Memorial of the great Milan Prosenica.

Memorial

An invite to all, if you have something about ‘Milan’ and would like me to put it up here, pictures, stories or anecdotes of him, then please mail it to me here at ‘info@thetrainingclub.co.uk –  but for now here is a brief of mine.

1985 – In this year I was to meet a soon to be lifelong friend Milan. Our chance meeting was at an event in Manchester UK, were Milan was offered to bodyguard for a former teacher of ours, it was an unsettled time in the martial arts community, were accusations and power jostling was rife.

Aside of this period’s negativity within our associated arts, it was indeed a great opportunity to finally get the chance to meet Milan. We bonded more or less straight away, he had great rapport, his presence was electric from his 6ft 5” stature, to his stealth like movement – definitely the real deal.Well, Milan was invited back to stay over at my house, and our friendship started from there. Milan I can say was a very calming influence for me, hey Nickity ‘Polako’ he would say, he detected my nervous energy – he liked to keep things simple, being honest, he taught me a lot about myself – like an older brother, always advising on life and its trials. He stood no time for game players, as he would say, he was an extremely honest person, something to be respected. Of course our mutual passion was Wing Chun/Tsun/Tchun

We over decades spent countless hours discussing and thinking on all the many facets of this martial method, unknowingly to us we were amalgamating/integrating our ideas together, and had created our own perception on the best principles and practices within the overall methodology. Of course this was outside the ring, as Milan had that covered himself – this was his unique specialisation. After some time, and after many further hours of discussion we launched our own showcase WingTchun tournament. Milan watched and scored the participants each year,  he loved very much the demonstrative skill based show. 

Milan had already introduced the Wing Chun principles into his sport fight arena in the very early 80’s, and I can claim Milan is the only ever Master of this martial discipline to have done so. Clever as he was, to adapt the method for that ruled environment, he modified to use with great effect, into the combat sports – he was the first and to-date the most successful Wing Chun/Tsun/Tchun exponent, proven time and time again in the fight circuit, his appication of our method, We move on, aside of his family time, he devoted and dedicated his life passion to sport. Interestingly, Milan qualified at university in sports science, and applied it  – no wonder he followed this path with success.and uniqueness.

Milan was a role model not just in sports, but in anyone who had the chance to be close enough to be touched by his more than character, He was strong, but also with a heart of gold, he loved nothing better than watching and playing with his children, this transmuted across to his friends, and of course all his following students, your problem was his problem, he always had the time to listen and advise, he cared very much.

Our first training session took place in 1985, at my first full-time gym, many were taken aback by his demeanour and shear explosive power and speed of movement, for such a big guy to move as someone half his size, was breath-taking. His punching power and mechanics were to be admired, awesome describes the viewpoint, powered with the speed of a light weight.

Milan, coordinated his work-outs with a gusto of a well-seasoned bull on charge – dynamic, he demonstrated with skill and timing of a pro. And when he worked the heavy bag, it soon came to mind, it was not a place you would want to be on the receiving end, the heavy bag lifted and the beams shuddered, it was an eye opener, by the way later on I tried to do the same – with no effect, believe you me.he punched from the ground, through his core – as Milan would always say to his students …”You need to punch not push the bag”

So for those who never met or experienced one of Milan’s sessions, he would begin with a light callisthenic, then move on to a pulse raiser of many descriptions, legs, arms, torso would be involved, then onto some group games. His speciality made training fun, interesting but most of all ‘fight functional’ – period.

Our friendship over he years became very close, and as two friends sharing a passion, on training programmes he would always come off the wall with needed changes. Sometimes radical and difficult to apply across all our then 70 schools, but this we did on a few occasions, and I add some clubs who would not adapt, moved on, such was his attention to need.

So to move on, along with our great friendship came travelling. We travelled across Europe as the ‘Masters Team’ opening schools in Hungary, Scotland, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Malta, France, Italy, Greece. Milan also continued to compete and train his fight team for tournaments  in many counties; Germany, Holland, Greece, USA, Hungary, Poland, France. He was a well-known exponent of the fight circuits, and many feared the outcomes of competing against his team.

On his journeys Milan also trained special tactical groups, a national boxing team for the Olympics, Taekwondo team who won the world title, a few independent boxers & a famous UFC champion. Milan whilst all his tributes, was always humble and courteous, his manners were to be respected and he would always put others forward before himself.

So to finish, whilst there is a quarter of a century in close friendship ties, there are many many anecdotes and stories to numerous to scribe for this article, so I will leave it here for now, and if I can find free time to add paragraphs from time to time I will. But I set out just to give an image and insight of a great and endearing person, friend and warrior Milan.

Pictures of a great Man

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