A Great Manchester Run! / A Great new beginning?

A great hue of anticipation surrounded the runners or cramped together near the starting line, everyone running for a cause, everyone wanting to run. Sunday 20th May Lun and I did the Great Manchester Run. This was Luns first time and my second time. This year 28,000 people participated in the UK’s most prestigious 10KM run. Lun commented on the atmosphere and to be among all those people running for so many causes is an absolute awesome feeling.

Well done to Lun who participated the run, he promises me that he will train for next year too, I am proud of you bro! I for one will participate every year as I enjoyed so much. But what I would like to do is thank everybody who sponsored me for the run. So far I have raised £242 online and raised £171 offline, the web page is open till 20th July 2007 so there is still time for you to keep on donating if you wish: http://www.justgiving.com/kitrunsagain
For all those who sponsored me thanks very much I really do appreciate it!

Hang on the blog says MARTIAL ARTS….where does it say GREAT RUN??, I hear you shout.
Well due to work and family illness’s ,Lun and I have only been teaching our regular classes once a week and have cut down on training. Lun and I just train ourselves when we can but we have for the time being stopped going to our own classes.

When I was first started this blog I was attending several Martial Art lesson which comprised of Eskrima,JKD,Capoeira and I was beginning MMA. Out of the four, Eskrima was the one that my brother Lun and I seemed to have progressed in the most. However in an earlier post I stated that one day I will just follow the path of one Martial Art. Now this is not including teaching and going to Warriors Eskrima seminars. So Capoeira, JKD or MMA? Well Capoeira is really a Martial Art/Dance so that is completely different from the training that JKD or an MMA class would offer. So JKD or MMA? You know I retract on the statement of following “paths” life’s too short, all things should be tried! But seriously once I do start again I should really concentrate on one art as I have already tried training everything above at almost the same time.

However the question is how come I have cut down on training?. External factors such as family illnesses and a crazy work schedule have affected what I do. But are they excuses? No, it just so happens that it falls on the days that the wrestling class is on or JKD is on. So if I do want to train why don’t I just find somewhere to train when I can? Which is my next step I am going to try and get some private lessons in or even train with people that in JKD,MMA etc at some point when it suits me. This is nothing to do with my ego but this is more to do with that fact that my situation has changed and it would make it impossible for me to train consistently with any class at the moment.

So what is the great new beginning heading on top of this post all about? Well I would say teaching and also trying to find a Martial Art I can consistently train in….thinking and writing about it has aided my descion.

The only thing that is consistent is the beginners Warrior Eskrima classes. This class is growing and it’s a new experience and Lun and I’s. The feedback we get is great! As I always ask how people enjoyed the lesson. We had three total beginners the other day so I asked them to practice partner drills in three’s. Of course anyone who had to practice in threes in a Martial Art lesson would know that its quite boring waiting for their go. So I showed the guy who was the odd one out the next move and then told that person to teach the others what I just shown them, while I check up and other people in the class. It worked and it looked like a lot of fun for them! Plus by showing people what you learn is another way of learning yourself. As well as the beginners we got Jon who is a veteran of our old classes and Richard who has stuck with us since day one coming down and also Gaz who was in also briefly with us when the class was on a Friday.

I also managed to teach Elaine some sticks and she took to it very well, I might even consider formally teaching her (if that what she wants..:)


I would also be the first to admit that if anyone asked me about other Martial Arts I would recommend the places I used to go. Like Steve Powell’s and SBG according to their preference. The reason being is that we I believe that anyone people we teach should broaden their horizons and find their own way. Everyone does.


Anyways I included a few pics of Lun and Jon training, highlights of the Manchester run, a bird of prey soaring through the sky which I am using as a metaphor for freedom of expression and also erm me at the bottom of a giant tree in Glastonbury which time of writing I am too tired to write the metaphor for it!

Thanks for reading!

My Month in the Martial Arts:Engagement!

Well it’s been a long time since my last entry and a lot of things have happened since.
The most important is that I got engaged to Elaine in April. It was one of the most important decisions of my life and the most important thing I have ever done. I am so happy that Elaine said yes as she has really been an inspiration to me since the day we met and I love her very much. It’s a great feeling I cannot describe. Included is a photo of us in the gardens of Warwick castle.

Since my last blog I have not been attending many lessons due to work commitments. In the last month or so I have attended a Steve Powell Eskrima lesson, one regular JKD lesson taken by Rick Lawrie, a seminar with Krishna Godhania, a wrestling class with Barry Scargill and also along with Lun I have been holding Warriors Eskrima lessons for beginners. Although in the last two weeks I have been mainly training for the Great Manchester Run which has consisted of 3 mile runs and treadmill madness.

Steve Powell’s Eskrima Class was great this is going back a few weeks ago, as I have been either travelling down to Glastonbury or had work commitments. There are so many double stick drills and innovative ways that drills are modified it would be difficult to list, but from Steve Powell’s collective experience in weapons, you can guarantee a different approach in all his stick lessons. So why would Lun (more so Lun who has been going almost every week) and I still attend an Eskrima lesson in a different system? Well it’s like this why would someone play five a side football (soccer) week in and week out even though that person knows how to play?...Cause it’s a different experience every time that person goes and it’s the same with Eskrima or any Martial Art. Lun has been going every week and always tells me how great the lessons have been, read here for more!

