Martial Arts! A journal by Kit Lok

Rising up again?

2010-06-20T11:21:00.004Z

I wrote an epilogue to the Martial Arts Journal in February 2010, however something has rekindled my interest again which might lure me back.

1) My brother rejoined Steve Powell's JKD class last week

2) In addition to that my brother and I have been trying out the Tabata training method in the gym.

This Tabata training consists of
1) warm up
2) 20 seconds work
3) 10 seconds rest
4) repeat 7 more times

I read a lot of MMA and combat training guys do this conditioning training but I am doing it to get back into condition again! Being a team leader at work(although I do a lot of walking around) you do tend to ensure you have a nice meal every night to replenish the energy spent sorting stuff out. However with my brother Lun going back to JKD and this Tabata training being very enjoyable who knows?

I might start kicking some pads again......

Epilogue

2010-02-07T16:29:00.009Z

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.

Grading Day

2008-06-09T21:08:00.009Z

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

2008-04-17T07:42:00.002Z

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

2008-04-13T20:53:00.004Z

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

2008-04-06T20:45:00.003Z

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.....

2008-03-30T23:37:00.002Z

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.

2007-09-02T02:02:00.000Z

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?

2007-06-17T00:34:00.000Z

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!

My Month in the Martial Arts:Engagement!

2007-04-29T23:53:00.000Z

Well it’s been a long time since my last entry and a lot of things have happened since.
The most important is that I got engaged to Elaine in April. It was one of the most important decisions of my life and the most important thing I have ever done. I am so happy that Elaine said yes as she has really been an inspiration to me since the day we met and I love her very much. It’s a great feeling I cannot describe. Included is a photo of us in the gardens of Warwick castle.

Since my last blog I have not been attending many lessons due to work commitments. In the last month or so I have attended a Steve Powell Eskrima lesson, one regular JKD lesson taken by Rick Lawrie, a seminar with Krishna Godhania, a wrestling class with Barry Scargill and also along with Lun I have been holding Warriors Eskrima lessons for beginners. Although in the last two weeks I have been mainly training for the Great Manchester Run which has consisted of 3 mile runs and treadmill madness.

Steve Powell’s Eskrima Class was great this is going back a few weeks ago, as I have been either travelling down to Glastonbury or had work commitments. There are so many double stick drills and innovative ways that drills are modified it would be difficult to list, but from Steve Powell’s collective experience in weapons, you can guarantee a different approach in all his stick lessons. So why would Lun (more so Lun who has been going almost every week) and I still attend an Eskrima lesson in a different system? Well it’s like this why would someone play five a side football (soccer) week in and week out even though that person knows how to play?...Cause it’s a different experience every time that person goes and it’s the same with Eskrima or any Martial Art. Lun has been going every week and always tells me how great the lessons have been, read here for more!

The JKD Classclass which Rick took (and apologies to Rick if he is reading as this was way back in early March) was awesome as well. Again work commitments took me away from continuing the classes on a weekly basis, however this month I should be able to make several JKD lessons. We basically were smashing pads with reverse punches and variants of. I still got some scars on my knuckles to prove it. I don’t want to sound “hard” or tough with a line like “I still got some scars on my knuckles to prove it” but I genuinely have and it hurt at the time!

In late March Lun and I went to an instructor’s seminar held by Krishna Godhaina. Simon and Paul also went, we were taught some great stuff including knife and focus mitt drills. I caught up with Russell an instructor from Weston Super Mare who Lun and I met at Dan Inosanto’s seminar. The most interesting aspect of the lesson was profiling students that may have knife attacking tendencies (e.g. psychos). This is due to the current spate of knife crime happening in the UK. In the Warriors system it is within the syllabus to teach knife techniques but I am trying to emphasise more on the defences against knife attacks. But more so if we profile the student correctly before he joins the club then they really shouldn’t be a problem however both instructor and student must understand its a massive responsibility if they are taught the knife.

In mid April Lun and I attended a wrestling class, it was tough! Out of the four techniques shown I probably got two as it was also very technical. The instructor Barry was great very tough but when teaching application he was very careful.

We switched our beginner’s Warriors Eskrima classes
from Friday to Thursday. This is so Simon doesn’t have to concentrate too much on teaching and train with Paul, Ray and Barry and also Lun and I when we get the chance. It was also an opportunity to see if Lun and I can teach a class on our own. At first it seemed the wrong move as we were getting an average of one person coming down. But last week there were five people so it is growing somewhat. We go through a lot of the basic warriors stuff and incorporate stuff that we picked up over the years. However this is the beginning of our teaching and we have a long road to travel as I try to symbolise with a picture from Lyme Park below!

Finally Elaine and I saw Danny the Capoeira instructor in town this past Saturday. I promised him once Elaine moves up with me we will attend his class. Please check out his section of the flowdrills website which Steve one of his students has brilliantly amended complete with gallery!

A very eventful month, enjoy the pics and thanks for reading!

A very happy Kit!

My week in Martial Arts:26th Feb to 3rd March

2007-03-03T22:17:00.000Z

Hi All

This post should really be called "My day in the Martial Arts" as all I managed to do was one day teaching Eskrima along with my brother. We taught the single stick drill called Amarra and some double stick drills. Double stick drills are fun to do especially the heaven six eskrima drill which is a basic co-ordination and striking drill which consists of a right forehand strike,left back hand strike and then then a right backhand strike. However it can be sometimes hard for people to pick up if they are not familiar with using weapons and this applies to any Martial Artists who haven't handle weapons before. I remember Lun and I when we first started we were all over the place. This is because in the early days of Warriors Eskrima we first trained in several double stick drills, eventually we got it but with anything in life it took practice.

It's very interesting how our class operates, ever since several of us became apprentice instructors, we have taken different routes within our training. So if someone see's our class they will see not only Eskrima going on but probaly the more experienced guys training in what they know etc. Therefore it's safe to say that out class has a wealth of different experiences and this also includes the expertise of the students who have also trained in other Martial Artists, so its perfect for a beginner to come in and get different view points.

So why one lesson this week, because I been on call and working funny hours. I am actually enjoying work at the moment, in the last department I was in I don't think I quite fitted in because it was just so damn quiet! But now its fast moving and I feel more alive. In the past I only felt alive after working hours and weekends now its 24/7 (literally because I am on 24 hour callout some weeks) and therefore I feel like kicking ass (cliched and an eye rolling comment for sure, but that's how I feel right now).

Anyway this week I am not on call, so I can train more. I leave you with a picture of my brother Lun and I. As you can see I have my game face on (or serious face) while Lun smiles, maybe I should have mentioned I was trying to do a serious pose photo to Lun in our Warrior Eskrima shirts!

Thanks for reading

Kit

My month in the Martial Arts! Late Jan to Late Feb!

2007-02-26T00:35:00.000Z

Hello All!

Well since the last time I posted I had only managed two lessons at Steve Powell’s and one Capoeira lesson but also been teaching new students at the Warriors Eskrima lesson.
The reason why it hasn’t taking me so long to post? Well I have been really busy at work, as I am now required to be on 24 hour call out 1 in 3 weeks and have been working odd hours. I am much happier working where I am now then say a year ago, the sacrifice though is that I don’t get to all the lessons I would like to attend or time to write my blog.

Capoeria! Yes I went back to Capoeria last year I left to try and get into BJJ but it didn’t work out, not like I didn’t like it but it was the timing wasn’t great and everything and I was more into the stand up aspect. So when I attended Danny greeted me as I have never left. It was hard to get back into it again but at the same time fun. I am so happy that his class is expanding too. It was at one point at average of one or two students when I first advised him to move to Salford now the classes seem to be between 6 and 10.

Two half jokingly comments, but poignant comments were made by two of my colleagues. The first comment came from one pointing out that I was the only one “keeping it real” in the Martial Arts out of our department, he and another colleague was talking about Martial Arts and how they quit but wanted to start again(one of them has found a club since the chat). I thought about the comment but instantly thought about my brother and all the guys I know who attend all the classes that I go to on a regular basis that I go to who are a similar age and the other colleagues within my workplace who have carried on their Martial Arts, two of them being instructors. I thought it was a nice comment however but I know many more people more worthy of the tag “keeping it real”

Steve Powell demonstrated one more time to me the punching technique he shown as I got something wrong while doing it. There are so many variables to consider when doing the reverse punch at Steve Powell’s JKD, but it was such a great technique if you get it right and can really knock someone back. It was a great class we had in late January full of power strikes which I really enjoyed. I only managed along with Lun to attend one empty hand class since the last post, while Lun had been going down every Saturday to Steve Powell’s weapons class which is great for him. I have been going down to see my girlfriend Elaine or being on call on Saturday’s hence I have not been attending the Saturday class. However I made one rare Saturday last Saturday and we had a great class, my favourite bit of the class was smashing tyres with our sticks, totally awesome. I remember once we did a similar thing in Minnesota at Rick Fayes gym back in 02, although it wasn’t officially a lesson, Lun and I just did a six hit drill on some tyres in the open plan room adjacent to a class that was going on. I remember smashing those tyres but then only realised later that we weren’t meant too as there was a notice above asking people kindly not to hit the tyres while lesson was in progress, doh! The picture above is something I have published before but it’s me smashing the tyres when I wasn’t meant too!

However that Saturday was great we held the tyres up for each other and started hitting them with sticks and it felt great to hit something with the stick. We also did some cool stick locks a great lesson overall.

The Warriors classes have been going great also apart from this past Friday where due to work commitments I couldn’t make it, which leads me the other half jokingly comment that another colleague made but also Lun has said it in the pass. “You are letting work take over your life!” I thought about this comment and probably due to the nature of my work I can’t control it, due to the on call and some funny hours I have worked recently. But I can’t let it compromise my training and have to work round it.

Lun and I have been teaching the beginners that swelled up to 4 last week. It was great to go through the various techniques and always interesting to see how they are progressing. They are enjoying the lessons which are the most important thing for us as well. I would like to point out that our fellow instructor Jonny Cowan is also going well and that his branch is based at the United Estates of Wythenshawe gym in Manchester. Lun has visited several times and thinks it’s a great class with a great atmosphere.

Anyway I leave you with two “posing photos” of Lun and I, after we went through some techniques. I haven’t been taking too many photos of the classes lately due to the fact we are too busy teaching (the theme of today and word has been “busy”) but I am sure I will get time to take some next lesson and will try and post regularly again.

Thanks for reading and get busy training!
Kit

My two weeks in Martial Arts: 08/01/07 to 20/01/07

2007-01-22T00:50:00.000Z

Hi All

2007 began with a boom literally. January 8th Lun and I went to Steve Powell’s JKD class and we did an awesome drill with Rick Larwie who took the class for the night. This was my first class at Steve Powell’s for a long time and what a class. The theme was aggression and the first drill was basically your training partner would get the pad/kick shield while you have your back towards him or her totally relaxed. Then your training partner will shout out the worse thing he can think of and barge right into you at a pace to piss you off you then turn around and “boom” hit the pad. That set the tone for several drills that we did.

I have said in the past I respect all martial arts and all aspects of it from the sport to the culture to philosophy, but when it comes down to it I do like to train for the aggression, for something that would aid me in the streets. Its not that I constantly talk of “ripping someone’s head off (and some people would hilariously add.. ) and spitting down their throat", but its good to know you have access that kind of training. As an old friend said a while ago.. “I hear some people do Martial Arts do “keep fit” that’s bullshit man, I do it for fighting!!!” Although I practice it to keep fit as well as also do it for situations that may arise. This is why Rick’s lesson was great as it was about applying certain techniques to situations.

On Wednesday Jan 10th I was shown some cool knife stuff. I enjoyed it but my opinion of knife fighting etc because my family and I were subject to a screwdriver attack over 10 years ago which I explained in an earlier post I am still a bit sensitive. All I can say is that I am more interested in the knife defence stuff rather than using the knife.

Friday 12th Jan, I didn’t go to Eskrima as work got in the way, it was a problem at 5 o’clock on a Friday. So I drove around a bit near my old high school and places where my old childhood friends used to live. Ironically I bumped into one of them, Barkery who was featured in a photo with me in an earlier post of us doing karate as kids. He is a great guy and genuine friend (well he was driving behind me trying to flag me down for ages!). He also read this blog so I like to say hello to him.

In the UK there has been a lot of talk about racism and ignorance stemming from a show that I absolutely hate with a vengeance but I thought it was worth having my take on racism. No one will understand racism or properly judge it unless directly experienced by them or knows someone close or a loved one who has experienced it. I scoff at people who haven’t been racially abused who try to tell me what racism is. I know what it is and it’s complicated. Being of Chinese descent I had some great illogical ignorant comments directed at us in the past such as “Go back to your own country!” and “English Chips!” as a bunch of English people(they may have not been) walked past our old Chip Shop. However ignorance is bliss as once a bunch of racist drunks came to our Chip Shop, shouting all kinds of crap, my dad got pissed off broke out the nunchucks and started waving them around in any shape or form possible i.e aimlessly as he really didn’t know how to use them, all the drunks ran off in fear of their lives with my triumphant Dad laughing at their sorry asses! However once a drunk pisshead came in to our Chippy, looking a total nobhead and slamming the door really hard, regular and racial expletive shooting from his mouth…instead of getting what he wanted he was greeted with Lun doing a perfect Nuchucka form in front of his nose and ended with the famous Enter the Dragon poster pose from Bruce Lee…the drunk must have shat his pants. In actual fact he left with a whimper.

Jam 14th we did some weights in the gym and Friday 19th we taught Richard in Eskrima. We now have a target to achieve as grading is coming up soon. It was good to teach again as I said in an earlier post practising the basics over and over again is such good practice not only for the student but for the instructor.
This was further backed up by Karl a Wing Chun Instructor from Glastonbury who I met with in Bath this past Saturday when Elaine and I met up with Elaine’s Sister Louisa and her boyfriend also called Karl (also Martial Artist) in Bath. Karl the Instructor is Louisa’s Sifu and was being helped by Louisa and Karl to find a venue in Bath. Elaine and I met up with them and Sifu Karl(as I will call him to avoid confusion) and I started talking. He was such a great guy and talked about similar stuff that he did in Wing Chun such as empty hand translations etc. He made reference to the Jet Li film Fearless, for those who haven’t seen Fearless, basically Jet Li is a badass cocky instructor who picks fights with people in the first half and then turns into someone who mellows out in the second half. He said the film reminded him of himself when he started out, cocky at first and then humble in later years which was interesting observation. Maybe something I have to watch out for in myself and fellow apprentice instructors.

Anyways enjoy my pics and thanks for reading!

Last one for the year!

2006-12-31T23:14:00.000Z

My month and a bit in Martial Arts!

Hi everyone sorry I haven’t posted in over a month. So what took me so long? Well my last post was intended to be the last, leaving it with the Dan Inosanto seminar would have been an apt conclusion through my journey in Martial Arts. After all he encompasses all the arts I am doing and pretty much carried on a legacy of training in different Martial Arts by Bruce Lee.

But I thought to myself I can’t just “end” like this, this isn’t a novel or a 2 hour film, it’s my life I am chronicling and it doesn’t just end. So what’s been going on? Well for the last 4 weeks I have been teaching in the Warriors Class, training with Lun, Simon
has also taught us some cool basic Sayoc knife drills.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
How about the classes I attend I hear you ask? Well it was a matter of saving up for Christmas. I want to restart everything after Christmas but as I am saving up, Lun and I have been training a lot of stuff that we picked up from the years on our own.

If you miss of few Martial Art lessons you become lethargic and stiff and it could take you a while to get back into it. That’s why Lun and I have just been training as if we are in a lesson, making sure that we always get a great work out each time. You know when you had a great work out when you have sweated buckets and you feel great at the end.

We train the techniques we know and then our main bit of training consists of three sets of 20 reps of focus mitt drills before doing some weights at the gym. These are all the drills we picked up over the years mainly from Steve Powell’s JKD and the 20 reps idea came with Rick Faye’s 2002 Wisconsin camp. We have been motivating each other when training and it has worked very well. Do we need to go back to all our lessons after devising our own? The answer is yes to learn more techniques and train with different people. Over the past year I have been picked up great techniques and experiences from Steve Powell, Pangulong Guro Krishna and Karl Tanswell more than enough for Lun and I to train adequately on our own but we also need that class environment to guide us and help us train in something new, such as Simon teaching us the Sayoc Knife techniques which was something new.

TEACHING
Teaching has been great; however we have to balance the teaching and the training. The great thing about teaching beginners is that you are teaching them to have a strong base and therefore it gives you time to try and develop an even stronger base for yourself as it’s something you have to show and show well to the beginner, for E.G a basic guard or basic movement.

GO FOR THE KNEECAPS INIT?
My work place is littered with cool Martial Artists, from Aikido to Western Boxing to Tae Kwon Do and JKD. As it is necessary to sometimes carry out work in one particular room which seats about 6 people where various departments would work, it is easy to overhear conversations. For some reason two guys started talking about fighting, instantly you could tell who had the Martial Arts training and who didn't. I will transcript their conversation under Pepsi Challenge 1 and Pepsi Challenge 2 as a tribute to those Pepsi Challenge adverts(if only product placement existed in blogging!)
Pepsi Challenge 1: “Well you know if it came down to it man, I would go for the kneecaps first in-it?”
Pepsi Challenge 2: “Well you would actually try to find a way out first, if you really were in a situation”
And the winner is....
Pepsi Challenge 2, who was cool guy and talked to me after about JKD afterwards, Pepsi Challenge 1 continues to go for the kneecaps apparently.

GREAT CHRISTMAS
I have had a truly eventful Christmas, I spent two days in Dublin with my girlfriend (sorry for not looking you up John who writes the Running Uphill blog, but there was a lot to see in your cool city and I am sure to visit again soon) spent Christmas Eve with my family and then Christmas day with Elaine and her family, its been a very family orientated nice Christmas.

BUT BEFORE I GO..AN EXPLAINATION FOR THE PICTURE.
The picture is of a shattered Eskrima stick that my fellow eskrimadors blitzed when it was about to fall apart, there is no real symbolism to it, I just thought it looked cool. I wish everyone a great New Year and keep training as I am going to update this blog weekly again and start the New Year in my next post with a crazy picture filled special post!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Kit

My Weekend in Martial Arts: November 11th to November 12th 2006:Guro Dan Inosanto!

2006-11-14T00:31:00.000Z

“Look Lun, it’s him!” I said to my brother excitedly as we came down for breakfast at a hotel in Edinburgh
“Erm Who?” Lun replied
“Dan Inosanto!!!!”

But before we even get to this part this was the trip that nearly wasn’t. It was most definitely a last moment thing and therefore I did not mention this trip on my previous blog. I also forgot to mention this to the students at the last Warriors Eskrima class but emailed them to tell them Lun and I wasn’t going to be teaching on Friday. There was no ulterior motive for not telling them where we were going, we sincerely didn’t know whether we were going or not due to the recent events regarding our Uncle. However Mum insisted we go in the end (as long as we could get back!).

We almost didn’t make the whole trip because the train in front of our train hit a cow which delayed us for about 2 hours to add to this surreal scenario a man in a chicken suit was walking up and down telling jokes (all for a good cause plus keeping the passengers amused while stuck on the train).

The surreal theme continued into the next day as we saw Guro Dan Inosanto getting some breakfast from the self service area of the hotel restaurant in which we were also staying in. I did joke with Lun the night before “Maybe he is staying the same hotel as us” and it turned out he did. He was sat with Rick Young who was the host and a man who turned out to be Guro Dan’s assistant called Joel Hart. We didn’t really want to disturb them eating their breakfast as we thought it might be rude to interrupt.

Eric his wife Amanda, Chris and Sahid all from Steve Powell’s JKD class picked us up from the hotel. As we were made our way to Leith Academy we saw Guro Dan, Rick and Joel get into a car, our first thought was to “FOLLOW THAT CAR” but decided against it because we had a Satellite Navigation in the car anyway and would have looked very suspicious.

AT THE SEMINAR

Lun and I approached Guro Inosanto as he was looking at his notes and when to say hello. He was extremely warm and friendly and thanked us for coming. He taught some cool stuff stick and dagger, stick, empty hand, I can’t really go into everything because there were a lot of drills. The thing that I also loved was listening to the history of the Philippines. The stories of how his father brought all the feuding Filipino Californian communities together which led to Dan Inosanto by so many different Eskrima instructors. The way Filipino’s were unjustly called “Warlike and Barbarian” by invaders just because they defended their country was also explained to us. I find all the history fascinating about Filipino Martial Arts, I could just sit in a seminar with Guro Dan just talking about the history and then one seminar just training. I love hearing history from a view point from somebody that experienced things first hand rather than the propaganda history that we are sometimes misled to believe. During the break we spotted someone with a Warriors Eskrima T Shirt on. His name was Russell and was an instructor from Weston Super Mare in Somerset, ironically near my girlfriend Elaine. It was cool to talk to him and he had nothing but good things to say about Krishna Godhania. We also recognised a few other Martial Artists attending.

Later that night Lun and I went with Steve Powell’s entire group to have a dinner. I go on record and say that Eric and Chris are two of the first English guys I have ever went to a restaurant with who knew what they are ordering (Roast Duck and Char Siu with rice) taught to them by Steve Powell himself of course. We spent the evening discussing the seminar and having good food at this restaurant in Edinburgh called the Great Wall.

DAY 2

Speed, the speed of Guro Dan Inosanto at 70 is phenomenal. The day before Guro Dan showing us a move that started off with a sweep and quickly into an arm bar. My jaw just dropped, if he is this fast at 70 he must have been more phenomenal at my age I thought to myself. Joel Clark was his tall teaching assistant who was very friendly and helped us out a lot. I noticed him Joel doing Capoiera moves as well during the breaks and we had a short discussion about that art. Joel is pictured below.

Again Guro Inosanto talked about the history and also showed us some awesome silat moves. The underlying theme of the whole seminar was finding what was best for the individual. It’s not the style that defines the use; it’s up to the individual. There are so many other things that happened at the seminar that Dan explained or shown, my only regret is not gathering our fellow instructors from my Warriors Class to go but like Guro Dan said “Its up to the individual to see what fits best for themselves…”

Special thanks to Eric and Amanda for giving Lun and I, a lift back to Manchester. I also like extend my thanks to my parents, Steve Powell who introduced us to JKD, Krishna Godhaina whose Warriors method kept our interest up in weapons and Lun who made it all possible. Below is a group picture with Guro Dan Inosanto

This weekend was a tremendous honour to meet Guro Dan Inosanto, one of my Martial Art dreams comes true.

