Four Forms

Well, three short Yang forms (two right, one left) and one long Yang form. Also some mi chong, some pa kua, single and two person pole and a sneaky bit of char chuan. So although there was no kung fu this Thursday I still managed to get a fair bit of practice in.

Off to the big smoke for a few days so no more 'til next week though....

Excuses Excuses

Made my excuses and bailed out of an all day meeting at work today around lunchtime so that I could run round a bit and let off some steam - otherwise I was going to seriously lose my sense of humour with someone. Took me about 2 miles to start to feel a little more relaxed. Unfortunately I did have to go back to my meeting again later.....

And......relax

My second time teaching the kung fu and kickboxing tonight. I think it went pretty well, but it is something of a relief to know it's back to normal next week - I spent quite a bit of today stressing over how to run a lesson that would keep everyone challenged.

L made an appearance, one night only as she's back from the far east for a few days. Apparently Korea has nothing to touch Wutan...mostly Tae Kwon Do I think, which is a bit crude once you've done kung fu for a while.

Wet

2 miles this lunchtime, then the skies opened and I got really very wet. Scarcely needed to have a shower afterwards! And now I have a runny nose, just in time for the weekend.

Role Model?

No kung fu this Thursday, so I decided to do

some extra tai chi and turned up for the beginners class. It was good to just do some of the basics for a change, we went through the Yang short form quite a few times, which I haven't done in a class for quite a while - usually we either do the long form or the short form to the left. D took the opportunity of having me there to demonstrate how correct posture/form gives significant mechanical advantage - although I was between 6 inches and a foot shorter than everyone else in the class, he got me to stand in square stance and then hold up the combined weight of all 6 of them leaning onto me trying to push me over.

In the advanced class afterwards we did long form - each section is getting better, but I still have no idea what order the sections are going to arrive in. Then some Chen-style pushing hands, D getting us to warm up for this by pretending to be (should that be aping?) monkeys and getting us one by one to show the class our best monkey-style walks. Cue channeling Helena Bonham-Carter from Planet of the Apes, and remembering some info I learned from an old boy-friend of mine who was a monkey-handler at a zoo (no, really)

Return to form

Running again at lunchtime today, about 2.5 miles. I think after 5 outings I'm starting to get

some of my previous form back. I must resolve to go out a couple of times a week even when my full kung fu schedule is back in force, because it does do me good (I really need to believe that that's the case, anyway, otherwise it's just masochism)

Student Teacher

Last night was my first time teaching the mixed (well, mostly men's) kickboxing and the kung fu by myself. I was a little bit stressed out about it beforehand, but I think it went pretty well.

I was determined to make them work hard and not take the opportunity to slack off like kids do when they have a student teacher, so I set my stall out by making the kickboxing warm up fairly grueling. One guy in particular looked like he was struggling so I backed off a little - don't want anyone collapsing on my "watch"!

Other than that I stuck fairly well to my hurriedly drawn up lesson plans for both classes although I did run a bit short of time in kickboxing so next week I'll set my sights a bit lower there.

A bit of positive feedback from a couple of the students at the end so I must have done something right. Another step towards teaching more seriously....

Down To The Water

Three miles this morning, down to the Trent, along a bit and back. Along with plenty of rowers and canoeists, there was a dragon boat team training on the river. Just like Hong Kong Harbour. The running is gradually getting easier, thankfully.

International Yin/Yang Wig Kicking Competition

Spotted this on cake wrecks (the second one down, obviously). I particularly liked the comment from "Josh (the DMT)" (also the second one down). It's going to be hard to take sparring seriously next week.

What's The Alternative?

Since there's no kids kung fu this Saturday I felt obliged to go for a run on Friday at work, just a couple of miles but it felt like hard work all the way. Unfortunately through the next couple of weeks I'm going to have to do a lot of running because there aren't many classes I can do, and I can't think of another alternative that doesn't involve just vegetating on the sofa - I'm not really disciplined enough to train by myself and there's a limit to how often I can force the kids to join in, especially since one of them has her arm in a cast.

JCVD

Guilty secrets revealed - but it seems I wasn't the only one to watch Kickboxer when it was on Channel 5 the other night! The whole class at Kung Fu had a bit of a discussion about it yesterday. The consensus of opinion is that his reverse spinning hook kick looks pretty good (if you can get past the whole eighties/trousers pulled up to the armpits thing), but he over uses it.

Got down business after that, working on the real deal rather than that showy film stuff. Chum ku, kwok sau thay and li pi.

Staggered down to Tai Chi loaded up with all the pads and sticks, since T is away for a couple of weeks I'm taking the classes which means I have to lug the kit about.

