My Week in Martial Arts: April 1st to April 7th

Hi All!

This week has been all Warriors Eskrima. Trained Sunday, Tuesday ,Thursday and Friday. I was knackered all week but I needed to train and felt better for it. My brother Lun was working in Belfast this week but I am sure he is ready for the grading.

Although I am in preparation for the grading, my week in the Martial Arts actually started last Saturday as my brother and I attended Steve Powell’s Cho Sin Kai class which consisted of big pad punching. It was great fun and a great work out. Chris and LGM were also there and it was great to see them as well as Rick Lawrie who told me that was his favourite kind of training. The class was amazing full of "boom" techniques(boom as in punching the pad to make the boom sound!) and I got a few flashbacks from the old days regarding the exercises and techniques, although Lun remembered a whole lot more.

Later that day Steve Powell emailed us with some mind jazz as he called it, some very interesting Zen quotes such as “Fudoshin” and “Zanshin” reading up on the spiritual side of Martial Arts is something I like to do more of. The meanings behind them are very potent and inspirational and definitely relates to my preparation of the grading and all the Martial Arts that I practice. “Zanshin” is defined as “A state of complete, balanced, continuous and relaxed readiness, awareness and alertness, where you are "present in the moment."”. This relates to what I am trying to achieve in my mental state and what it needs to be at all times, rather than just for the grading.

Sunday we did some extra training in Warriors Eskrima, my arm and shoulder was knackered from the day before (due to the punching of the pad).


Monday I rested.

Tuesday it was more Warriors Eskrima but more on technique rather than sparring. As we train in the same building as my Capoeira class, I popped in and had a quick capoeira game after the Eskrima training finished.

Wednesday I rested.

Thursday I came late to Warriors Eskrima as I had to do something for my Dad but did managed to do some grappling moves. I also trained my fitness by doing a run on the treadmill and some shadow boxing.

Friday it was Warriors again and we did stick disarms and knife disarms. We also did free style stick sparring palakaw. In addition, I also went through level 1 and level 2 techniques with Ray in which he will be graded in on Sunday(even though he is grading for level 1 or 2 he can match us in sparring!). We also did some stick sparring and rather than a big crazy stick strike fest, we put a lot of techniques in the sparring influenced by our instructor Simon. I noticed the atmosphere was different as it seemed to have a serious aura to it. This meant we all seemed to be focused for Sunday which is a good thing.

I have to keep this week’s entry relatively short as I am going to get some sleep. I am going to do another Warriors Eskrima grading countdown tomorrow. In addition I am going to write about the grading on Sunday night.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics (although I did not catch much as I was training for the grading!)

Kit