Thanks for reading
Kit

My Week(end) In Martial Arts: Dan Inosanto!

2006-11-11T19:09:00.000Z

Hi All
I am posting this from a hotel in Edinburgh! Lun and I finally made it to the Dan Inosanto seminar! This is day one of a two day seminar and so far its been interesting,such as we are staying at the same hotel as Guro Dan Inosanto,learnt a lot of Filipino history and their knife fighting culture,seen several well known Martial Artist's from all over England, a Warriors Eskrima instructor called Russell and most of all learning some great stuff. Shall post a more detailed updatate soon!
Keep Training!
Kit

My Week and a half in Martial Arts: 19/10/06 to 07/11/06

2006-11-07T22:17:00.000Z

“Wow I just did it like it was natural” Richard said after blocking an Eskrima strike. Richard has been coming down to our Warriors Eskrima consistently for the last four weeks. Yeah that’s what you call subconscious competence I thought to myself. A term quite new to Lun and I, although this concept was what I called it 2nd nature or natural instinct in the past. Hang on, before I launch into another posting I must apologise for not updating in a while, I have been busy at work, Elaine came up for a week and I slowly getting my Martial Arts back together. Lessons? The past 3 weeks we only trained in one lesson as Lun and I have mainly been teaching the Eskrima class.

Friday October 20th we had an Eskrima lesson where I taught the double heaven six to the new guys Richard (who I mistakenly called Steve the previous week) and George. These guys were complete beginners in Eskrima (whilst our other beginners have a basic grasp on techniques as they have done Martial Arts), while Lun was teaching the more experienced beginners William and Stephen.

It was a challenge to teach complete novices. Everything is taken into consideration; co-ordination is the biggest factor dealing with weapon training. This involves footwork and getting the form right. There is a little trick I do to make sure the guy is striking properly with the stick which is just standing in front of them and using my body as a template for the strikes. I found this has helped the students (well 3 of them so far) but it’s difficult some times as I put myself in their shoes four years ago when I started in Eskrima, I can totally emphasise with them and I like to pass on little tricks I picked up so they can pick the skills easier. For people who have trained in a Martial Art previously I tend to teach them more stuff as they should be able to pick up stuff more easily. I also tell them the stories behind some of the moves and how it looks when it is applied, so they get a better idea.

I went to Glastonbury on Saturday 21st to see Elaine. On Sunday on the way to Bath to meet Elaine’s sister and her sister’s boyfriend Louisa and Carl who practice Wing Chun and Five Animal Kung Fu respectively, we stopped by Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol. I would say being a new instructor is like being a newly constructed bridge, bridges take a long time to construct and once it is built, it is ready for people to cross over to the other side; however people need to have confidence to cross the bridge first. Finally after being tried and tested many people can use the bridge to help them get across. That’s my analogy of it anyway and being of Chinese descent I have a right to be philosophical!..:)

On the 28th October I took my Mum to Birmingham and drove Elaine back to Glastonbury. I have done almost 20,000 miles in my car and I have only had it since December last year, in my last vehicle it took my five years to get to 31,000 miles!
On the way we went to Gloucester Cathedral as pictured and then Montacute House which reminded me of Wayne Manor from the Batman comics and films.

Friday 26th October we taught William and Richard some stick and empty hand stuff. One of the moves was a various jolt to the throat to rock the head back before finishing off an attacker/assailant with a few jab crosses to the throat William made an interesting point upon being shown this move “End up in jail, no?”. I told him that: “Well you don’t have to jab cross the throat in reality you can just jolt the throat and run, but he did have a valid point regarding the attack” In fact I think William is one of the most cautious people I have trained with and that’s a good thing. In fact all three of our beginners seem to understand that they can be taught something and not to maim or hurt someone with certain things they are taught. However as Krishna Godhania once told us we always have to train for the worst case scenario.

Thursday November 2nd Lun and I went to Steve Powell’s JKD class. Greg took the class and it was great to see Chris and LGM Chris there too. Greg is just an awesome teacher and as written earlier the stuff about subconscious competence is something that he told the class. Basically there are four stages, subconscious incompetence (you think you know it but your crap), conscious incompetence (you know you are crap but you are trying to fix it), conscious competence (you got the skills but need to think about it first) and subconscious competence (you are so good it becomes second nature). This concept or matrix is also used in business models but it’s a very interesting matrix to apply to Martial Arts.

Friday 3rd November Lun and I went through some basic drills with William, Stephen and Richard. As William and Stephen has had more lessons than Richard, I taught Richard some basics on his own and then finished with some focus mitt work.

Sunday 5th November: My Mum, Lun and I drive down to Birmingham to visit our Uncle who was recently diagnosed with Cancer. He was all smiles and showing a lot of vitality but my Mum always said that he is the kind of man who doesn’t want anyone to worry. It was there and then I decide that I am most definitely going to run for charity again next year, I am running for him and everyone of my family and friends who have somehow been effected by Cancer.

Monday 16th I went to the gym with Lun did weights. We then did some focus mitt sessions just doing 3 of 3 sets of 20 reps of various punching drills. It was a good and necessary work out.

Tuesday 7th November: I ran in the morning just once round the block…the running training has begun again.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.

Kit

My Week and a half in Martial Arts: 09/10/06 to 18/10/06

2006-10-18T23:22:00.000Z

Hey All
As you can see in my title I am trying to catch up with my blog updates. Yes my Warriors Eskrima instructor Simon Campion has picked up on the fact that I don’t update it on a weekly basis as often as I used too! So here it is Simon from the 9th to the 18th of October unfortunately I haven’t been to many training sessions this past week and a bit …but I have been training with Lun in the gym and at home and had a great Warriors Eskrima teaching session along with Lun.

On Wednesday last week we trained in the gym and we watched Simon and Ray go through their Sayoc Kali knife drills. They looked pretty good and I got a couple of great action shots of them. In the gym we concentrated on our triple weights formula, this is 3 sets of 10 of 3 different exercises for different body parts.

Friday we went to Warriors Eskrima. Well I was 10 minutes later due to work commitments but to my surprise 2 extra beginners George and Steve joined our class. Along with Stephen we have 3 beginners. Stephen has really good and advancing fast, the DVD’s by our chief instructor Krishna Godhania he purchased are also a contributing factor.

This brings me to my next subject; Martial Art instructional DVD’s/Videos. In my opinion they are only really useful if you are practicing the Art that the DVD is about. Even though you want to purchase a DVD to perhaps learn some moves, nothing beats the atmosphere of a real place to learn. Instructors who can work on physical and mental attributes, intricacies such as body mechanics and positioning can’t be shown effectively on a DVD. The reason is because no one can tell you if you are doing it right or wrong if you execute a move from an instructional. Again I think Martial Arts Instructional DVD’s are a great idea but only if you are practicing the Art with a live instructor and live environment. Having said this I highly recommend Krishna Godhania DVD’s I am not saying that because he is my chief instructor but saying this because the detail of showing the viewer is awesome(from different angles and varying speeds) but only if you are practicing the style or curious about Filipino Martial Arts.

On Saturday I met my girlfriend Elaine in London to see The Producers in the West End. It was a very funny show and well acted. We also did the touristy thing in London on a tour bus. However I enjoyed Convent Garden and the various street performers and a great little restaurant called the Crispy Duck and obviously walking the streets of London with Elaine. We went to the Shaolin Way Martial Art store, unfortunately couldn’t find anything but recognised the guy behind the counter from our previous visits. I saw Austin Goh, a Wing Chun Sifu in Chinatown. I recognised him from the old Fighters magazine that used to run in the 70’s to early 90’s. It’s weird as when I see famous or semi famous people I just don’t know what to say. It was a nice weekend.

Monday, Lun and I trained at home. We did some focus mitt work such as jab/cross variations. Due to work commitments (as I will be on an overtime rota) I have not been to Steves or Karls for a while. I am planning to get back to both Steve Powell’s Jeet Kune Do and Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym but probably need some time to fit it in so I can go to both consistently.

Today we went to the gym and did our triple weights formula. We then went over some double stick blocking drills and basically drilled our beginner’s techniques to teach the guys on Friday, later we saw and spoke to Ray and Simon who reminded me about the blog!

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.

Kit

The last couple of weeks in the Martial Arts from the 25th September to October 6th

2006-10-10T22:38:00.000Z

Hey All

Sorry another late post! Well last week I only went to the gym and a session of Warriors Eskrima. This week I went to gym Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym and Warriors Eskrima. The reason for the late post is because I been busy at work (not that I write this post at work) but by the time I got home I couldn’t really face the PC when I got back from work…but I have something worthwhile to write about and as this is one of my hobbies I do need to keep it consistent.

A transition has occurred at work as I have change departments. Although I enjoyed talking to the colleagues of my old department it was time to move on (as I asked to be moved a while ago). The new department is cool but that’s way too much talk about work…this blog is about what I do after work.

First of all I like to address the subject of Martial Art politics. I know or met most Martial Artist of most categories of Martial Arts. I know modern martial artists, traditional martial artists, martial artists who compete, martial artists who are or were doormen and those in the arts who look for the spiritual side etc. In fact right now I know people obviously doing my Arts that I practice like JKD, MMA and Eskrima but arts such as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Tae Kwon Do, Wing Chun, Five Animal Kung Fu, Aikido, Capoiera, and Thai Boxing. All have different view points in the Arts and that is great as it’s their individual choice. The common denominator is that they train in what they believe in and that’s all that matters.

I brought this up because in my last post Chris put a comment on it and Lun responded. In the end they emailed each other and it was agreed that they had different viewpoints and opinions. It wasn’t really an argument it was getting the point across to each other and they did it really well and respectfully. This is because they believe in what they do and both have no egos.

However ugly politics and ego is still alive and well in Martial Arts.
I have seen videos on the internet containing guys practicing the same art from different branches jumping each other unexpectedly. It’s deep rooted politics such as we have the best Kung Fu or insert “Martial Art here” is all to do with the ego maniacal person running the class fuelling other bad egos creating ego’s and more egos. The worse example however is when one club actually tries to stop another club from practicing their art. It happened to my Capoeira Instructor Danny Henry who was visited by a few Capoeira guys from another school a few years ago who asked him to stop. Can you imagine if you were asked to stop something you love to do and intimidated by other people who also practice your art? I found this very disturbing but Danny stuck to his guns, explained his position peacefully and still teaches.

I am proud to say that in all the classes I take at Steve Powell’s Jeet Kune Do, Warriors Eskrima and Straight Blast Gym and the instructors I ever trained under from 2001 have never presented me with ego or political problems.

Another thing that I want to talk about is the awareness of Martial Art clubs in Manchester. There is an abundance of clubs in and around the centre of Manchester...but to our amazement even some people who work in the centre are unaware of this. My brother sometimes parks outside a newsagents on a street just a block away from Steve Powell’s in fact you can see the big banners of Steve's club from the outside of his newsagent if you walked a through yards up. Anyway the guy who works or owns the store saw my brother park outside his shop the other day and started chatting with us.
“Hey what do you do man?” asked the Shop owner.
“Oh I am going to an MMA class” said Lun.
“Yeah I wanna do a bit too,get rid this”(Pointing to his own stomach”) replied the shop owner.
“Well why don’t you?” questioned Lun.
“There ain’t nothing round here man” answered the shop owner in a worryingly convincing manner.

Our jaw's just dropped…this guy owns a newsagents minutes away from Vang Dang’s Martial Art Centre, home of Steve Powell’s JKD, Master Chu’s Lion Dance Club, Golden Cobra Thai Boxing, Ground N Pound and even a Yoga class if he fancies it (apologies if I left any clubs out). Hell he can even visit the Vang Dang Martial Art shop and pick up dozens of leaflets on clubs in Manchester. He is literally 3 minutes or so away from Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym, he is yards away from a WTF Tae Kwon Do class, only a short walk away from a Wing Chun club run by Billy Davidson who for the record used to come to our take away. This guy is literally in the Martial Arts hub of Manchester and said “There ain’t nothing round here”??? We told him about all the places he could go too, but I really need to write an article on what I call the Martial Art Town of Manchester to make people more aware.

Anyway’s had a good week of training we went for a good gym session Monday and went through some stick work. Wednesday Lun and I went to Karl’s doing some basic stand up fighting stuff which was a great work out. Friday my brother and I taught Stephen who came to the Warriors Eskrima. We went through numerada which is the 12 basic strikes but taught him to do the 1st five. We taught him some punching drills and moves and then I showed him the second instalment of the heaven six double stick drill. It’s cool that he seemed to be enjoying the class. Simon also taught me some cool sayoc empty hand drills. It was good to see Paul Ray and Baz there too.

So here you go I hope I made up for the lack of blog with this one.
Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading.
Kit

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

2006-09-26T23:20:00.000Z

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!

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

2006-09-19T23:41:00.000Z

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.

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

2006-09-10T18:49:00.000Z

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

I'm back!

2006-09-01T19:59:00.000Z

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

My week in Martial Arts: August 7th to Aug 11th

2006-08-14T23:43:00.000Z

This week we managed just one lesson due to work commitments, as Lun explains in his blog. We made only the Warriors Eskrima class where we did some cool circuit training and some stick sparring techniques. Simon then split the class as he went through stuff with Paul and Ray.

Lun and I went through some techniques with William, who we are going to try and get to a grading at some point. For any South American or Spanish readers please check out William’s site. Elaine came again to watch us and filmed us as well! Thanks for the great shots again Elaine!

As I didn’t do many Martial Arts I don’t have many words for this week. On Saturday though, we did see a parkour exhibition in Manchester by a group called Team Sinister. Parkour is free running and consists of crazy acrobatic flips off walls and things. It’s a great spectacle but even though it looks like they look like they are all “messing around” I am sure these guys actually trained for these kind of stunts using safety mats etc in a safe environment( well the PA guy said that as well) . I found the Team Sinister page while surfing.

Anyways till next week (in which I will try and make a longer post).

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.

P.S Any comments about the website, the lessons I attend or life itself or if you want a link exchange you can either post a comment and no spam please…or email me directly with any query about anything at kiteskrima@yahoo.co.uk I cannot promise I will reply to every email but will try my damn best.

My week in Martial Arts: July 31st to Aug 4th

2006-08-07T23:26:00.000Z

This week Lun and I started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym

We practiced a counter against a guard position and it was quite an interesting lesson. At the end of it Karl got his most senior guys to see if we can counter their guards and also there was a sparring exhibition in the end where Karl would call out 2 people to roll and see who would win via submission. It was good to experience another Martial Art and to finally start.

As my brother and I walked out of the gym we noticed a very tall guy walking into the gym area in his street clothes. The man looked so familiar yet I couldn’t place his face initially. I had a think about who he was “Damn I am sure I have seen him before” Then it hit me! Matt Thornton! My brother who didn’t recognise him until I told him told me he was watching the whole time too…pity we didn’t look great because it was only our second lesson in just under a year. It was also a shame we couldn’t make his seminar.

Wednesday Lun and I returned to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym and we did stand up fighting, jab crosses and knees, it was a great lesson very energetic and lots of focus on technique.

Friday we did Warriors Eskrima class. William came down as well and rather than splitting the class we decided to let him join in the rest of the guys so Simon took the full reign of the class that included Paul and Ray. It was a great lesson; we did some hubud drills, stick sparring and circuit training that was devised by Lun.

Hopefully we will make the Steve Powell’s JKD Class next week.

I am enjoying my hours outside of work more than ever now spending time with my family, friends and last but not least my Girlfriend! Going to different places each week, practicing Martial Arts etc, I live for the weekends and what happens after work…..but one thing I will always remember is what Rick Faye once said about trying to live for more than 2 days a week and try and do something you can enjoy so you can live for 7. In that I still strive for….
Enjoy the great pics from footage filmed by Elaine(thank you!!!)and thanks for reading
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: July 24th to July 28th

2006-07-30T19:57:00.000Z

This week was a return to an almost normal routine with some extra gym work. The last few weeks my schedule has been quite inconsistent in terms of what I train in and sometimes (in fact a lot) I have neglected a proper gym work out so this week Lun and I decided to devote a bit more time in the gym and hopefully I will also devise a better training schedule.

Monday, Lun and I went to gym and did a quick but heavy and intense weights session. Afterwards we went to Karl Tanswell,Karl wasn’t there that day but Hywel Teague took the class who is one of Karl’s senior guys and also a freelance reporter and photographer for MMA events. I don’t know him personally but I seen his name as a reporter on several magazine and web site articles. He is also a good instructor as we learnt some escapes from clinch work. It was a very hot and humid day and the mats were soaked with sweat.

Wednesday Lun and I stayed had a good weights work out and it wasn’t as rushed as Mondays. As the gym work out was extended we couldn’t make it to Karl Tanswell’s but we did go to Steve Powell’s JKD Class. We worked on the reverse punch or the “BOOM” as it is known to some of the more senior guys. The variables for this punch are hard to get when you haven’t practiced for a while. It’s not your straight forward punch there is a lot of skill and technique involved but at the end of it all and if you can get it right, there lays a devastating punch. As usual it was a great lesson and a great laugh. Chris was there and if you still haven’t read please read his lineage of the boom on his blog and also check out LGM too.

Friday we went to Warriors Eskrima class no beginners this week so we trained with the rest of the guys. Simon and Paul devised a footwork drill which was quite interesting and we did some light contact hard stick sparring. As it was very hot and humid that day we didn’t do anything too strenuous but still got a very good work out. I must admit during my light stick sparring, I did lose my temper a bit against Paul but I think it was more of the heat that made me lose it a bit but in the end we sparred again after the lesson and everything went fine.

Saturday Lun and I went to my cousin’s stag do in Leeds (no disrespect to Leeds but it isn’t Chester or Somerset in terms of scenic views). However I write about this as its Lun and mine first time we been out for a while at night time and we went to the more commercial night time places where you would expect to find trouble. When I say this, I mean that if I went out in Manchester it’s usually in the student areas or a place called Rock World which plays rock/alternative and sometimes hip hop stuff and it’s relatively very safe.

Although we all had a good time Lun and I were cautious. We went to this huge club in the centre of Leeds which comprised of 3 or 4 floors. It was interesting as there was a mezzanine style area overlooking over the main dance floor, it was heaving and jam packed and while looking at the uninhibited party goers from above we could see easily how it could all kick off. Luckily it didn’t. However as you made my away across the place some guys probably acting hard to impress ladies, didn’t move as you tried to walk past them or when they were walking they didn’t angle off to avoid you, so they tried to shoulder barge you.

We then went to a casino where Lun and I didn’t have a clue how to play any of the games, so we left early to get back to our hotel while the others stayed till 5am or something ridiculous (it was already about 3.30am at this point). Walking back to the hotel Lun and I were alert being aware of our surroundings and making sure we didn’t accidentally bump into people or people bumping into us. We might be sounding paranoid but we think its better safe than sorry in a different city as you never know what areas are safe or not. Martial Arts does teach you to be more aware but I think its also to do with the fact we could identify some potential troublemakers from our chip shop days.

Anyways next week should be interesting as Elaine will be watching the Warriors class next week as she is coming up to Manchester. Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: July 17th to July 21st

2006-07-23T21:42:00.000Z

Only one lesson this week it’s been damn hot, is that a legitimate excuse though? Read Lun's blog and decide for yourself.
My brother and I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym. We did a load of boxing and foot jabs it was fun. However I was average in sparring as I was tired and it was hot. I also did not get to Eskrima as I attended a function with Elaine so I travelled down on a Friday. We also visited Stone Henge on the way back which explains my picture, sorry Martial Arts pictures will resume normal service next week!

So as I did not attend many lessons I reminisce.......................

My first ever fight. It wasn't even a fight and it’s not something I talk about a lot but in a way it was funny and there was a sense of justice in the following...............

Summer 1992; I was 15 years old, it was the Summer Holidays. As my parents worked in a Chinese takeaway Lun and I would help them out and even more so in the summertime. In fact a typical day in the Summer time would consists of helping out around the lunch hour then when we closed for the afternoon, my brother and I would go out into town and go to HMV and buy some comics from Odyssey 7(now Forbidden Planet) have a something to eat and go back to help out in the evening.

That particular day I felt a strange sensation in my stomach. It just felt weird and at first I thought it was a stomach ache but it turned out to be butterflies for something I have yet to encounter. Anyway I remember trying to keep my mind off it by reading a Batman comic upstairs which could have been either Legends of the Dark Knight or Shadow of the Bat.

I went down again when my Mum called me to help out. We used to get busy around 11ish after people have all had a drink from the selection of the “nice” pubs that surrounded our chip shop. As we didn't know some of the customers names my parents always named them by the food they ordered or what they looked like in Cantonese. To them it was much easier to do this rather than by name. So customers; Special fried rice and Curry King Prawn were waiting for their food and a few others. I was serving a guy with an Elvis style quiff but he wasn't eccentric he was elderly and probably had his hair combed like that since his teens(and if he was more of a regular I guess my parents would have nicknamed him “Elvis” which I shall do so now).

Enter the troublemaker. My brother had warned me about him earlier as he came in a week ago asking for free food(yes that’s what happened these people use to come in and say "pay you back tomorrow" and we never saw them again or they "forgot", I hope they understand that is one of the most shameful things in life to do). Anyway back to the story....

So I was serving the Elvis guy and asking if he wanted salt or vinegar on his chips. Lun was asking the troublemaker to leave as he was sneering and refusing to pay while swearing at us. Lun asked him one more time, the troublemaker said no. Lun then went round the counter area to remove him, but before he opened the door...the sneering troublemaking asshole's face was getting closer to mine as he was leaning his head over the counter...it was like the bit when that Alien corners Ripley in Aliens or Alien 3
His eyes were all messed up he was drunk or drugged up or something,his face was getting closer,the stench of his breath was unbearable, then suddenly.."BOOM!"

He staggered back, his nose was bleeding, he was suddenly sober and in a pathetic way whimpered quietly.."Why ...why did you hit me?" Curry Chicken and Special Fried Rice looked on in a amazement, my Mum who was shocked said in Cantonese “Why did you hit him?”, Dad was in the back cooking meals as he didn't realise there was any thing was wrong and sensing trouble Elvis hurriedly left the building. Unknown to my big brother Lun who opened the door and only heard the smack and Mum saying “Why did you hit him?”, Lun thought the asshole hit me and not the other way round, plus because of the thug’s 6ft frame against my considerably shorter self the odds were well stacked against him ….so my brother promptly dived on him and dragged him out shouting “Why did you hit my brother!!!!” Lun put him into an arm bar style hold while I ran outside and for good measure literally kicked the guy in the ass….before a big hand dropped on my shoulder. It was Curry King Prawn who told me to get inside. My Dad then came out and with Lun told the troublemaker never to come back to the premises again.

