Grading Day

As the alarm went off on June 8th at 6.45am, I was wondering why would I set it that early on a Sunday and then quickly realised it was grading day for our students! I haven’t been updating the blog because mainly I wanted to get this day out of the way. Three weeks ago if you asked me to write my blog I would probably type a simple question mark and not write anything because that was my opinion of one of our students doing the grading.

Fast forward 3 weeks later the guy delivered and had a great grading along with our other student.

And I am really damn happy not only for him but both of our guys because they trained hard for it.

As we made our journey to Warwick, Lun prepped our students Gaz and Mike by giving them a couple of Filipino Martial Arts books to read. Both of the guys were about to do their level 1 grading which is tough in that it would be their first grading in Warriors Eskrima and there was a fair amount to know and do.

Having got to the venue we saw Johnny Cowan’s army of students ready to take the grading, one of those in particular was Keith who was grading for his level 6 which is the level in which you have to pass to become an apprentice instructor. However, Johnny had several other students taking their grading at varying levels.

We didn’t grade in the comfy surroundings of the school hall, but a boxing gym which was once owned by Jackie Turpin. The boxing gym was actually pretty cool and I hope we have future gradings there.
So after greeting Krishna Godhania
and introducing him to our students we were ready to grade.

Johnny was in charge of the grading with Krishna Godhania assessing whilst my brother Lun and I watched. It must have been quite intimidating with 4 people watching you grade but a few of Johnny’s guys have met Lun and I before (and also you may find that I don’t look intimidating at all)
However once we began everyone flowed, I was watching Mark and Gaz and they looked great and most importantly remembered everything. In fact everyone looked fluent, when everyone started their sumbrada drills(which is a stick flow drill) I saw varying degrees of speed but everyone doing it correctly.


Like I said earlier the guys did great and I am really proud that they train at our club. There were no mind blanks, no hesitation. Everything went exactly to plan. By far, the guy who had the toughest grading was Keith(sparring one on one,then two on one then it was three against Keith) he was doing his level 6 and really kicked some ass, well deserved and a great grading.


After the grading Krishna Godhania as always gave us an excellent mini lesson which involved knife defence. Later he told us he was happy with the standard of our students which is awesome! To top it all off we saw a Delorean parked at a service station the way home!(yup I am a Back to the Future fan)

Other than the grading these past few weeks Lun and I have been mainly concentrating on the grading stuff in our lessons. We also went to Steve Powell’s JKD Class a couple of times and some great lessons under Chris Sibbald and we will be coming back at some point. I also like to give a shout out to Lee who hurt his hand and will stop him from training for a while, get well dude.


Anyways this blog post is dedicated to everyone who passed their grading this weekend!

Learning to teach,teaching to learn part 2 of 2

I split this weeks post up as Lun and I as on Tuesday we taught the guys going for the grading for applied Eskrima from the Warriors System
and straight after went to Steve Powell’s JKD Class.

It turned out that one of our students out of the two grading turned up. Not because of lack of dedication because he had a bad back and Lun and I wish him a speedy recovery. It turned Gaz (the one who turn up) had a good session as we went through all the different grading criteria. As well as the grading criteria we did some sparring techniques on focus mitts and also general awareness of the knife. I do prefer the defence/awareness/avoiding the knife type drills to the attacking with the knife drills but that’s my opinion on it.

After the hour and twenty minute class with Gaz, Lun and I travelled ten minutes into the centre of Manchester to go to Steve Powell’s JKD Class. It was a good feeling going back to the class. Mostly work and other commitments have contributed somewhat in the lack of going to any Martial Art classes. But the lesson itself was great we saw Steve Powell himself and Chris Sibbald who has become an instructor as well.

We did some focus mitt work into take downs and into some grappling techniques. It was a great lesson and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Like the title of the post says learning to teach, teaching to learn, Lun and I are still constantly learning.

My hands were aching the next day as Lun and I were using cheapo focus mitts that we got from a well known catalogue store here in the UK and the mitts are quite hard. It was also the fact that Lun and I were not wearing gloves when punching on this occasion, which in some cases makes a lot of sense as the old saying goes “They don’t wear gloves in pubs”(you have to say it in an English Northern accent to get the full comedic effect).

