It’s now 16 years since I wrote my first blog, back in the summer of 2007 (and nearly 25 years since I started Wing Tsun Kung Fu). The topic was that of the 3 Star Poles (called Saam Sing Chong in Cantonese) – specially designed wooden stakes that are used for developing your kicking prowess. Whilst the blog no longer exists – having disappeared into the ether when my server inexplicably lost my whole website in 2015 – this memory remains etched inside of me as if it was yesterday.

One reason I remember writing that blog post so vividly is that it was pretty emotive for me. There was none of this training in the country and, having only ever seen them in Grandmaster Leung Ting’s book Wing Tsun Kuen, it seemed an impossible, mystical dream that I would ever even try them. So to have not only learnt them, but have poles of my own was quite a poignant moment.

However, another reason that this stayed so close to my heart is that it was my father’s old...