Afterwards Curry King Prawn and Special Fried Rice congratulated me on what I did. I was still in a daze as I had never hit anybody properly before that day and it was strange that I had pre-emptive butterflies to accompany it! I still don’t know how. I would like to say after that I went on and pulverised half the town I lived in with my iron fist, like many of today’s yobbish young brag about but no I didn’t go on a crazy fighting expedition. I will just save it for the “only if I really have to” file, like all respectful Martial Artists do.

Thanks for reading
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: July 10th to July 14th

2006-07-16T22:45:00.000Z

Hi All
This week with Lun and I only got lesson in and supervised another. We will try and get back to
Steve Powell’s JKD Class this week. Speaking of Steve Powell’s please check out Chris Sibbald’s blog on his picture linage of the “BOOM”. If you are wondering “BOOM” is just what we nickname the Chosin Kai Karate punching.

Again I am sorry for the lateness of this edition’s post, this weekend I was in Chester with Elaine, a very old and nice city in North-West England. I think I will start a blog on places the visit in England as I seem to be somewhere else in the UK almost every other week!

Anyway back to the Martial Arts. My brother and I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym on Monday after a session in the gym. It was awesome we did some defences into chokes. I got choked out a bit by accident when one of the guys was showing Lun how to apply it with more force. If only I had longer arms…..

Warriors Eskrima was interesting as Simon was on holiday and asked Lun and I to look after the class. As we were waiting for students to come in, we spotted a guy with a Sayoc T-Shirt that we haven’t seen before walking around the gym. It turned out he was a friendly guy called Adrian who has been training with Krishna for the last 12 months in Sayoc and knew Paul and Ray. So the joined the lesson. Eventually when the lesson started we got them to do 3 rounds of circuits. A minute of sit-ups and press-ups, a minute of stepping, a minute of stick repetitions, focus mitts and Thai pads!

We then split the class up, we had Paul teaching Ray and Adrian and Lun and I taught John and William. There was a slight problem John was level 3 and William had only begun. However we did some heaven six drills and variations and a load of double stick stuff that John had never done that Lun and I had picked up over the years. Paul also seemed to be doing well with Adrian and Ray.

It was a great lesson and experience to be in (co) in charge of the majority of the lesson! Anyway thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.
Kit!

My week in Martial Arts: July 3rd to July 7th

2006-07-09T23:28:00.000Z

Hi All

This week I managed along with Lun to get to two lessons and get to teach the beginners of one. By the way hop over to Lun’s blog to read a story about trouble we had in the old fish and chip shop and his other comments. I speak for Chinese Chip shop owners past and present, you wouldn’t believe the b.s that we had to go through but it’s nice to talk about our “victories”.

A work colleague of mine Wellington who is an Aikido instructor sent me this interesting paragraph from an essay written by Jet Li.

“The system today is not as complex as it used to be, when everybody had to compete in broadsword, spear, straight sword, cudgel, and empty-hand forms. Why, in our day, we had to learn all of the Eighteen-Arms*, internal styles, external styles, everything. That was our curriculum. Nowadays, if you want to go to the Olympics, you learn the compulsory forms, and that's it.”*

Jet continues...

“I don't want to say either system is better or worse. I can only tell you that the physical quality of the athletes has improved -- and continues to do so steadily. Why is it that new world records seem to be set every year? Because training has become more scientific. Athletes have access to better nutrition, better vitamins, better doctors, sports psychologists, etc. These factors have helped develop the potential of the human body through the medium of sport.” *

But then Jet Li talks of the inner cultivation that Wu Shu can provide and that modern Wu Shu Martial Artists are not provided with that in their training. I guess its all depends what you want from the Martial Arts. But I understand what Jet Li is saying as it is not in your soul there is no way you can perform amicably (as Wu Shu is a performing Martial Art). This inner cultivation in my interpretation is passion, heart and creativeness. He mentions everyone doing the same thing and were all like “robots” and no one had their own “flavours”.

I believe people should all have their own style to suit them. If there is no passion about there is no point, if there is no heart to it there is no effort and creativeness is down to individual. But is this really what inner cultivation is? I like to invite people to put their own views about Jet Li’s comments. Thanks to Wellington for the comment in the first place.

Back to the lessons, Monday went to the gym and did some weights.

Tuesday, well I was too buys at work to go and explain to Danny that I have made a decision to leave Capoiera. So I phoned him. But the problem was it was very hard to tell him over the phone. So I didn’t quit Capoeira just yet. But like I said he is an awesome guy to train under and I highly recommend him.

Wednesday my brother and I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym. It was awesome we work on the jab and we had some additional tips from Jon one of the senior guys. Afterwards we went to Steve Powell’s JKD Class we did a load of energy drills called Hubud but the awesome thing about it was that Steve was encouraging as to put some live stuff into it rather than a regular hubud drill.

Steve also gave us some great views on Martial Arts which made a lot of sense. As with all my instructors there is absolutely no b.s especially with Steve who will tell you the truth. So what were these views he told my brother and I about? Well join his class and you will find out!..:)

On we Friday went to Warriors Eskrima class.and had a great lesson. Instructor Simon asked if I was going to see Elaine at the weekend. I replied yes ( in which I had a great weekend down Weston Super Mare and Wells) so Simon replies “OK I’ll try and knacker you out”. In which he almost did as we did some circuit training but luckily Gaz and William attended so Simon asked Lun and I to teach them so that Simon can teach Ray and John. We taught William and Gaz some double stick drills, we have taught a couple of the drills to them before but one we haven't. It was cool that they were keeping up with each other as we taught them the drills separately. Another rewarding thing is watching them to the drill and thinking to yourself that you taught them. But then again it’s down to the individuals to pick up and maintain the skills, so Gaz and William did awesome which made me quite happy.

So a good week in the Martial Arts. Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics.

Kit
*WuShu past and present by Jet Li read the rest here

My week in Martial Arts: June 25th till July 1st

2006-07-02T18:32:00.000Z

First of all I like to say happy Birthday to Lun. Lun has always been there for me and I couldn’t ask for a better bigger brother. He is to me is the greatest big brother on the planet and though it sounds childish and cliqued for a grown man to say that, to me its 100% true. So again happy birthday brother!

My week in Martial Arts was marred by work and tiredness. I couldn’t get to all the desired lessons I wanted to. So I just managed to get to 2 lessons this week. The tiredness factor wasn’t and shouldn’t be a factor but because it’s been so hot here in the UK and as I suffer from hay fever it has got the best of me.
Sunday we watched Fearless the new Jet Li film. Elaine and I went along with Lun and Susan. It was based on Huo Yuan Jia and although it was a glamorised biopic of the famous Chinese Martial Artist, it was also fun and I reckon Jet Li’s best acting role yet. However a poignant thing was said by Jet’s character in the film. When asked which style of Wu Shu was the best, his character said that it doesn’t matter what style of wu shu you do that makes it better than the other it all depends on your dedication and skill of the individual. I hope this answers the question for people who always ask me "Which Martial Art is the best?” It’s like asking “Which subject at school is the best?” There is no best subject but you can have personal preferences as it’s the one you choose to do and you like it better than the others. Right now I would say I am just learning a lot from different styles but like college I will have to drop a few and just specialise in one or two.

So I have made that decision and I am going to leave Capoeira very soon. I have had some great times there and performed with Danny Henry’s Capoeira group on 5 separate occasions in front of audiences in the Greater Manchester area and even filmed a DVD for him. My decision to leave has nothing to do with Danny or the class; the class is friendly and thriving and most importantly it’s a great atmosphere. It’s been fun but I am going to move on and come back ever so often to work out with them and do some filming but I am going to try and get to a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class on Tuesdays. I highly recommend anybody to try Capoeira with Danny Henry as its fun and energetic.

This week my brother and I attended Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gymon Wednesday and Warriors Eskrima class on Friday. At the straight blast gym Lun and I did defence against the shoot. One would be in a shoot/take down position and the other had to defend against it which we were taught to do. The most interesting part was when we had to switch different partners, from my brother, I switched with this big guy who got a bit over zealous with his takedown and almost crashed me into a barrier! He didn’t mean it, it was his height and strength but that’s were its interesting because we practice our moves against varying opponents.

Friday we went to Warriors Eskrima. It was a great lesson we did some very light contact sparring with our sticks and also smashed sticks into moving focus mitts. We then attempted to simulate some reality training scenarios with the knife. It was very interesting as we attempted to set up several different scenarios and thought about realistically what we do for example we perhaps could throw keys into the assailant’s face or talk to them to buy time before running away. Although it was 5 of us including instructor Simon, Paul and Ray we tried to vary the partners so the assailants were not the same. Afterwards Lun and I did some stick vs empty hand sparring which was fun but Simon brought up something quite interesting. During my turn to be empty handed against the stick I tried to take my brother down, but couldn’t. Simon spoke of that every time we learn something new we try to throw it into the mix when we spar. He said a lot of Martial Artist including himself was guilty of this so it was a quite interesting observation.

Anyway hopefully this week I will be back at Steve Powell’s with Lun ,
Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: June 19th till June 23rd

2006-06-25T22:19:00.000Z

“Well you know I do it while I can still do it” Lun told Rick Lawrie referring to Martial Arts in a conversation after a great session at Steve Powell’s JKD Class on Wednesday, Rick replied: “I’ll do it forever”.

Mid way through my class on Wednesday at Steve Powell’s which was my 3rd lesson of the week I asked myself the question “Why am I doing all this training?” I was asking myself this question because it gone past 9 at the gym, I was covered in sweat and out of breath, in addition I had already a big session at Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym. I will answer this at the end of this post…..

Monday my brother and I went to the gym first. We planned to go to Karls and Steve’s that day. But as I was curling on a bicep machine at the gym it jammed in mid curl so my bicep ached pretty badly. We drove to Karl’s but I was still clutching my bicep ouch! Lun asked “Can you go?”as we were getting the stuff out of our parked cars. I remember the word of Tito Ortiz telling an injured fighter to “Live to fight another day always”on the previous nights “The Ultimate Fighter” I then thought about he injured fighters injuries and then my bicep strain…then I thought about some words from a football manager who told his injured players “It’s only a bit of pain,play through it” So I did, we did a load of stand up striking techniques and a cool take down. It was a super sweaty crazy workout. Although my arm ached a bit at the end so we did pass on Steve Powell’s.

Wednesday we stuck to our original plan for Monday and went to Karls and Steve’s. As mentioned it was two great work outs. At Karl’s we did some boxing and take downs from the clinch. It was awesome and very tiring. We then went over to Steve Powells. We did some great padwork stuff with sidekicks,back kicks,round house kicks and then we finished with some some hubud drills. It was a great lessons and I was knocked backwards by my brother’s side and back kicks several times!

Friday we went to Warriors Eskrima class. This time Lun had a class while I taught. I had a good session with William,teaching him basic strikes and disarms. I also did some amarra and we then did some heaven six which is a double stick drill. He picks up things very fast and already has an extensive Martial Arts resume. Teaching is fun when someone you teach picks it up really quickly. I feel a great Martial Art teacher not only teaches the art but also inspires and motivates. I am nowhere near that level but I aspire to be a coach that can teach and be aware of the student’s strengths and weaknesses and motivate them. I am lucky to have been taught by these type of instructors. Speaking of which, Simon was teaching the rest of the class that also consisted of Paul, Mike and Ray.

Yes I have a picture of a Barbary Macaque monkey on my blog…why? Well I could go on and link animals with Martial Arts and discuss primal instincts and so on. The truth is my girlfriend Elaine and I went to Monkey Forest in Trentham and we had a great time. I also thought it would be a great picture.
What I liked about Monkey Forest was that they didn’t cage them and it was a 60 acre forrest. I may have to rename this blog Martial Arts/UK Tourism journal, but I’ll say this again there are lots of great places to go in the UK.

As for the question of “why I am doing all this training”, it’s because I enjoy it. Martial Arts are enjoyed in many ways by different people. I would say I have quite a varied enjoyment to it, as to say I do not enjoy just one aspect. I can talk about the positive physical,mental and spiritual aspects of training as well but I guess I would have to write a new blog for that and like Rick said…
“I’ll do it forever, me”.

Again Enjoy the pics (not many this time) and thanks for reading.
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: June 12th till June 16th

2006-06-17T01:26:00.000Z

Hi All

This week I have been mostly affected by Hay Fever. So I didn’t get to as many lessons as I did the week before.

Had a nice weekend as I travelled down south to meet with Elaine. We went to the city of Bath which was a great place. We walked around Pulteney Bridge
. It’s very nice at night time and is one of Bath’s best known constructions. Yes I have deviated from the world of Martial Arts again, but reminding people that there are lots of cool things to see in the UK.

Monday, my brother Lun and I went to the gym. We did a good set of weights and practiced some stick work. Lun took some pictures of me while I was practicing a few double stick drills. Capturing the action with a standard digital camera doesn’t quite work as well as the digital camcorder as some of the photos ended up pretty hilarious. The one serious one was a posed one of me shown above doing a roof block (which I still thought was funny).
I will put my goofy pictures on a Christmas special of something in the future.

Tuesday had the hay fever so couldn’t make Capoeira.

Wednesday we were going to go to both Steve Powell’s JKD Class and Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym. But we only managed to go to Karl’s because our Dad's phone wasn’t working so we couldn’t stay out too late. We did a load of stand up boxing drills in Karl’s emphasising on footwork. Zoning off against each other(for example moving to the left or right but keeping the boxing stance). My brother’s elbow was hurting him however but he carried on to the end. It was a great lesson and very energetic.

Thursday again went home due to hay fever.

Friday went to Warriors Eskrima class. My brother and I will now alternate weeks for teaching. This will allow us to train in our regular sessions. I found it a good work out and interesting session. We did some live knife vs empty hand sparring. The object of this was to control the knife hand and use the knife against the opponent.

It was a great drill but my only gripe is would I get in trouble if I used the knife against the attacker. The return/counter attacks are designed to kill or maim. In a real situation I would run away if someone tried to attack me with a knife. But sometimes you may not have a choice to run as I can tell you from personal experience (which I will go into detail in a future post).
In my opinion my main objective was to grab the knife hand and for the most part I did. However I will take it more seriously next time as my brother reminded me of the personal experience and that will make me drill knives with a completely different mindset. We also initally drilled knife attacks with the attackers with helmets on so full contact counters could be applied.
The helmet didn't last long however as the visor cracked.(Well what would you think twill happen in a stick class. We also did other drills such as one which involved smacking a stick against focus mitts. Lun was teaching William the amarra and other level 1 drills. It’s cool that William has been consistent.

Hopefully the rest of the beginners class will come down next week providing there is no World cup football on TV. To
Chris and LGM. hope to see you guys at Steve’s next week. As always thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.

Keep training
Kit!

My week in Martial Arts: June 5th till June 9th

2006-06-09T23:21:00.000Z

Hi All

Monday Lun and I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym and Steve Powell’s JKD Class..what a way to kick off the week...yes that is my sweaty Minnesota Vikings t-shirt after Karl's session.

We did a load of boxing techniques and a stand up submission hold it was a very good work out as you can tell from the t-shirt. Why would someone from Manchester UK have a Minnesota Vikings t-shirt? Because i got it in Minnesota while attending the Rick Faye summer camp almost 4 years ago with Lun and therefore it has some Martial Art significance....

After a quick call to Elaine to tell her I will be late, we walked over to Steve's. It was great a whole load of focus mitt drills and some versions of Wing Chun, Silat and Filipino entry’s off punches and then we did some Silat take downs as we are learning a part of skill set, Steve Powell will tell you what works and what doesn't. When you think about it why we should practice something that wouldn't really work? Well that’s how we know it wouldn't work because we can sample it for ourselves. Again it’s also about finding your own way, a particular technique might work better for an individual. At the end of the take downs Steve would then say right practice any of the moves...so obviously we functionalise the ones that do work for ourselves that I guess is one of main components of JKD. Great to see Chris and LGM there. It was a great lesson as it was very varied.

Lately I read about the aliveness drills and live drills and in all the arts we do we practice live stuff. For example the sparring and hitting moving targets on focus pads. I think it’s important to drill stuff but also just as important to put the drill into a live practice. Matt Thornton calls it dead patterns when we repeat the same thing over and over again. You can read more about Matt Thornton here. Its funny as part of aliveness vs. dead patterns was a concept was introduced to me by none other than my own Dad.

Whenever my Dad would see a martial art demonstration on TV where one person would be demonstrating his moves on a stationary opponent, he would say the following words in Cantonese "Ker doh bei lei dah la?" before dismissing it and that simply translates to "(He is just) Standing there just to get hit,eh?" As I was young when I first heard it, I thought my Dad was just saying that to annoy me but when I look back and think about it what he said was totally true. No one will stand there in real life to let u do 20 or so intricate moves. However we do need to practice on an opponent to get the form right first but in reality it won't work like that so I guess it could break down as a stationary drill first to understand it and then into a live one.

Wednesday went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym. We did some defence against takedowns and he showed us how to get out of a bear hug like manoeuvre. Another great sweaty workout!

Friday my brother and I taught the beginners in the Warriors Eskrima class. Simon was there helping us out while he taught Paul and Ray. The two beginners William and Lisa were there and we taught them individually again but we will have to devise a plan where all the beginners can train together.

Last week Lisa told me that she had done a variant of Thai Boxing for three years. She also told me that a lot of the girls she trains with at her gym are a lot shorter than she is so she doesn’t use that much footwork where she spars. I believe getting us much information from a student who has done Martial Arts before is important as you can train them different techniques that are foreign to them. So I worked on stick sparring techniques with her. First I taught some basic blocks, strikes and then some counters. We then worked on the sparring and I told her to use more footwork so that the stick could not strike her leg. However being a Thai boxer she usually blocks leg attacks with her shins but in this case it was a stick coming at her so she had to block with the stick or get out of the way to counter strike.

Lun and I also went through some basic warriors techniques with them.

Well that’s it for today, sorry for the lack of pictures but as always thanks for reading!

Keep training
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: May 29th till June 2nd

2006-06-03T00:29:00.000Z

Hi All!

I trained only once this week as my girlfriend Elaine came up to visit over the weekend…however that didn’t really stop training completely as she showed some interest in learning some stuff!

I taught some basic jab, cross and hook punching drills. She was quite good at it; I am not saying that because she is my girlfriend, I thought she picked it up quite well. I told her to do some shadow boxing so she could practice at home.

We went to the Lake District in Cumbria (pictured) and Manchester’s Lyme Park and therefore had had some great walks. I think I said this in one of my previous posts but England really does have some beautiful places. It was great going to those places with Elaine.

Wednesday Lunand I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym. Great work out did some stand up wrestling into a take down. It was interesting stuff and a great workout. I will hopefully get back to Steve Powell’s JKD Class soon as well. We were planning on Wednesday after Karl’s but ultimately went home. Is this a lull in training?

No I want to continue consistently in everything as does my brother because he showed an interest in doing the great Manchester run next year. Therefore we both need to prepare for that one. I have raised over £328 for Marie Curie Cancer Care. I would like to once again thank everyone who donated.

Friday was Warriors Eskrima day!
William (who has his own webpage in Spanish), Paul B and Gaz all attended! Lun and Simon were mainly teaching them as Paul Hinds brought along a female work colleague called Lisa who I mainly trained as I taught her some basic weapon movements from scratch. As Paul Hinds trained with Ray, I taught Lisa some basic strikes and disarms.

She is the first girl to join our class; it was interesting as I learnt today that the way women train is different to how men train. This is because mainly that their body type being different so they may have to adjust when doing certain moves. She picked up some moves quite quickly however and she is also doing a kick boxing/Thai Boxing hybrid whose instructor was taught by Master Sken.

I think however Lun and I may have to design a special intro class for all first timers. This will cover a lot of basics so they can be able to join the rest of the beginners the following week if they choose to come back.

Anyway it was great to see Gaz, Paul B and William return, I hope they all get to do their respective gradings. Along with Lisa that was four beginners tonight. They all seemed to train hard tonight and all showed great interest.

Congratulations to Chris for a successful demo of his class. LGM assisted him in the demo which I heard attracted a lot of interest.

Anyway enjoy the pictures (mainly of the beginners in Warriors Eskrima!) and thanks for reading!
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: May 22nd till May 26th

2006-05-27T01:20:00.000Z

Hi All

After the run on Sunday I decided to take it easy as this week has been just capoeira and eskrima. We are hoping to return to both Steve Powell’s JKD Class and Karl Tanswell next week. Again for those who did not catch my last post about the great Manchester run please click here to read it.

Capoeira was great; I am now using the old Capoeira trickery against people whilst playing the game. For example stopping and distracting them to look somewhere else. My legs were still sore from the running but Capoeira actually loosened them up.

Lun and I planned to go to Steve’s and Karl’s on Wednesday but we decided to go to the gym and going through a few things we were going to teach on Fridays.

We decided to go through together what we need to do rather than randomly teach and take control of the class more. As there is an average of 2 people are classes are informal and we allow them to ask loads of different questions to get their input and we also partner the respective students.

However we are changing the way we teach so if there was say 4 or more people it will be more structured. We envisioned it to be more structured and have the students learn what they were doing rather than pausing and asking a question every 2 minutes.

The class obviously is still Warriors Eskrima. But we will be drilling them about keeping things moving/alive and making sure that the person blocking does not still after a block or disarms. For example if an attacker attacks you with a weapon after blocking the defender should counter attack and not just stand there. Even though the basic blocking and disarming just requires blocking and disarming.

I also want to do a jab/cross as much as possible at the end of the empty hand drills or kicking drills. Like a retreating punch combination just in case you miss first time or there are 2 attackers and one decides to rush you after you kicked his mate away. Sometimes it’s hard to drill scenarios like this but as I said in my weekly update I think it’s important to try and progress in an Art and make it adapt to our environments.

Friday came, it was Warriors Eskrima time, Gary attended and William came back. We had a great lesson. First of all Simon taught us some traditional Warriors stuff and we did some stick drills. We then split the class and Lun and I taught William and Gary. It was great Lun taught them the first four amara strikes. Amara are a series of strikes with sticks that helps with co-ordination and line familiarisation. Instead of doing it a few times in a stationary position, Lun had a formula that required the guys to do the amara normally and then in a lunge position.

