Tuesday, September 26, 2006

My week in Martial Arts: Sept 18th to Sept 22nd



Hey All

Another good week in training! Monday my brother and I worked out a schedule for our gym work out. This is because we usually get to the gym around 5.45 or 6 depending on what time we finish work and then have to make the Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym class at 7 which is a good 10-12 minutes drive. So we worked out we are going to do 3 different exercises for each body part which consist of 3 sets of 10. This was perfect as it lasted 45 minutes approx. After the workout we went through some drills that we were taught at the Rick Young seminar held at Steve Powell’s JKD class. We also went through drills that were taught at the Krishna Godhania seminar and drilled our Eskrima stuff and what we were taught at Karl Tanswell’s the week earlier

Wednesday we went to Karl Tanswell’s class, for the past few Wednesday’s the class has been taken by an Estonian instructor called Jorgen. We did some interesting takedowns from the clinch. As Jorgen is about my size(i.e. not very tall) he told us what clinch control point(as in under hook or grabbing the head) would work best depending on what size you were, which put an interesting perspective on things.

Friday we went to Warriors Eskrima. Back to teaching! A new student Stephen showed up and it was cool to teach again. As this was the intro class I went through a variety of things including footwork, single stick, double stick and empty hand stuff. The interesting thing was that Stephen has Filipino heritage and this he told me, was one of the reasons why he wanted to learn. He told me that he enjoyed the lesson and I emailed him the list of what we did. I think I will save this list as the intro class template. It was good as he picked up the lesson pretty well.

As I was teaching and Lun was too busy training with the other guys, we couldn’t take any pictures! So I included a picture of the old “classic” pad we use to use at Steve Powell’s. The pad has “Smash the Pad!” written on it which I guess Lun put to motivate us when we were training.

I also included our Martial Arts book collection (part of it) which is a crazy mix of things. These books are there for reference really. I must admit I always found it hard to follow instructional books unless the moves presented were very basic. 2D photos never could catch the full motion of the more advanced moves unless they were really good photos coupled with good explanations. Plus nothing really beats being taught at an actual class where you can experience everything first hand (although DVD’s, videos and good books are excellent references).


At the weekend I went to Wookie Hole caves in Somerset with Elaine. It was fascinating to walk around, especially the inside of the caves as pictured. Elaine also showed me how to play the piano too, so the deal is that if she teaches me to play the piano I will teach her what I know in Martial Arts!

A special mention to James who writes this blog which is a cool blog all about swords. He asked me for a link exchange via my email at kiteskrima@yahoo.co.uk and if anyone else would like one please don’t hesitate to drop me a mail.

Thanks for reading and I promise more action pictures next time!
Kit!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

My week in Martial Arts: Sept 11th to Sept 16th




That’s more like it! 3 lessons and a seminar for Lun and I this week. So we trained 4 times and good session in the gym. On Monday my brother, Lun and I went to Karl Tanswell Straight Blast Gym and were taught some great stand up skills and takedowns. It was a great work out and we swapped training partners several times while sparring. It was cool to get a different feel of energy. Lun and I have trained these stand up skills in previous classes as it was a stand up intro class. It was basic but training basic manoeuvres is very beneficial as I will discuss below.


Wednesday Lun and I had a great workout at the gym as we lifted heavy for a good 40 minutes and then went to Karl’s again and worked some techniques from some close up stand up wrestling. Basically escaping or avoiding counters from body locks. It was fun stuff.

Friday we went to Warriors Eskrima. We had a great work out there drilling roof blocks and reverse roof blocks. Sparring with sticks and going up and down striking and blocking each others sticks. We also did some double stick drills as well which we haven’t done in a while. It’s good to train with the lads again as I mentioned in my last blog and take a break from the teaching. My brother and I however have been practicing Level 1 stuff in the event of some students joining. Again refining the basics…..


Saturday was seminar day with Rick Young(the second time this year, as the first time was in February) at Steve Powell’s JKD gym . It was a great seminar and great to see the regulars such as Chris, LGM, Greg and Rick. It was also the first time we seen Steve for a while who kindly provided us with the photo. Thanks Steve!

The seminar was cool. We did some single sticks and double sticks and some panuntukan (Filipino Boxing) and some Chi Sau (sticky hands) to incorporate into hubud drills. It was a varied and interesting seminar. Rick Young also mentioned the importance of training the basics. He stated that the basic are all part of a good foundation. This was something I strongly agree with because my brother and I still attend the stand up intro class at Karl Tanswell’s and always drill the earlier levels of the Warriors Eskrima class.


I reckon as well as progressing and drilling your skills in Martial Arts, re-visiting past skills is also very important.