Anyway thanks for reading
Kit

Learning to teach teaching to learn part 1 of 2 for this week

Hi All

Another week of Martial Arts although this one will be short as I plan to update again midweek.
Lun and I finally got our venue back for teaching. We did some intense grading training with our grading student which was cool. However not being to train for a couple of weeks made them a bit rusty in some parts, however I am sure they will pull through on the day. In fact they have no choice in the matter, they will succeed on the day. In addition we taught them feinting techniques for their stick sparring. This ensures they just don’t keep beating the living hell out of each other everytime they spar! In fact it was great to see them both incorporate feinting techniques when they did spar as they thought about it more.

Today Lun and I went through some stick work and some pad work. Lun told me about the combatives class he is currently training in private lessons under Greg Hall and its something I would definitely like to try in the future. Combatives is hand to hand combat utilised by the military and was used during the two World Wars taught to civilians who had to join the army. It had to be pretty effective if it was used during wartime so its something I am interested in doing at some point. Anyways I provide a picture of some ancient weapons used in China. The picture is from the British Museum and the swords were used during warfare in Ancient China. Now those look damn effective too!

Anyway I shall write some more mid week
Thanks for reading!
Kit

Learning to teach, teaching to learn: A hiatus

Learning to teach, teaching to learn: A hiatus

I have had two week break from teaching while renovation work is carried out at the venue where Lun and I teach applied eskrima from the Warriors system. Its give me an opportunity to reflect about our teaching style and plan/think about the next lesson.
This was posted Blackbeltat50 http://www.bbat50.com/ on my second to last post.
“Learning to teach....struck a chord with me. I spend my days looking at how to teach (not martial arts, i have an online educational service) and my evenings learning in the dojo. I wonder sometimes if we learn efficiently since my school leans towards lots of repetition to build muscle memory and lots of encouragement. They correct us less than I'd like so often, after months of an exercise, I realize that I'm doing it wrong and have been for months.

I would like to hear more about your thoughts on how to best teach balancing instruction, encouragement, correction, and "once right>ten time wrong"”


I answered:
“Thanks for the comment this is my first response for a while and I am happy that you read it and it’s a kind of comment that has inspired me to start blogging again. In fact I will go into more depth into teaching in my next post. All I can say is that we have a mixed class of advanced, intermediate and beginners but the class is very small so it is nice to teach in.
I will go into depth more in the post but here are my responses (and apologise if they are brief) to your question.

As a balance we would do a few basics together and then split the class up. It is sometimes difficult to go from one skill level to the other but depends how long you have been teaching a particular level. Encouragement comes when someone really can't get a technique right but they are making an effort and when they make a real marked improvement on what they are doing. Correction is handled by observing what the student is doing again and breaking down what they are doing wrong. And the once right>ten times theory is something I have adapted from Steve Powell’s class. There are many classes that have their students doing 10-20 reps of one thing but because they are so many people there, sometimes your own technique is ignored. As our class is small it is easy to concentrate on individuals. So we can give them a foundation to get their basics right. I shall try and answer your questions in greater detail in my next post but thank you for getting my blogging back on track!”
In retrospect I think as Lun and I carry on teaching we are gradually refining our teaching style all the time. So in saying that we have to adapt to the depending on the size of the class. The biggest class we have had was about 8 students at one time. At the moment we are averaging 4-6 students, which is just right and we could manage if one of us was doing something else. It’s also easier to give attention to a particular student in a small class. I have been to classes(and these are University Martial Art classes) such as Jiu Jitsu and Tae Kwon Do when they have easily been 20+ people but looking round some people might not be getting the technique right and in some cases never right as the instructor may have not had the time to correct them.

Going forward with our own lessons we have lately been doing more live training and in the last one some circuit work to work on the cardio/fitness of the students. Our version of cardio is pad work and some sparring. But we will also make sure that the basic techniques are constantly drilled. Fundamental drills are so important such as how to stand, guarding and basic punching. Another technique that we will try and focus on is more scenario training.

Krishna Godhania showed us a bunch of videos people being attacked by just crazed people with knives. There were a few instances when they pre empted the attack but mostly unaware. This is because some of them were not trained in dealing or pre empting the attack. Such as letting a stranger in your space when talking to you is something you can’t do in my opinion. I read some bouncers have the wall technique where they stick their hands out to form an invisible wall between them and an aggressor. I think everyone should really be taught this technique not just people in Martial Arts because all too often you get some crazy idiot who doesn’t have a sense of space. It’s all well and good if we have a plan in our heads of “what to do” but it’s a matter of “when to do”. Like Greg Hall once taught and again taught my brother Lun recently is to train to degree that is a level of Unconscious competence. This means its all second nature which means the training is as such you don’t even think about it.

Thanks for reading enjoy the pics

Learning to teach, teaching to learn again.....

Hi All!

Its been a long time, I have obscured myself from the blog World as all I have been doing lately is working and teaching once a week until the past month, as I have been hitting the gym and managed to attend a seminar and instructors lesson!

Work has been hectic but satisfying, in my previous role at the place I work in, I never felt fulfilled and was partly the reason I did a weekly blog (as well as keeping motivated). I also intended this post http://kittomainia.blogspot.com/2006/11/my-weekend-in-martial-arts-november.html to be my last. However I carried on a bit , stopped and now I’m back because I thought I was becoming a sell out and not really caring about the hobby and art I have done for the last 20 odd years (on and off). I would say on the hobbies and sporting front apart from teaching Warriors Eskrima I have been lost for the last 6 months. I even played five a side football or soccer (for my overseas readers!) with workmates…that’s how lost I was.

But now I’m coming back to a higher conscious of my own training as well as teaching. I have been trying to get as fit as possible this month by hitting the gym and working on the weights and cardio. In addition we are prepping two of our best students for a grading. We got the date set we just to have work towards it. Lun and I are also combining our own experiences to work out the best parts from each Martial Art to see what works for us. In addition we attended two great seminars this week.

March in Wigan is freezing but it was freezing all over England after recovering from some Easter snow. However the room was hot with activity as the sounds of sticks and knives were clanging each other as Lun and I reached Mel Corrigan’s Kali Group gym. We never been to Wigan before but we greeted with smiles and handshakes from Mel Corrigan and Rick Faye! It was great to see Rick again, we went through some stick and knife work( in which I used the sticks Elaine got me as a present), pantukan (Filipino boxing) and some great focus mitt work. Rick laced the seminar with his usual great humour and knowledge. It’s always interesting to hear a story from Rick Faye. In fact I would say when I am teaching I am most influenced by Steve Powell and Rick Faye, in terms of the humour and knowledge they have as they know when to be serious but also keep the tone light. Lun and I do try and train our students hard but also keep the tone light but not constantly if there are serious matters to talk about such as situational training etc… speaking of which.

“Do you do any pressure training?” asked my MMA colleague work (whose going for his first pro fight soon so good luck to him) “What’s that?” I replied
“Real life scenarios”
“Yeah” But my “Yeah” wasn’t convincing because I couldn’t think of any examples that we did(even though Lun and I have done recently with a blunt Stanley knife) and we call it “Live” training anyway..sigh I am really sick of these different connotations for training techniques not because it all should be called the same thing but I personally get caught out when people from other Arts ask me stuff. Like when someone once asked me “Do you breath in or breath out when you get punched?” sigh…..I don’t think I could help my breathing if someone punched me in the back of the head but to be honest I have never been trained in that(so I can't pass fair comment) and I don’t think I could be patient enough. I have been in only 3 real life situations in my life. The only thing I was thinking in all situations was to defend myself.

I am trained in to keep a constant guard up or parrying/blocking/destroying an attack by attacking the attacker. Of course in real life you will never know what the attacker will do there’s no way on Earth he’s going to stand there and throw the straightest punch ever for you to block or wait there until you to put him in a lock. So I am all for Live or pressure testing. We live in probably a crazy world more then ever, I say train one on one or two on one situation with constant moving. But before that beginners have to learn all the techniques necessary to garner the knowledge to defend themselves.

Moving on…………………

In contrast to the wet, windy and cold day in Wigan, it was a wonderfully sunny day in Warwick. It had been exactly a year to the day since Lun and I had attended an instructor’s class and what a great class Krishna Godhania taught us. We had stick sparing techniques and knife techniques. A good thing that was emphasised was how dangerous a knifeman could be with his empty hand. It was great to stick spar with guys I haven’t trained with before and each of the instructors there were really friendly. These classes are held monthly and Lun and I shall try and get there as much as possible this year.