We then taught them disarms but told them to throw in strikes after disarming their opponent. We linked this with amara as we told them to throw in amara strikes after disarming. We then went through some stick and dagger drills and then we went through the heaven six. Both guys did very well.

Finally we did one in the middle continuous disarms and did some stick sparring. A very enjoyable class indeed and the first class that I think really worked as Lun and I as teachers (with more than one student). I think Gary will be ready for his grading soon. But the main thing was that our game plan for making the class more structured paid off. We also hope to get down to Krishna Godhania as well to get additional skills and teaching tips.

Anyway thanks to the comments of LGM and
Chris , who is definitely doing a demo at the Holmes Place in Didsbury, Manchester on Sunday Morning. He was ill last week so he couldn’t do it. Also special shout out to my mate Colin Wong who is doing a charity skydive in aid of speed of sight this Bank Holiday Monday. Good Luck Colin

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures!

Great Manchester Run!

2006-05-22T22:42:00.000Z

Awesome

All I can say that the Great Manchester Run was an awesome experience. Manchester is an excellent city full of great buildings and architecture. But Sunday May 21st Manchester showed that it is also full of great people.

It was raining race day. Gareth, Andy Timmins and I were wet and cold while waiting to run. We were in the pink wave which was the last wave to go at 11.15AM. In the mass huddle we noticed many people in fancy dress or crazy costumes. Once we got moving there was a huge cheer! However as we began running to the sounds of Nessun Dorma sang by an opera singer who was there especially it was just actually the 11AM wave leaving and our wave were just us moving up.DOH! Now!I really wanted to run now! At around 11.20AM we finally got running! At first Timmins, Gareth and I were running together but we soon split up I looked behind to see Gareth behind me and slowed down and asked him if he was alright he just told me to go ahead. So I proceeded to try and catch Timmins which was impossible as I couldn’t spot him in the sea of running vests and t-shirts.

I expected myself to stop and walk after the first 10 minutes but I carried on and only stopped to check my race chip was still strapped to my ankle. We were all giving these special chips that timed your run. The inspiration of the run was the thousands of runners running with me.

And so I ran....

The t-shirts that the other runners were wearing were all uplifting and kept me going. Several times I smiled because I felt lifted and inspired by the dedications on some T-Shirts dedicating to members of their family, some even had photo dedications printed on their t-shirts. I was running among like minded people doing it for a good cause, not for just one good cause but multiple charities. From every walk of life I saw people do their bit for their charity. Gareth, Timmins and I were running for the Marie Curie Cancer Care .

I always wanted to this too, drink a bottle of water that was handed out to me and chuck it on the pavement as I ran. Not like I would do that everyday (I always chuck my rubbish in the bin) but I always thought it was cool that runners always did it. Yup I chucked my bottle of water as I ran trying to catch my breath at the same time.

Once I hit about 8km I phoned (yes I kept my phone in my pocket!!!) Lun to see where he was he told me himself, Mum and Sister in Law were waiting for me under the bridge near the finish line. That was about a km and a half as I got there I slowed down to look for them but could not see them. Suddenly I saw the finish line so I just sprinted towards it doing a pretty decent impression of Road Runner (as in going really fast but not adding the “beep!beep!”). Unfortunately as I was told later, it was at this time, when my family were calling my name but I didn’t hear them!

We took some photos later after the race. I was a combination of sweat and rain as was Timmins and Gareth who both did tremendously well in the run. Timmins got 49 minutes! Gareth got 1hour 9minutes(which was awesome considering he only recently quit smoking) and I got 1 hour 2 minutes which I was pleasantly surprised at because I didn’t expect I would get back that quickly( I aimed for 1 hour 20/30 minutes!).

However Sunday 21st May it was the spirit of Manchester that stole the show. I feel great for everyone collectively who participated even though I didn’t know anyone else outside our group apart from one, our friend from University called Tricia Campbell who also ran but I didn’t see her (well done to you too!). Big thanks to my Mum(pictures with a very out of breath me), Lun and Susan for being there! Also big thanks to Dad came out for a meal later and big thanks to Elaine who gave me a good luck card the day before the event. (It worked:))
Check out Lun's blog for more photos and a different report.

I would like to thank everyone that donated online and offline.

Am I doing it again next year? DAMN RIGHT I AM!

Enjoy the great Manchester run photos(ok it was after the run but check out my brother's blog for the action photo's!)

Thank you Manchester
Awesome
Kit

My week in Martial Arts:May 15th till May 19th

2006-05-20T01:34:00.000Z

This week I been training for my run, on the Sunday I ran a good 6.4 miles well walked some of the way back as it was a round trip to Manchester city centre and back to my house? All those years when I used to take a bus to my old college when I could have walked! I then did some light eskrima drills with Lun.

Monday, Lun and I went to the gym and did a heavy set of weights and went through some Eskrima stuff.

I couldn't really do any high impact stuff this week, so the only MA I went to was Capoeira. It was mostly hand stands and cartwheels so it was fun but I couldn't go full pelt when playing the game in fear of causing an injury to myself. Danny also told me of a future stage show that feature a load of contemporary dance and capoeira, I volunteered to be assistant capoeira choreographer (basically being the demo boy) But it would be a dream come true to choreograph a fight in a show or movie.

As that’s my other big passion, the latest craze in movies seems to be Keysi fighting method, as seen in Mission Impossible 3 and as seen or unseen(as the fight editing was silly) in the otherwise excellent Batman Begins. What do I think of Keysi? I really don't know as I have not practiced it and only seen snippets of it but its not overly exciting to watch on film (upward elbows, elbows and even more elbows so far) give me proper film martial arts (cool to watch even though it may not work) instead and leave the realistic stuff for us to practice outside! Plus I prefer a Thai elbow on film those are cool to watch. So I was not slating Keysi there I was just voicing an opinion of how it looks and portrayed so far on film.

Keysi is a relatively new Martial Art, which leads me to my next point..Tradition vs Evolution.
I am lucky to have trained in both traditional and modern martial arts

I know traditional Martial Artists who probably think the evolutionary side from what they read(as in stuff like MMA, JKD etc) doesn't embody what Martial Arts was all about. Check what I just said in my last sentence "WAS all about". We were once taught to do a crazy high kick in a TKD class to "kick someone off a horse". This was because Korean soldiers were once taught to this in ancient wars. When was the last time you went into the city centre and saw a group of hood rats or an unruly gang ride around on horses? In my opinion Martial Artists should always look to evolve themselves and learn new things and relate this with today’s environment, for we are not soldiers fighting an ancient war.

But before you say “Kit doesn’t respect the traditional arts” think again as I think they are great! Traditional arts formed the basis of the modern martial arts and were formed out of fighting necessity and many fighting arts are part of one country’s culture.

So what am I talking about, first I criticise a traditional art and then I praise it. That’s because I am an open minded person enjoys both sides and not prejudice against any of them. I can see what works and doesn’t work so I have arts to practice what works in self defence ( Eskrima,Steve Powell’s JKD Class and MMA) and arts that are more geared for cardio vascular stuff (Capoeira). I am criticising people who criticise Martial Arts that they have not actually tried, hence my reasoning for not criticising Keysi.

Sorry huge diversion!
Wednesday I did a quick run at the gym and then went to see my mate Gareth and taught him really basic punching drills to get him ready for the run. It was interesting to teach Gareth as he was very much a beginner although he did have a few lessons at Steve Powell’s JKD Class. He also saw a quick demo of my Eskrima and now thinks I am some kind of trained assassin. His girlfriend Gemma and himself said they would be interested in one day coming to our class.

Friday was Warriors Eskrima day. Lun and I taught again, Gaz was back after a 2 week hiatus. The guy was working late the last couple of Fridays therefore couldn’t make it. However he hasn’t lost it, he practiced at home with amazingly no sticks just the movements with his hands and got a perfect double stick heaven six drill going. I taught him the 2nd half of the drill. I then did some syllabus stuff with him. Lun was teaching a new guy called William who was really experienced in different Martial Arts. Lun taught him some strikes and locks. We then did some higher level stick and dagger drills which they both seem to enjoy.

Anyway my run is around the corner. Other than that be sure to make Chris’s demo at Holmes Place Disbury if you live in the Manchester as you will see both Chris and LGM.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics

Kit

Quick Update

2006-05-18T18:47:00.000Z

A quick update
Hi everyone I though I do a quick update of things that have happened this week, will write up my week on Friday.I have been practicing for my run on Sunday mostly this week. I like to thank all those who have donated online and offline. I have had an awesome response. You can still donate as it's all going to Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Check Lun's blog who just tell's readers to be happy ,check it out!

Chris Sibbald who regularly comments on my blog, has a Demo to promote new Martial Arts Class coming up on Saturday at Holmes Palace Disbury for those in the Manchester area. He is graded at instructor level in Steve Powell's JKD and is a damn good Martial Artist. Unfortunatley I won't be able to make it but I wish Chris the best of luck. LGM Chris will be his demo partner check his blog too, very philosphical.

I cam across this awesome blog called Manchizzle which has a positive review.
This blog is about Manchester but written by an American freelance writer living over here. If you wondered what Manchester UK is like and want to read a bunch of other Manchester based blogs Manchizzle isn't a bad place to start!

Anyway I shall leave you with a number stick disarm picture showcase!
Thanks for reading!
Kit

My week in Martial Arts:May 8th till May 12th

2006-05-12T23:52:00.000Z

Hi All

Another great week of exercise and martial arts. My initial plan of getting up early on Monday for a run was thwarted as I was feeling very lethargic. Add to the ingredients that I had a full day of Monday work ahead of me and then you get one Extra Lethargic Kit. However when I went to the gym with Lun I decided to run round the Salford campus before we hit the weights. It was a good session and we also went through a load of stuff that we plan to teach on Friday.

Tuesday I got up in time for a morning run. I went round the block twice at a moderate pace. Later I did Capoeira, I wanted to play the game but the class ran over so we didn't get the opportunity too. Great class though.

Wednesday I did a run but not in the morning, I plan to alternate my morning runs, this time I went round Salford Campus in the afternoon twice a good solid 25 minute run. Why just 25 minutes? Because I wanted to get to Straight Blast Gym class. Take one hot day, add a 25 minute run and then throw in one hour of Straight Blast stand up fighting training and you have one sweaty Kit Lok (Ok I will stop the cooking references now). The SBG training was cool we practiced single leg to double leg take downs. A lot of the lads here were at Seni and I was talking to one of them about the event.

Thursday my brother and I went to Steve Powell’s JKD Class. It was a cool class we learnt a load of filipino destruction techniques and did a lot of focus mitt work. We saw Chris and LGM and Paul B( the new guy in our class). Steve Powell spoke a load of Cantonese to Lun like "I like nice weather" and said in Cantonese “where are you going?" and then he answered in Cantonese "I am going out to the cinema!". Those were the tame words of course, all the rest were funny rude ones (which are the most fun words to learn in all languages)

Friday we went Warriors Eskrima.We did some cool Sayoc stuff with the knife this was an actually more of a preview of the stuff Simon, Paul H and Ray picked up from the Krishna Godhania seminars, if I wanted to learn more I will have to go to the Sayoc classes Krishna Godhaniaholds but it was cool nonetheless. We taught Paul B some of the Warriors Eskrima syllabus stuff. It was a good lesson as well I teaching we also learnt some new things but I guess teaching is a learning experience within itself.

Hopefully some of the original beginners will return and we will build up the beginner class, its actually ideal as if it is my brother and I teaching the beginners than if we have some on a higher skill level we can easily split the class.

Anyway going for a run in the morning to train for the run. Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading.
Kit

Seni 06

2006-05-08T22:12:00.000Z

Seni 06

“Go on Timmins!” I shouted as he competed against his opponent in the Seni 06 Light weight competition. He put on a tremendous fight but ultimately lost.

That was the start of Seni 06. I must admit I didn’t enjoy it overall as much as the first time, but my brother and Paul Ratcliffe met and saw several big celebrities from the World of martial arts and got our photos taken with some of them.

But what I didn’t enjoy about it was the fact that my brother and I were late for the Krishna Godhania seminar and we couldn’t find where to register or sign up to do the seminar (doh!) but we said hello to Krishna Godhania and walked around instead. However it was cool my instructor Simon and Paul Hinds got in and it was good to see the 2 Jimmy's,a father and son combination of Martial Artists who train under Rob Campion in Warriors Eskrima.

Seni 06 seemed to be much smaller than last year. Up to now the highlight was seeing my mate Andrew Timmins in the BJJ tournament. I bought some new Eskrima sticks and shared the costs of some training DVD’s with my brother. We also got some new stick bags so we carried them around on our shoulders (not to look hard..honest). We walked past John Saxon of Enter the Dragon fame. Yes the guy who played Roper. He was signing autographs with a promotion called Red Lizard. Everyone on that stand was wearing bad guy Enter the dragon uniforms and even one dressed up like O’Hara (the guy Bruce Lee annihilates for killing his sister in the film). We didn’t ask John Saxon for an autograph however.

As we brushed or walked past a celebrity we thought we wouldn’t see another. But then as we walked past the Cage Rage stall, a little old man in a blue jacket and a walkie talkie was asking everyone to make way. The thoughts “What was his problem” and “Hey??” went through my mind then I saw an entourage and right in the middle was a big brute of a man with a Mohawk and a goatee. It was UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell! Man he was huge, like a hybrid wolf man (I meant that in a nice way) and it would have been cool to get his autograph as I am a big fan, however the line of the queue stretched almost half the arena so we did the next best thing.

Dana White was also there and I recognised him from the Ultimate Fighter. He is the president of the UFC and he was very friendly and posed for photos with people. In fact so many people got his photo I think he should charge next year. But joking aside he was a great guy and said he appreciated I watched his show. Lun introduced himself and also got his picture with as did Paul. Hmm does Lun want to fight in the UFC for introducing himself???

We walked around again and I must admit I didn’t search for the things I wanted to for some reason maybe I was tired from the driving.
However as we walked past the Combat Magazine stand, Lau Gar Fei or Gordon Lau/Liu from Kill Bill 1 and 2 and 36th Chamber of Shaolin was sat on some comfy seats signing autographs and getting photos with fans taken! Holy Crap!!!!! Return to the 36th Chamber was one of my favourites and this guy also stared in such cool films as Shaolin vs. Ninja, Legendary Weapons of China(when Kung fu films were Kung Fu films) and Tiger on the Beat. We got his photo taken with us and he signed our free copies of combat (Lun asked him to sign his copy in Chinese) it was really cool!!!

Walking around and totally star struck we then bumped into yet ANOTHER celebrity in Danny John Jules. Cat from Red Dwarf and was also in Blade 2. He was at his own stand with a few others promoting and independent Martial Arts film: Sucker Punch. As I just seen Gordon Liu there was no way I was going to be fazed by Danny John Jules, so I asked for his autographs and engaged in conversation with him. Well he began with me, as Lun was taking my photo with him he spotted Lun’s stick bag on the shoulder and he asked “What’s in the bag? what’s in the bag!” I explained to them they were sticks and he said that it must be dangerous for the hands. So I showed him my knuckles to which he replied “ooh!” and then I asked him if he did Martial Arts and he said “Yeah I did a bit for this film” and turned after a second he said “Wu Shu” I replied: “ahh Wu Shu”. Paul asked if a Red Dwarf movie was coming out anytime soon “Nah they keep pulling my plonkers on that one!” was the somewhat funny reply!

Anyway enjoy the pictures, my only regret is that we came home late on the way home so I missed my mate Paul Hinds’ birthday night out and by the time I got home I was knackered but I hope you had a good one Paul.

Seni 06 great exhibition but I not as good as the first time however the highlight was definitely Gordon Liu. Check out Lun's blog for some different pictures and perspective!
Thanks
Kit

My week in Martial Arts:May 1st till May 5th

2006-05-05T23:24:00.000Z

Hey All!

No, I didn’t train in the mountains of China, but the scenery shown in the picture is the cheddar gorge a beautiful place in Somerset England. I was there Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday visiting my girlfriend Elaine. So did I take a break from training? well yes and no, we walked up the famous Glastonbury Tor and Jacob’s ladder in Cheddar which are two great walks. So I did inadvertently get some exercise. Although in almost every city in the UK you are guaranteed the generic stores and places such as Starbucks, McDonalds, Pizza Huts etc thus making every city virtually the same, Glastonbury was different. Leisurely walks, beautiful scenery this is the kind of jolly old England I have not seen much of growing up in a city. I had a really great time there with Elaine it was a great weekend!

Tuesday back to the training, I was at Capoeria and it was great! What started off as a humble little class of 2 to 3 people has now grown to around 12 to 13. We practiced kicks into cartwheels and lots and lots of kicks. We all played the game first slowly then quickly it was awesome to see Chris and LGM Chris from Steve Powell’s JKD there. As they treat it as an extended warm up to JKD. That’s not an insult by the way; it is because our style of Capoeira is very non contact therefore I think it’s a good martial art to compliment more physical ones.

Thursday I went for a run and did some knife stuff with my Eskrima instructor Simon. The stuff was cool as we learnt some strikes and disarms.

Friday was Warriors day. It was cool although Lun could not make it as he just got home from working in Belfast. But then again I only had one beginner (well not a beginner in Martial Arts) Paul who trained really well today. We did all the basic strikes, numerous stick drills, knife drills. Baz from the old days (as in when Warriors Eskrima was still being taught by Bob Melia ) was there and is an exceptional boxer and wrestler. He showed Ray and Paul Hinds some wrestling techniques as pictured demonstrating on Simon. A fellow level 6 guy Mike was also there and because I didn’t train with him and was too busy teaching the beginner Paul, I forgot he was actually there and questioned why he wasn’t there in the car park later!...I think I need more sleep!

Ok today I am keeping my weekly report short as I am going to the NEC Arena tomorrow for Seni 06. My friend Andrew Timmins is competing for Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym and I am going to be attending Pangulong Guro’s Krishna Godhania seminar while I am there and buying loads of stuff. It’s going to be awesome and yes I will do a write up with photos! (to make up for the lack of photos in this blog!)

Kit

My week in Martial Arts: April 22nd till April 29th

2006-04-29T02:10:00.000Z

Ouch
Hi all my week started Saturday, I went to Chosin Kai Karate at Steve Powells Chinatown Martial Arts Academy. We basically did a lot of punching and pad work and it was a great. I really love the reverse punch but there is so much to it, I know a punch is a punch but the mechanics to really get the power is very important.

So much so I was really trying hard to get it right but punching the pad really hard has nothing to do with it as you need your bodyweight behind the power and get the WHOLE technique. Due to the crazy intensity of the punching the skin surrounding three of my knuckles began peeling off. I thought nothing of them at the time.

Sunday

I trained for my run to train for the Great Manchester Run. My good friend Andy Timmins ran with me, as well as running we discussed Martial Arts. We ran in this park called Brookdale in Manchester. We did 0.75 miles circuit about 5 times or so. We also attempted to do the 1 mile circuit but the explanation on the map led us to a track that suddenly disappeared onto a football field so we ran the 0.75 mile circuit some more. It was a good run work out. The skin on my knuckles was now flesh red.

Monday

On this morning when I went to work I noticed my knuckles were scarred. Ouch! I tried to hide them at work somehow but that was pretty hard working on PC’s. I explained to people I was punching a pad. “A pad?” was the usual reply. My response was “Yes”. It’s very interesting that there is such a large pool of Martial Artists at my work place we have one Aikido instructor, a TKD instructor and several TKD guys under him. Would I want to start a work Eskrima class? No not at the moment, my brother and I teach beginners in the Warriors Eskrima Salford branch under Simon Campion and if people are interested they can come to that one. Plus I like to separate my outside activities from my work activities. Later I went to the gym with Lun for a big heavy workout in the gym. Lun decided I should rest my hands (as in punching) and I agreed.

Tuesday

I went to Capoeira, it was extra cool as Chris and LGM Chris also attended and did quite well in their first lesson. (well LGM Chris did a bit before in the past). It’s great that the class has expanded from three regulars to around ten or eleven. Ken was also there and a one or two others who had Capoeira experience else where made it a great varied class.

Wednesday

I punched the pad to test my crazy scared knuckles “Oww” was my reply. Yup my fist was badly stinging so I had to give Steve Powell’s JKD class and Karl Tanswell’s a miss.
So my brother and I went to the gym and went through what we were going to teach on Friday and I did some running.

Thursday rest day,

Friday Warriors Eskrima day.

This time I took the warm up bit and my brother and I taught the beginners. We had a new guy called Paul who trains at Steve’s. It was cool he came as was enthusiastic to learn something different and it was cool he knew variations on things we were doing in class and he had a powerful jab (naturally being from Steve’s).

Gaz was there too and made good progress I partnered him so I could drill the siniwali/heaven six drills with him. There are 8 different combinations in this drill. Last week I taught him the first, today I taught him 3 more, which means he is picking up the art very quickly. Next week I am confident he will get the next 4 to complete the next 8 variations. We also got the guys doing the double handed kob-kob drills and some light stick sparring. John, Ray and Paul were also there. Simon taught me some advanced knife which was cool.

Teaching is fun, the coolest thing is seeing the improvement of people(I know I only been teaching 2 weeks and Gaz has had a few lessons prior) but knowing that you are teaching and seeing how well a student is listening and picking it up (which is totally due to the student’s dedication) is a great feeling.

Anyway thanks for reading and keep training!
Kit!

My week in Martial Arts: April 17th till April 21st

2006-04-22T02:01:00.000Z

Friday 21st April: Lun and I are waiting patiently in the refreshments room of the Salford university gym along with our senior instructor Simon and fellow instructor Paul (pictured in a goofy action pose further down this post) and regular Ray. We had to wait there as the squash court we booked for our regular slot was double booked. Today was a different Warriors Eskrima lesson as my brother and I were going to teach the beginners. Only one problem no beginners seem to be coming through that door! We were all veterans!

As we were almost giving up hope a beginner called Gaz walks through the door! Whoohoo let the first Lok brother’s lesson begin…………..

But before I get to that I like to say what a great week I had on my return to Martial Arts.
Monday:
It was bank holiday here in the UK…so I didn’t do any training, but I watched some Krishna Godhania DVD’s for reference in regards to teaching on Friday,

Tuesday:
Capoeira. What can I say? Awesome! 8 people in the class and always growing. It marked the return of Ken Pudsey who is a capoeira veteran. It was awesome as we did some cartwheel kicking combos and several other kicking sequences. Everyone did really well which shows how well Danny Henry can teach.