The JKD Classclass which Rick took (and apologies to Rick if he is reading as this was way back in early March) was awesome as well. Again work commitments took me away from continuing the classes on a weekly basis, however this month I should be able to make several JKD lessons. We basically were smashing pads with reverse punches and variants of. I still got some scars on my knuckles to prove it. I don’t want to sound “hard” or tough with a line like “I still got some scars on my knuckles to prove it” but I genuinely have and it hurt at the time!

In late March Lun and I went to an instructor’s seminar held by Krishna Godhaina. Simon and Paul also went, we were taught some great stuff including knife and focus mitt drills. I caught up with Russell an instructor from Weston Super Mare who Lun and I met at Dan Inosanto’s seminar. The most interesting aspect of the lesson was profiling students that may have knife attacking tendencies (e.g. psychos). This is due to the current spate of knife crime happening in the UK. In the Warriors system it is within the syllabus to teach knife techniques but I am trying to emphasise more on the defences against knife attacks. But more so if we profile the student correctly before he joins the club then they really shouldn’t be a problem however both instructor and student must understand its a massive responsibility if they are taught the knife.

In mid April Lun and I attended a wrestling class, it was tough! Out of the four techniques shown I probably got two as it was also very technical. The instructor Barry was great very tough but when teaching application he was very careful.

We switched our beginner’s Warriors Eskrima classes
from Friday to Thursday. This is so Simon doesn’t have to concentrate too much on teaching and train with Paul, Ray and Barry and also Lun and I when we get the chance. It was also an opportunity to see if Lun and I can teach a class on our own. At first it seemed the wrong move as we were getting an average of one person coming down. But last week there were five people so it is growing somewhat. We go through a lot of the basic warriors stuff and incorporate stuff that we picked up over the years. However this is the beginning of our teaching and we have a long road to travel as I try to symbolise with a picture from Lyme Park below!


Finally Elaine and I saw Danny the Capoeira instructor in town this past Saturday. I promised him once Elaine moves up with me we will attend his class. Please check out his section of the flowdrills website which Steve one of his students has brilliantly amended complete with gallery!

A very eventful month, enjoy the pics and thanks for reading!

A very happy Kit!

My week in Martial Arts:26th Feb to 3rd March

Hi All

This post should really be called "My day in the Martial Arts" as all I managed to do was one day teaching Eskrima along with my brother. We taught the single stick drill called Amarra and some double stick drills. Double stick drills are fun to do especially the heaven six eskrima drill which is a basic co-ordination and striking drill which consists of a right forehand strike,left back hand strike and then then a right backhand strike. However it can be sometimes hard for people to pick up if they are not familiar with using weapons and this applies to any Martial Artists who haven't handle weapons before. I remember Lun and I when we first started we were all over the place. This is because in the early days of Warriors Eskrima we first trained in several double stick drills, eventually we got it but with anything in life it took practice.

It's very interesting how our class operates, ever since several of us became apprentice instructors, we have taken different routes within our training. So if someone see's our class they will see not only Eskrima going on but probaly the more experienced guys training in what they know etc. Therefore it's safe to say that out class has a wealth of different experiences and this also includes the expertise of the students who have also trained in other Martial Artists, so its perfect for a beginner to come in and get different view points.

So why one lesson this week, because I been on call and working funny hours. I am actually enjoying work at the moment, in the last department I was in I don't think I quite fitted in because it was just so damn quiet! But now its fast moving and I feel more alive. In the past I only felt alive after working hours and weekends now its 24/7 (literally because I am on 24 hour callout some weeks) and therefore I feel like kicking ass (cliched and an eye rolling comment for sure, but that's how I feel right now).

Anyway this week I am not on call, so I can train more. I leave you with a picture of my brother Lun and I. As you can see I have my game face on (or serious face) while Lun smiles, maybe I should have mentioned I was trying to do a serious pose photo to Lun in our Warrior Eskrima shirts!

Thanks for reading

Kit

My month in the Martial Arts! Late Jan to Late Feb!

Hello All!

Well since the last time I posted I had only managed two lessons at Steve Powell’s and one Capoeira lesson but also been teaching new students at the Warriors Eskrima lesson.
The reason why it hasn’t taking me so long to post? Well I have been really busy at work, as I am now required to be on 24 hour call out 1 in 3 weeks and have been working odd hours. I am much happier working where I am now then say a year ago, the sacrifice though is that I don’t get to all the lessons I would like to attend or time to write my blog.

Capoeria! Yes I went back to Capoeria last year I left to try and get into BJJ but it didn’t work out, not like I didn’t like it but it was the timing wasn’t great and everything and I was more into the stand up aspect. So when I attended Danny greeted me as I have never left. It was hard to get back into it again but at the same time fun. I am so happy that his class is expanding too. It was at one point at average of one or two students when I first advised him to move to Salford now the classes seem to be between 6 and 10.

