My week in Martial Arts: July 31st to Aug 4th

This week Lun and I started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym

We practiced a counter against a guard position and it was quite an interesting lesson. At the end of it Karl got his most senior guys to see if we can counter their guards and also there was a sparring exhibition in the end where Karl would call out 2 people to roll and see who would win via submission. It was good to experience another Martial Art and to finally start.


As my brother and I walked out of the gym we noticed a very tall guy walking into the gym area in his street clothes. The man looked so familiar yet I couldn’t place his face initially. I had a think about who he was “Damn I am sure I have seen him before” Then it hit me! Matt Thornton! My brother who didn’t recognise him until I told him told me he was watching the whole time too…pity we didn’t look great because it was only our second lesson in just under a year. It was also a shame we couldn’t make his seminar.

Wednesday Lun and I returned to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym and we did stand up fighting, jab crosses and knees, it was a great lesson very energetic and lots of focus on technique.


Friday we did Warriors Eskrima class. William came down as well and rather than splitting the class we decided to let him join in the rest of the guys so Simon took the full reign of the class that included Paul and Ray. It was a great lesson; we did some hubud drills, stick sparring and circuit training that was devised by Lun.

Hopefully we will make the Steve Powell’s JKD Class next week.


I am enjoying my hours outside of work more than ever now spending time with my family, friends and last but not least my Girlfriend! Going to different places each week, practicing Martial Arts etc, I live for the weekends and what happens after work…..but one thing I will always remember is what Rick Faye once said about trying to live for more than 2 days a week and try and do something you can enjoy so you can live for 7. In that I still strive for….
Enjoy the great pics from footage filmed by Elaine(thank you!!!)and thanks for reading
Kit

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

My week in Martial Arts: June 19th till June 23rd

“Well you know I do it while I can still do it” Lun told Rick Lawrie referring to Martial Arts in a conversation after a great session at Steve Powell’s JKD Class on Wednesday, Rick replied: “I’ll do it forever”.

Mid way through my class on Wednesday at Steve Powell’s which was my 3rd lesson of the week I asked myself the question “Why am I doing all this training?” I was asking myself this question because it gone past 9 at the gym, I was covered in sweat and out of breath, in addition I had already a big session at Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym. I will answer this at the end of this post…..

Monday my brother and I went to the gym first. We planned to go to Karls and Steve’s that day. But as I was curling on a bicep machine at the gym it jammed in mid curl so my bicep ached pretty badly. We drove to Karl’s but I was still clutching my bicep ouch! Lun asked “Can you go?”as we were getting the stuff out of our parked cars. I remember the word of Tito Ortiz telling an injured fighter to “Live to fight another day always”on the previous nights “The Ultimate Fighter” I then thought about he injured fighters injuries and then my bicep strain…then I thought about some words from a football manager who told his injured players “It’s only a bit of pain,play through it” So I did, we did a load of stand up striking techniques and a cool take down. It was a super sweaty crazy workout. Although my arm ached a bit at the end so we did pass on Steve Powell’s.

Wednesday we stuck to our original plan for Monday and went to Karls and Steve’s. As mentioned it was two great work outs. At Karl’s we did some boxing and take downs from the clinch. It was awesome and very tiring. We then went over to Steve Powells. We did some great padwork stuff with sidekicks,back kicks,round house kicks and then we finished with some some hubud drills. It was a great lessons and I was knocked backwards by my brother’s side and back kicks several times!

Friday we went to Warriors Eskrima class. This time Lun had a class while I taught. I had a good session with William,teaching him basic strikes and disarms. I also did some amarra and we then did some heaven six which is a double stick drill. He picks up things very fast and already has an extensive Martial Arts resume. Teaching is fun when someone you teach picks it up really quickly. I feel a great Martial Art teacher not only teaches the art but also inspires and motivates. I am nowhere near that level but I aspire to be a coach that can teach and be aware of the student’s strengths and weaknesses and motivate them. I am lucky to have been taught by these type of instructors. Speaking of which, Simon was teaching the rest of the class that also consisted of Paul, Mike and Ray.