Wednesday:
Straight Blast Gym and Steve Powell’s JKD Class
Lun and I went to the Stand Up fighting class. It was a brilliant workout. Karl Tanswell explained the aliveness training that we were doing as there were a lot of new beginners. My good friend Andy Timmins was there too.
Later on that night….

“There are a lot of beginners tonight so keeping it a bit basic tonight…” Steve explained to Lun and I. Yes it was packed over 20 people there, but it was still a great work out and it’s great to do focus mitt drills we haven't done in a while. Simon and Paul from Eskrima were there, as was Chris and LGM. Some the focus mitt drills are derived or based on panuntukan (Filipino boxing) drills. A great lesson and workout! Had some great talks with Chris over the MSN Messenger as well this week.

Thursday
I went to the gym, did some weights and ran on the treadmill. The run is looming now and I need to practice.

Friday
Lun did the warm up’s in the beginning. Simon than asked me to teach Gaz while the others went to drill over advanced stuff. So begins a new journey for me. The way I always wanted to teach beginners is instantly concentrate on the footwork and posture. Without a strong base or foundation a building will fall.

So I trained Gaz to have a good front stance position first and asked him to throw a jab and a cross. I talked to him about the mechanics of the jab and cross and the importance of retracting your hands back to a guard position protecting your face straight after the punch. Again we did this on the focus mitts, I asked him to find his form by doing 5 slow ones and then 10 power ones. After that we practiced the push forward and push backward steps, and incorporated boxing drills into this footwork. I then practiced focus y dagger drills with him this involved him punching the focus mitt and retracting back to guard before I can catch him with my training knife. After that I taught him the hook after the jab and cross. So we covered his basic punching quite extensively.

We then switched to sticks and I taught him the heaven six drill. Basically the heaven six is a series of double stick strikes performed six times (but there are six variants). Gaz picked it up very quickly. In fact his enthusiasm was great and helped ease my nerves of first time teaching. We then did stick disarms and then Lun went through some more pad work with Gaz. Lun’s drills were quite innovative.

I did a stick spar with Simon. The sparring was good as we did it slowly and crashing in when there was an opening. Afterwards I gave Gaz a list of things we covered in class, so he could take it home and practice. If we get 5-6 people with the same approach mindset like Gaz has, then it would be much easier and enjoyable to teach. When everyone was gone Lun went through the advanced stuff with me.

A great week!
Anyway thanks for reading and enjoy the pics.

Kit

Thanks Part 3: Family and Friends

2006-04-16T23:05:00.000Z

This entry thanks is devoted to family and friends (who trained with or alongside me). Please read part 1 and 2 if you haven’t already.

Family
My parents
They have always supported me in everything I do. I love my parents and cannot thank them enough.

Lun
My brother is one of my biggest influences not only in Martial Arts but in life. Always there for me and encouraged me to keep on going when I wanted to give up. Lun is the best big brother anyone could have. He has practiced many arts over the years and a true inspiration, always pushing me to train more when I didn’t feel like it. I am very lucky to have a brother like Lun.

Sue
My sis in law because without her understanding and love for Lun then maybe we wouldn't train as much!

Friends (Martial Arts). These are friends that have trained with or alongside me and are in order of knowing them.

Paul Hinds
Paul is simply crazy (and he knows I call him this) but I admire that fact that he has always maintained an interest in Martial Arts since our college days.

Andrew Timmins
From the re-start he was there,introducing me to Capoeira, being part of the Warriors Eskrima group, went to JKD and finally settled at Karl Tanswell’s. Still keep in touch today which is cool

Paul Ratcliffe
Again someone there at my martial art re-start did capoeira for a while. Very good person and always interested in the martial artists and hope to see him back soon in the marital arts arena. Another I still keep in touch with.

Ken Pudsey
Capoeira player but very interesting of Martial Arts.

Chris Chris is an accomplished Martial Artist at such a young age. He trains in multiple arts but primarily a JKD man and qualified JKD instructor. His comments are one of the main reasons why this blog keeps going and has a great blog of his own.

LGM
Another great JKD Man. I have benefited from his posts. LGM Chris also has a great blog and I have been inspired by some of his posts on his blog as some entries are very philosophical. Again his comments help the blog going.

Warriors Eskrima

Johnny Cowan
Inspirational Eskrimidor. One of the first level 6 instructors to be graded after Rob and Simon in Manchester.
I also like to give thanks to
Mike, Ray, John, Kinder and everyone currently training or used to train at Warriors Eskrima Salford branch.

That’s all I like to thank at the moment I apologise if I left anybody out
Thanks
Kit

Thanks Part 2: Martial Artists.

2006-04-15T23:19:00.000Z

This is dedicated thanks to the Martial Artists that I have met and influenced me during the course of my journey. Please read part 1: Instructors if you haven’t already. Most of the following are from seminars, some are from classes and one is from my former works place. Don’t worry Chris and LGM Chris you are in the Family and Friends dedication that I will post! Please check out Lun's blog as he has updated it!

Rick Young-JKD
I have had only a couple of seminars with him but the experiences were awesome and his stories are great.

Carlson Gracie Senior-BJJ
Another one who opened our eyes, although promoting BJJ through the seminar we attended, the late Carlson Gracie Senior told the attendees through his translator that “he loved all martial arts”.

Samuel Kwok-Wing Chun
Again only one seminar, but a big impact.

Greg Hall-JKD
Although he is currently inactive, when he took a class he was awesome. Always humble and kind every time we saw him on the door or in the gym.

Rick Lawrie-JKD
Again only had one class under him which was cool, but when we see him training alongside us in the JKD gym, he REALLY hits the pad.

Diana Rathbone-MKG
Very kindly gave my brother and I, a place to stay in Minnesota and living there gave us an insight of a 24/7 Martial Artist.

Mike Beckwith-Karate
This is a former work colleague who had a very humble attitude. I can’t remember his karate style but he was an instructor. He seemed to carry his Martial Art ethos into his work as he was dedicated to his role and always asked me on my progress.

Larry Hartsell-JKD
We attended a seminar of his once another big impression on my journey. It was amazing to train under such a renowned Martial Artist.

Wisconsin Summer Camp 2002-MKG
Everyone who attended!

Everyone who has ever partnered me in
JKD, Warriors Eskrima, Capoeira and the Straight Blast Gym, I have learnt something from you all.

Part 3 to follow tomorrow thanks for reading!
Kit

My Week in Martial Arts: April 10 to April 14th-Thanks Part 1: Instructors

2006-04-14T23:41:00.000Z

Well I rested this week apart from Capoeira as I let my body heal. As I rested I decided to write a three part thank you to those have helped me in my journey to becoming an apprentice instructor in Warriors Eskrima.

Thanks Part 1: Instructors

This is to say thank you to all the people who have helped me on my journey of the martial arts so far. This is more about how they inspired and motivated me. This post can also be viewed as a follow up to this post I did in August. I have so many to thank. The first part is devoted to instructors. The second part tomorrow is devoted to Martial Artists and the third to family, friends and external inspirations.

In chronological order of being taught by them:

Steve Powell JKD/CHOSIN KAI instructor-1984
If my brother and I didn’t find Steve Powell we may have never been exposed to so many different arts. We were lucky; the Chosin Kai Karate club was based in the upstairs of a pub literally 2 minutes away from our takeaway/takeout. This wasn’t your ordinary karate club as well as the traditional stuff, there were elements of Wing Chun and Thai Boxing that were thrown in or at least acknowledged. This was way back in 1983/84 before Mixed Martial Arts were popularised in the media and practiced in gyms as MMA.
Although we can argue it wasn’t true MMA in the sense that there was no BJJ it was definitely the first steps in my experience of using what was useful.

After the local club closed down, we attended the main gym based in George Street Chinatown was used and lesson were taught by the chief instructor himself Steve Powell. Steve Powell has a wealth of experiences in different arts and all to a high level as well as real life experiences bouncing on the door. Steve knows what works and doesn’t work in Martial Arts, that’s the bottom line. His class later evolved into a JKD class (I guess it was inevitable with so many different arts involved). Although I literally attended a handful of lessons at the Portland Street gym and filmed a video there for a college project in 1994/95, my brother Lun however attended quite a few lessons. There were so many elements of different systems being used. It was here that Lun was first taught Eskrima and thus exposed to the art. The exposure of so many arts such Muay Thai, Silat, Eskrima and Wing Chun has taught me to appreciate and respect all Martial Arts. We restarted at Steve Powell’s in 2002 and still train there on a semi regular basis.

Steve Powell is and still remains a big inspiration.

It was in 1995 my journey stopped for my studies, I attended a handful of WTF Tae Kwon Do lessons and a jiu jitsu lesson but other than that it was quiet….

Khalid Iqbal ITF Tae Kwon Do-2001

Little do I mention my ITF Tae Kwon Do days in my blog but I learnt a valuable lesson at Mr Khalid Iqbal’s TKD class. Mr Iqbal is of average height but his TKD skills are awesome and he is very friendly and humble. The classes were and still held at Salford University ironically I joined the classes with Lun after I left University. In one session I was sparring with one of Lun’s work colleague’s who previously studied in a style of Kung Fu.

Letting my ego take over I just threw out the TKD stuff I had just learnt and proceeded to use “everything” I know against him as used his Kung Fu. We totally disbanded and disrespected TKD by using different arts in the Do-Jang (training hall). Mr Iqbal took us aside and told us to empty our cups (as in our existing knowledge) and learn what was being taught in the class.

From then on I had no problems in the class and had learnt that you need to be humble and respectful if you are new to a class, no matter what other skills other have learnt in the past. I trained there for 6 months and used it to keep me flexible and my fitness up.

Bob Melia Warriors Eskrima 2002
Maybe I should have put Bob earlier in my list because I recognised him when I was a kid as every year we would watch the Lion Dance to celebrate Chinese New Year and he was one of the drummers.

However it was in 2002 that we got to really know Bob. Assisting him was Simon and Rob Campion like Lun and I are brothers who with Bob all used to train under Master Chu in Chu Gar Kung Fu. I shall write a section on them. Bob used to tell Lun and I some great stories about his days in Kung Fu but most importantly he is a good teacher and our first teacher in the Warriors Eskrima system.

Again Bob has tons of experience and was quite inspirational during his teachings. He moves fast for his size and is very powerful. He puts his quickness and skill all down to training and drilling his techniques as I remember him telling us that once. As the class averaged 6 to 7 students I guess it was easier to communicate with Bob although he was always approachable. Bob is not involved in the Warriors Eskrima system now he is now following the path of Sun Shi Martial Arts and is very much there for any mentoring advice. His latest blog gives a great account of his recent trip to Beijing.

Danny Henry 2002 Capoeira

He is my Capoeira teacher and his endless devotion and passion to his art is a big inspiration. He is truly a politics free Martial Artist. No association governs what he does and I know he has been subject to criticism by a known “official” Capoeira group. I know this because former students of the other Capoeria group have told me that the instructor/mestre always discourages students to go to Danny (which doesn’t make sense since they are not training at Danny’s in the first place). But Danny persevered by improving his art and has his own group which is expanding. This is why I respect Danny so much because he puts up with the crap from the other group (who are making far more money than Danny) by showing his students what he can do.

Rick Faye 2002 (MKG Kali Group, Wisconsin Summer Camp and Various Seminars)

Training with Rick Faye in the states for a couple of weeks was very inspiring. There was huge emphasis on footwork and because at that time brother and I restarted the stick drills (combined with the footwork) were hard to follow. However these drills helped us on coordination. Rick is very inspirational with his words I remember one seminar that he said something on the lines of this: “Why live just for 2 days of your life when you can find what you want to do and live for 7?” He meant about people just looking forward to weekends because they didn’t enjoy what they did weekdays.

Rob Campion 2002 Warriors Eskrima
Rob is the older brother of Simon. His power and Eskrima skills are awesome. He helped assist Bob during our early days of Warriors Eskrima. He is one of two representatives of Warriors Eskrima in Manchester the other being Simon.

Simon Campion 2002 Warriors Eskrima
When Bob left the classes to Rob and Simon, Rob taught a class in Wythenshawe and Simon carried on at Salford. During the first few months we could see Simon’s teaching method gradually evolve. As this was the first time he was teaching on his own with no real support it was initially difficult. Then over the months his confidence grew and after passing us on a grading the class became more structured and fun.

Simon like his brother never gave up his quest to study other Martial Arts, he even did Capoeira with me for a while. Simon’s skill also improved although there was nothing wrong with it in the first place, he seems more powerful and quicker than before. It’s such an inspiration to train under a first time instructor who is also evolving. He has coped well especially as he helped pass 4 apprentice instructors in the Warriors Eskrima system.

Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhania 2003 Warriors Eskrima

I have done seminars under Krishna and he has given us lessons at the end of gradings, however it was awe inspiring when Simon and I did a private lesson with him last year. Due to his extensive knowledge and experiences of Eskrima he showed us some great techniques with deadly precision. Along with his extensive background and having further read his book contributions and magazine articles, I feel very lucky to be graded under such a leading authority in Eskrima.

Karl Tanswell 2005 Straight Blast Gym.

A truly inspirational coach training us in the alive training concept (moving constantly), we joined the gym to learn stand up and BJJ. Although I have yet to formally begin BJJ training yet, I found his stand up lessons very useful to my own personal progress. I also find his style of teaching inspirational.

These are the instructors that I find most motivational and inspirational.
Thanks for reading and I shall post the 2nd part tomorrow!
Kit

Grading:PASSED!

2006-04-09T23:27:00.000Z

There were 8 of us who just finished our various gradings (tests). We were asked to stand in two lines of four. I was listening to Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhania’s words but not looking up as I anticipated the results. He mentioned that everyone had strengths and weaknesses but then said that we all…passed.

My celebration was not the one I envisioned in my head as I was way too knackered after a very long grading (3 hours). But I smiled and was really happy, hugged Lun and congratulated everyone. Everyone walked around shaking each others hands and it was extra special for the level 6 guys.

We meet up at our instructors Simon Campion’s house and 8.10AM. Simon’s brother Rob has his own class of students and they were going to come along with us. We took 3 cars on a perilous trip to Warwick (actually it wasn’t perilous but because nothing much happened on the way there I thought I make it sound special!)

We got to the sports hall that the grading was held at 10.45am. After we paid our respective instructors are grading fee, we waited for Pangulong Guro Krishna. We didn’t wait too long as was on time, as we entered the sports hall I thought to myself “This is it!”

Ray was going for his level 1 and level 2 grading and Mark and Andy from Rob Campion’s class was doing level 2 and 4 respectively. I partnered Ray for his level 1 and 2 as we are a similar size and Simon thought it would be a good idea to pair us up. Later we had to mover rooms and into a squash court! Although the floor was newer in this court but it’s such a familiar surrounding as my current Eskrima and Capoeira class held in squash courts!

Ray did very well, as did Rob’s group, but when that was over it was time for Lun, Paul, Mike, Kinder (from Rob’s group) and myself to do our grading. Simon didn’t want to pair me and Lun in the sparring as we were brothers I think he might have thought we wouldn’t turn up the intensity (yes as Rick Faye once said we were the only brothers in the World that he knew that didn’t fight with each other and for the record we have never fought!). Rob however insisted we did spar as he planned for Kinder (my original opponent) to pair up with someone else first. When it was time, we did tear into each other and really smacked the crap out of each other with the sticks and I was taken down a couple of times! It’s the closest we ever got to a physical fight with my brother but obviously no tempers flared as it was the grading and we still remain as probably the 1% of brothers in the World who have never fought each other!

It was a very tiring grading as we sparred several times but we all made sure that rather than hitting each other with the sticks we showed techniques. Not only there was stick sparring but there was knife sparring and empty hand (which I really enjoyed). I did my empty hand sparring with Kinder from Rob’s group. It was pretty cool to spar with someone different as Kinder is a very skilled fighter.

Yes we were all knackered in the end but I thought the whole experience was fun and intense at the same time. I thought Lun did well despite his asthma and that he was away this week, Ray did well for his 2 levels, Paul also did well with two levels that he was graded on, Mike did well too in the sparring as did everyone else. My own assessment of my performance is that I thought I did some stuff well but others not as well as I wanted.

However Krishna told us that for all those who just finished level 6 apprentice instructor level…the “real” training begins!..........

I will be sent more pictures very soon(I didn't get chance to film/photograph anything today!) but in the meantime enjoy the current batch!

My next post will be a “thank you post” naming all those who have motivated, inspired and trained me and trained along side me leading up to the grading. This will be a long list!

Thanks for reading
Really Happy!
Kit!

Countdown to the Warriors Eskrima grading:Today!

2006-04-09T05:35:00.000Z

Well I had a good night's sleep and now I am about to embark on the 2 hour or so journey to the grading picking up and meeting everyone on the way.
I am looking forward to it and have got my stuff packed. The stuff comprising of my Warriors Eskrima T shirt, jogging pants and all my sticks,knives, swords. I am bringing my DV camera as well to film everyones reaction.
This is it, whatever the outcome I shall write about it all tonight.
Thanks
Kit!

Countdown to the Warriors Eskrima grading:Entry 2

2006-04-08T20:41:00.000Z

Another countdown no photos....

Apologies for spelling Choshin Kai wrong in my last entry, it’s a class that we should have gone to today. Lun really needed to go though some grading stuff for tomorrow to refine his techniques as he has been away so we decided to go and practice for a few hours.

Feeling tired today as I had to do all the usual Saturday stuff as well as training. I have multiple bruises on my arms and my body as a result of this week’s training. I know where they were caused but not know how, when and who.

Tomorrow I get up 6am to go and pick up my brother and Paul. We are going to Simon’s house and meet up with the rest of the lot and from there will travel down to Warwick in 2 or 3 cars. It will be good to meet members of Rob’s class again.

I am glad we trained today. Simon also happened to be in the gym so he came in and helped us out. We went through several of our past gradings and worked on sparring strategies.

Later we went home and watched a stick sparring video and practiced more techniques. I am feeling fine today and can’t wait for tomorrow. 4 years coming to a head. I like to say thanks to Lun, Chris, LGM Chris and instructor Simon for their comments and the luck.

Depending on what time I get up I might write a quick post tomorrow morning.

Thanks for reading
Kit

My Week in Martial Arts: April 1st to April 7th

2006-04-07T23:49:00.000Z

Hi All!

This week has been all Warriors Eskrima. Trained Sunday, Tuesday ,Thursday and Friday. I was knackered all week but I needed to train and felt better for it. My brother Lun was working in Belfast this week but I am sure he is ready for the grading.

Although I am in preparation for the grading, my week in the Martial Arts actually started last Saturday as my brother and I attended Steve Powell’s Cho Sin Kai class which consisted of big pad punching. It was great fun and a great work out. Chris and LGM were also there and it was great to see them as well as Rick Lawrie who told me that was his favourite kind of training. The class was amazing full of "boom" techniques(boom as in punching the pad to make the boom sound!) and I got a few flashbacks from the old days regarding the exercises and techniques, although Lun remembered a whole lot more.

Later that day Steve Powell emailed us with some mind jazz as he called it, some very interesting Zen quotes such as “Fudoshin” and “Zanshin” reading up on the spiritual side of Martial Arts is something I like to do more of. The meanings behind them are very potent and inspirational and definitely relates to my preparation of the grading and all the Martial Arts that I practice. “Zanshin” is defined as “A state of complete, balanced, continuous and relaxed readiness, awareness and alertness, where you are "present in the moment."”. This relates to what I am trying to achieve in my mental state and what it needs to be at all times, rather than just for the grading.

Sunday we did some extra training in Warriors Eskrima, my arm and shoulder was knackered from the day before (due to the punching of the pad).

Monday I rested.

Tuesday it was more Warriors Eskrima but more on technique rather than sparring. As we train in the same building as my Capoeira class, I popped in and had a quick capoeira game after the Eskrima training finished.

Wednesday I rested.

Thursday I came late to Warriors Eskrima as I had to do something for my Dad but did managed to do some grappling moves. I also trained my fitness by doing a run on the treadmill and some shadow boxing.

Friday it was Warriors again and we did stick disarms and knife disarms. We also did free style stick sparring palakaw. In addition, I also went through level 1 and level 2 techniques with Ray in which he will be graded in on Sunday(even though he is grading for level 1 or 2 he can match us in sparring!). We also did some stick sparring and rather than a big crazy stick strike fest, we put a lot of techniques in the sparring influenced by our instructor Simon. I noticed the atmosphere was different as it seemed to have a serious aura to it. This meant we all seemed to be focused for Sunday which is a good thing.

I have to keep this week’s entry relatively short as I am going to get some sleep. I am going to do another Warriors Eskrima grading countdown tomorrow. In addition I am going to write about the grading on Sunday night.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics (although I did not catch much as I was training for the grading!)

Kit

Countdown to the Warriors Eskrima grading:Entry 1

2006-04-06T23:12:00.000Z

A break from the usual format…..no pictures... just words..

Come April 9th 2006, our Level 6 Warriors Eskrima grading (test) will take place in Warwick and we will be graded by Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhania. Usually countdown articles for some writers would normally be much earlier like weeks or even months before the event occurs, but I chose to write my countdown much closer to my event.

Why did I do this? Well I kind of mentioned the grading in previous posts but not one post is dedicated solely on the grading and I think it might interest the reader on what the hell is exactly going through my mind so close to the grading. Well the answer is that I am excited and nervous at the same time and I felt that I needed to write about it.

This combination of nerves and excitement can be compared to when you are cut off at the gate in a queue separating you from a bunch of people who are allowed onto a rollercoaster. This would leave you watching with great fear and anticipation waiting at the gate and up close you can see how huge the rollercoaster really is rising so many feet in the air and going so many miles per hour, you are nervous maybe scared but you really want to be on it and want to be on it fast.

This week (apart from a quick session of the Capoeira game) I have dedicated my Martial Arts to the grading. Not only am I trying to be physically focused but also mentally focused. My mind is on the grading constantly because I feel it is so important I get it right as does Lun and all our great fellow students taking the grading. The grading will contain a lot of sparring and some free style stick sparring. So physically as well as mentally I have to be aggressive, but careful and skilful enough to show techniques and not just smack the living crap out of the other guy.

I hope we call all step it up on that day.

Thanks
Kit!

My week in Martial Arts: March 26th to March 31st 06

2006-03-31T23:54:00.000Z

Hi All

Another week of the Martial Arts although not officially finished as Lun and I go to Steve Powell’s Cho Sin Kai class which will feature some great pad workouts.

