Coventry Lifestyle Event Demonstration

Saturday 18th May saw the Sil Lum Kune Kung Fu Demonstration team put on one of their biggest shows to Date. The club had been asked to put on a martial arts demonstration and Lion dance, as part of the Coventry City Council Lifestyles event. The aim of the event was to promote healthy ways of living, and involved display stalls and demonstrations from various healers and alternative therapists, sports groups, fashion displays, and meditation groups.

The day started early so that the display stall could be set up and decorated with the club pennants and flags, although this was somewhat fraught for all involved, due to the late delivery of the tables. The event did however start on time, with the Sil Lum Kune Lion Dance squad performing a traditional Chinese Lion Dance on the main stage as the curtain raiser. The Lion Dance is traditionally used at festivals such as Chinese New Year, or at the opening of events and businesses, and is used to bring good luck and prosperity by chasing away evil spirits.

Later in the morning, the demonstration team took to the main stage to show off their Kung-Fu skills. The demonstration stated with the entire team performing the Blocking and Punching exercise to show the basics of our system. This was quickly followed by more advanced open hand forms, with 13 year old Nathan Hill performing Lin Wan Kune (Continuous and Returning Fist), and Sifu Paul Burkinshaw performing an advanced form from the Praying Mantis Style.

The team then switched over to show some of the various different weapons that exist within our system. This started with Nathan Hill and Mark Pritchards performing a nunchaku form. This was followed by a broad sword form by Kevin Redgrave, and a straight sword form by Dan Amphlett. The team then showed some weapons sparring with David Richardson and Kevin Redgrave performing a two man set with staffs. The weapons section concluded with Sifu Burkinshaw performing a Kwan Do form. Then two of the younger members of the squad,   Nathan Hill and Sundeep Singh performed an exhibition fight. Both of these lads had won medals at the recent Junior British Championships, as did a large group of the children from the local Sil Lum Kune clubs

The demonstration was concluded with displays of breaking skills.   The first was a head break by Dan Amphlett in which he broke a 1 inch thick pine board with a head butt. The finale was a breeze block break. For this Sifu Burkinshaw supported himself between two chairs (head on one and feet on the other). The breeze block was then placed on his chest, and struck with a sledge hammer to break it. This drew gasps of amazement and applause from the watching crowd.

In the afternoon, the team repeated their performance of Lion Dance and martial arts, with equal success and appreciation from the audience. For the remainder of the day, the demo team were on the Sil Lum Kune stand, answering questions and handing out advertising leaflets to a steady stream of people who were interested in learning Kung-Fu.

Overall, the event proved so successful, that the organizers invited Sil Lum Kune, and the other exhibitors to return again for next years show.