Two half jokingly comments, but poignant comments were made by two of my colleagues. The first comment came from one pointing out that I was the only one “keeping it real” in the Martial Arts out of our department, he and another colleague was talking about Martial Arts and how they quit but wanted to start again(one of them has found a club since the chat). I thought about the comment but instantly thought about my brother and all the guys I know who attend all the classes that I go to on a regular basis that I go to who are a similar age and the other colleagues within my workplace who have carried on their Martial Arts, two of them being instructors. I thought it was a nice comment however but I know many more people more worthy of the tag “keeping it real”

Steve Powell demonstrated one more time to me the punching technique he shown as I got something wrong while doing it. There are so many variables to consider when doing the reverse punch at Steve Powell’s JKD, but it was such a great technique if you get it right and can really knock someone back. It was a great class we had in late January full of power strikes which I really enjoyed. I only managed along with Lun to attend one empty hand class since the last post, while Lun had been going down every Saturday to Steve Powell’s weapons class which is great for him. I have been going down to see my girlfriend Elaine or being on call on Saturday’s hence I have not been attending the Saturday class. However I made one rare Saturday last Saturday and we had a great class, my favourite bit of the class was smashing tyres with our sticks, totally awesome. I remember once we did a similar thing in Minnesota at Rick Fayes gym back in 02, although it wasn’t officially a lesson, Lun and I just did a six hit drill on some tyres in the open plan room adjacent to a class that was going on. I remember smashing those tyres but then only realised later that we weren’t meant too as there was a notice above asking people kindly not to hit the tyres while lesson was in progress, doh! The picture above is something I have published before but it’s me smashing the tyres when I wasn’t meant too!

However that Saturday was great we held the tyres up for each other and started hitting them with sticks and it felt great to hit something with the stick. We also did some cool stick locks a great lesson overall.

The Warriors classes have been going great also apart from this past Friday where due to work commitments I couldn’t make it, which leads me the other half jokingly comment that another colleague made but also Lun has said it in the pass. “You are letting work take over your life!” I thought about this comment and probably due to the nature of my work I can’t control it, due to the on call and some funny hours I have worked recently. But I can’t let it compromise my training and have to work round it.

Lun and I have been teaching the beginners that swelled up to 4 last week. It was great to go through the various techniques and always interesting to see how they are progressing. They are enjoying the lessons which are the most important thing for us as well. I would like to point out that our fellow instructor Jonny Cowan is also going well and that his branch is based at the United Estates of Wythenshawe gym in Manchester. Lun has visited several times and thinks it’s a great class with a great atmosphere.

Anyway I leave you with two “posing photos” of Lun and I, after we went through some techniques. I haven’t been taking too many photos of the classes lately due to the fact we are too busy teaching (the theme of today and word has been “busy”) but I am sure I will get time to take some next lesson and will try and post regularly again.

Thanks for reading and get busy training!
Kit

My two weeks in Martial Arts: 08/01/07 to 20/01/07

Hi All

2007 began with a boom literally. January 8th Lun and I went to Steve Powell’s JKD class and we did an awesome drill with Rick Larwie who took the class for the night. This was my first class at Steve Powell’s for a long time and what a class. The theme was aggression and the first drill was basically your training partner would get the pad/kick shield while you have your back towards him or her totally relaxed. Then your training partner will shout out the worse thing he can think of and barge right into you at a pace to piss you off you then turn around and “boom” hit the pad. That set the tone for several drills that we did.

I have said in the past I respect all martial arts and all aspects of it from the sport to the culture to philosophy, but when it comes down to it I do like to train for the aggression, for something that would aid me in the streets. Its not that I constantly talk of “ripping someone’s head off (and some people would hilariously add.. ) and spitting down their throat", but its good to know you have access that kind of training. As an old friend said a while ago.. “I hear some people do Martial Arts do “keep fit” that’s bullshit man, I do it for fighting!!!” Although I practice it to keep fit as well as also do it for situations that may arise. This is why Rick’s lesson was great as it was about applying certain techniques to situations.

On Wednesday Jan 10th I was shown some cool knife stuff. I enjoyed it but my opinion of knife fighting etc because my family and I were subject to a screwdriver attack over 10 years ago which I explained in an earlier post I am still a bit sensitive. All I can say is that I am more interested in the knife defence stuff rather than using the knife.

Friday 12th Jan, I didn’t go to Eskrima as work got in the way, it was a problem at 5 o’clock on a Friday. So I drove around a bit near my old high school and places where my old childhood friends used to live. Ironically I bumped into one of them, Barkery who was featured in a photo with me in an earlier post of us doing karate as kids. He is a great guy and genuine friend (well he was driving behind me trying to flag me down for ages!). He also read this blog so I like to say hello to him.

In the UK there has been a lot of talk about racism and ignorance stemming from a show that I absolutely hate with a vengeance but I thought it was worth having my take on racism. No one will understand racism or properly judge it unless directly experienced by them or knows someone close or a loved one who has experienced it. I scoff at people who haven’t been racially abused who try to tell me what racism is. I know what it is and it’s complicated. Being of Chinese descent I had some great illogical ignorant comments directed at us in the past such as “Go back to your own country!” and “English Chips!” as a bunch of English people(they may have not been) walked past our old Chip Shop. However ignorance is bliss as once a bunch of racist drunks came to our Chip Shop, shouting all kinds of crap, my dad got pissed off broke out the nunchucks and started waving them around in any shape or form possible i.e aimlessly as he really didn’t know how to use them, all the drunks ran off in fear of their lives with my triumphant Dad laughing at their sorry asses! However once a drunk pisshead came in to our Chippy, looking a total nobhead and slamming the door really hard, regular and racial expletive shooting from his mouth…instead of getting what he wanted he was greeted with Lun doing a perfect Nuchucka form in front of his nose and ended with the famous Enter the Dragon poster pose from Bruce Lee…the drunk must have shat his pants. In actual fact he left with a whimper.