Yes I have a picture of a Barbary Macaque monkey on my blog…why? Well I could go on and link animals with Martial Arts and discuss primal instincts and so on. The truth is my girlfriend Elaine and I went to Monkey Forest in Trentham and we had a great time. I also thought it would be a great picture.
What I liked about Monkey Forest was that they didn’t cage them and it was a 60 acre forrest. I may have to rename this blog Martial Arts/UK Tourism journal, but I’ll say this again there are lots of great places to go in the UK.

As for the question of “why I am doing all this training”, it’s because I enjoy it. Martial Arts are enjoyed in many ways by different people. I would say I have quite a varied enjoyment to it, as to say I do not enjoy just one aspect. I can talk about the positive physical,mental and spiritual aspects of training as well but I guess I would have to write a new blog for that and like Rick said…
“I’ll do it forever, me”.

Again Enjoy the pics (not many this time) and thanks for reading.
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: June 12th till June 16th

Hi All

This week I have been mostly affected by Hay Fever. So I didn’t get to as many lessons as I did the week before.


Had a nice weekend as I travelled down south to meet with Elaine. We went to the city of Bath which was a great place. We walked around Pulteney Bridge
. It’s very nice at night time and is one of Bath’s best known constructions. Yes I have deviated from the world of Martial Arts again, but reminding people that there are lots of cool things to see in the UK.

Monday, my brother Lun and I went to the gym. We did a good set of weights and practiced some stick work. Lun took some pictures of me while I was practicing a few double stick drills. Capturing the action with a standard digital camera doesn’t quite work as well as the digital camcorder as some of the photos ended up pretty hilarious. The one serious one was a posed one of me shown above doing a roof block (which I still thought was funny).
I will put my goofy pictures on a Christmas special of something in the future.

Tuesday had the hay fever so couldn’t make Capoeira.

Wednesday we were going to go to both Steve Powell’s JKD Class and Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym. But we only managed to go to Karl’s because our Dad's phone wasn’t working so we couldn’t stay out too late. We did a load of stand up boxing drills in Karl’s emphasising on footwork. Zoning off against each other(for example moving to the left or right but keeping the boxing stance). My brother’s elbow was hurting him however but he carried on to the end. It was a great lesson and very energetic.


Thursday again went home due to hay fever.

Friday went to Warriors Eskrima class. My brother and I will now alternate weeks for teaching. This will allow us to train in our regular sessions. I found it a good work out and interesting session. We did some live knife vs empty hand sparring. The object of this was to control the knife hand and use the knife against the opponent.

It was a great drill but my only gripe is would I get in trouble if I used the knife against the attacker. The return/counter attacks are designed to kill or maim. In a real situation I would run away if someone tried to attack me with a knife. But sometimes you may not have a choice to run as I can tell you from personal experience (which I will go into detail in a future post).
In my opinion my main objective was to grab the knife hand and for the most part I did. However I will take it more seriously next time as my brother reminded me of the personal experience and that will make me drill knives with a completely different mindset. We also initally drilled knife attacks with the attackers with helmets on so full contact counters could be applied.
The helmet didn't last long however as the visor cracked.(Well what would you think twill happen in a stick class. We also did other drills such as one which involved smacking a stick against focus mitts. Lun was teaching William the amarra and other level 1 drills. It’s cool that William has been consistent.

Hopefully the rest of the beginners class will come down next week providing there is no World cup football on TV. To
Chris and LGM. hope to see you guys at Steve’s next week. As always thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.

Keep training
Kit!

My week in Martial Arts: June 5th till June 9th

Hi All

Monday Lun and I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym and Steve Powell’s JKD Class..what a way to kick off the week...yes that is my sweaty Minnesota Vikings t-shirt after Karl's session.

We did a load of boxing techniques and a stand up submission hold it was a very good work out as you can tell from the t-shirt. Why would someone from Manchester UK have a Minnesota Vikings t-shirt? Because i got it in Minnesota while attending the Rick Faye summer camp almost 4 years ago with Lun and therefore it has some Martial Art significance....

