Chinese New Year

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

"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!

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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