My week in Martial Arts: July 24th to July 28th

This week was a return to an almost normal routine with some extra gym work. The last few weeks my schedule has been quite inconsistent in terms of what I train in and sometimes (in fact a lot) I have neglected a proper gym work out so this week Lun and I decided to devote a bit more time in the gym and hopefully I will also devise a better training schedule.

Monday, Lun and I went to gym and did a quick but heavy and intense weights session. Afterwards we went to Karl Tanswell,Karl wasn’t there that day but Hywel Teague took the class who is one of Karl’s senior guys and also a freelance reporter and photographer for MMA events. I don’t know him personally but I seen his name as a reporter on several magazine and web site articles. He is also a good instructor as we learnt some escapes from clinch work. It was a very hot and humid day and the mats were soaked with sweat.

Wednesday Lun and I stayed had a good weights work out and it wasn’t as rushed as Mondays. As the gym work out was extended we couldn’t make it to Karl Tanswell’s but we did go to Steve Powell’s JKD Class. We worked on the reverse punch or the “BOOM” as it is known to some of the more senior guys. The variables for this punch are hard to get when you haven’t practiced for a while. It’s not your straight forward punch there is a lot of skill and technique involved but at the end of it all and if you can get it right, there lays a devastating punch. As usual it was a great lesson and a great laugh. Chris was there and if you still haven’t read please read his lineage of the boom on his blog and also check out LGM too.

Friday we went to Warriors Eskrima class no beginners this week so we trained with the rest of the guys. Simon and Paul devised a footwork drill which was quite interesting and we did some light contact hard stick sparring. As it was very hot and humid that day we didn’t do anything too strenuous but still got a very good work out. I must admit during my light stick sparring, I did lose my temper a bit against Paul but I think it was more of the heat that made me lose it a bit but in the end we sparred again after the lesson and everything went fine.

Saturday Lun and I went to my cousin’s stag do in Leeds (no disrespect to Leeds but it isn’t Chester or Somerset in terms of scenic views). However I write about this as its Lun and mine first time we been out for a while at night time and we went to the more commercial night time places where you would expect to find trouble. When I say this, I mean that if I went out in Manchester it’s usually in the student areas or a place called Rock World which plays rock/alternative and sometimes hip hop stuff and it’s relatively very safe.

Although we all had a good time Lun and I were cautious. We went to this huge club in the centre of Leeds which comprised of 3 or 4 floors. It was interesting as there was a mezzanine style area overlooking over the main dance floor, it was heaving and jam packed and while looking at the uninhibited party goers from above we could see easily how it could all kick off. Luckily it didn’t. However as you made my away across the place some guys probably acting hard to impress ladies, didn’t move as you tried to walk past them or when they were walking they didn’t angle off to avoid you, so they tried to shoulder barge you.


We then went to a casino where Lun and I didn’t have a clue how to play any of the games, so we left early to get back to our hotel while the others stayed till 5am or something ridiculous (it was already about 3.30am at this point). Walking back to the hotel Lun and I were alert being aware of our surroundings and making sure we didn’t accidentally bump into people or people bumping into us. We might be sounding paranoid but we think its better safe than sorry in a different city as you never know what areas are safe or not. Martial Arts does teach you to be more aware but I think its also to do with the fact we could identify some potential troublemakers from our chip shop days.

Anyways next week should be interesting as Elaine will be watching the Warriors class next week as she is coming up to Manchester. Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: July 17th to July 21st

Only one lesson this week it’s been damn hot, is that a legitimate excuse though? Read Lun's blog and decide for yourself.
My brother and I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym. We did a load of boxing and foot jabs it was fun. However I was average in sparring as I was tired and it was hot. I also did not get to Eskrima as I attended a function with Elaine so I travelled down on a Friday. We also visited Stone Henge on the way back which explains my picture, sorry Martial Arts pictures will resume normal service next week!

So as I did not attend many lessons I reminisce.......................

My first ever fight. It wasn't even a fight and it’s not something I talk about a lot but in a way it was funny and there was a sense of justice in the following...............

