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!
3 comments:
yeah bro...Rick Youngs seminar was really good, wasn't it??
Interesting reaction to the racist beggar - I think we learn to chill out and handle situation much better when we oursleves are more secure and confident. As a kid, or indeed younger man, name calling was part of growing up, but it did used to get to me. Martial arts gives you that extra confidence, the result - a situation that could have escalated, ended up nothing more than a harmless water off a ducks back name call. Yes, do write a book about your chip shop experiences - or at least another blog!
Ah the chippy. They were hard times. I remember the nice times and absolutely hate the rough times we had. That chippy made us closer and made us fall apart at the same time.
These days,if we can ignore racist comments, we grow a little wiser and know that we can tolerate it. If we couldn't then I suspect that we'd all self-destruct pretty quickly which is what they want,isn't it?
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