Jam 14th we did some weights in the gym and Friday 19th we taught Richard in Eskrima. We now have a target to achieve as grading is coming up soon. It was good to teach again as I said in an earlier post practising the basics over and over again is such good practice not only for the student but for the instructor.
This was further backed up by Karl a Wing Chun Instructor from Glastonbury who I met with in Bath this past Saturday when Elaine and I met up with Elaine’s Sister Louisa and her boyfriend also called Karl (also Martial Artist) in Bath. Karl the Instructor is Louisa’s Sifu and was being helped by Louisa and Karl to find a venue in Bath. Elaine and I met up with them and Sifu Karl(as I will call him to avoid confusion) and I started talking. He was such a great guy and talked about similar stuff that he did in Wing Chun such as empty hand translations etc. He made reference to the Jet Li film Fearless, for those who haven’t seen Fearless, basically Jet Li is a badass cocky instructor who picks fights with people in the first half and then turns into someone who mellows out in the second half. He said the film reminded him of himself when he started out, cocky at first and then humble in later years which was interesting observation. Maybe something I have to watch out for in myself and fellow apprentice instructors.

Anyways enjoy my pics and thanks for reading!

Last one for the year!

My month and a bit in Martial Arts!

Hi everyone sorry I haven’t posted in over a month. So what took me so long? Well my last post was intended to be the last, leaving it with the Dan Inosanto seminar would have been an apt conclusion through my journey in Martial Arts. After all he encompasses all the arts I am doing and pretty much carried on a legacy of training in different Martial Arts by Bruce Lee.

But I thought to myself I can’t just “end” like this, this isn’t a novel or a 2 hour film, it’s my life I am chronicling and it doesn’t just end. So what’s been going on? Well for the last 4 weeks I have been teaching in the Warriors Class, training with Lun, Simon
has also taught us some cool basic Sayoc knife drills.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
How about the classes I attend I hear you ask? Well it was a matter of saving up for Christmas. I want to restart everything after Christmas but as I am saving up, Lun and I have been training a lot of stuff that we picked up from the years on our own.

If you miss of few Martial Art lessons you become lethargic and stiff and it could take you a while to get back into it. That’s why Lun and I have just been training as if we are in a lesson, making sure that we always get a great work out each time. You know when you had a great work out when you have sweated buckets and you feel great at the end.

We train the techniques we know and then our main bit of training consists of three sets of 20 reps of focus mitt drills before doing some weights at the gym. These are all the drills we picked up over the years mainly from Steve Powell’s JKD and the 20 reps idea came with Rick Faye’s 2002 Wisconsin camp. We have been motivating each other when training and it has worked very well. Do we need to go back to all our lessons after devising our own? The answer is yes to learn more techniques and train with different people. Over the past year I have been picked up great techniques and experiences from Steve Powell, Pangulong Guro Krishna and Karl Tanswell more than enough for Lun and I to train adequately on our own but we also need that class environment to guide us and help us train in something new, such as Simon teaching us the Sayoc Knife techniques which was something new.

TEACHING
Teaching has been great; however we have to balance the teaching and the training. The great thing about teaching beginners is that you are teaching them to have a strong base and therefore it gives you time to try and develop an even stronger base for yourself as it’s something you have to show and show well to the beginner, for E.G a basic guard or basic movement.

GO FOR THE KNEECAPS INIT?
My work place is littered with cool Martial Artists, from Aikido to Western Boxing to Tae Kwon Do and JKD. As it is necessary to sometimes carry out work in one particular room which seats about 6 people where various departments would work, it is easy to overhear conversations. For some reason two guys started talking about fighting, instantly you could tell who had the Martial Arts training and who didn't. I will transcript their conversation under Pepsi Challenge 1 and Pepsi Challenge 2 as a tribute to those Pepsi Challenge adverts(if only product placement existed in blogging!)
Pepsi Challenge 1: “Well you know if it came down to it man, I would go for the kneecaps first in-it?”
Pepsi Challenge 2: “Well you would actually try to find a way out first, if you really were in a situation”
And the winner is....
Pepsi Challenge 2, who was cool guy and talked to me after about JKD afterwards, Pepsi Challenge 1 continues to go for the kneecaps apparently.

GREAT CHRISTMAS
I have had a truly eventful Christmas, I spent two days in Dublin with my girlfriend (sorry for not looking you up John who writes the Running Uphill blog, but there was a lot to see in your cool city and I am sure to visit again soon) spent Christmas Eve with my family and then Christmas day with Elaine and her family, its been a very family orientated nice Christmas.

BUT BEFORE I GO..AN EXPLAINATION FOR THE PICTURE.
The picture is of a shattered Eskrima stick that my fellow eskrimadors blitzed when it was about to fall apart, there is no real symbolism to it, I just thought it looked cool. I wish everyone a great New Year and keep training as I am going to update this blog weekly again and start the New Year in my next post with a crazy picture filled special post!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Kit

My Weekend in Martial Arts: November 11th to November 12th 2006:Guro Dan Inosanto!

“Look Lun, it’s him!” I said to my brother excitedly as we came down for breakfast at a hotel in Edinburgh
“Erm Who?” Lun replied
“Dan Inosanto!!!!”

But before we even get to this part this was the trip that nearly wasn’t. It was most definitely a last moment thing and therefore I did not mention this trip on my previous blog. I also forgot to mention this to the students at the last Warriors Eskrima class but emailed them to tell them Lun and I wasn’t going to be teaching on Friday. There was no ulterior motive for not telling them where we were going, we sincerely didn’t know whether we were going or not due to the recent events regarding our Uncle. However Mum insisted we go in the end (as long as we could get back!).

We almost didn’t make the whole trip because the train in front of our train hit a cow which delayed us for about 2 hours to add to this surreal scenario a man in a chicken suit was walking up and down telling jokes (all for a good cause plus keeping the passengers amused while stuck on the train).

The surreal theme continued into the next day as we saw Guro Dan Inosanto getting some breakfast from the self service area of the hotel restaurant in which we were also staying in. I did joke with Lun the night before “Maybe he is staying the same hotel as us” and it turned out he did. He was sat with Rick Young who was the host and a man who turned out to be Guro Dan’s assistant called Joel Hart. We didn’t really want to disturb them eating their breakfast as we thought it might be rude to interrupt.

Eric his wife Amanda, Chris and Sahid all from Steve Powell’s JKD class picked us up from the hotel. As we were made our way to Leith Academy we saw Guro Dan, Rick and Joel get into a car, our first thought was to “FOLLOW THAT CAR” but decided against it because we had a Satellite Navigation in the car anyway and would have looked very suspicious.

AT THE SEMINAR

Lun and I approached Guro Inosanto as he was looking at his notes and when to say hello. He was extremely warm and friendly and thanked us for coming. He taught some cool stuff stick and dagger, stick, empty hand, I can’t really go into everything because there were a lot of drills. The thing that I also loved was listening to the history of the Philippines. The stories of how his father brought all the feuding Filipino Californian communities together which led to Dan Inosanto by so many different Eskrima instructors. The way Filipino’s were unjustly called “Warlike and Barbarian” by invaders just because they defended their country was also explained to us. I find all the history fascinating about Filipino Martial Arts, I could just sit in a seminar with Guro Dan just talking about the history and then one seminar just training. I love hearing history from a view point from somebody that experienced things first hand rather than the propaganda history that we are sometimes misled to believe. During the break we spotted someone with a Warriors Eskrima T Shirt on. His name was Russell and was an instructor from Weston Super Mare in Somerset, ironically near my girlfriend Elaine. It was cool to talk to him and he had nothing but good things to say about Krishna Godhania. We also recognised a few other Martial Artists attending.

Later that night Lun and I went with Steve Powell’s entire group to have a dinner. I go on record and say that Eric and Chris are two of the first English guys I have ever went to a restaurant with who knew what they are ordering (Roast Duck and Char Siu with rice) taught to them by Steve Powell himself of course. We spent the evening discussing the seminar and having good food at this restaurant in Edinburgh called the Great Wall.


DAY 2

Speed, the speed of Guro Dan Inosanto at 70 is phenomenal. The day before Guro Dan showing us a move that started off with a sweep and quickly into an arm bar. My jaw just dropped, if he is this fast at 70 he must have been more phenomenal at my age I thought to myself. Joel Clark was his tall teaching assistant who was very friendly and helped us out a lot. I noticed him Joel doing Capoiera moves as well during the breaks and we had a short discussion about that art. Joel is pictured below.


Again Guro Inosanto talked about the history and also showed us some awesome silat moves. The underlying theme of the whole seminar was finding what was best for the individual. It’s not the style that defines the use; it’s up to the individual. There are so many other things that happened at the seminar that Dan explained or shown, my only regret is not gathering our fellow instructors from my Warriors Class to go but like Guro Dan said “Its up to the individual to see what fits best for themselves…”

Special thanks to Eric and Amanda for giving Lun and I, a lift back to Manchester. I also like extend my thanks to my parents, Steve Powell who introduced us to JKD, Krishna Godhaina whose Warriors method kept our interest up in weapons and Lun who made it all possible. Below is a group picture with Guro Dan Inosanto

This weekend was a tremendous honour to meet Guro Dan Inosanto, one of my Martial Art dreams comes true.

Thanks for reading
Kit

My Week(end) In Martial Arts: Dan Inosanto!

Hi All
I am posting this from a hotel in Edinburgh! Lun and I finally made it to the Dan Inosanto seminar! This is day one of a two day seminar and so far its been interesting,such as we are staying at the same hotel as Guro Dan Inosanto,learnt a lot of Filipino history and their knife fighting culture,seen several well known Martial Artist's from all over England, a Warriors Eskrima instructor called Russell and most of all learning some great stuff. Shall post a more detailed updatate soon!
Keep Training!
Kit

My Week and a half in Martial Arts: 19/10/06 to 07/11/06

“Wow I just did it like it was natural” Richard said after blocking an Eskrima strike. Richard has been coming down to our Warriors Eskrima consistently for the last four weeks. Yeah that’s what you call subconscious competence I thought to myself. A term quite new to Lun and I, although this concept was what I called it 2nd nature or natural instinct in the past. Hang on, before I launch into another posting I must apologise for not updating in a while, I have been busy at work, Elaine came up for a week and I slowly getting my Martial Arts back together. Lessons? The past 3 weeks we only trained in one lesson as Lun and I have mainly been teaching the Eskrima class.

Friday October 20th we had an Eskrima lesson where I taught the double heaven six to the new guys Richard (who I mistakenly called Steve the previous week) and George. These guys were complete beginners in Eskrima (whilst our other beginners have a basic grasp on techniques as they have done Martial Arts), while Lun was teaching the more experienced beginners William and Stephen.