After a quick call to Elaine to tell her I will be late, we walked over to Steve's. It was great a whole load of focus mitt drills and some versions of Wing Chun, Silat and Filipino entry’s off punches and then we did some Silat take downs as we are learning a part of skill set, Steve Powell will tell you what works and what doesn't. When you think about it why we should practice something that wouldn't really work? Well that’s how we know it wouldn't work because we can sample it for ourselves. Again it’s also about finding your own way, a particular technique might work better for an individual. At the end of the take downs Steve would then say right practice any of the moves...so obviously we functionalise the ones that do work for ourselves that I guess is one of main components of JKD. Great to see Chris and LGM there. It was a great lesson as it was very varied.

Lately I read about the aliveness drills and live drills and in all the arts we do we practice live stuff. For example the sparring and hitting moving targets on focus pads. I think it’s important to drill stuff but also just as important to put the drill into a live practice. Matt Thornton calls it dead patterns when we repeat the same thing over and over again. You can read more about Matt Thornton here. Its funny as part of aliveness vs. dead patterns was a concept was introduced to me by none other than my own Dad.

Whenever my Dad would see a martial art demonstration on TV where one person would be demonstrating his moves on a stationary opponent, he would say the following words in Cantonese "Ker doh bei lei dah la?" before dismissing it and that simply translates to "(He is just) Standing there just to get hit,eh?" As I was young when I first heard it, I thought my Dad was just saying that to annoy me but when I look back and think about it what he said was totally true. No one will stand there in real life to let u do 20 or so intricate moves. However we do need to practice on an opponent to get the form right first but in reality it won't work like that so I guess it could break down as a stationary drill first to understand it and then into a live one.

Wednesday went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym. We did some defence against takedowns and he showed us how to get out of a bear hug like manoeuvre. Another great sweaty workout!

Friday my brother and I taught the beginners in the Warriors Eskrima class. Simon was there helping us out while he taught Paul and Ray. The two beginners William and Lisa were there and we taught them individually again but we will have to devise a plan where all the beginners can train together.

Last week Lisa told me that she had done a variant of Thai Boxing for three years. She also told me that a lot of the girls she trains with at her gym are a lot shorter than she is so she doesn’t use that much footwork where she spars. I believe getting us much information from a student who has done Martial Arts before is important as you can train them different techniques that are foreign to them. So I worked on stick sparring techniques with her. First I taught some basic blocks, strikes and then some counters. We then worked on the sparring and I told her to use more footwork so that the stick could not strike her leg. However being a Thai boxer she usually blocks leg attacks with her shins but in this case it was a stick coming at her so she had to block with the stick or get out of the way to counter strike.

Lun and I also went through some basic warriors techniques with them.

Well that’s it for today, sorry for the lack of pictures but as always thanks for reading!

Keep training
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: May 29th till June 2nd

Hi All!

I trained only once this week as my girlfriend Elaine came up to visit over the weekend…however that didn’t really stop training completely as she showed some interest in learning some stuff!

I taught some basic jab, cross and hook punching drills. She was quite good at it; I am not saying that because she is my girlfriend, I thought she picked it up quite well. I told her to do some shadow boxing so she could practice at home.

We went to the Lake District in Cumbria (pictured) and Manchester’s Lyme Park and therefore had had some great walks. I think I said this in one of my previous posts but England really does have some beautiful places. It was great going to those places with Elaine.

Wednesday Lunand I went to Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast gym. Great work out did some stand up wrestling into a take down. It was interesting stuff and a great workout. I will hopefully get back to Steve Powell’s JKD Class soon as well. We were planning on Wednesday after Karl’s but ultimately went home. Is this a lull in training?

No I want to continue consistently in everything as does my brother because he showed an interest in doing the great Manchester run next year. Therefore we both need to prepare for that one. I have raised over £328 for Marie Curie Cancer Care. I would like to once again thank everyone who donated.

