Instructors: in debt to....

Hi All

Since returning to Martial Arts in 2001,I have been lucky enough to have been taught by great instructors...this weeks entry is dedicated to them and how they affected me.

In order of meeting them:

"HING DAI!"is the famliar greeting Steve gives to my brother Lun and I,its cantonese for "brother". Walking around and making sure students are doing the drills, he causually jokes and his lessons are often laced with humour but the content of his lessons are intense. As having a great karate background you can guarantee power punches in his work out and body mechanics on how to throw punches and kicks.He concerntrates on getting technique right, "I'd rather you throw one good punch,then ten crap ones" he would say when we practice punching the pad.

Lun and I's 20 year old on and off training under Steve Powell has benefited us several times outside the gym. As my we used to help out in our old parents' fish and chip shop and more so my brother(being older) used to throw troublemakers out. Some situations could have been much worse without our training with Steve.

Without Steve Powell opening the first JKD School in Central Manchester England, my brother and I would have been exposed and open to so many arts today and probably may have not heard of Eskrima until later on. In fact it was at Steve Powells gym where we had our first introduction to Eskrima. My brother and I are so much in debt to him and find it a great honour to have trained under Steve Powell.

"You don't like being hurt very much do you?" laughed Bob Melia as he put me in stick lock as I winced a bit with pain. I am used to it now but when I was starting Eskrima stick locks were painful. However Bob was trying to show my brother how to apply it properly and did the same to my brother to show me.

Bob Melia was a former Senior Student of Master Chu of Manchester. He participated in many Lion Dances at Chinese New Year. After over 20 years of Chu Gar Kung Fu,he took up Warriors Eskrima with Krishna Godhania. It was a honour to train under someone with so much experience and he had so many life stories. He instructed with confidence and finese and taught us the Warriors Eskrima style up until he passed his legacy on. "It’s a legacy, the whole point of this is to pass it on" I remember him saying this to me once. He passed his legacy on to my current Warriors Eskrima instructor Simon Campion.

Simon is still relatively a young instructor but along with his brother Rob has a wide breadth of Martial Arts experience including Chu Gar Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do and Ju Jitsu among others, he also cross trains with me in Capoeira. The best thing about Simon being passed the club is that my brother and I were there when he started and watched him gradually build his repertoire as an instructor. It was a honour to be his partner in a sayoc demo/workshop at Seni 05(UK Martial Arts Expo) under our chief instructor Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhania.

"I do this for the art" I can quote thousands of great lines from Rick Faye (above right picture with my brother Lun). It was at the Minnesota Kali Group gym in Minnesota where I first met Sifu Rick Faye, yet my brother met him years ago at a Seminar at Steve Powell’s gym. My brother and I booked a holiday to get to the annual Rick Faye Wisconsin Camp and spent the rest of the days at his Minnesota Gym back in 2002 and mentioned briefly in my first blog. Rick greeted and treated us extremely well. It was this trip that really got us committed back into Martial Arts.

We have been to almost to every one of Rick's annual seminars at Steve Powell’s. His ethos is similar to that of Steve Powell's a great sense of humour but intense work out. His extensive knowledge of Filipino Arts and introduction to Panantukan (Filipino Boxing) was fascinating.

During our stay in Minnesota, we lived at Rick Faye's business partner Diana Rathbornes'(who is also one of his top instructors) house for a few days and it was fun as we experienced a few days being a "full time" Martial Artist as we travelled to work with her in the mornings to his gym. That is what I call a life where you can enjoy every second of what you do as an art and a living.

Now we come to Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhania, my brother and I have had trained under him at seminars and extra lessons after grading. A humble and softly spoken instructor, there is a certain calm about him when he teaches. His gradings are intense and his knowledge of Eskrima is extensive due to his writings and experience. It is a great honour to be graded by such a World renowned Guro.

My brother and I have had many other instructors in which I will write about soon, but those above our the most influential in Eskrima and JKD. These people are the reason we are still practicing today and continue. Next week's article is on cross training,please check back tomorrow for a new feature weekly blog on the classes I took this week.

Here are links to their sites:
Bob Melia
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/sunstyletaichi/index.html
Steve Powell
http://www.jeet-kune-do.info/
Rick Faye
http://www.mnkali.com/
Krishna Godhania and the Warriors Eskrima system
http://www.krishnagodhania.org/