It was a challenge to teach complete novices. Everything is taken into consideration; co-ordination is the biggest factor dealing with weapon training. This involves footwork and getting the form right. There is a little trick I do to make sure the guy is striking properly with the stick which is just standing in front of them and using my body as a template for the strikes. I found this has helped the students (well 3 of them so far) but it’s difficult some times as I put myself in their shoes four years ago when I started in Eskrima, I can totally emphasise with them and I like to pass on little tricks I picked up so they can pick the skills easier. For people who have trained in a Martial Art previously I tend to teach them more stuff as they should be able to pick up stuff more easily. I also tell them the stories behind some of the moves and how it looks when it is applied, so they get a better idea.

I went to Glastonbury on Saturday 21st to see Elaine. On Sunday on the way to Bath to meet Elaine’s sister and her sister’s boyfriend Louisa and Carl who practice Wing Chun and Five Animal Kung Fu respectively, we stopped by Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol. I would say being a new instructor is like being a newly constructed bridge, bridges take a long time to construct and once it is built, it is ready for people to cross over to the other side; however people need to have confidence to cross the bridge first. Finally after being tried and tested many people can use the bridge to help them get across. That’s my analogy of it anyway and being of Chinese descent I have a right to be philosophical!..:)

On the 28th October I took my Mum to Birmingham and drove Elaine back to Glastonbury. I have done almost 20,000 miles in my car and I have only had it since December last year, in my last vehicle it took my five years to get to 31,000 miles!
On the way we went to Gloucester Cathedral as pictured and then Montacute House which reminded me of Wayne Manor from the Batman comics and films.


Friday 26th October we taught William and Richard some stick and empty hand stuff. One of the moves was a various jolt to the throat to rock the head back before finishing off an attacker/assailant with a few jab crosses to the throat William made an interesting point upon being shown this move “End up in jail, no?”. I told him that: “Well you don’t have to jab cross the throat in reality you can just jolt the throat and run, but he did have a valid point regarding the attack” In fact I think William is one of the most cautious people I have trained with and that’s a good thing. In fact all three of our beginners seem to understand that they can be taught something and not to maim or hurt someone with certain things they are taught. However as Krishna Godhania once told us we always have to train for the worst case scenario.

Thursday November 2nd Lun and I went to Steve Powell’s JKD class. Greg took the class and it was great to see Chris and LGM Chris there too. Greg is just an awesome teacher and as written earlier the stuff about subconscious competence is something that he told the class. Basically there are four stages, subconscious incompetence (you think you know it but your crap), conscious incompetence (you know you are crap but you are trying to fix it), conscious competence (you got the skills but need to think about it first) and subconscious competence (you are so good it becomes second nature). This concept or matrix is also used in business models but it’s a very interesting matrix to apply to Martial Arts.

Friday 3rd November Lun and I went through some basic drills with William, Stephen and Richard. As William and Stephen has had more lessons than Richard, I taught Richard some basics on his own and then finished with some focus mitt work.

Sunday 5th November: My Mum, Lun and I drive down to Birmingham to visit our Uncle who was recently diagnosed with Cancer. He was all smiles and showing a lot of vitality but my Mum always said that he is the kind of man who doesn’t want anyone to worry. It was there and then I decide that I am most definitely going to run for charity again next year, I am running for him and everyone of my family and friends who have somehow been effected by Cancer.

Monday 16th I went to the gym with Lun did weights. We then did some focus mitt sessions just doing 3 of 3 sets of 20 reps of various punching drills. It was a good and necessary work out.


Tuesday 7th November: I ran in the morning just once round the block…the running training has begun again.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.

Kit

My Week and a half in Martial Arts: 09/10/06 to 18/10/06

Hey All
As you can see in my title I am trying to catch up with my blog updates. Yes my Warriors Eskrima instructor Simon Campion has picked up on the fact that I don’t update it on a weekly basis as often as I used too! So here it is Simon from the 9th to the 18th of October unfortunately I haven’t been to many training sessions this past week and a bit …but I have been training with Lun in the gym and at home and had a great Warriors Eskrima teaching session along with Lun.

On Wednesday last week we trained in the gym and we watched Simon and Ray go through their Sayoc Kali knife drills. They looked pretty good and I got a couple of great action shots of them. In the gym we concentrated on our triple weights formula, this is 3 sets of 10 of 3 different exercises for different body parts.

Friday we went to Warriors Eskrima. Well I was 10 minutes later due to work commitments but to my surprise 2 extra beginners George and Steve joined our class. Along with Stephen we have 3 beginners. Stephen has really good and advancing fast, the DVD’s by our chief instructor Krishna Godhania he purchased are also a contributing factor.

This brings me to my next subject; Martial Art instructional DVD’s/Videos. In my opinion they are only really useful if you are practicing the Art that the DVD is about. Even though you want to purchase a DVD to perhaps learn some moves, nothing beats the atmosphere of a real place to learn. Instructors who can work on physical and mental attributes, intricacies such as body mechanics and positioning can’t be shown effectively on a DVD. The reason is because no one can tell you if you are doing it right or wrong if you execute a move from an instructional. Again I think Martial Arts Instructional DVD’s are a great idea but only if you are practicing the Art with a live instructor and live environment. Having said this I highly recommend Krishna Godhania DVD’s I am not saying that because he is my chief instructor but saying this because the detail of showing the viewer is awesome(from different angles and varying speeds) but only if you are practicing the style or curious about Filipino Martial Arts.


