SiHing tested us thoroughly through all the 5 distances, standing & on the ground, and some of us managed to pass their exams and get promoted to the next level, which has borne the wish in me to also advance to the next higher Student Grade level. Even though the last day was loaded with positive energy, we were all sad that such an amazing event had come to an end. On my return to Limassol, I have continued my training for another couple of weeks and eventually managed to pass my 2. Student Grade exam! There is no greater happiness when your hard-invested time & effort pays off in such a way.
The Summer Camp as well as the WingTsun training in general are for me such an amazing experience!It’s a big pity I did not know about this martial art much earlier and this is why I suggest to all of you who did not start training this ingenious art – TRY IT! The only thing that you can lose is your FEAR and your SHYNESS and the effort that you will put in it will paid back to you at least 10-fold!
Thanks to my SiFu and his family who made all of this possible for me.
Nevena Todorovic, 16 years old, EWTO Serbia
© 2022, EWTO Cyprus
