Ack! We did a demo!

[Si-Je]

Anyone here have any experience and/or advice with doing demonstrations with Wing Chun?
We did your new school's first demo this weekend at a mall. It was pretty good, and we showed more aspects of Wing Chun than I think most people ever see. Plus, we only had a week to get the demo together, I guess it turned out okay.
But, since our audience was largely folks that don't do martial arts and have never heard of Wing Chun, I was thinking we needed more explaination during the demo.
As no one really wanted to get on a mic and publicly speak, we ended up winging the dialogue.

 

[Changhfy]

Thats great to hear about the demo.

Generally when we perform demos we do utilize some of the history and concepts but we try to minimize for instance a brief history and explanation is given. Followed by a hands on view of Wing Chun. Starting with the forms (we usually just perform Siu Nim Tau and Cham Kiu, we dont demo Biu Ji to often)

Then we follow up with Chi Sau and then Self defense scenarios using Wing Chun's principles in motion. (generally the self defense portion is more free flow type of drill, instead of a static choreographed performance)

We have noticed that people respond to the demo better when they realize that the people doing the demo are are acting on stimulus instead of thought out movements.

and then we perform breaking techniques to end.


If you dont mind me asking how was the response to the demo?



take care,
Zach

 

[Si-Je]

It seemed like a really good response. People applauded and enjoyed the demo. I just don't think they fully understood what they were looking at. We've prepared to have someone speak at the next demo to give more explaination of the techniques and drills demonstrated.
I did some basic women's self defense, and children's self defense.
I think with a speaker it will be more clear what is being done, because wing chun moves so quickly and is so fast especially to the layman that doesn't know what their looking at.
We handed out flyers and spoke to people after and a few were really interested, but I think we really have to sell it more.

 

[Si-Je]

We did another one! This one turned out much better. Had a speaker so we didn't have to worry about when to talk and when to demonstrate.
We were able to flow through and came out looking much better.

I was wondering what other's opinions were on performing Wing Chun in demos. It seems difficult to demonstrate the sulties and hidden power of wing chun to those that just watch. When we have people come to the school to "watch" a class we always make sure they actually "do" the class otherwise they just don't really seem to understand it.