Summer 1992; I was 15 years old, it was the Summer Holidays. As my parents worked in a Chinese takeaway Lun and I would help them out and even more so in the summertime. In fact a typical day in the Summer time would consists of helping out around the lunch hour then when we closed for the afternoon, my brother and I would go out into town and go to HMV and buy some comics from Odyssey 7(now Forbidden Planet) have a something to eat and go back to help out in the evening.

That particular day I felt a strange sensation in my stomach. It just felt weird and at first I thought it was a stomach ache but it turned out to be butterflies for something I have yet to encounter. Anyway I remember trying to keep my mind off it by reading a Batman comic upstairs which could have been either Legends of the Dark Knight or Shadow of the Bat.

I went down again when my Mum called me to help out. We used to get busy around 11ish after people have all had a drink from the selection of the “nice” pubs that surrounded our chip shop. As we didn't know some of the customers names my parents always named them by the food they ordered or what they looked like in Cantonese. To them it was much easier to do this rather than by name. So customers; Special fried rice and Curry King Prawn were waiting for their food and a few others. I was serving a guy with an Elvis style quiff but he wasn't eccentric he was elderly and probably had his hair combed like that since his teens(and if he was more of a regular I guess my parents would have nicknamed him “Elvis” which I shall do so now).

Enter the troublemaker. My brother had warned me about him earlier as he came in a week ago asking for free food(yes that’s what happened these people use to come in and say "pay you back tomorrow" and we never saw them again or they "forgot", I hope they understand that is one of the most shameful things in life to do). Anyway back to the story....

So I was serving the Elvis guy and asking if he wanted salt or vinegar on his chips. Lun was asking the troublemaker to leave as he was sneering and refusing to pay while swearing at us. Lun asked him one more time, the troublemaker said no. Lun then went round the counter area to remove him, but before he opened the door...the sneering troublemaking asshole's face was getting closer to mine as he was leaning his head over the counter...it was like the bit when that Alien corners Ripley in Aliens or Alien 3
His eyes were all messed up he was drunk or drugged up or something,his face was getting closer,the stench of his breath was unbearable, then suddenly.."BOOM!"

He staggered back, his nose was bleeding, he was suddenly sober and in a pathetic way whimpered quietly.."Why ...why did you hit me?" Curry Chicken and Special Fried Rice looked on in a amazement, my Mum who was shocked said in Cantonese “Why did you hit him?”, Dad was in the back cooking meals as he didn't realise there was any thing was wrong and sensing trouble Elvis hurriedly left the building. Unknown to my big brother Lun who opened the door and only heard the smack and Mum saying “Why did you hit him?”, Lun thought the asshole hit me and not the other way round, plus because of the thug’s 6ft frame against my considerably shorter self the odds were well stacked against him ….so my brother promptly dived on him and dragged him out shouting “Why did you hit my brother!!!!” Lun put him into an arm bar style hold while I ran outside and for good measure literally kicked the guy in the ass….before a big hand dropped on my shoulder. It was Curry King Prawn who told me to get inside. My Dad then came out and with Lun told the troublemaker never to come back to the premises again.

Afterwards Curry King Prawn and Special Fried Rice congratulated me on what I did. I was still in a daze as I had never hit anybody properly before that day and it was strange that I had pre-emptive butterflies to accompany it! I still don’t know how. I would like to say after that I went on and pulverised half the town I lived in with my iron fist, like many of today’s yobbish young brag about but no I didn’t go on a crazy fighting expedition. I will just save it for the “only if I really have to” file, like all respectful Martial Artists do.

Thanks for reading
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: July 10th to July 14th

Hi All
This week with Lun and I only got lesson in and supervised another. We will try and get back to
Steve Powell’s JKD Class this week. Speaking of Steve Powell’s please check out Chris Sibbald’s blog on his picture linage of the “BOOM”. If you are wondering “BOOM” is just what we nickname the Chosin Kai Karate punching.

Again I am sorry for the lateness of this edition’s post, this weekend I was in Chester with Elaine, a very old and nice city in North-West England. I think I will start a blog on places the visit in England as I seem to be somewhere else in the UK almost every other week!