On Saturday I met my girlfriend Elaine in London to see The Producers in the West End. It was a very funny show and well acted. We also did the touristy thing in London on a tour bus. However I enjoyed Convent Garden and the various street performers and a great little restaurant called the Crispy Duck and obviously walking the streets of London with Elaine. We went to the Shaolin Way Martial Art store, unfortunately couldn’t find anything but recognised the guy behind the counter from our previous visits. I saw Austin Goh, a Wing Chun Sifu in Chinatown. I recognised him from the old Fighters magazine that used to run in the 70’s to early 90’s. It’s weird as when I see famous or semi famous people I just don’t know what to say. It was a nice weekend.



Monday, Lun and I trained at home. We did some focus mitt work such as jab/cross variations. Due to work commitments (as I will be on an overtime rota) I have not been to Steves or Karls for a while. I am planning to get back to both Steve Powell’s Jeet Kune Do and Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym but probably need some time to fit it in so I can go to both consistently.

Today we went to the gym and did our triple weights formula. We then went over some double stick blocking drills and basically drilled our beginner’s techniques to teach the guys on Friday, later we saw and spoke to Ray and Simon who reminded me about the blog!

Thanks for reading and enjoy the pictures.

Kit

The last couple of weeks in the Martial Arts from the 25th September to October 6th

Hey All

Sorry another late post! Well last week I only went to the gym and a session of Warriors Eskrima. This week I went to gym Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym and Warriors Eskrima. The reason for the late post is because I been busy at work (not that I write this post at work) but by the time I got home I couldn’t really face the PC when I got back from work…but I have something worthwhile to write about and as this is one of my hobbies I do need to keep it consistent.

A transition has occurred at work as I have change departments. Although I enjoyed talking to the colleagues of my old department it was time to move on (as I asked to be moved a while ago). The new department is cool but that’s way too much talk about work…this blog is about what I do after work.

First of all I like to address the subject of Martial Art politics. I know or met most Martial Artist of most categories of Martial Arts. I know modern martial artists, traditional martial artists, martial artists who compete, martial artists who are or were doormen and those in the arts who look for the spiritual side etc. In fact right now I know people obviously doing my Arts that I practice like JKD, MMA and Eskrima but arts such as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Tae Kwon Do, Wing Chun, Five Animal Kung Fu, Aikido, Capoiera, and Thai Boxing. All have different view points in the Arts and that is great as it’s their individual choice. The common denominator is that they train in what they believe in and that’s all that matters.

I brought this up because in my last post Chris put a comment on it and Lun responded. In the end they emailed each other and it was agreed that they had different viewpoints and opinions. It wasn’t really an argument it was getting the point across to each other and they did it really well and respectfully. This is because they believe in what they do and both have no egos.

However ugly politics and ego is still alive and well in Martial Arts.
I have seen videos on the internet containing guys practicing the same art from different branches jumping each other unexpectedly. It’s deep rooted politics such as we have the best Kung Fu or insert “Martial Art here” is all to do with the ego maniacal person running the class fuelling other bad egos creating ego’s and more egos. The worse example however is when one club actually tries to stop another club from practicing their art. It happened to my Capoeira Instructor Danny Henry who was visited by a few Capoeira guys from another school a few years ago who asked him to stop. Can you imagine if you were asked to stop something you love to do and intimidated by other people who also practice your art? I found this very disturbing but Danny stuck to his guns, explained his position peacefully and still teaches.


I am proud to say that in all the classes I take at Steve Powell’s Jeet Kune Do, Warriors Eskrima and Straight Blast Gym and the instructors I ever trained under from 2001 have never presented me with ego or political problems.

Another thing that I want to talk about is the awareness of Martial Art clubs in Manchester. There is an abundance of clubs in and around the centre of Manchester...but to our amazement even some people who work in the centre are unaware of this. My brother sometimes parks outside a newsagents on a street just a block away from Steve Powell’s in fact you can see the big banners of Steve's club from the outside of his newsagent if you walked a through yards up. Anyway the guy who works or owns the store saw my brother park outside his shop the other day and started chatting with us.
“Hey what do you do man?” asked the Shop owner.
“Oh I am going to an MMA class” said Lun.
“Yeah I wanna do a bit too,get rid this”(Pointing to his own stomach”) replied the shop owner.
“Well why don’t you?” questioned Lun.
“There ain’t nothing round here man” answered the shop owner in a worryingly convincing manner.

Our jaw's just dropped…this guy owns a newsagents minutes away from Vang Dang’s Martial Art Centre, home of Steve Powell’s JKD, Master Chu’s Lion Dance Club, Golden Cobra Thai Boxing, Ground N Pound and even a Yoga class if he fancies it (apologies if I left any clubs out). Hell he can even visit the Vang Dang Martial Art shop and pick up dozens of leaflets on clubs in Manchester. He is literally 3 minutes or so away from Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym, he is yards away from a WTF Tae Kwon Do class, only a short walk away from a Wing Chun club run by Billy Davidson who for the record used to come to our take away. This guy is literally in the Martial Arts hub of Manchester and said “There ain’t nothing round here”??? We told him about all the places he could go too, but I really need to write an article on what I call the Martial Art Town of Manchester to make people more aware.

