My week in Martial Arts: March 13th to March 17th 06

“We shall go to JKD tonight” Lun said on Monday morning and that we did to kick off a big training week. I would say I am now 100% better so I had a lot of “catch up” to do.
For some reason on Monday I felt like smashing something. Anyone who knows me will tell you I am not aggressive person. Maybe it was that I was psyching myself up because I was feeling better or maybe someone inadvertently said something to piss me off at work, although I think it was the combination of the two. Later that day I was able to let out the aggression.

Anyway my brother and I went to the gym and did a fast workout. After some food we went to Steve Powell’s JKD class. We saw Chris , LGM (also called Chris) and Greg Hall and Rick Lowry there and it was packed class. Chris and LGM spoke to us and we had a good conversation.

“Get the hook and jab pads” Steve told the class. Cool I thought. It was time to let out the aggression and it worked! We did a load of punching combinations and I made sure I was hitting them right. Of course it’s about technique and putting your hip in but if you also put all you emotions into the punches then you add something to it. It was cool to let out some steam. Steve told us the punching techniques, which were alternating jab, hooks, crosses, uppercuts and overhand punches, that were doing was a variation of Eskrima stick drills as we were punching high, low, high etc. It was great training lesson.


Tuesday went to Capoeira. I had a good session very energetic as always. The two new girls Pat and Kim attended although Kim couldn’t participate. Pat was cool because when she first came to the class she couldn’t do many moves especially cartwheels which were important as a defensive escape in the game. But on Tuesday she was doing them easily and a lot of other moves in the game.
Kim was coming along too, but has been hampered by injury although she had done a lot of exercise before and she could do some of the moves easily in the game from what I have seen so far. I think it’s testament to Danny’s teaching but also a testament to these two newcomers for adapting so quickly.
I asked Danny to get me a T-Shirt from Mestre Bamba and got this, Danny was asked to go to Brazil to train and get graded under their system.

Wednesday I went to the gym with Lun and we did quite a good session. We did some weights and then some stick sparring. My brother and I used these soft sticks. First of all we did some simple moves one attacking and one blocking and countering but fast which is what we call “crashing in”. After a few goes it turned into a fully fledged stick spar and we had a great spar! I was knackered from this and from the previous days and because Lun said he couldn’t make it to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym because of work commitments. I thought about this and because I only slept five hours previous night and was knackered I proceeded to drive home or so I thought.


So on the way back I put on some “relaxing” music but instead of Stevie Wonder the sounds emitting from my car CD player sounded strangely like Pantera (sorry Lgm!) and next I thing I knew I was in Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym and had a great work out. We were taught how to position/move ourselves in the stand up fighting stance and did some hand/head grappling. It was another energetic lesson.

Thursday after 3 days of Martial Arts I decided to stay in bed as I booked a week off but because Rocky 2 was on the previous night and I had a run to do in May I got up and went for a run. I proceeded to run in light snowfall for about a mile. Later on my brother and I went to Steve Powell’s JKD class. My legs were aching a bit as I have not ran for a while but we did some great focus mitt work based on the old Chosin-Kai style. We did some kicking against kicking and using mitts to block instantly and the kicks was aiming right to the face. This was a brilliant and hard work out. Steve Powell mentioned Hwang Jan Lee as we were doing the kicks, from the old school Gung Fu films (bad guy super kicker from Drunken Master and Snakes in the Eagle’s Shadow and countless of others) and mentioned how crap dubbing was in the old school stuff. But its cool he is such a fan of the old school Gung Fu films because they rock and my brother and I always chuckle when he throws in a random reference. Another awesome lesson.


Friday I went for a 2 mile run and then later on Warriors Eskrima with Lun. It was a great lesson! Simon had as work “stations” which comprises of different techniques in different parts of the court. For example one station was footwork, another was crashing in and another was some cardio exercises. We then did some free style palakaw and the higher graded ones including myself took turns in teaching Ray some drills. Although I accidentally taught him the wrong drill at first! Sorry Ray!




We did some disarms and locks. One guy was in the middle while the other guys attacked and the defending guy had to disarm or lock them. We then did some stick sparring which was cool.

So that was my big week in exercise and Martial Arts. I feel so much better for it, although knackered I am feeling great! Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics!

Kit