Anyway back to the Martial Arts. My brother and I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym on Monday after a session in the gym. It was awesome we did some defences into chokes. I got choked out a bit by accident when one of the guys was showing Lun how to apply it with more force. If only I had longer arms…..

Warriors Eskrima was interesting as Simon was on holiday and asked Lun and I to look after the class. As we were waiting for students to come in, we spotted a guy with a Sayoc T-Shirt that we haven’t seen before walking around the gym. It turned out he was a friendly guy called Adrian who has been training with Krishna for the last 12 months in Sayoc and knew Paul and Ray. So the joined the lesson. Eventually when the lesson started we got them to do 3 rounds of circuits. A minute of sit-ups and press-ups, a minute of stepping, a minute of stick repetitions, focus mitts and Thai pads!


We then split the class up, we had Paul teaching Ray and Adrian and Lun and I taught John and William. There was a slight problem John was level 3 and William had only begun. However we did some heaven six drills and variations and a load of double stick stuff that John had never done that Lun and I had picked up over the years. Paul also seemed to be doing well with Adrian and Ray.

It was a great lesson and experience to be in (co) in charge of the majority of the lesson! Anyway thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.
Kit!

My week in Martial Arts: July 3rd to July 7th

Hi All

This week I managed along with Lun to get to two lessons and get to teach the beginners of one. By the way hop over to Lun’s blog to read a story about trouble we had in the old fish and chip shop and his other comments. I speak for Chinese Chip shop owners past and present, you wouldn’t believe the b.s that we had to go through but it’s nice to talk about our “victories”.

A work colleague of mine Wellington who is an Aikido instructor sent me this interesting paragraph from an essay written by Jet Li.

“The system today is not as complex as it used to be, when everybody had to compete in broadsword, spear, straight sword, cudgel, and empty-hand forms. Why, in our day, we had to learn all of the Eighteen-Arms*, internal styles, external styles, everything. That was our curriculum. Nowadays, if you want to go to the Olympics, you learn the compulsory forms, and that's it.”*

Jet continues...

“I don't want to say either system is better or worse. I can only tell you that the physical quality of the athletes has improved -- and continues to do so steadily. Why is it that new world records seem to be set every year? Because training has become more scientific. Athletes have access to better nutrition, better vitamins, better doctors, sports psychologists, etc. These factors have helped develop the potential of the human body through the medium of sport.” *

But then Jet Li talks of the inner cultivation that Wu Shu can provide and that modern Wu Shu Martial Artists are not provided with that in their training. I guess its all depends what you want from the Martial Arts. But I understand what Jet Li is saying as it is not in your soul there is no way you can perform amicably (as Wu Shu is a performing Martial Art). This inner cultivation in my interpretation is passion, heart and creativeness. He mentions everyone doing the same thing and were all like “robots” and no one had their own “flavours”.

I believe people should all have their own style to suit them. If there is no passion about there is no point, if there is no heart to it there is no effort and creativeness is down to individual. But is this really what inner cultivation is? I like to invite people to put their own views about Jet Li’s comments. Thanks to Wellington for the comment in the first place.

Back to the lessons, Monday went to the gym and did some weights.

Tuesday, well I was too buys at work to go and explain to Danny that I have made a decision to leave Capoiera. So I phoned him. But the problem was it was very hard to tell him over the phone. So I didn’t quit Capoeira just yet. But like I said he is an awesome guy to train under and I highly recommend him.


Wednesday my brother and I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym. It was awesome we work on the jab and we had some additional tips from Jon one of the senior guys. Afterwards we went to Steve Powell’s JKD Class we did a load of energy drills called Hubud but the awesome thing about it was that Steve was encouraging as to put some live stuff into it rather than a regular hubud drill.

