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

"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

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

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

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

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

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