Saturday, September 03, 2005

My week in Martial Arts: 29th Aug-2nd Sept

Hi All
This is a new feature where I talk about my weekly lessons. Over time I shall try and write about the lessons in more depth but right now I am still experimenting with the format. Please feel free to make comments below!

A typical week would be at least one or more lessons of four disciplines per week.
This week I did Capoeira,Stand Up fighting at Karl Tanswell Defence Unlimited gym and Warriors Eskrima.

Following a mundane day at work, Tuesday was capoeira day,the instructor is called Danny Henry and is not affiliated with any Capoeria associations therefore free of politics. We practice the Regional (Martial Arts high flasy kicks) and Angolan style(slower more traditional ground based). There is a lot of conditioning in Capoeria and we work thoroughly on warm ups in the beginning of the lesson as there are lots of different moves that we do throughout. At the end of each capoeira lesson we play the "game" which is non contact Capoeria sparring. This is really the icing on the cake in Capoeira and what makes it a lot of fun. A new guy joined today and seemed to enjoy and pick it up very quickly.

Wednesday, my brother Lun and I took a trip to Karl Tanswell gym. We are currently studying stand up fighting and Brazilian jiu jitsu there. The stands up fighting class concentrates on stand up striking with elements of boxing and kickboxing and also clinch fighting. Stand up fighting 101(the beginner classes) was the class Lun and I took this past Wednesday and it was high energy workout. As it’s only an hour long class, there were a lot of drills but of three or four techniques so the beginner can remember what he/she has learnt on that day. The drills are constant movement rather remaining stationary we are required to move around for example, ducking jabs but moving your feet at the same time while your partner tries to catch you out. The philosophy of the gym is about physical movement and sweating. It’s a tiring and satisfying experience. We asked some of the guys there where we could get wrestling shoes, as they are not so easy to purchase here in the UK, although I could go online I prefer to try them on at a shop. There was one shop in Manchester that does them, if anyone else knows where we can get some please feel free to leave a comment below.

Friday was Eskrima day. Lun purchased some handguards, so we used them in training. We were practicing striking the stick and then the hand in several drills. The hand guards, designed by the late Punong Guro (Head Instructor) Edgar G. Sulite of Lameco Eskrima International work really well for our drills. Warriors Eskrima is typically more about the technique but since out last grading will consist of grappling and sparring it has concentrated more on conditioning.

We practiced some stick grappling and at the end of the lesson did some combat conditioning from Matt Furey's program, 100 Hindu squats, Hindu press ups and 30 minutes plus of various other conditioning exercises. I took our digital camera in to take photos but I forgot to charge the battery, luckily Simon Campion, our instructor had his camera phone and took some photos that I will publish on this site as soon as I get them.

So all in all it was a exhausting but fun week in my Martial Arts schedule.
Please check back next week for an article on cross training and another weekly martial arts journal entry.


Related Links:
Karl Tanswell
www.karltanswell.co.uk
Lameco Eskrima
http://www.lamecoeskrima.com
Hand guards
http://www.lamecoeskrima.com/armor.asp
Matt Furey
http://www.mattfurey.com/

3 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

hey there. pls pls pls can u tell me were i can do capoeira. i done one workshop in it in italy a year ago n now i really wanna take it up. i been studying various forms of dance since i was 7 n now i interested in doing capoeira. pls pls pls can u get bk to me. also do u have a means of contact for danny henry cos i wud really like to spk to him about it. my email address is traceyplatt@merseymail.com if u cud get bk to me i wud really appreciate it.

Indianapolis Jiu Jitsu said...

There was a capoeira group that practiced every night in front of my apartment in Brazil. I never participated but enjoyed watching them. It is a beautiful art.