Steve also gave us some great views on Martial Arts which made a lot of sense. As with all my instructors there is absolutely no b.s especially with Steve who will tell you the truth. So what were these views he told my brother and I about? Well join his class and you will find out!..:)

On we Friday went to Warriors Eskrima class.and had a great lesson. Instructor Simon asked if I was going to see Elaine at the weekend. I replied yes ( in which I had a great weekend down Weston Super Mare and Wells) so Simon replies “OK I’ll try and knacker you out”. In which he almost did as we did some circuit training but luckily Gaz and William attended so Simon asked Lun and I to teach them so that Simon can teach Ray and John. We taught William and Gaz some double stick drills, we have taught a couple of the drills to them before but one we haven't. It was cool that they were keeping up with each other as we taught them the drills separately. Another rewarding thing is watching them to the drill and thinking to yourself that you taught them. But then again it’s down to the individuals to pick up and maintain the skills, so Gaz and William did awesome which made me quite happy.

So a good week in the Martial Arts. Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics.

Kit
*WuShu past and present by Jet Li read the rest here

My week in Martial Arts: June 25th till July 1st

First of all I like to say happy Birthday to Lun. Lun has always been there for me and I couldn’t ask for a better bigger brother. He is to me is the greatest big brother on the planet and though it sounds childish and cliqued for a grown man to say that, to me its 100% true. So again happy birthday brother!


My week in Martial Arts was marred by work and tiredness. I couldn’t get to all the desired lessons I wanted to. So I just managed to get to 2 lessons this week. The tiredness factor wasn’t and shouldn’t be a factor but because it’s been so hot here in the UK and as I suffer from hay fever it has got the best of me.
Sunday we watched Fearless the new Jet Li film. Elaine and I went along with Lun and Susan. It was based on Huo Yuan Jia and although it was a glamorised biopic of the famous Chinese Martial Artist, it was also fun and I reckon Jet Li’s best acting role yet. However a poignant thing was said by Jet’s character in the film. When asked which style of Wu Shu was the best, his character said that it doesn’t matter what style of wu shu you do that makes it better than the other it all depends on your dedication and skill of the individual. I hope this answers the question for people who always ask me "Which Martial Art is the best?” It’s like asking “Which subject at school is the best?” There is no best subject but you can have personal preferences as it’s the one you choose to do and you like it better than the others. Right now I would say I am just learning a lot from different styles but like college I will have to drop a few and just specialise in one or two.

So I have made that decision and I am going to leave Capoeira very soon. I have had some great times there and performed with Danny Henry’s Capoeira group on 5 separate occasions in front of audiences in the Greater Manchester area and even filmed a DVD for him. My decision to leave has nothing to do with Danny or the class; the class is friendly and thriving and most importantly it’s a great atmosphere. It’s been fun but I am going to move on and come back ever so often to work out with them and do some filming but I am going to try and get to a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class on Tuesdays. I highly recommend anybody to try Capoeira with Danny Henry as its fun and energetic.

This week my brother and I attended Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gymon Wednesday and Warriors Eskrima class on Friday. At the straight blast gym Lun and I did defence against the shoot. One would be in a shoot/take down position and the other had to defend against it which we were taught to do. The most interesting part was when we had to switch different partners, from my brother, I switched with this big guy who got a bit over zealous with his takedown and almost crashed me into a barrier! He didn’t mean it, it was his height and strength but that’s were its interesting because we practice our moves against varying opponents.

Friday we went to Warriors Eskrima. It was a great lesson we did some very light contact sparring with our sticks and also smashed sticks into moving focus mitts. We then attempted to simulate some reality training scenarios with the knife. It was very interesting as we attempted to set up several different scenarios and thought about realistically what we do for example we perhaps could throw keys into the assailant’s face or talk to them to buy time before running away. Although it was 5 of us including instructor Simon, Paul and Ray we tried to vary the partners so the assailants were not the same. Afterwards Lun and I did some stick vs empty hand sparring which was fun but Simon brought up something quite interesting. During my turn to be empty handed against the stick I tried to take my brother down, but couldn’t. Simon spoke of that every time we learn something new we try to throw it into the mix when we spar. He said a lot of Martial Artist including himself was guilty of this so it was a quite interesting observation.

Anyway hopefully this week I will be back at Steve Powell’s with Lun ,
Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading
Kit