My week in Martial Arts: Oct 17th to October 21st

“Any questions?” Karl asks the Vale Tudo guys before my lesson. Vale Tudo is basically the “anything goes” which features stand up fighting, ground and grappling techniques all thrown together. This is the advance class and those guys and girls can really move and train hard, but when Karl asks if there are any questions it means the class is nearing its end and ready for the class that I attend to start “Stand Up 101” class. However that’s not how my week started. But I am sure Vale Tudo will somehow end up in this blog as part of my routine.


Well after last week’s solitarily lesson I made a bit of a come back this week. I was determined to get fit again and into the routine. I went for a short session at the gym with my brother, Lun we practiced some stand up fighting drills and some Eskrima as my brother couldn’t make the last two weeks lessons due to his wife’s operation Susan (who Lun is taking care of at the moment) and in the little time he had to spare we did what we could.

Tuesday I did Capoeria again we did some crazy techniques, such as a cartwheel kick into a sweep and played the game. Prior to moving our new venue we used to play Capoeria music through the CD but once playing the game (freestyle non contact Capoeira sparring) the remaining guys play live instruments.

Although the main instrument used in Capoeira is the Berimbau (which is resembles a bow but is a string instrument) is currently at my house and it’s a little awkward to carry in the car. However we use the Panderio which is a modified tambourine and the A-Go-Go a modified cowbell. It’s great as the guys holding the instruments control the tempo of the game.

Wednesday I went to Karl Tanswell’s gym for an hour of stand up fighting 101 (beginners). I remember seeing the timetable for the very first time prior to starting a lesson at Karl’s and saying to myself “One hour?is that it?” After I tried it out first time, I told my brother what a great workout that was in only one hour! This is because part of the philosophy of the Straight Blast Gym (Karl’s gym) is that it advocates constant movement. I was training the shoot and sprawl, for the uninitiated the shoot is a takedown similar to American Football or rugby tackles. The sprawl is the defence against the shoot. We train different variations of the sprawl and it was tiring but fun. I hope I can make more than one class next week.

Thursday was the gym day again with my brother for a short session. I did more cardio work in the gym as I wanted to increase my stamina as I felt I got a bit tired too easily last night.






Friday, of course was Eskrima day. As you can see I have an explosion of new pictures to make up for last week. Again we did some stick and knife disarms some sparring and incorporating grappling into the mix.

I felt that my sparring improved today as the workouts in Karl’s gym seems to improve my general posture. This was also Lun’s first lesson in about 2 weeks and if you look at the pictures,he's somehow involved in all the Eskrima action shots! It was a great energetic lesson to end the week.
I didn’t manage to get down to Steve Powell’s, this is because I am actually waiting for my brother for this one as we enjoy training that together.


All in all though a great week, please enjoy the pictures and please check back next week as I plan to do short updates and one big update at the end of the week. Please read my article below on training partners!(yup I finally written it!)

Thanks!
Kit