Special shout out to my old mate Paul Thunder(not his real surname) who reads this blog on a regular basis and of course my girlfriend Elaine who always asks when am I next posting it!.:). Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

My week in Martial Arts: Sept 4th to Sept 8th



This week I was almost back to normal.
We did a good session at the gym and at Steve Powell’s JKD Class and also had a lesson at Warriors Eskrima

My digital video camera is still without a power supply and therefore I haven’t got any shots of the class, so here are some shots of Stourhead and Dunham Massey where I went with Elaine this weekend. We had a great time! I like to go these kinds of places with Elaine away from the corporate and commercial hustle and bustle of the city and the hypnotism of television. Places like these which are relatively inexpensive and for Elaine and I this is where it’s at, just awesome scenery and wildlife.

Anyways my brother and I did a really half ass session in the gym but on Monday but that was due to a killer headache. Wednesday my brother and I went to the gym and this time had a good session with lots of work on the upper body and then later went to Steve Powell’s. Greg took the class and we had a really great varied class, from the focus mitt work to combat training to hubud very varied and very good.

Friday I did Warriors Eskrima with Lun. There was no one there to teach so Lun and I trained with the rest of them. It was cool to train with those guys again and I forgotten how fun it was as Ray and I drilled stick sparring techniques. We also went through the lesson we had with Krishna Godhania


We did some knife defence where I got unintentionally kicked right in the knee cap by one of my fellow Eskrimidor, who will remain unnamed here. It hurt and instead of my usual charging into the guy like a footballer who gets up from a bad foul from another player I said he hit my funny bone and carried on. I emailed him about the matter and explained to him what he did in private.

Should I publish this? Yes, it’s my blog and it’s what happened, as I said it’s unintentional and I harbour no bad feelings. So they should be no problem. I have also known the guy longer than anyone else in that squash court. In general, I think that if someone goes in a bit hard in Martial Arts you have to tell them or they will carry on doing it or worse still you will react and a brawl will happen. If people don’t have an understanding with each other in training then accidents will happen. I am talking in general here over the last 5 years I had constantly training in these various Arts.


I once trained with this guy about 4 years ago in one of my classes who was a bit over zealous and had an ego problem, I can’t honestly remember his name but once we had to do knees on each other and he made some standard breathing noises like “ossh ossh” or something like that. When it was my turn to knee, my breathing noises were slightly different and for some reason he didn’t like it and said something like “That’s not very nice” and he went in a bit harder on his next go. To this day I don’t why he did that but he only had one lesson and I never saw him again. In fact maybe I dreamt it because no one else remembers this guy! But that is a great example of miscommunication between training partners.

As always you drop as an email at kiteskrima@yahoo.co.uk about this blog or any of the lessons mentioned as I can give you further information about them. Well I probably will tell you to refer to the links to the left of the page but I can give you information about the Warriors Class on Fridays.

Anyways that’s my 2 cents or pence as it were.
Thanks for visiting and enjoy the pictures.

Kit

Friday, September 01, 2006

I'm back!


3 weeks worth of blogs that what I owe my blog viewing public, I didn’t do many lessons over these past 2 weeks. So here is an overview of what we did the past three weeks

Aug 14th to 18th
This week Lun and I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym, Steve Powell’s JKD Classand Warriors Eskrima ..
Monday: At Karl’s we did some jab and crosses and footwork. It was a great work out and what was interesting was that it was one of Karl’s students taking the class. The interesting thing was that the student was able to take the class in an effective manner.

Wednesday I hit the gym and then Karl’s and Steve’s. I worked on bicep and shoulders and then my brother and I hit Karl’s. It was a great workout as we seemed to be work harder than usual. We then went to Steve Powell’s which was taken by Rick. We smashing the pads to hell with some reverse punches (well I was more liking smashing my fist to hell until I get the punch right).

Friday my brother and I went to Warriors Eskrima, again another great intense lesson with a load of stick sparring techniques.

August 21st to 25th-I had a rest as I took a week off work and spent time with Elaine who came up for a week. We had a great time going to my cousins wedding, Tatton Park and Stapley water gardens.

August 27th to September 1st
We had an awesome instructor’s lesson in Warwick on Sunday with Krishna Godhania . This was attended by Rob and Simon Campion, Johnny and Lun and I. We did some knife to empty hand translations.

Basically this is learning how to use knives in one situation and then empty hand in the same situation. Krishna also went through some history about how Filipino infantry men travelled in a triangular 3 shape with swords with the front man striking their Japanese nemesis with bolo machete's while the remaining two finish their enemy off. We also were taught some new sword techniques, thanks to Elaine who was travelled all that way with us!


I promise things will get back on track by next week. I didn’t do any lessons this week because I need to sort out some stuff that I hope to get resolved soon and therefore the blogs might not be as frequent or depending how I feel I might be compelled to write about what I am feeling. However I leave you a plethora of pictures to enjoy from the Warwick lesson, thanks for reading and visiting
Thanks
Kit