Other than that I am going to try and find a regular Martial Art to do. I was considering MMA with my colleague. But I had a think about it and the only person that I could properly train with is my brother Lun who had been having a bad time as of late with stress but is slowly but surely is getting better.. so I am going to try and organise something with my bro.
Anyway that’s all, I shall answer a comment from my last post in my next one which should be soon!
Thanks for reading

Learning to teach,teaching to learn.

Where in the World have I been?

Well Canada but unfortunately not for the last few months since I last wrote this blog. Since then Lun and I have been just teaching and going to the gym ever so often. The class is going fine it’s a small class and that’s fine with us. It gives us more opportunity to analyse their individual strengths and weaknesses. In addition it’s a class I find teaching a learning curve as you have to look at things from the students’ perspective. What may be basic to Lun and I may not be basic to the beginner. We take for example punching such as a jab and cross, although these are primarily basic punches for someone who has done boxing and some Martial Art it might be difficult for one beginner to form a fist and/or get their body mechanics right.

It’s only when teaching beginners as in total beginners with no prior Martial Art experience that you start to have a broader perspective of how well you are teaching. For example I would say that some students are exceeding faster than others and therefore it could be argued that those exceeding are practicing what we teach, however it can be debated whether those not picking up as quickly may need to be taught differently so they can “take in the information”. In my mind repetition is the key but first they got to learn the technique and get it right. As Steve Powell’s JKD Class always use to say when we would do reps in class “Doing one good punch is better than doing ten crap ones”. In addition to this the student has to apply their own mind to figure things out as well, so as Bob Melia said to me recently “Never ever stop learning". In fact I said this in a previous post that I am so grateful and humbled to have trained or attended seminar under so many great instructors throughout the years. As they have changed the way of my thinking in the Martial Arts on so many levels and given me such good advice. Also we are lucky enough to have a fellow instructor Johnny Cowan training with us along with his student Keith.

On a sad note one such instructor unfortunately passed away recently. It was a cold night on the 30th September 2003 when Lun and our friends Paul R and Paul H climbed the steps of a gym somewhere in North Manchester where we were to attend a seminar by Sifu Larry Hartsell. I remember for some reason being quite nervous attending as this would be the first time I have attended a seminar by a direct student of Bruce Lee. When he did come into the room there was an instant presence a kind of aura that’s hard to describe. He was softly spoken and didn’t look totally happy probably due to our English weather that night. But when he did start teaching it was awesome, we did a lot of stand up grappling and I will never forget when he made a point of keeping the left hand up protecting your jaw when you punch or you will get knocked out if you miss and the other guy hits you.
I know a basic detail but the way he said it in his softly spoken American accent for some reason stuck in my mind. At the end of the seminar he took the time to take photos with everyone and was very polite. It was an honour being in the presence of Sifu Larry Hartsell and I am pretty sure everyone else in the room felt that way too. Sifu Larry Hartsell Aug 15th 1942- Aug 20th 2007.


Canada was an awesome experience, along with Elaine and her sister Louisa we went on a scenic tour around the Canadian Rockies in Bannf and also saw Lake Louise and the Athabasca Glacier fields. We then stayed in the City with Elaine’s relatives in Burnaby. They were a very nice family and I can’t thank them enough for their kindness. So on this blog I like to thank Auntie Fatima, Uncle John, Chris and Edolyen and last but not least Elaine’s Grandma for their wonderful hospitality. Being in Burnaby was like being in a massive Chinese community in fact along with the Richmond area that’s exactly what it was and for some reason I felt very much at home. I spoke Cantonese for most of the time we were asking for things and restaurants. In addition things were cheap out there we went to a restaurant on Joyce Street that sold dim sum and plates of other food for $2 that at the current exchange rate is about £1!!!!! On the Martial Arts side of things I managed to take two photos of Martial Art centres, I didn’t attend either but those were only two among many Martial Art places in Vancouver out there I saw a Capoeria place, several TKD places, a MMA gym and also a place called Lok’s Hapkido in Richmond (unfortunately I didn’t have my camera ready for those gyms (as I was in a car or a bus) or I would be sure to take a picture. Another place I didn’t take a photo of however was Dragon’s Martial Art Supplies in Chinatown, the owner there was extremely kind and hospitable to us as we got some DVD’s and books from him. All in all Vancouver was a great place and a great experience.