Cho Sin Kai was the karate style Steve Powell was teaching before he set up the JKD class (but some of the Cho Sin Kai elements still remain in his JKD class) and it was the first Martial Art my brother and I trained in. I am quite excited as my brother is to attend this special class tomorrow.

Although the excitement was for this class, the focus was on the grading for Warriors Eskrima under our chief instructor Krishna Godhania as this is taking place in just over a week. It’s going to be intense and I hope to get more lessons in and get myself in spar mode for the level 6 apprentice instructor grading.

Simon loaned us his fencing masks last Friday,so my brother and I did some stick sparring in the gym on Sunday. It was intense but we do have to step it up a bit more I think. We also practiced some Cho Sin Kai sparring drills on the focus mitts we were taught at Steve Powells's.

Monday my brother and I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym. Glynn was teaching and we did some stand up grappling and take downs. It was a great class. Andrew Timmins was there and he was very skilful in his defence when I tried to take him down.

Tuesday I went to Capoeira. It was a great lesson, Steve from Eskrima showed up again and although the class was mainly beginners everyone did real well. Again I am chief demo boy for Capoeira..:) but it’s good experience for me if I want to eventually teach in an art.

Wednesday we had an extra grading session in Warriors Eskrima. My brother and I did some free style stick sparring; palakaw (although we couldn’t do any heavy sparring because Lun’s back wasn’t 100%) and Simon and Paul was practicing what they were taught at the Sayoc seminar! Yup my brother and I missed that one as I couldn’t afford it this month and my brother had to spend more time with his wife Susan, but I wish I had tried and found a way of getting there because Simon and Paul and later on Ray was telling me how great it was. Simon told me some very exciting news as well, but it all depends on the grading…watch this space for the news.

Thursday we planned to go to Steve Powell’s but I had to go back home for a certain time that night and Lun couldn’t make it due to work and recovering from his backache. So I trained for the charity run instead and ran on a treadmill for about 24 minutes. I find running on a treadmill boring and prefer the great outdoors but it was raining and windy. I have an online sponsorship form at Great Run but those who don’t wish to donate online and wish to donate can ask me for a sponsorship form, if you live locally to me!

Afterwards I practiced some stick drills and did some light weights.

Friday was Warriors Eskrima day!
As it was the grading will be about sparring we proceeded to beat the living crap out of each other!!! Actually that isn’t true we didn’t do that at all! I did some knife sparring with my brother and we did palakaw. My brother and I were then put in charge of the beginners and we did some stick disarms with one person in the middle who had to disarm oncoming attackers. Again it was cool to teach people.

We then did the stick sparring. It was awesome everyone’s game face was on. As I was filming it and shouting some tips from the outside I didn’t get as many goes as I would like to. However it was great watching the others and there is a Sunday session which my instructor Simon promised me more sparring.

I would like to thank my brother Lun and my sister in law Susan for their kind donations. Chris for his great support on his site for my run and his donation, please visit his site as it’s great with cool pictures and LGM whose comments I really appreciate on my blog and his views on life are very interesting to read on his great blog. Oh and congratulations to my mate Rob Dale who recently got engaged to his girlfriend Lou!It hasn't anything to do with Martial Arts but its great news!

Anyway enjoy the pictures and keep training.

Kit!

My week in Martial Arts: March 19th to March 24th 06

2006-03-25T01:13:00.000Z

Hi All! Welcome to post number 50!

First of all congratulations to Chris for his sponsored 108 Sun Salutations and thanks for his and for LGM's comments on my previous post.

I also like to thank my family, my brother Lun for taking the time out to hang out with me this week and my parents who always support everything that I do and I love them dearly for their support.

On to what happened this week….

Finish Him!” shouted an idiot in the crowd watching the World Cage Fighting Championship event that I attended on Saturday 18th March. Yes along with my good friend Andy Timmins who trains at Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym and Pern from Warriors Eskrima we attended the first ever cage fighting event at the Manchester Evening Arena. Mike Tyson was to be special referee for one match, pride fighter Alistair Oveereem was fighting, Bas Rutten was the MC and from the boxing world Amir Khan and Joe Egan were among several other boxers sat in the crowd.

The action itself was good (not great but good). But as good as the in cage fighting was it was marred I thought by some of the thugs in the audience. I would say 40% of the audience understood what was going on (we were watching a sport that involved athletes and a certain degree of skill) and 60% were just blood thirsty thugs looking for death and gore (they were watching what some newspapers has portrayed it as and probably what they perceived it as after a few beers). One guy was hilariously booing everything that moved (the fighters, ring girls, announcers, probably even himself), Timmins believed that the only word in his vocabulary was “Booooo” and hence him “Booing” everything.

Moving on to Sunday, Lun and I went to a Sunday sparring session for Warriors Eskrima. It was a good session; we did a lot of drills and sparring of course. It’s good to get as many sessions as possible in before the grading although Lun and I know we have to do more.

As I was off work for a week, I was helping out my parents with a few things and tried to relax. Lun had some days off Wednesday and Thursday so that was cool. I hope I can plan my holidays better in the future, hopefully in the summer I will take my parents somewhere for a good sight seeing walk as they don't get out as much as they use to.

So the days I was training this week were Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We couldn’t make it to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym or Steve Powell’s JKD class this week as there were things to sort out at home. Hopefully we will be back for some good sessions next week, as I really enjoyed them both classes in the previous week.

Saying that it wasn’t a bad week in Martial Arts, Tuesday I went for a run for about 2 miles. I then went to Capoeira and we had several newcomers. I was used as demo-boy but I was also supervising some of the new people so that was cool.
“There is an Eskrima class here on Friday you know” I told one of the newcomers Steve, who told me he did a load of other Martial Arts. He told me he knew as he worked/studied in the same building as Simon Campion which was quite a cool coincidence.

Thursday another run this time I targeted to get to a certain distance. The goal is to increase the mileage to .5 or 1 every time I set out. I ran for 3.4 Miles and therefore overshot the goal but was really happy I did it because then I can hopefully progress faster. In fact it got to a point that now I enjoy running. Later that day my brother and I went to the gym and had a quick work out working back, shoulders and arms and some stick sparring.

Friday was an interesting day. We went to Warriors Eskrima it was a good lesson. We had two newcomers one of which was Steve who was at Capoeira. We did some Palakaw (free style stick sparring), stick disarms and locks and then Simon said to me “Do you intend to teach after you graded?”
I said “Sure” So I taught the two new guys 5 of our basic strikes from the Numerada.
Basically I got them to imagine there was person in front of them and use the strike as if they were striking them well I stood in front of them so their strikes don’t go all over the place. I then taught them to disarm and Simon asked to make sure they incorporate some strikes after disarming. I also showed them to keep a guard at all times as well. It was cool to teach and it was a good experience.

Towards the end of the lesson we did some full contact sparring. It was cool as each person sparred with each other for a minute. Before one sparring session Paul advised me to “Just throw in the caveman shots like me”. A caveman shot is basically a big clubbing strike to the head. After seeing him carry on striking at Lun after the minute was up (which to be fair he probably couldn’t hear the minute was up..maybe) on the last sparring session. I kind of thought: “I’ll give you more than a caveman shot!" Of course I snapped on Paul but in a good way as I threw in a lot of strikes and took him down. It’s what Simon wanted to see anyway a bit more aggression. Yup it was all positive that I can spar that way but I need to refine the skills and control it more. At the end of the day no one wants to hurt anyone but for the next 2 weeks I need to have more of an aggressive streak in sparring. I am looking forward to training next week and attending the Cho Sin Kai lessons next Saturday.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics!
Kit.

My week in Martial Arts: March 13th to March 17th 06

2006-03-18T02:11:00.000Z

“We shall go to JKD tonight” Lun said on Monday morning and that we did to kick off a big training week. I would say I am now 100% better so I had a lot of “catch up” to do.
For some reason on Monday I felt like smashing something. Anyone who knows me will tell you I am not aggressive person. Maybe it was that I was psyching myself up because I was feeling better or maybe someone inadvertently said something to piss me off at work, although I think it was the combination of the two. Later that day I was able to let out the aggression.

Anyway my brother and I went to the gym and did a fast workout. After some food we went to Steve Powell’s JKD class. We saw Chris , LGM (also called Chris) and Greg Hall and Rick Lowry there and it was packed class. Chris and LGM spoke to us and we had a good conversation.

“Get the hook and jab pads” Steve told the class. Cool I thought. It was time to let out the aggression and it worked! We did a load of punching combinations and I made sure I was hitting them right. Of course it’s about technique and putting your hip in but if you also put all you emotions into the punches then you add something to it. It was cool to let out some steam. Steve told us the punching techniques, which were alternating jab, hooks, crosses, uppercuts and overhand punches, that were doing was a variation of Eskrima stick drills as we were punching high, low, high etc. It was great training lesson.

Tuesday went to Capoeira. I had a good session very energetic as always. The two new girls Pat and Kim attended although Kim couldn’t participate. Pat was cool because when she first came to the class she couldn’t do many moves especially cartwheels which were important as a defensive escape in the game. But on Tuesday she was doing them easily and a lot of other moves in the game.
Kim was coming along too, but has been hampered by injury although she had done a lot of exercise before and she could do some of the moves easily in the game from what I have seen so far. I think it’s testament to Danny’s teaching but also a testament to these two newcomers for adapting so quickly.
I asked Danny to get me a T-Shirt from Mestre Bamba and got this, Danny was asked to go to Brazil to train and get graded under their system.

Wednesday I went to the gym with Lun and we did quite a good session. We did some weights and then some stick sparring. My brother and I used these soft sticks. First of all we did some simple moves one attacking and one blocking and countering but fast which is what we call “crashing in”. After a few goes it turned into a fully fledged stick spar and we had a great spar! I was knackered from this and from the previous days and because Lun said he couldn’t make it to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym because of work commitments. I thought about this and because I only slept five hours previous night and was knackered I proceeded to drive home or so I thought.

So on the way back I put on some “relaxing” music but instead of Stevie Wonder the sounds emitting from my car CD player sounded strangely like Pantera (sorry Lgm!) and next I thing I knew I was in Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym and had a great work out. We were taught how to position/move ourselves in the stand up fighting stance and did some hand/head grappling. It was another energetic lesson.

Thursday after 3 days of Martial Arts I decided to stay in bed as I booked a week off but because Rocky 2 was on the previous night and I had a run to do in May I got up and went for a run. I proceeded to run in light snowfall for about a mile. Later on my brother and I went to Steve Powell’s JKD class. My legs were aching a bit as I have not ran for a while but we did some great focus mitt work based on the old Chosin-Kai style. We did some kicking against kicking and using mitts to block instantly and the kicks was aiming right to the face. This was a brilliant and hard work out. Steve Powell mentioned Hwang Jan Lee as we were doing the kicks, from the old school Gung Fu films (bad guy super kicker from Drunken Master and Snakes in the Eagle’s Shadow and countless of others) and mentioned how crap dubbing was in the old school stuff. But its cool he is such a fan of the old school Gung Fu films because they rock and my brother and I always chuckle when he throws in a random reference. Another awesome lesson.

Friday I went for a 2 mile run and then later on Warriors Eskrima with Lun. It was a great lesson! Simon had as work “stations” which comprises of different techniques in different parts of the court. For example one station was footwork, another was crashing in and another was some cardio exercises. We then did some free style palakaw and the higher graded ones including myself took turns in teaching Ray some drills. Although I accidentally taught him the wrong drill at first! Sorry Ray!

We did some disarms and locks. One guy was in the middle while the other guys attacked and the defending guy had to disarm or lock them. We then did some stick sparring which was cool.

So that was my big week in exercise and Martial Arts. I feel so much better for it, although knackered I am feeling great! Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics!

Kit

My week in Martial Arts: March 6th 06 to March 10th 06

2006-03-11T01:56:00.000Z

Hi All

This week I only managed one lesson which was the Warriors Eskrima lesson on Friday.
However I enjoyed the blogs of my Lun, Chris and LGM Chris to keep me in the Martial Art world..virtually.

I have also noticed Steve Powell has updated his site too and it looks great.

My brother returned from Canada, he showed me some pressure point moves from a lesson he took while in Canada. You can read more by clicking on his link. I showed him some stuff from the Karl Tanswell lessons I learnt last week. It’s cool to have my brother back.

Well on my sick days off, I edited some of my DVD that I am doing for my Warriors Class. It looks rather cool if I say so myself..:-)! Actually I have a lot of footage of the guys sparring semi contact with us wearing fencing masks, a heck of a lot of techniques and other drills involving double stick, single stick and knife. I am considering putting commentary on it.

While watching some of the footage I was also trying to pick out some of my bad techniques during sparring (an advantage of filming) as sometimes you need another perspective on your performance. This is quite beneficial to the Martial Artist but then again if you have good instructors (which I do) then they can offer this perspective. However filming yourself practicing at home is useful when there is no one there to critique you.

It’s cool that one of the instructors responsible for re-kick starting my brother and mine’s Martial Arts interest, Bob Melia has joined the FlowDrills Forum . Anyone can join the FlowDrills Forum , it was created by our instructor Simon Campion and fellow Eskrima Martial Artist Mike and I helped build it. Although the intention to have anyone join and start talking has become a bit of private message board for Warriors Eskrima. However anyone free to come in and make a comment or post a topic. It is good to have someone like Bob Melia.

I recovered from my chest infection on Thursday (although not fully recovered) I returned to work.

On Friday I went to Warriors Eskrima class. my first Martial Art lesson for about a week. Simon laid out some sticks in the shape of a 2 sided triangle…just the diagonal sides if that makes sense! This was to practice foot work. I really do think good stance and footwork is so important in all Martial Arts, to have good technique you need a good strong base first. If I ever do become an instructor, I would emphasis a lot on footwork.

We also did free style stick sparring of palakaw varying the intensity. We practiced the crashing in but aimed shots to the head with the fencing masks and we sparred. I didn’t last too long in my sparring as my cough from my chest infection came back so I filmed the other guys spar instead but I got to teach some basic numerada strikes to a newer student although very briefly though, I also talk about a little history of eskrima sticks, the knowledge of this, courtesy all the great instruction I had over the years from all the instructors mentioned in my Martial Art links.

Again enjoy the pics as always and thanks for reading, its time for me to do some heavy training next week with hopefully a clean bill of health!

Kit

My week in Martial Arts: February 27th 06 to March 3rd 06

2006-03-06T14:09:00.000Z

Sorry for the lateness of the Feb 27th till Mar 3rd blog entry due to illness I was unable to post on my regular Friday night slot.

My Mum was feeling better than last week, but my Dad wasn’t feeling great, however for a 70 year old man he is incredibly fit and still very strong. He encouraged me to go and workout though, when I phoned back to see how he was, so I did and by the end of the week he seemed to be better but I still need to keep my eyes open.

“Very impressive Kit, he was trying to take you down and you were not having any of it…” Cool words from Karl Tanswell as I was leaving his gym. That was to top off a really good Monday…inspired by the comments on my blog by Lun, Chris and LGM Chris and keeping my own promises I got up at 6.30 am and went for a jog and then followed a home routine of conditioning exercises while watching a Rick Faye training video.

After work I was choosing some pre-training music to get me fired up for training…I don't always employ the use of pre-training music to get me fired up but sometimes it gives me extra incentive. So I chose Pantera, although I am not a big Pantera fan, I do have a couple of friends who really like them. I did happen to have their live CD in my car so I popped it in and the songs “5 minutes alone” and “Cowboys from Hell” really got me going. I do prefer Rage against the Machine but Pantera did it for me. Although during training time I don’t mind if there is or isn’t any music, as regards to listening to metal during training Matt Furey has other views!

At Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym, we did shoots and the defence against the shoot, then defence against the shoot with a sprawl and then a sprawl with a cross face. I partnered up with a guy called Charles who told me he reads the blog which is pretty cool. Charles had pretty good technique on the shoot by the end of the lesson.

Tuesday I went for a run in the morning again. These are very short runs at the moment; the plan was to have short runs on weekdays and long runs on weekends. After work it was Capoeira time, yes again I was used as demo guy. The two girls who have been attending regularly are coming on really well. We did a cartwheel variation on one hand and a whole bunch of other techniques. Danny was excited that he was doing a workshop on Saturday and Sunday with in the Capoeria Mestre Bimba style from Brazil. Mestre Bimba was the creator of the more contemporary martial art style of Capoeira also known as Regional and Mestre Bamba was going to be there representing this school.

Wednesday another run, I was happy I was keeping it up, up to this point. The one thing that makes it great to run early in the morning is that there is no one around. Went to Karl’s later that evening and had another cool class. This time we did some basic punching and kicking techniques and then onto some stand up grappling escaping from a front face headlock and then escaping a waist lock. Another great workout and I also put my name down for Karl’s STAB seminar on Sunday March 5th. STAB stands for Survival Tactics Against the Blade and is based on Karl’s experiences against knife attacks.

Thursday I gave myself a rest.

Friday got up feeling not so great so I didn’t go for a run. I felt slightly queasy at work and didn’t feel 100%. I had a feeling I was coming down with something, by the end of work I was coughing. I thought about not going to the Warriors Eskrima class. But then again I thought about sweating it out and if I stay at home I wouldn’t be much better off.

We did some footwork and some power strikes and some crashing in, it seemed to be working as I was feeling better. However near the end of the lesson I felt very weak and I didn’t participate in the sparring as my energy level was very low. I filmed Ray and Paul spar though and it’s great to make an observation…which was the fact that we needed groin guards as the guys were hitting pretty hard! I asked our instructor Simon if we could have more lessons leading up to the grading as well.

After I got home, now I was coming down with something. I couldn’t write my blog as I was so weak from whatever got me, so I more or less went straight to bed. On Saturday I wrote to Karl to tell him I wouldn’t be able to make his seminar on the Sunday. It was a real bummer as I also wanted to go to the Capoeira workshop on Saturday.

Today I am taking a day off work and I booked to see a doctor in 2 days (yes it’s a 2 day waiting process where I live) hopefully I will be better tomorrow and then I shall be able to cancel the doctor and get back to work In addition I shall be get back to sticking to my new training schedule. On a positive note my brother is back! So that means we will be going to Steve Powell’s JKD class again very soon!

Thanks and enjoy the pics
Kit.

My week in Martial Arts: February 20th 06 to February 24th 06

2006-02-25T00:01:00.000Z

"The goal of the martial arts is not for the destruction of an opponent, but to be used as a tool for self-growth and self perfection. The practice of a martial art is the practice of love-the love for the preservation of life, the love for the preservation of your body, the love and preservation of your family and friends."

By Dan Inosanto from the book, Absorb What is Useful, Know Now Publishing Co., U.S. (1982)

Those words are very true and it's the kind of path that I hope I am following now.

Indeed this week I have been home in the evenings looking after my Mum. My Mum's health is on the mend but its still inconsistent. Hopefully it will be better this week and I have to be alert and assertive to anything she may need. Lun, thanks for the encouraging words you made in the comments of my last post. Chris and LGM Chris thanks very much for your words too. Hope to see you guys at Steve Powell’s JKD class soon.

I didn't train this week. I read the "Absorb What is Useful" by Dan Inosanto though. It's a very insightful and brilliant book. Within this book you find a reprint of Bruce Lee's 19 page term paper when he was at the University of Washington, theatrical martial arts illustrations,illustrations of classical and non classical techniques and some brilliantly written insight into Jeet Kune Do. I am not sure if this book is in print anymore but this particular copy is very special as it was signed by Dan Inosanto himself to my brother Lun when he went to a seminar in Edinburghburugh almost ten years ago.

After reading about Dan Inosanto and hearing stories from great instructors who trained under him such as Rick Faye and Rick Young, as well as how my brother mentioned how great the seminar was,I would very much like to attend a seminar when he comes to England this year.

I have been lucky enough to attend seminars(in order of meeting them) by Rick Faye, Krishna Godhania ,Samuel Kwok and Carlson Gracie Snr, Larry Hartsell and Rick Young. All have been amazing experiences. My brother has been to more seminars including the one by Dan Inosanto and one by Dan Lee. I will write more in depth about these seminars another time.

It is the love of the art that brought me to these seminars and the amount of Martial Arts I do. I don't do it because "I think wanna crack a few heads" (well living in Manchester UK you need to know to do that anyway!) I do it because of the love of the art as would people would do with their own hobbies and favourite sports.

It was the comments and blogs made by Lun, Chris and Chris LGM that made me think twice as to why I do Martial Arts,it's not the amount of classes I attend, martial arts is a whole way of life and how you can apply it in your daily living.

The grading for Warriors Eskrima is looming. I am going to manage my time next week and train at home and if I can, get some classes in. The picture is the insignia of Warriors Eskrima that I also have as my computer wallpaper at work to keep me motivated!

Thanks for reading
Kit

A lull

2006-02-22T20:27:00.000Z

Hi All

As this blog is about Martial Arts life and the life of someone who happens to do Martial Arts I thought I write this piece.

Yes I hit a lull, I have not trained in any Martial Arts since Saturday morning(attending the excellent Rick Young seminar at Steve Powell's JKD Chinatown Martial Arts Academy)(Thanks for the additional photo's Steve!) and not exercised since Monday(it was only 25 minutes or so in the gym too). My Mum isn't feeling well, so I have been home most evenings starting from last Friday.

I am taking a day off work tomorrow to take my Mum to see a doctor, family and health is so much more important than work in my opinion. Family first,always first...

Work itself? Demotivating at the moment. Hopefully it will get better and these times of negativity will probably make me a stronger person mentally, so I have heard and read of people in similar situations. But work is also how I make it,so I need to keep fighting my corner and not switch off mentally.

I need to pick myself again,I know some people reading this think "but it was only last Saturday I trained" Well I should be training every day to be honest. My morning routine has stopped. I have broken my own self promise/goal of training every day which is pretty crappy really. I have missed about 5 lessons(potentially 6) in the last 5 days.

But dammit I got a grading in April 9th, I got a charity run in May and I have a new goal which is to attend a Guro Dan Inosanto seminar hopefully this year. Yes I got to train like a maniac for all these things. I need to re-start my own training routine and practice what I know at home. If I am not fit enough to look after my Mum and my Dad for that matter I won't be much use. Time management is key. I shall try and attend Warriors Eskrima on Friday if my Mum is feeling better but as I said family always first.

Lun is working in Canada at the moment please read his blog!

I leave you with a picture of me(pretending to be a tough guy..:)) at Rick Faye's Lake Owen Wisconsin Summer camp almost 4 years ago,one of the catalyst's that began my re-entry into Martial Arts and something to remind myself of a good time in my life.

Keep training all,I am going to restart at home tomorrow!

Feeling motivated after writing
Kit.

Rick Young Seminar

2006-02-18T21:41:00.000Z

Lun and I attended a Rick Young seminar held at Steve Powell’s today. It was a great seminar! We did knife work, groundwork, dumog (Filipino wrestling and focus mitt drills. Please click here to read more about Rick Young.

Martial Art seminars are a totally different animal to a regular lesson. During the seminar the instructor will ask the audience what they want to do or it might be a totally specific seminar. Afterwards the instructor will cram the desired subject matters into four hours.
Other than the instruction, the instructor (in seminars that I have attended) is much more personable as he would also maybe relate past experiences to the techniques we were doing and have a Q & A session at the end.

My brother and I have been lucky enough to attend seminars by instructors who are amazingly skilled but matching their skill is their humbleness. I believe being humble and kind is an amazing attribute that these instructors have and something I aspire to. Its not all about how good you are and what you are graded at a high level, it’s about what kind of person you are as well.

Again this kindness can be mistaken for weakness and right now I may have painted a soft picture of Rick Young. There is another side though he mentioned the street fights he had relating to the technique we were doing (and not because he was showing off) and how that we need to turn into animals if people try to harm your family. But above all he was a very humble man and thanked us all for coming and seemed genuinely sincere when shaking everyone’s hand at the end.

As a student of Guro Dan Inosanto, he was asked what it was like. Rick told us all about how sincere and humble Dan Inosanto is. He mentioned how amazingly skilled Dan Inosanto and he is a great inspiration. He also mentioned Roger Gracie and how he would ask about his wife and kids even though he had a big fight the following night. This shows that they have such a strong character where they can be powerful yet humble.

There were over 30 people in the club today an awesome turnout. There were some people I didn’t recognise but most of the advanced class people attended. As I mentioned seminars are different animals to lessons, as there is so much information to take in. The best way to remember is to practice straight away and write it down, however we purchased 2 DVD’s of Rick Young’s (which will also help!). Steve Powell also kindly took some pictures for my brother and I to use on our blogs. Thanks Steve! A great day of Martial Arts!

My week in Martial Arts: February 13th 06 to February 17th 06

2006-02-18T00:33:00.000Z

Hey all

Another busy week of Martial Arts and busy week for me at work…Shall I break the mould and talk about my week at work…Nah!I’ll talk about the Martial Arts! Let’s forward my week to Wednesday, Lun and I just finished Karl’s and we went to Steve Powell’s. We first had to get money from an ATM machine and we bumped into LGM Chris who also needed some money. As we walked down the busy streets of Manchester Piccadilly towards the ATM machine, I noticed this youth begging for money on the streets. The youth however was being very abusive to people as they were walking past and clearly looked like someone who was off his head on drugs.

As the three of us walked past, he shouted “You f**king chin*s” and some other abuse towards us. We just laughed; it was funnier because LGM Chris was with us and as far as I know doesn’t look Chinese. Plus Lun and I have heard that expression used against us so many times before. When we got our money we came back past the abusive begging youth, who did not give us abuse but still begged. We didn’t give him money and didn’t think anything of it during the lesson. If I were younger I would imagine the abusive youth as one of the focus mitts I was hitting, but I didn’t.

There are 2 sides to this coin, one side are people who genuinely need help and the other side are crazy smack head youths who just use the money to fund their own addictions. That day was the bad side of the coin and reminded me a lot of the Chinese take-away/chippy my parent’s owned and where my brother and I helped out in after college or work. We used to get crazy youths all the time and louts my Dad and brother mainly kicked out.

Eventually to quote Bruce Lee's character in Enter the Dragon my brother employed more of the art of fighting without fighting. I remember once how Lun calmly told this asshole who was making trouble that “Its nice to be nice isn’t it?”. This calmed the asshole down in such a state he was feeling sorry for himself. I remember when I was about 22 or something and some kid came in smacking shop door wide open, swearing and shouting. I instantly asked how old he was and he shouted “19 HOW OLD ARE YOU?” I told him 22 and said “It’s good to act your age sometimes isn’t it?” and he quietly agreed and calmed down after that. There are many more stories from the chippy, My brother and I could write a whole book on the Golden Star (the name of our takeaway).

Monday my brother and I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym. We did all kinds of stand up boxing and all kinds of clinch wrestling moves. Wrestling truly uses up a lot of energy, as you are grappling to get into a more dominant position. Karl taught everyone several techniques so that we could start on them straight away in a class. It was a very good class. At the end of the lesson Karl couldn’t stress enough how important these basics were and it was important for us to know.

Tuesday I did Capoeira. The beginners came in again and I was asked to oversee some of them which was cool. Kim and Pat who have been coming for over a month now are coming along fine. The other beginners Maria and Charles have just started and because Maria wasn’t getting a move right I had her practice the Ginga step which is the basic Capoeira stance/movement. Not as punishment but so she could get the basics first.

Wednesday was a cool day, although I was knackered from the night before and really doubted if I can do a lesson at Karl’s let alone Steve’s afterwards. Karl’s class was again taken by a guy called Glynn and Tom who assisted. They were very good instructors, again we did some boxing techniques and some grappling. My energy was slowly coming back but I was still knackered.

After the lesson I was knackered (again). Lun suggested that we could do Steve’s the following day but I couldn’t because I was helping out my mate Paul with some database work.

Steve Powell’s JKD class was packed around 24-25 people maybe more. We did focus mitt work and some trapping techniques. Focus mitt work is so good for fitness and co-ordination. We did several focus mitt combinations, a typical one would be a right round house kick, right cross and left hook and another right round house kick what we might call a four count. Then we would do a left round house kick left hook right cross and then add the previous drill to make a 7 count. We then build from there and add different combo’s its a lot of fun.

I was still tired out though but in the middle of the drills I felt totally comfortable and relaxed but I was training harder. It’s a very strange feeling to describe but the training made me feel good. I think people who do Martial Arts or any exhaustive exercise will understand that there is a “feel good factor” at the end. I have read that these could be endorphins but I think that is still being debated.

Steve Powell showed Lun and I a trapping trick that Bruce Lee used to do to Larry Hartsell. It was very fast and cool. It was overall a great lesson at Steve’s. We also saw Chris , LGM (also called Chris), Greg Hall. and Rick there.

Sorry there are not many pictures for this week (the picture of the eskrima lesson in this post is from a couple of weeks ago), as I couldn’t make Warriors Eskrima on Friday as I had to see my Mum. I shall make it next week as I really need to step my training in Warriors Eskrima and for my run (which I really need to start training for!) Tomorrow though I shall do another update as I am going to a Rick Young seminar with Lun!

Thanks
Kit!

My week in Martial Arts: February 6th 06 to February 10th 06

2006-02-11T02:13:00.000Z

Hi All

Another week of Martial Arts and another target to work to. The date April 9th, the grading; level 6 Warriors Eskrima which is equivalent to a black belt. Simon has now booked this with our head instructor Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhania If we pass this Lun, Mike and I can become apprentice instructors in this art. So if I pass this, does this mean the journey is over and I can go off and ride into the sunset? Nah, it begins then and to be honest I would like it to be endless.

“How’s your asthma, are going to Karl’s tonight?” I texted my brother on Monday afternoon. “Its not that good but we can do it” Lun wrote back. “Lets go gym instead” I suggested. As the Straight Blast Gym requires constant movement it wasn’t wise for my brother to go if his asthma wasn’t great. So we went to the gym instead and did some weights.

As the gym we use is within Salford University, the gym was packed with students. Unusually busy… probably because the winter exams are over, give it a few weeks and most of them will probably “too busy” to train. Being packed we had to make do with what was available to use, however we did practice our Eskrima which was cool. I also did some running to prepare for the great run

Speaking of my brother check out his blog. Lun wrote about when my parents owned a Chinese Chippy (which is to readers that are not from the UK is a Chinese take out that also sells Fish and Chips). We had our fair share of troublemakers there as our Chippy was in the middle of a bunch of pubs. There were occasions when they come out drunk cause trouble and we used to chuck them out (more so my Dad and brother!).

Tuesday I was the main demo guy for my Capoeira Instructor as we had two new beginners. We did an exercise where Danny and I had to kick at the students and they had to dodge or the term in Capoeira is to escape. The defence portion of Capoeira is a very integral part and it’s important for the new people to learn. The lesson was basic because of the new people but as always the game was intense.

Wednesday we went to the Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym. Karl wasn’t there today. A guy called Glynn (apologies if the name is spelt incorrectly) took the class. I have partnered up with Glynn on several occasions during training when Karl was there and he is a very good Martial Artist. The class was great as we did some boxing sparring and some stand up wrestling techniques.

Later Lun and I took the 5 minute or so walk down to Steve Powell’s JKD class. Before the lesson Lun asked Steve if it was alright to take some pictures, Chris kindly took one of Steve, Lun and I. Unfortunately the camera that my brother recently purchased had a bad habit of blurring a picture even though you know you took a perfectly fine one! Doh !better luck next time!

It was an awesome lesson; we did focus mitt work and hubud. You can literally spend hours on focus mitt drills as there are so many variations. It was great to see Chris , LGM (also called Chris) and Greg Hall. It was jammed packed and Steve Powell was again really funny. He is also very knowledgeable regarding the old school kung fu movies and its stars he mentioned Hwang Jan Lee (the bad guy from Jackie Chan’s Snake in the Eagle Shadow and Drunken Master). Lun asked when Greg’s next DVD was coming out as we thought the first one was cool. We spoke to Chris who is enjoying his freedom (from his job he quit) and LGM who along with Chris recommended me to watch Bill Hicks.

Thursday I had a rest.

Friday was Warriors Eskrima day. Simon purchased some cool fencing masks. The wire mesh of the mask was really hard and if you press down on the mesh it would probably cut you. We used them however for soft stick sparring. Before that though we did some hubud, palakaw and palakaw free style stick sparring and I had to teach a beginner the roof block drill.

The sparring was awesome as we had the added option of bashing each other over the head. As we used soft sticks the masks offered a lot of protection so we can go full force with the sticks. It also gave us a new dimension to our sparring. As Simon pointed out that they were some strikes that we wouldn’t have used if we didn’t have the masks on.

All in all another good week, the only thing I let myself down was the running in the mornings which I will do this coming week.
Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading.
Kit!!!!!

My week in Martial Arts: January 30th 06 to February 3rd 06

2006-02-04T01:59:00.000Z

Hi All

Although we had good week in Martial Arts training, my brother and I were sad to hear the passing of Carlson Gracie Sr who was one of the most prominent figures in Jiu Jitsu and the Martial Arts World. My brother Lun and I were lucky enough to attend a joint seminar with Samuel Kwok that he held in Manchester England 2 years ago.

Ironically I recently mentioned in this entry that we purchased the DVD of the seminar. It was a great experience for my brother and I in our first every BJJ class/seminar to be taught by such a prominent figure. He was very enthusiastic about Martial Arts and although he had limited English he was very friendly and funny. With a couple of assistants and a translator he took the time to oversee and give advice to everyone at the seminar while we were practising including my brother and I. The picture above is from my Carlson Gracie Sr T-shirt that I purchased from the seminar. The Jiu Jitsu and the Martial Arts world has lost another great.

This week my brother and I returned to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym. We did a lot of clinch work and defences against the clinch. The defence was when someone was trying to grab your neck but you shrug them off with your shoulder and swat their arm away. There was more to the clinch work as we worked various entries and used the whizzer, which is a defence arm lock\take down type manoeuvre. It was a very good lesson.(The picture shown is clinch work sparring being used in Warriors Eskrima by our instructor Simon and Ray)

Tuesday was Capoeira day. It was cool, we did cartwheel’s over each other and played the game as well as learning kick sequences. We had a small class again Ken was there and a beginner called Pat who usually trains with Kim who couldn't make it.

I suggested to our instructor we print off some leaflets for the beginners. Like a glossary for some of the Capoeira terms as sometimes it’s difficult to pick up the names of the moves. Well I am going to write it out as he asked me to do it. Me and my big mouth….but I shall enjoy writing it and probably have to do some illustrations for the moves.

Again the conversation of Martial Arts popped up at work. I was explaining why I did Eskrima to my most senior manager. “But why Filipino style?” he asked. I told him it was very effective but I also told him that it the Filipino arts are also used in Jeet Kune Do. It’s very interesting when explaining different Martial Arts to the laymen.

Wednesday we were back at Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym. It was another great lesson as we did some jab, cross and hook combinations and then some stand up wrestling work. It was great workout again.

Again we couldn’t make it to Steve Powell’s JKD class, I have to redouble my efforts to try and get there next week. I feel disappointed that I couldn’t make it this week. I really to practice my punching and start their Eskrima system but the timing has not been good this past week.

Before I forget as I didn’t mention this last week my work colleague Wellington is part of this club and asked me to plug this British stick fighting club. Both are very interesting sites.

Thursday went to the gym did some benching and worked on upper body, we saw Simon Campion and bench pressed with him. My brother and I also practiced some knife work and did some of the stuff from Karl’s. We also spoke to a Chinese guy called Simon who trains there regularly, he was telling us some cool stories of Masters Chu’s lion dance club and the fact that he and two others including his brother were at one time the only 3 Chinese practicing the Chinese art of Lion dancing at that club. In retrospect I wish my brother and I gave that class a try. I do find it sad that there are not a whole lot of British Born Chinese like me are not into Martial Arts these days, considering we all watched a load of cool Hong Kong actions films as kids. There are a few of them like my brother and I, Ray who goes to Eskrima, Wellington and one of the instructors at Karl Tanswell who my brother and I have yet to talk to but I am sure we will one day. Maybe I am wrong but I don’t see other guys carry on like you see some kids who turn into adults still playing five a side football/soccer.

Friday was Warriors Eskrima day. We did a 15 minute warm up work out and Simon wrote a list of exercises for me to practice so I could do it in the morning. During the work out we did press ups, squats and various other warm ups.
My sit ups were pathetic though as I wasn’t doing them fast enough so I need to work on them. We did some stick disarms, locks roof block drills and then we did some single stick sparring techniques. We also did some clinch work and my brother and I knife sparred.

All in all a varied week of training, next week will be one heck of a training week for me as I prepare for the Manchester great run in May I am going to incorporate running training into my work out. Again enjoy the pictures.
Thanks
Kit

Chinese New Year

2006-01-29T22:18:00.000Z

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Hi All

Happy New Year!
Went to Manchester Chinatown today trying to catch the Year of the Dog celebrations, Lun and I however arrived late so we managed to only get a handful of pictures. We just caught one Lion dance and there was as usual a Chinese variety show featuring traditional singing, comedy and magic acts(I am sure there was more but we missed the Martial Arts portion in today’s festivities..:( ). As Manchester's Chinatown is the second biggest after London it was very crowded and atmospheric.

In one of my previouse posts I mentioned that I will include a set Chinese New Year goals for myself.
Well they are pretty much the same as my New Year goals.
However I like to add.
(Starting from goal 6 continued from these goals)

6) Helping others as much as I can:
When I say help others as much as I can it means helping somebody that I know I am capable of helping. For example if someone asks me a question on something I know or ask me to do something I have done before I will try and help that person out. I guess you can say that this is similar to a previous goal but this more like being helpful to people in general as well as family and friends.

7) Doing something positive and new.
Be it Martial Arts or something else I will want to participate in something I haven’t done before. Having said that I have entered the Great Manchester Run to be held in May. I am not a runner and don’t particularly enjoy it but if I take up running it gives me another avenue to keep fit and healthy. In addition the run is for a good cause.

I am sure I will have more to add as the year progresses/

I wish all a safe and happy Chinese New year.

Thanks for reading

My week in Martial Arts: January 23rd 06 to January 27th 06

2006-01-28T00:53:00.000Z

"Adversity is Beneficial to us- Prosperity is apt to prevent us from examining our conduct: but adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is beneficial to us"-Bruce Lee From the book Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee’s Wisdom for Daily Living Tuttle Publishing.

I started with that quote as an inspiration for some people going through tough times. I know some people reading this blog are going through tough times professionally and I would like to address them, as I too can identify with them. I go through peaks and troughs at work (last year was mostly troughs). That’s when I had to do something about it.

I had to do something because my confidence was waning. I was beginning not to believe in myself because I was feeling down in my job. So one of the things I did was write this blog, I wrote it as a release and to maybe inspire people and give similar people something to read. This is one of the best things I have ever done so far. I have encouraged people who were thinking about joining a club to actually attend a Martial Arts lesson, I have had emails from all over the World and the biggest accolade is that several of my instructors and family and friends read my blog. In fact for the first time in my life I found that what I did outside of work was more mentally fulfilling. People who have known me a long time knew that I used to stay behind at my (old) work place until late and commit myself to the job. But now I am committing myself to practicing the various Martial Arts and writing my blog after work. I only commit myself to my job in the workplace and that’s it.

I would like to write that “and since then my job improved and I got promoted” but no since then it’s been only slightly different in work. Peaks and troughs, like before but it’s different now because probably I am maturing into the role. Today is mostly peaks and troughs, but now more peaks then usual. But I am not going to rest until I successfully fight out of my corner. By doing more positive things outside work is helping my performance in work… a lot.

To all those facing adversity now, it’s all happening for a reason. It’s happening because adversity is asking you to look in the mirror and ask a bunch of questions. It’s happening because your heart is telling you something else. It’s happening because you don’t belong where you are and it’s up to you to break out or fight for your place. Everything is happening for a reason, think about what’s going on now and think about the future and where you really want to be. But at the same time don’t dwell on adversity, harness and channel it and turn it into something positive.

If you take Bruce Lee for example, the adversity he must have taken from TV executives who didn't beleive a chinese actor could make it, the adversity from the old school Gung Fu master who opposed his ideas of teaching westerners his art. He overcame all that because the above quote was one of his wisdoms. Find out what you really want to do in life and be truly, something absolutely you are truly happy doing so much that you wish you did what you did 7 days a week rather than hating 5. That’s my ultimate ideal and I hope to all those feeling down ,you will find yours.

I had to deviate from the usual weekly blog format because this week I couldn’t get to Steve Powell’s JKD class or Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym and I needed to write that for my own release and some of the readers of my blog. However read on for this week’s adventures!

This week I only had two lessons; Tuesday I had Capoeira class with Danny Henry, yes I was used as “demo boy” again, demonstrating various moves with Danny. But luck would have it that Ken also showed up who has been practicing longer than me. So we shared demo duties although Danny split the class up so Ken and I did some advanced stuff, while the beginners did the basics. While playing the game I noticed two new girls have vastly improved. It’s cool when people can pick up an art fast.

Wednesday I couldn’t make it to Karl’s due to the fact I needed to be at home, so I updated my blog and yes I did feel that horrible empty feeling you get when you don’t train. Thursday, Lun was unfortunately out with a bad back and I couldn’t get to Steve Powell’s due to the fact that I had to be home earlier so I went to the gym. I bumped into my Eskrima instructor Simon, I sneaked up on him, well stood right behind him when he was talking to the gym receptionist.

After some what surprising him (and it’s a good thing he hasn’t got a bad temper) Simon asked “Wanna do some gym with me”. I eventually agreed and being the fitness fanatic he has become (working on campus enables him to go gym twice a day) he put me through some rigorous gym work topped off by a run (which completely knackered me). “That will teach ya to sneak up on me”, it certainly did.

Friday was Warriors Eskrima day, we did hubud, single stick drills and I was going through the sumbrada drill with Ray-who is technically a beginner but fights like an advance guy, we also did 2 on 1 disarms and locks. It was a great lesson. Lun also attended but his back still gave him slight problems. Get better soon Lun!

So only two lessons and a crazy gym day this week, hopefully next week is going to be better. I left my DV camera at home this morning so the action pictures today were taken by my mobile. The first picture is of me filming a class (which I didn’t do today!) but I do almost every week.

Keep training and enjoy the pictures!
Kit!

A Mini Update: Goals and Resolutions followed up!

2006-01-25T21:01:00.000Z

If you read at the beginning of the year you will see a bunch of goals and resolutions I have made for myself.

Well I am almost month in and thought I let you know on my progress, plus it's to remind myself.

1-GET FIT!
Positives:
In terms of exercise, so far so good, I have cut down almost all sugary drinks from my diet and moved around better in my classes. I have exercised almost every morning primarily with squats. So far I have managed to squeeze 3 to 4 classes a week and get to the gym almost every week (although I might only get two classes this week-more on this on Friday.)

Each of my classes, Steve Powell’s JKD class , Warriors Eskrima, Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym and Danny Henry’s Capoeira class : have all seemed to have cranked up the intensity a notch which is great for fitness! My brother and I also train at home when we get the chance (as you see from the pictures some of which are from last year, the one with me hitting the tyres with my sticks is from Rick Faye’s gym.)However my weight is still the same not put on any or lost any. My diet not really changed apart from cutting out sugary drinks and cut down on little snacks and replacing them with fruit.

2-LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY!
I have learnt mostly home improvement stuff and DIY things for future projects on the house. Most of these projects however are in the summer. I found Wikipedia a good source to learn something new each day.

3-TRY AND MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR OTHERS
I try and do this every day I try to be aware of what’s going on. So far so good, I have helped out my family with a few things. I don’t keep a list of what I have done because its second nature for me to treat my family well, so it comes naturally. I just got to be more aware and conscious of the people I care about and not switch off and also not switch off on my friends either.

4)-READ MORE BOOKS
Well I am reading all about Filipino Martial Art history at the moment. I need to as there are so many different styles! The book is called “Filipino Martial Arts” by Dan Inosanto, we have had that book for a long time and I have only read parts of it but I am now reading it properly. I am also reading “Filipino Martial Culture” by Mark V Wiley which is very well researched.

5)- DO MORE FILMING
I am currently editing a special 2005 Eskrima class DVD, eventually I am going to put some copyright free music on the final version but so far I have Rage Against the Machine and Wu Tang Clan on the soundtrack to some Eskrima action for my rough copy. I think it suits it.

So that’s it so far. It will be Chinese New Year on the 29th of January; does this give me an advantage to set new goals for the Chinese New Year? It sure does! I am going to plan another set of goals for Chinese New Year!

