Epilogue

My last blog entry was 9th June 2008, today is 7^th Feb 2010, a year and almost 8 months since I last posted, which is a very long time. Lots of things have happened during the last year and 8 months as not all was Martial Art related which meant I couldn’t possibly write this blog on a weekly basis. I would say that my Martial Arts Journey is officially over for now. The last class my brother and I held as instructors of Warriors Eskrima was back in July 2009.

Why did we stop? Well my brother Lun, had to have an operation on his hands but more importantly celebrated the arrival of a beautiful baby girl in November. I got married in August plus having to concentrate on my career as a team leader at a telecoms company I work at. Greater things have taken priority at this moment in our lives. With my brother and sister in law celebrating the birth of their child and Elaine and I getting married it was a great year for the brothers Lok.

I admit it this blog began when I was at my lowest ebb professionally at work and I used to write this every week because along with the Martial Arts I was doing at the time I felt like I was achieving something. However it was something I really enjoyed doing on a weekly basis. Ever since work picked up again I didn’t go back to write the blog every week in fact I thought I would leave it out altogether after the June 2008 blog.

However 2009 wasn't totally Martial Arts free, we attended two seminars that we hosted for Krishna Godhania in which we had a great time stick sparring and learning stick sparring techniques. We also attended a handful of JKD lessons at Steve Powell’s which was also great fun as we learnt different stick techniques. For us though the highlight of last years Martial Art calendar was Dennis Martin’s combatives seminar that was hosted by Greg Hall.

This seminar just put everything I have been training for into perspective. This seminar first made me think “What the hell is he sitting us down for and going off power point slides” and then got me thinking “That was the most intense 3 hours of training I have ever done!”

Based on WW2 combative concepts so you can use something as soon as you get out of the seminar, the two objectives where as follows:

1. Whatever we learn on the course, we should be able to use straight away.

2. Whatever you learn should stick with you for life. These objectives were emphasised throughout the course

You can read on my brothers take on this day here

The whole seminar was amazing and to top it off you fight the bullet man. A six foot man in a bulletman suit which made him around 6ft 5inches. It wasn’t just about fighting him however, after 3 hours of combative training which included 3 sets of ten reps of 10 exercises each and then intense pad work and some grappling, each of us was asked to spar with him individually.

Now here’s the catch as we were all asked individually to spar with the bulletman we didn’t know what we were getting into. I won’t spoil it for you but it’s intense and fun. More can be read on the seminar here Dennis Martin article as his website seems to be down at time of writing.

So no regrets everything that I have done in Martial Arts I am proud of, everything I tried out I have learnt from. I talk fondly of how it helped me out in crappy times and I will always train now and then with Lun. I made lots of friends, met new people, even famous people through Martial Arts. Thanks goes to Mark, Gaz and John who were our last students.

I thank everyone who visited this blog over the last few years and apologise to those who visited for the last year and 8 months expecting an update! Thank you for all your kind comments. The great thing I liked about the blog is the photos that we took. I have deliberately featured two of my favourites on this blog.

So here is the final picture for now. It features the pad we used at Steve Powell’s where it all began in 1983, the sticks I used for Warriors Eskrima which began in 2002,the t-shirt I purchased and wore at the Minnesota Kali group summer camp in 2002 under Rick Faye, the boxing glove I used in the stand up classes at the Karl Tanswell’s straight blast gym in which I trained in from 2005 to 2006 and the berimbau that my Capoeira instructor Danny Henry gave me in which I trained from 2002 to 2006.

Good times, No regrets.