First off we went out into the garden and did the Yang style long form. The pub next door to the training hall was having a seventies karaoke evening outside, which was more than a little bit off-putting, but I did manage to block out "Dancing Queen" and "I Believe in Miracles" etc enough to get through the form, actually better than I normally do. Maybe a sound track is what I need.

Then I used the last of the light outside to teach the final bit of the pole set, before we retreated indoors and went through the 2-person sword - one of my favorites. Might have gone better to a bit of "Firestarter" or something though....

Green Shoots

Managed to haul myself off for a run at lunchtime today, the second time in less than a week which is pretty remarkable at the moment.

Managed around 2 miles, then a bit of stretching.

Perhaps the start of a renaissance in my running?

Flipping Out

Throws with the grown-ups on Monday night, at both kickboxing and kung fu. T tried a throw on me that was like something out of aikido, getting a lock on my elbow and flipping me over forwards. Terrifying. I'm afraid to say I let out a girly shriek, which isn't good for my image.

I read in my trade magazine today that Engineering is supposed to be, generally speaking, the happiest profession. In the same article it gave some general tips for how to be happy, one of which was to study martial arts. No wonder I'm such a bundle of joy...

The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers

For the last couple of sessions before the summer break we've condensed the kids classes down into 1 class for all ages and abilities. So this Saturday's class was barely-controlled chaos, with the little ones franticly showing off to the big ones. Towards the end we got out the crash mats and the trampette for them to practise some jumping/falling and generally burn off some energy. Then, to get them off it at the end of the session, no amount of instructions from me or T were going to work - I had to physically intervene and turn the trampette upside-down to stop them bouncing!

Saturday afternoon was my department's summer barbecue, and with some trepidation I agreed to teach the assembled offspring a few stick fighting moves (mainly because of the Star Wars/Light Saber obsession of one of them). To my surprise we managed to avoid any injuries to anything other than the nearby sycamore tree which took a bit of a pounding, and I think the kids all enjoyed it. Hope I haven't unleashed too many demons though - I can foresee angry parents when they start breaking the fixtures and fittings whilst practising at home.

Bo and Pi

Arrived early to Kung Fu to make sure I got chance to go through a bit of the Wing Chun Pole, for some reason I felt nervous about teaching it to the Tai Chi guys even though I think I could probably do that particular form in my sleep. Incredibly hot and sticky in the training hall as it was warm but rainy, everyone was fading fast, but still a good lesson. Plenty of Choy Li Fut and then a little work on Sui Lim Tao with a beginner, finishing off with some double stick work. I've been finding that much easier since doing the butterfly knives set.

After a little more Char Chuan, down to Tai Chi. Since D was away, he had asked R to take the class and me to help out by continuing with the pole set that the class are learning. Having dug a couple of make-shift poles out of my shed (including one that's actually a piece of electrical conduit - bringing traditional Wing Chun into the 21st century!), we had quite a room full and struggled a bit for space, but I think it went well generally. Then P took us through some Hsing I, practising the "metal, splitting" pi move. I think I made some progress on it, as by the end when we were paired up I was fairly effectively driving my partner back, which given the height/size difference is not too shoddy....

ER visit

Today marks the first time for ages that I've actually been for a run! Went out with A at lunchtime for a fairly sedate 2.5 miles - luckily for me he is still nursing a bit of an achilles injury so he was happy to go a bit slower than usual. My legs felt fine, feet very wet from the deluge earlier this morning, but my chest was hurting a bit by the end.

On returning to my desk I found 3 missed calls from my other half...uh oh.... turns out my youngest had just done some spectacular falling over and was on her way to casualty. So instead of gently cooling down from my run whilst getting wound up by work stuff it was leap straight in to the car and drive like crazy to the hospital.

Now she has her arm in a cast up to the armpit, it's broken in two places. Looks like gymnastics and kung fu are going to be off her agenda for a while. Although she was musing on the way back that her cast would be good for blocking strikes with a stick - that's my girl!

After a brief sojourn....

Didn't get much activity in whilst in Wales. A couple of minor bike rides, one of which was ended a bit prematurely by my eldest having a spectacular accident, and one session of kung fu practice in the grass in a meadow on the farm.

(Looked something like this, but replace the crane/heron/whatever it is with a goose and it's a bit closer).

So training Monday night felt like the first for ages, and was pretty tiring, especially the "station" pad work during kick-boxing. Luckily lots of siu lim tao during the kung fu, which doesn't have to be too energetic.

T was enthusing about the kick-boxing after the class and showing me some of the stuff from higher up the syllabus which looks fairly impressive in a full-throttle kind of way. Also we revised some of the char chuan which I hadn't quite got solid yet.

For some reason I didn't wear my gloves last night, and this morning both hands hurt with swollen knuckles....stupid, stupid, stupid.