Now I am back Lun and I wish to take our students to the next level. But we must work constantly ourselves to achieve this. I recently reapplied for my Warriors Eskrima licence and with Elaine moving up I shall look at my own training schedule (as well as teaching Elaine!). Exciting times ahead!….thanks for reading!

Kit

A Great Manchester Run! / A Great new beginning?

A great hue of anticipation surrounded the runners or cramped together near the starting line, everyone running for a cause, everyone wanting to run. Sunday 20th May Lun and I did the Great Manchester Run. This was Luns first time and my second time. This year 28,000 people participated in the UK’s most prestigious 10KM run. Lun commented on the atmosphere and to be among all those people running for so many causes is an absolute awesome feeling.

Well done to Lun who participated the run, he promises me that he will train for next year too, I am proud of you bro! I for one will participate every year as I enjoyed so much. But what I would like to do is thank everybody who sponsored me for the run. So far I have raised £242 online and raised £171 offline, the web page is open till 20th July 2007 so there is still time for you to keep on donating if you wish: http://www.justgiving.com/kitrunsagain
For all those who sponsored me thanks very much I really do appreciate it!

Hang on the blog says MARTIAL ARTS….where does it say GREAT RUN??, I hear you shout.
Well due to work and family illness’s ,Lun and I have only been teaching our regular classes once a week and have cut down on training. Lun and I just train ourselves when we can but we have for the time being stopped going to our own classes.

When I was first started this blog I was attending several Martial Art lesson which comprised of Eskrima,JKD,Capoeira and I was beginning MMA. Out of the four, Eskrima was the one that my brother Lun and I seemed to have progressed in the most. However in an earlier post I stated that one day I will just follow the path of one Martial Art. Now this is not including teaching and going to Warriors Eskrima seminars. So Capoeira, JKD or MMA? Well Capoeira is really a Martial Art/Dance so that is completely different from the training that JKD or an MMA class would offer. So JKD or MMA? You know I retract on the statement of following “paths” life’s too short, all things should be tried! But seriously once I do start again I should really concentrate on one art as I have already tried training everything above at almost the same time.

However the question is how come I have cut down on training?. External factors such as family illnesses and a crazy work schedule have affected what I do. But are they excuses? No, it just so happens that it falls on the days that the wrestling class is on or JKD is on. So if I do want to train why don’t I just find somewhere to train when I can? Which is my next step I am going to try and get some private lessons in or even train with people that in JKD,MMA etc at some point when it suits me. This is nothing to do with my ego but this is more to do with that fact that my situation has changed and it would make it impossible for me to train consistently with any class at the moment.

So what is the great new beginning heading on top of this post all about? Well I would say teaching and also trying to find a Martial Art I can consistently train in….thinking and writing about it has aided my descion.

The only thing that is consistent is the beginners Warrior Eskrima classes. This class is growing and it’s a new experience and Lun and I’s. The feedback we get is great! As I always ask how people enjoyed the lesson. We had three total beginners the other day so I asked them to practice partner drills in three’s. Of course anyone who had to practice in threes in a Martial Art lesson would know that its quite boring waiting for their go. So I showed the guy who was the odd one out the next move and then told that person to teach the others what I just shown them, while I check up and other people in the class. It worked and it looked like a lot of fun for them! Plus by showing people what you learn is another way of learning yourself. As well as the beginners we got Jon who is a veteran of our old classes and Richard who has stuck with us since day one coming down and also Gaz who was in also briefly with us when the class was on a Friday.

I also managed to teach Elaine some sticks and she took to it very well, I might even consider formally teaching her (if that what she wants..:)


I would also be the first to admit that if anyone asked me about other Martial Arts I would recommend the places I used to go. Like Steve Powell’s and SBG according to their preference. The reason being is that we I believe that anyone people we teach should broaden their horizons and find their own way. Everyone does.


Anyways I included a few pics of Lun and Jon training, highlights of the Manchester run, a bird of prey soaring through the sky which I am using as a metaphor for freedom of expression and also erm me at the bottom of a giant tree in Glastonbury which time of writing I am too tired to write the metaphor for it!

Thanks for reading!