Anyway’s had a good week of training we went for a good gym session Monday and went through some stick work. Wednesday Lun and I went to Karl’s doing some basic stand up fighting stuff which was a great work out. Friday my brother and I taught Stephen who came to the Warriors Eskrima. We went through numerada which is the 12 basic strikes but taught him to do the 1st five. We taught him some punching drills and moves and then I showed him the second instalment of the heaven six double stick drill. It’s cool that he seemed to be enjoying the class. Simon also taught me some cool sayoc empty hand drills. It was good to see Paul Ray and Baz there too.

So here you go I hope I made up for the lack of blog with this one.
Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading.
Kit

My week in Martial Arts: Sept 18th to Sept 22nd

Hey All

Another good week in training! Monday my brother and I worked out a schedule for our gym work out. This is because we usually get to the gym around 5.45 or 6 depending on what time we finish work and then have to make the Karl Tanswell’s Straight Blast Gym class at 7 which is a good 10-12 minutes drive. So we worked out we are going to do 3 different exercises for each body part which consist of 3 sets of 10. This was perfect as it lasted 45 minutes approx. After the workout we went through some drills that we were taught at the Rick Young seminar held at Steve Powell’s JKD class. We also went through drills that were taught at the Krishna Godhania seminar and drilled our Eskrima stuff and what we were taught at Karl Tanswell’s the week earlier

Wednesday we went to Karl Tanswell’s class, for the past few Wednesday’s the class has been taken by an Estonian instructor called Jorgen. We did some interesting takedowns from the clinch. As Jorgen is about my size(i.e. not very tall) he told us what clinch control point(as in under hook or grabbing the head) would work best depending on what size you were, which put an interesting perspective on things.

Friday we went to Warriors Eskrima. Back to teaching! A new student Stephen showed up and it was cool to teach again. As this was the intro class I went through a variety of things including footwork, single stick, double stick and empty hand stuff. The interesting thing was that Stephen has Filipino heritage and this he told me, was one of the reasons why he wanted to learn. He told me that he enjoyed the lesson and I emailed him the list of what we did. I think I will save this list as the intro class template. It was good as he picked up the lesson pretty well.

As I was teaching and Lun was too busy training with the other guys, we couldn’t take any pictures! So I included a picture of the old “classic” pad we use to use at Steve Powell’s. The pad has “Smash the Pad!” written on it which I guess Lun put to motivate us when we were training.

I also included our Martial Arts book collection (part of it) which is a crazy mix of things. These books are there for reference really. I must admit I always found it hard to follow instructional books unless the moves presented were very basic. 2D photos never could catch the full motion of the more advanced moves unless they were really good photos coupled with good explanations. Plus nothing really beats being taught at an actual class where you can experience everything first hand (although DVD’s, videos and good books are excellent references).


At the weekend I went to Wookie Hole caves in Somerset with Elaine. It was fascinating to walk around, especially the inside of the caves as pictured. Elaine also showed me how to play the piano too, so the deal is that if she teaches me to play the piano I will teach her what I know in Martial Arts!

A special mention to James who writes this blog which is a cool blog all about swords. He asked me for a link exchange via my email at kiteskrima@yahoo.co.uk and if anyone else would like one please don’t hesitate to drop me a mail.

Thanks for reading and I promise more action pictures next time!
Kit!

My week in Martial Arts: Sept 11th to Sept 16th

That’s more like it! 3 lessons and a seminar for Lun and I this week. So we trained 4 times and good session in the gym. On Monday my brother, Lun and I went to Karl Tanswell Straight Blast Gym and were taught some great stand up skills and takedowns. It was a great work out and we swapped training partners several times while sparring. It was cool to get a different feel of energy. Lun and I have trained these stand up skills in previous classes as it was a stand up intro class. It was basic but training basic manoeuvres is very beneficial as I will discuss below.


Wednesday Lun and I had a great workout at the gym as we lifted heavy for a good 40 minutes and then went to Karl’s again and worked some techniques from some close up stand up wrestling. Basically escaping or avoiding counters from body locks. It was fun stuff.

Friday we went to Warriors Eskrima. We had a great work out there drilling roof blocks and reverse roof blocks. Sparring with sticks and going up and down striking and blocking each others sticks. We also did some double stick drills as well which we haven’t done in a while. It’s good to train with the lads again as I mentioned in my last blog and take a break from the teaching. My brother and I however have been practicing Level 1 stuff in the event of some students joining. Again refining the basics…..


Saturday was seminar day with Rick Young(the second time this year, as the first time was in February) at Steve Powell’s JKD gym . It was a great seminar and great to see the regulars such as Chris, LGM, Greg and Rick. It was also the first time we seen Steve for a while who kindly provided us with the photo. Thanks Steve!

The seminar was cool. We did some single sticks and double sticks and some panuntukan (Filipino Boxing) and some Chi Sau (sticky hands) to incorporate into hubud drills. It was a varied and interesting seminar. Rick Young also mentioned the importance of training the basics. He stated that the basic are all part of a good foundation. This was something I strongly agree with because my brother and I still attend the stand up intro class at Karl Tanswell’s and always drill the earlier levels of the Warriors Eskrima class.


I reckon as well as progressing and drilling your skills in Martial Arts, re-visiting past skills is also very important.

Special shout out to my old mate Paul Thunder(not his real surname) who reads this blog on a regular basis and of course my girlfriend Elaine who always asks when am I next posting it!.:). Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading.