More Pictures

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!

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

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

My week in Martial Arts: December 5th to December 9th

Hi All

First of all a special shout out to my brother Lun who is currently working in California. Lun, I hope you will be back soon! I miss my brother!
Well another week of Martial Arts but only two lessons, however both of them were great. Pictured is Rick Faye’s Sunday Seminar Series Knife Training and Defence DVD that my brother ordered and arrived earlier this week.

Rick Faye is simply an awesome instructor and this seminar DVD is like being inside one of his classes and is very enjoyable indeed and very helpful. I am not sure if it is suited for beginners but if someone was unsure joining a Martial Arts class of fear of intimidation and atmosphere (much like some people I know who are afraid to join their local gyms for the same silly reasons) should watch a copy of this.

Speaking of the gym that’s where I went on Monday as I have not done a gym workout for a while. I needed to pick some weights up again and will try and find a more regular slot in the New Year to fit my schedule.

“Danny I can’t make it to Capoeira, my car broke down” I couldn’t believe it but my car broke down for the 2nd time in the space of three weeks. In addition it was exactly in the same spot outside near where I work and at the same time. So I was frustrated I missed the Capoeira class.

Wednesday I received an email from a friend of mine Paul Ratcliff I know he reads the blog and that’s why I mentioned him by name. Another Martial Art enthusiast he is a black belt in Karate, trained in JKD and was an integral part of our Capoeira. Unfortunately he can’t make lessons due to his work commitments but I hope he does return to Martial Arts as he is very dedicated.

Later that day I went to Karl Tanswell’s class . Again we broke down a stand up move into groundwork ending with grabbing the opponent’s legs to crash into the ground. Simply awesome. When I say break down the move I mean we practice the a few moves and then add some more moves and then finally or link it together.

Due to a visit to the dentist recently I decided to purchase a mouth guard. I brought two one for Lun and one for myself. Like Karl said “You don’t want your teeth knocked out don't you?”

Friday I received an email from another good friend of mine Gareth Gray who was feeling down as he just quit smoking. I immediately sent him an article I came across on Rick Faye’s site The article spoke of Sarah Kennedy an instructor now at the Minnesota Kali Group who initially used Martial Arts to deal with her depression. It’s very inspiring read for anyone feeling down. It also worked for my friend Gareth who emailed back telling me it was inspiring.


Later that night it was Warriors Eskrima time!We did a lot of conditioning work, which included step ups, sit up’s, leg raises, back raises, shadow boxing, stick conditioning and press ups. We then did some work on parrying punches and then we did some close quarter sparring stuff changing the scenario so we only had a little space to fight.


In addition we did knife vs empty hand sparring and stick vs empty hand sparring.
“I could see how training at Karl’s has improved your stance” Simon said during an empty hand sparring session. That was cool that I was incorporating other skills from different lessons and making it second nature, however when I slipped a punch I should have kept my guard up which Simon also spotted! We did some grappling work at the end of the lesson, I really need to work on my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (so far my brother and I have only attended one lesson at Karl’s due to scheduling conflicts)

Anyway that’s it for this week, as always enjoy the pictures and next week as I am off work until after Christmas in that time I hope to do more regular updates!

Kit

My week in Martial Arts: November 28th to December 2nd

Hi All

In an interview Bruce Lee held on a chat show called the Pierre Burton show in 1971. He was asked if he could repeat one of the lines he used in an episode of a sixties crime drama called Longstreet. In the series Bruce Lee was basically playing himself as a Jeet Kune Do Martial Arts instructor and therefore wrote most his own lines. With much charisma and enthusiasm Bruce Lee reiterated this piece of philosophical wisdom:
“..empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water, Now you put the water into a cup , it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes a bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash! Be water my friend”

The whole interview was shown on Channel Five here in the UK on Sunday and was very entertaining to watch. Bruce Lee was not only a break through Chinese actor, not only one of the most important Martial Artists of last century but an excellent philosopher. The way Bruce Lee effortlessly weaves his philosophy with Martial Arts was and still is massively influential. Just check out his quotes.

The interview kicked off my week in the World of Martial Arts. We went to Karl Tanswell’s class on Monday and the first thing to meet our eyes was a magnificent championship belt laid out on the counter that separates the waiting area from the training area. Karl announced that Rosie Sexton retained her Cage Warriors Fighting Championship Women title. She trains at Karl’s gym and is regarded as one of the best female fighters in the UK and possibly Europe. Lun and I haven't had much chance to talk to her as she trains in the more advanced classes. However it is quite cool training at the same place where Rosie trains and other great fighters under Karl. In fact it’s quite daunting because they are all so good at what they do!

On that day we trained variations on jabbing and crossing. Learning how to slip and dodge effectively. There was a lot to pack into an hour even though it sounds like one or two techniques.

Tuesday I went to Capoeira , another awesome lesson. I was helping Danny Henry with the teaching again. Capoeira really keeps me flexible as there are a lot of stretching exercises involved I am going to help my instructor devise some leaflets to give to beginners. These leaflets will explain Capoeira and will illustrate some basic moves to help the new people.

Wednesday went to Karl’s again and trained more stand up fighting. I still need to work on my sparring, as I seem to leave myself open. I am so used to using an Eskrima gunting, this is where one hand parries an attack and your other hand counters the attack at the same time or just blocking a strike with your own elbow. Bruce Lee however said “empty your cup” as I need to approach each Martial Art as how they are and not mix it up. All in all a great lesson and it was a continuation from the class on Monday.

Friday we attended Warriors Eskrima class. We did plenty of pad work and swapped partners throughout the lesson. I taught Paul who is a level lower than me the knife drill called Palisut and was quite happy that I could teach him. I am going to ask if we can have more than one lesson as I feel we need more than one coming to the grading. On the plus side I have my brother to train with and plenty of DVD source material.

That was my week in Martial Arts, again I apologise for no mini updates. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon!
Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures!
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: November 21st to November 25th

Hi All

Monday morning, I was about to travel into work, car breaks down luckily in the garage. Thursday night about to leave work for home, car breaks down yet again, who says lighting doesn’t strike twice! Apologies again as I did not have chance to update my blog during the week. The silliness of my car breaking down twice prevented me from doing mini updates I planned, doh!

Having said that, it was another good week of training, despite the cold weather. Tuesday I went to Capoeira , we had two new people joined and I helped Danny Henry train them. Well when I say helped out I mean Danny taught them and used me as his demonstration partner! It was good though as we teamed up with the beginners and therefore it gave me a chance to help them with their technique.

“Your stand up is improving, both of you” Karl said as Lun and I walked into the changing rooms after a good training session… “You look knackered but it’s coming along” he added. Yup Wednesday was Karl Tanswell’s class . We did some sparring near the beginning of the class I was being boxed out by my taller opponent, but my foot work was good, however I gotta keep that guard up against taller guys as they have longer reach. Although it was good to get a compliment at the end of the lesson as maybe my technique improved as we went along. For the rest of the lesson we broke down several moves and put them altogether at the end of the lesson and then we drilled it by some more sparring. It’s a great way of learning.

Going back to being boxed out, I still maintain it’s good to train and spar with different training partners. Naturally people enjoy sparring or partnering their closest friend or in my case my brother. However it is beneficial for everyone to swap around as if I didn’t swap partners I wouldn’t realise I needed to fight differently against a taller opponent.

As I write this Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury (or the Chinese Connection or Ching Mo Mun) depending on where you are from is on Television here in the UK. This is simply an awesome Kung Fu film remade countless of times on Hong Kong Television and was remade as Fist of Legend with Jet Li which I also enjoyed. Unfortunately they are showing the dubbed version of this great movie. Although I prefer films shown in their natural state, I understand the fact that a few of my friends enjoy dubbed movies as they feel that subtitles get in the way, but dubbed movies especially from late 60’s and 70’s sound terrible! They dub the actors with a weird generic accent that isn’t exactly American one or English. It’s a bizarre combination of English, American and Australian accents. Having said that I am still going to watch it, as Bruce Lee doesn’t really talk when he is kicking ass and its great Friday night viewing!

Anyway back to the week of training! My brother and I couldn’t make it to Steve Powell’s JKD class although I read on fellow student Chris's blog that Steve Powell is back teaching, which is great news. Speaking of blog’s my brother Lun has updated his please take a look as there are some cool pictures on there.

“Yeah I thought we have bit of a change tonight” Simon our Eskrima Instructor told me during Friday’s Warriors Eskrima. class, this time I remembered to bring my Digital Video Camera. It was more of a technique night tonight which was cool. We did some empty hand work which consisted of counters and takedowns and some stick take down techniques.

Usually our lessons are quite intensive as in sparring and smacking our sticks on hand guards which is why Simon spoke of the change tonight. In addition we did close contact controlled free style sparring called Palakaw (note to self must write a Martial Art glossary!) and did counters to the 12 knife attack in our system. We also had a new guy join us which was cool. All in all a good night of training and a very enjoyable week in Martial Arts overall.

I have several articles lined up that I will hopefully get to write! Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading.
Kit!

My week in Martial Arts: November 14th to November 18th

Hi All

Sorry I had no mini updates this week, I have been quite busy most of the week and was unable to do so. However I have had a loaded week of Martial Arts so plenty to report this week as I managed to get to Capoeira class, Karl Tanswell’s class ,
Steve Powell’s JKD class with Greg Hall and Warriors Eskrima.

First and foremost I like to pay tribute to Eddie Guerrero a professional wrestler who tragically passed away on Sunday 13th November. He was only 38 and in the prime of his career. A great entertainer and performer, Rest In Peace Eddie Guerrero, you will be missed.

Sunday, my brother and I went to the gym. We did some bench press worked on arms and shoulders. It’s good to do some gym work to kick off the week. We also practiced some Eskrima stick and knife work.

Tuesday I practiced Capoeira, it was a very eventful lesson. Sadly my Eskrima instructor Simon has now left the Capoeira class to concentrate more on Eskrima which is understandable. He turned up to tell Danny in person which was a classy thing to do rather than not show up anymore or tell home over the phone. The class was cool as it was the welcome return for Capoeira player called Bex and we had a new student join us.

Wednesday Lun and I attended Karl Tanswell’s Straight blast gym. Several commands were shouted at ringside by Karl as he was preparing one of his fighters for an up coming MMA event. It was quite an eye opener as we were waiting for our class Karl was preparing several fighters in a fight simulation in the gym’s ring.

The class itself was stand up wrestling. We trained several techniques from a stand up position. At the end of the session we had to outsmart each other at the end by applying all the techniques we learnt. Another great lesson from Karl, it’s cool because it’s all new to Lun and I as we have never trained the way they have before.

We then made the short trip down to Steve Powell’s JKD gym. Greg Hall was taking the class and it was the first time my brother and I have actually trained under him. It was cool that he had told me he also had a look at this blog. Greg’s class was really cool, a mixture of pad work and some grappling. The grappling was Catch as Catch Can style which is very old school grappling but very effective. There was a heck of a lot of new faces in the class as well, so Greg broke down several techniques. This breaking down was good for my brother and I as sometimes I think we need a recap on certain techniques. “Write that I am the best teacher!” laughed Greg after I told him I will write about the class as my brother and I left the gym into the cold winter night. After 2 and a half hours of Martial Arts on Wednesday I was knackered but happy I did both lessons.

Friday was back to Eskrima. We did stick, knife and some empty hand work. It was another fun lesson but a touch anti climatic as my brother and I didn’t seem as focused as we usually were. I also forgot to charge up my digital video camera and therefore I took this week’s photos with my phone.

Well that’s it for this week; hopefully I will get to do some updates during the week and an article.
Take care and keep training
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: November 7th to November 11th

“Its cold tonight” said Lun as we made our way to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym Wednesday night. The winter was finally kicked in after a couple of weeks of suspiciously mild to warm weather. We got there about 6-ish watching the Vale Tudo class prior to ours. Most of the guys and girls there fight at MMA events and they were training hard. It was impressive to see about half the Vale Tudo class stay for our session.

One of the major components of the Straight Blast Gym training is constant movement or aliveness training. This means when one throws punches at the other in a drill for the other to dodge, they are both constantly moving. As a consequence with constant movement, conditioning and fitness increases. My brother and I were escaping a one handed clinch (one hand wrapped around the opponent’s neck as if to hook them in)
We learnt an escape and arm lock and then variations of the arm lock that turned into chokes and sweeps. It was a good session.

Thursday I worked on a general Martial Arts website that my Eskrima Instructor Simon, Mike who also attends our Eskrima class and myself are working on. So far the website had a page for our style of Eskrima and Danny Henry’s Capoeira class. To be honest Simon and Mike have done most of the work although I wrote the content for the Capoeira section. Check out the website yourself www.flowdrills.com it’s by no means finished but it will be good to get some feedback.


Friday was Eskrima day again, before we get to that if you’re wondering what happened Monday and Tuesday well I didn’t do anything due to other commitments. More and more circuit training is happening in our classes and more aliveness training. This compliments our Straight Blast Gym training well, however the real reason why we are doing more and more conditioning training is that the grading for our level 6 is going to be very tough with almost non stop stick sparring and grappling.

We also incorporated focus mitt work and some empty hand sparring. We also did some close contact controlled free style sparring called Palakaw. “Give each other some space to strike” Simon instructed. This is required at level 6 and a chance to display our Eskrima skills close contact, in contrast our other sparring method is sparring full force with padded sticks.

Although only two classes this week, I felt that it was two good training sessions. I will try and make all lessons next week as my brother might have to fly out soon for work.






Keep training!

Kit