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures!
Kit

My Week in Martial Arts continued....Saturday 21st Jan 06

2006-01-21T18:05:00.000Z

Maybe I should hold out writing my blog till Saturday, as today I went to Steve Powell’s Weapons lesson with my brother Lun who was itching to get back. Saw Greg Hall there who gave my Hong Kong Phooey T shirt I was wearing for training a thumbs up! Chris was there as well as LGM (who in reality is also called Chris but he uses that name to avoid confusing with him with his friend).
During the lesson, my brother and I picked up the things similar to our own system but the system here has different drills. In the Warriors Eskrima we do variations of heaven six but at Steve’s we did variations of the heaven six into other combinations, for example thrusting, umbrella and double wrapping. We also did other double stick drills that were all fun but for my brother and I we will have to work on them. Heaven Six is a stick drill comprising of six strikes using two sticks. Click on this link to Steve Powell’s JKD site to read more about the heaven six drill.

I will practice these drills as much as possible with my brother as its good to widen your knowledge of different arts. The stuff that was new to me I couldn’t pick up straight away so it’s just a matter of lots of practice but it was another great work out and I am glad I went.

Steve was really funny today; he knows all the best Cantonese words (the rude ones). It’s good to train hard in a fun atmosphere!
Thanks for reading!
Keep Training
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: January 13th 06 to January 20th 06

2006-01-21T00:32:00.000Z

Hi All

Friday: 6.50 pm the car clock glared, this was the time I was on the motorway on the way to Warriors Eskrima …. “I am going to miss it.” I thought to myself “Damn it” I had just been in a meeting with my most senior manager which made me late for the class but it was a necessary meeting.

I walked onto the viewing area above the court and started filming the lesson for screenshots in my work clothes, I didn’t feel like it drained from my meeting and the frustration of being late sapped my enthusiasm….Simon shouted “You not coming down Kit?” I replied “Nah, we only got ten minutes or so”
I then went downstairs and filmed about 5 minutes before my urges took over so I went got changed…….

Well what a week as reported earlier I went to the gym, Karl Tanswell’s class and Capoeira this week before getting the old leg pull. On Sunday I went to the gym with Lun and we did bench press and worked biceps and shoulders. We also did some stick sparring techniques that we learnt the previous Friday. In fact we made sure we had a good work out as Lun had to travel out for work again but only for a week.

Monday, I went to a Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym which was great. I trained with this guy called Carl, who helped me out a lot on technique we did punching combinations and guards into a
clinch entry. Again it was very good how Karl built up the lesson slowly from the first part of which would lead up to the final technique.

“How’s your fitness Kit?” Karl asked, as he might have noticed I was out of breath on one or two occasions but not more so than I used to. “Its OK its good to train with different partners to keep up the fitness” Karl coolly replied “Yeah, I am with ya, bro”. It’s great to get feedback and talk a bit with your instructors at the end of the lesson.

Tuesday Capoeira!It was great to be back and to be playing the game. I was used as the demo guy as Danny Henry was showing various moves to two new students. We practiced defences and some complex attacks. The two new girls picked a lot of the moves..but I also picked up a leg pull.

I felt it a bit during the lesson but really felt at work the next day towards the end of work. Therefore I took a rest on Wednesday. I spoke to Wellington a colleague who I said practices Aikido in my last blog, correction not only does he practices but he is an actual instructor in Aikido. This means my work place has a TKD instructor and one Aikido instructor; hopefully I can join them as an Eskrima Instructor this year.

Even though I am on the path of becoming an instructor in one style in Warriors Eskrima I must gain more knowledge in other systems of Eskrima. Therefore I am going to go to Steve Powell’s Eskrima class on Saturdays as many times as possible as well as carrying on my regular Eskrima class.

Thursday I decided to rest my leg or I would have gone to Steve Powell’s JKD class. However I spent most of the night trying to dry the carpet floor as my water based punching bag “Everlast Power Tower” sprung a leak…doh!

….7.10pm at the Warriors Eskrima class on Friday, I just got changed and missed the majority of the lesson. However Simon and I did some Palakaw freestyle stick sparring. It was awesome because Simon kind of flew at me with a bunch of moves that made me work harder. We did some empty hand vs. Stick and we also did some empty hand and some focus mitt work. I worked hard for fifty minutes or so (Simon added about half an hour onto the lesson) and had a great work out, one I thing I will say about tonight is that I really need to work on my punches when hitting the focus mitts.. Again I need to practice the power stuff that I learnt at Steve Powell’s .

So what was turning to be a quiet week in Martial Arts turned out to be a good week
“See, you got a good work out it’s a good thing you joined us in the end” Simon told me.
“Yeah it was great” I replied.

Please enjoy pictures all from the Warriors Eskrima class and take care!

Keep Training Kit!

Ouch! Mini Update!

2006-01-18T19:53:00.000Z

Hi All this is my first mini update of the new year! I was meant to be at Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym but I am having a rest tonight read on to find out why!

First things first! Please check out my brothers blog which has cool pictures and a new article entry and Chris who has some great new pictures of Steve Powell’s class. Gareth a great friend of mine who is trying to quit smoking and a blog from LGM a friend of Chris who has made some cool comments on my blog.

The lessons have taken their toll on my leg.
It had to happen sooner or later but thankfully not too serious just a slight muscle pull in my left leg that I picked up in Capoeria last night. I am mobile as in I can walk but I decided to have a rest today as I don’t want to aggravate it any further to jeopardise any future lessons. Plus I didn’t feel anything wrong this morning it’s just when I stood up and walked around at work I felt it.

Despite having this muscle pull I do feel emptiness within in me when I miss a lesson. Like when all your friends are playing out when you are young and you can’t for whatever reason..its that same kind of feeling!

All this being said I have so far had a good week in keeping fit and training thus far. I went to the gym with my brother Lun on Sunday and did a heavy set of weights and we practiced our Eskrima. I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym on Monday and did a great training session. As Lun is abroad working my partner was this guy called Carl who is nearly the same build as Lun. As being more experienced it was good to observe his movements and his technique which were great! More on this lesson on Friday.

Tuesday I went to Capoeira my first in nearly a month or so. It was a great lesson although I did go overboard a bit (as did my instructor) hence the muscle pull…again I will give a better report of this on Friday night/Saturday morning. In the mean time please enjoy the picture of a berimbau one of the main instruments of Capoeira!

Keep training
Kit!

My week in Martial Arts: January 8th 06 to January 13th 06

2006-01-14T01:51:00.000Z

Hi All! this is a long blog as it has been a very Martial Art themed week….Today I am knackered.

“Err the gym closes at 3.30pm” I told my brother on Sunday in the foyer of the Salford University Tom Husband leisure centre. It wasn’t the start to the week we wanted. I did get a good work out though; Lun thought it was too short. We did however more than make up for it after the week was done. Later my brother found pictures from our old ChoShin Kai karate days, when I say old I mean 1984-85 when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I can’t tell what belt (because the picture is in black and white) I was, I think I was orange belt then, but that class was upstairs in a pub. The picture is of me sparring against my mate Barkery who I believe is working in the radio industry. If you come across this blog Barks give us a shout.

Monday morning 50 Hindu Squats, I still need to add my routine in the morning, however so far it’s going well. Monday evening we went to Karl Tanswell’s straight blast gym. Karl was easing us into the New Year by asking us to take it easy at it was our first time back since last month, but we still went through a lot of techniques mainly jabbing and crossing and still a cool work out. We also learnt a cool defensive technique. It was also the debut of our new boxing gloves and my mouth guard in sparring!

Tuesday I had a rest well I did my Hindu squats and watched Tom Young Goong the latest film from Tony Jaa. The stunts and fights are awesome and very well done. Bizarrely it didn’t make me want to train more as I train anyway and I saw it as a great piece of entertainment but I think it will inspire people to take up Martial Arts.

Wednesday end of work, a colleague mentioned he was going to do Tae Kwon Do that night. One of the managers at my workplace Alan Mather runs a TKD school in which he was going to. I told him I also use to go; (as I did a few lessons when I first joined my company) the guy asked me “Why’d I stop?” I simply replied “Oh I do other things now”.

Later that night, I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym class Lun had to spend time with his wife Sue that night.
It was a great lesson we expanded on jabbing and crossing techniques ,did a boxing blast which is throwing jabs and crosses while moving with the foot work and did some take downs. As always a great workout. Karl mentioned my fitness level was up,that was great compliment but I know I still got a long way to go.

“Have you guys ever been to an ATG seminar” I asked the brothers Carl and Chris who trains regularly at Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym “Yeah it’s really good! Really knackering but really good” Basically ATG is open to members of the Straight Blast Gym and a 4 hour training session held every month. I am considering going but I still have not started any Jiu Jitsu training as of yet.

Thursday at work, I spot a Book of Five Rings on another colleague’s desk. The colleague is called Wellington Tsang, it turns out that he does Akido and was trading books with Alan Mather. We talk at length, its interesting to talk to someone who does a different art.

A seminar my brother and I will be attending for sure is Rick Young’s seminar at Steve Powell’s JKD class We went to a seminar of his last year and it was great. The JKD class itself was on Thursday and it was awesome!!! We carried on with some stop hit kick techniques and did some awesome focus mitt work. The holder (of the mitts) would throw some punches and at you and then the other person would use various destruction techniques to take out the punching arm or catch or block the punch. The holder will then throw a kick and the opposing person would block and then do a what’s called a four count, the holder would hold the mitts for one round house to one side then jab ,cross or hook combo’s and then another round house kick to the other side. That was just one combo of several we did that night.

One great thing about Steve's class is that he can always make my brother and I laugh. Steve knows some words and phrases in Cantonese, some are quite funny phrases. He told us a funny story about him ordering in Cantonese at a restaurant in Chinatown but the waiter didn’t understand him because he only spoke Mandarin! Well that works against us as well because my brother and I only know Cantonese (not a lot but enough to order at a restaurant!) It was a great workout; however I still need to brush up on my body mechanics.

Friday-you know what? I am beginning to think I should have wrote a daily blog for this week!- “Have you sparred with Wellington yet?”Alan Mather jokes as he catches me on the stairs at work. He then tells me that The Book of Five Rings he traded with Wellington was the same book but by different translators and the literal translation was different. That’s really interesting as it makes me wonder how many books have been translated this way.

Warriors Eskrima was a great lesson we worked on our cardio. Part of this was pad work as shown in the pictures above. We did a lot of conditioning and in between our conditioning exercises we had to run around the squash court in between exercises. We then did several sparring techniques, including empty hand sparring, kicking and grapping and also did some stick sparring techniques. Tonight, it was only my brother and I, but instructor Simon Campion made us work hard. We have to get better at our conditioning to enable us to get ready for our grading which is soon, tonight was a great step in the right direction.

To top it all off the Samuel Kwok/Calson Gracie Double Impact Seminar DVD arrived, the significance of this?My brother and I attended the seminar along with our friend Andy Timmins way back in February 2004..We feature in it doing some BJJ(looking clueless because we never did any BJJ prior to that day!) Anyway you can check out the DVD here It was a great seminar one half Wing Chun, the other half BJJ.

A very eventful week in the World of Martial Arts for me! Thanks for reading, I am going to try and manage my blog better next week!

Kit!

My week in Martial Arts: January 2nd 06 to January 6th 06

2006-01-07T00:52:00.000Z

Tuesday morning 6.45A.M I was feeling knackered but it was time for work. Monday was a bank holiday here in the UK so it was time to get up early Tuesday. Having got changed I felt that I was going to fall into the same routine washing and getting changed is followed closely by breakfast and rushing to work.“Pick yourself up, Kit” I told myself and then did 50 Hindu squats before breakfast. I felt much better for it as it was what I planned for that morning setting off a pattern for the rest of the week. After work we planned and went to JKD.

“HING DAI!” was the familiar friendly greeting from our instructor Steve Powell when he saw my brother and I at his JKD class. “Hing Dai” means “brothers” in Cantonese. Yes my brother and I returned to Steve Powell’s JKD class and we hope to keep it up this year. This had been our first actual class with Steve Powell for a few months due to the fact that we haven’t been in a while and the last class we attended was taught by Greg Hall. It was great to see him and it was also awesome to hear that Steve reads Lun’s blog and my own blog.
I feel honoured that he reads our blogs and will promise to keep on blogging.

It was also cool to see Chris for the first time since I discovered he too writes a blog. We talked briefly about the blogs and it was great to finally talk to him. He was also used as the main demo guy when Steve Powell had to show us some moves. If an instructor has to choose a person as a demo guy that is a sign that the chosen guy or girl is really good at their art.

The class itself was great we learnt defence and counters to sidekicks from Jun Fan, Filipino and Silat disciplines. We also did a lot of exchanging kicks and punches. The lesson was without doing any pad work as Steve thought he would ease everyone back into training; however it was still a great and entertaining work out as we were exchanging some kicks for almost an hour. I personally enjoy both pad work and non pad work classes. The way I see is it is that when pads aren’t involved it’s more about skill and control and with pads or focus mitt sits still about skill but with the added power and speed.

Wednesday my brother and I went to the gym. It was the first time for me in the gym in the long time and we did a heavy set. We also worked some cardio on the running and bike machines.

Thursday was a rest day, Friday though was a return to Warriors Eskrima. It was a great lesson indeed. We did knife and stick disarms, empty hand sparring and practiced drills in preparation for a grading that could be happening in March. Tonight I was focused and pleased with the way I took the lesson, as sometimes you can have off days. Although I have to remain focused all the time.

It’s great when we focus on skills even though our last grading will comprise of different kinds of sparring. However the skills we learn will help us in our last grading as we were focusing on technique. We didn’t go to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym class this week and Capoeira is not on till the 17th. Other than that it was a very tiring week as it was busy at work but a great week in Martial Arts and exercise. I hope I can keep it up for the rest of the year.

Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading!
Kit!

Goals/Resolutions of 2006

2006-01-01T17:21:00.000Z

Happy New Year!
To celebrate the New Year, well the first thing I did in the morning was exercise I did 50 Hindu Squats and 50 roof blocks and 50 reverse roof blocks with my heavy sticks for each arm. I then did a light work out on the inflatable punch bag. Check out my brother’s by the way, Lun is posting more than ever (and they are good with plenty of pictures).

What better way to actually try and keep resolutions by publishing them on my blog. Then checking what I wrote today on January 1st 2007 to see if I was consistent with my resolutions. I am going to try and keep my resolutions this year, compared to other resolutions( such as smoking, the most common and broken one is people saying that they are giving up smoking) my resolutions/goals hopefully shouldn't be too hard plus I am glad I don’t smoke. These are more goals than resolutions and to elaborate on my Christmas post. .

1) GET FIT- I need to lose some weight. The most common thing for a lot of people (me included) is that they dwell on the problem and not the solution. I think the way forward is to recognise the problem and then concentrate on solutions. I recognised the problem why I am still slightly overweight is that I sit down at work all day by a PC and being through the Christmas period I have lots of junk food in the house. I also find I don’t eat at the right times (for example my supper will be late as a result of training after work which kinda defeats the purpose of training if you want to lose weight). That’s it, problems recognised over and done with, what I need to do to fight it is exercise every day and control what I eat and when I eat. This begins by exercising in the morning with only a few exercises and slowly building up the routine to add more. I will keep you updated on the progress.
2) LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY- As human beings we are probably doing this unconsciously every day anyway at work or at play. However my goal is to directly learn something new everyday be it any skill (Martial Arts, Work and Education among others). To consciously learn and retain the skill and make a log of it.
3) TRY AND MAKE LIFE BETTER FOR OTHERS- Although I am going to try and make this year “my year” as in making a better life for myself, I must not forget that if my family and friends need help I shall always be there for them and I will help my family as much as possible. I live near my parents for example who are retired and will need to watch out for them as they get older and just be conscious of things that they might need.
4) READ MY BOOKS- I read all kinds of books but I have several books that I read halfway and start another. For every book I have completed, there is a book I still haven’t completed or halfway through. This isn’t right at all! Its kind of trivial but kind of important to that I need to finish reading several books to go hand in hand with resolution number 2: LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY.
5) DO MORE FILMING- Another hobby and passion is film I bring my dv camcorder to every Eskrima lesson and I plan to film everything we have done in Eskrima with my brother to keep as reference points. This is more of a goal.

Well there you go my gaols/resolutions for 2006. Check back soon for my regular Martial Arts blog every Friday night/Saturday Morning.

Thanks for reading and happy new year.
Kit

More Pictures

2005-12-28T17:53:00.000Z

Hi All
As promised here are more stills/photos that were filmed/snapped over 2005. Please read latest post if you missed it. Enjoy the pictures.

Apart from the very last photo, all are from my Warriors Eskrima class.
Have a happy and safe new year
Kit

Christmas Post!

2005-12-26T23:17:00.000Z

Hope you all had a great Christmas!
There were no lessons for me last week, hence why there was no Friday update. So my brother and I trained at home(as in learning techniques from several DVD's) and I practiced some boxing on my new inflatable punch bag. Christmas however is a time for being with your family and meeting with old friends plus rushing around shopping that's what I have mainly been doing.

In an earlier post our Eskrima friend Mike humorously stated in reference to the pictures of the post “Another Lok Brothers Extravaganza!” Well guess what Mike this time it’s a Lok Brothers Christmas Extravaganza picture showcase! Actually it’s just mostly stills from what I filmed this year which I never got to post, not all of them are my brother and I. I realise I have a lot of pictures to post so I shall post some more later this week before the end of 2005.

You maybe wondering how come there are no pictures from Steve Powell’s or Karl Tanswell’s. Well this is because it’s not as easy to set up a camera in the class as those classes have a greater number in people and because of time restrictions I don’t want to disturb the flow of the class. In Eskrima and Capoeria I always have a bit of time to set up the camera which enables me to produce pictures of both.

Highlights of the year
Personally this year has been a bit crap, however in terms of Martial Arts it has been very enjoyable. Among the cool things in Martial Arts this year was (and this is in no particular order).

1) SENI 05: This is a Martial Arts Expo held in Birmingham UK each year. My brother, Simon (Eskrima Instructor), Timmins, Paul and Eskrima Paul all went and saw Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tourneys (before I started at Karl’s but I saw him and many of my current class there), a stunning display of Kalarippayat an Indian Martial Art, Capoeria displays, Eskrima displays by our own Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhaina and last but not least participated in a knife fighting workshop by again our Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhania.We also spent a lot of money buying Martial Arts gear. SENI 05 was awesome walking around it was like a who’s who of Martial Arts either demonstrating or promoting their school or gear. I have a couple of pictures displayed from this event although taken with my phone so the quality is not as good(these are shown). Next year I am taking the digital camera.

2) Steve Powell’s JKD class: After long absence well about 6 months my brother and I returned to JKD hopefully in the new year we shall continue to train there on a more consistent basis. Under JKD the highlights were training under Steve Powell again, attending a seminar with Rick Faye and having a lesson under Greg Hall.

3) Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym: The MMA Stand up fighting has helped me immensely in my sparring in Eskrima not only that but you are guaranteed a great work out here.

4) Warriors Eskrima.: It was great to go and train at Pangulong Guro Krishna Godhania house with Simon earlier this year. It was an eye opener and a good experience for me. Also getting my Level 5 grading was great!

5)Capoeira: It felt awesome to help make a DVD for teaching Capoeria to school kids.

6) This blog: I feel that this blog does motivate me and I am glad people read it. I have had emails from the US, Philippines, Europe and all over the UK. But what motivate me the most is when my family, friends and fellow Martial Artists read it. I like to say thank you to the Warriors Eskrima group as they have read my blog every week since its inception. I also like to give a shout out to Airah (who has her own blog that has nothing to do with Martial Arts but has always posted positive comments on mine) and Chris who does have a blog on Martial Arts and attends Steve Powell’s school. Last but not least my big brother Lun who always reminds me that “You haven’t updated my blog yet”.

Well that’s it, next year my goals are to start BJJ and grappling lessons and keep a better fitness regime at home. Yes I shall keep the blog updated and I WILL post more articles on it. I will try to keep the blog a bit more personal and not always go post about Martial Arts, sometimes I may feel need to write and therefore will post. As I intend to include blog the significant events of my life (don’t worry I won’t post the boring events!)

A big thank to you all for reading this year. Enjoy the first batch of 2005 pictures,I shall post more soon!
Have a happy and safe New Year
HAPPY NEW YEAR

KIT

My week in Martial Arts: December 12th to December 16th

2005-12-16T23:02:00.000Z

Hi All

Yup this week has been a total slacker week for me in terms of attending Martial Art lessons. I had only attended one class on Tuesday. However my brother comes back from California today and I will go through the lessons I had with Karl Tanswell and Warriors Eskrima from last week with him over the weekend.

On Monday I had to sort out a few documents with the car dealership as I was changing my car which prevented me from going to Karl Tanswell’s class . Tuesday though I went to Capoeira. One of the veterans of our class, Ken Pudsey returned. Ken’s another Martial Art nut like me as he does several Martial Arts and I have mentioned him in an earlier post.
Simon came to take some photos which will be posted at some point on the Flowdrills site.

Ken’s reasoning for returning was due to some personal problems and therefore he wanted to do something spontaneous and nothing strict or rigid. Capoeira is a very spontaneous art. Martial Arts in general is a great stress reliever and makes you forget about what problems you have. It builds self confidence and the more Ken does during this time the better.

As for the lesson itself because it was only Ken and I attending we did some advanced stuff, which involved multiple cartwheels into spinning kicks and some defensive manoeuvres. We did one side attacking, one side defending sparring. It was a very good workout and ended with playing the game. It was the last Capoeira class before Christmas.

If you look at the list of Martial Arts I attend which include JKD,Eskrima and Stand Up Fighting, you may find that Capoeira is the odd Martial Art out. The reason I do Capoeira is because it’s a totally different art from the others. There are a lot of great defensive movements and lot of kicks that are not really taught anywhere else. It also keeps me flexible and gives me a chance to learn about another culture.

Well Wednesday was my birthday and I became 29 years of age. On that same day I purchased a new car and went to a Foo Fighters concert. Yes I finally replaced my Vauxhall Corsa (pictured silver car) which I had for five years with a Vaxhall Astra (pictured). I have had many adventures with the Corsa going up and down the UK and it never really broke down on me in the middle of any journeys. The Foo Fighters was an awesome concert (pictured) they entertainingly turned every song they did into great big epics with longer guitar solos and even drum solos. It was a very good day apart from my brother was away but other than that it was cool. Some of their stuff makes great training music as well!

Today Friday I had to pick up my brother so therefore missing Eskrima. However his birthday present to me was an inflatable punch bag! I can’t wait to use it and it will be cool to practice some punching combinations I learnt at Karl's.

I shall try and work on some articles for this journal and hopefully attend more lessons next week!
Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading!
Kit