Friday was Warriors Eskrima day!
William (who has his own webpage in Spanish), Paul B and Gaz all attended! Lun and Simon were mainly teaching them as Paul Hinds brought along a female work colleague called Lisa who I mainly trained as I taught her some basic weapon movements from scratch. As Paul Hinds trained with Ray, I taught Lisa some basic strikes and disarms.

She is the first girl to join our class; it was interesting as I learnt today that the way women train is different to how men train. This is because mainly that their body type being different so they may have to adjust when doing certain moves. She picked up some moves quite quickly however and she is also doing a kick boxing/Thai Boxing hybrid whose instructor was taught by Master Sken.

I think however Lun and I may have to design a special intro class for all first timers. This will cover a lot of basics so they can be able to join the rest of the beginners the following week if they choose to come back.

Anyway it was great to see Gaz, Paul B and William return, I hope they all get to do their respective gradings. Along with Lisa that was four beginners tonight. They all seemed to train hard tonight and all showed great interest.

Congratulations to Chris for a successful demo of his class. LGM assisted him in the demo which I heard attracted a lot of interest.

Anyway enjoy the pictures (mainly of the beginners in Warriors Eskrima!) and thanks for reading!
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: May 22nd till May 26th

Hi All

After the run on Sunday I decided to take it easy as this week has been just capoeira and eskrima. We are hoping to return to both Steve Powell’s JKD Class and Karl Tanswell next week. Again for those who did not catch my last post about the great Manchester run please click here to read it.

Capoeira was great; I am now using the old Capoeira trickery against people whilst playing the game. For example stopping and distracting them to look somewhere else. My legs were still sore from the running but Capoeira actually loosened them up.

Lun and I planned to go to Steve’s and Karl’s on Wednesday but we decided to go to the gym and going through a few things we were going to teach on Fridays.

We decided to go through together what we need to do rather than randomly teach and take control of the class more. As there is an average of 2 people are classes are informal and we allow them to ask loads of different questions to get their input and we also partner the respective students.

However we are changing the way we teach so if there was say 4 or more people it will be more structured. We envisioned it to be more structured and have the students learn what they were doing rather than pausing and asking a question every 2 minutes.

The class obviously is still Warriors Eskrima. But we will be drilling them about keeping things moving/alive and making sure that the person blocking does not still after a block or disarms. For example if an attacker attacks you with a weapon after blocking the defender should counter attack and not just stand there. Even though the basic blocking and disarming just requires blocking and disarming.

I also want to do a jab/cross as much as possible at the end of the empty hand drills or kicking drills. Like a retreating punch combination just in case you miss first time or there are 2 attackers and one decides to rush you after you kicked his mate away. Sometimes it’s hard to drill scenarios like this but as I said in my weekly update I think it’s important to try and progress in an Art and make it adapt to our environments.


Friday came, it was Warriors Eskrima time, Gary attended and William came back. We had a great lesson. First of all Simon taught us some traditional Warriors stuff and we did some stick drills. We then split the class and Lun and I taught William and Gary. It was great Lun taught them the first four amara strikes. Amara are a series of strikes with sticks that helps with co-ordination and line familiarisation. Instead of doing it a few times in a stationary position, Lun had a formula that required the guys to do the amara normally and then in a lunge position.

We then taught them disarms but told them to throw in strikes after disarming their opponent. We linked this with amara as we told them to throw in amara strikes after disarming. We then went through some stick and dagger drills and then we went through the heaven six. Both guys did very well.


Finally we did one in the middle continuous disarms and did some stick sparring. A very enjoyable class indeed and the first class that I think really worked as Lun and I as teachers (with more than one student). I think Gary will be ready for his grading soon. But the main thing was that our game plan for making the class more structured paid off. We also hope to get down to Krishna Godhania as well to get additional skills and teaching tips.


Anyway thanks to the comments of LGM and
Chris , who is definitely doing a demo at the Holmes Place in Didsbury, Manchester on Sunday Morning. He was ill last week so he couldn’t do it. Also special shout out to my mate Colin Wong who is doing a charity skydive in aid of speed of sight this Bank Holiday Monday. Good Luck Colin



Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures!