Hard Work

Hard work running this lunchtime for some reason - within about 100 yards I wanted to stop, but I managed to persevere through about 2 miles.

On The Rack

Lots of partner stretching on Monday night at both the kickboxing and kung fu. Still feeling it slightly this morning, so maybe I've actually been taken beyond my comfort zone for a change.

Taught some biu jeet for the first time too - another promotion!

Bokken vs Pole afterward, right the way through both parts, it seems to work but now I need to figure out the other side.....

..and home in time for vespers and bandages.

The Mighty Atom Returns

My youngest made it back to kung fu today for the first time since she broke her arm. Just to be on the safe side I strapped up her wrist with some old kick-boxing hand-wraps I've got, which she was really chuffed about. I was concerned she would be a bit cautious and not try stuff out of fear it would hurt, but I needn't have worried - she was full on straight away!

After the kids classes T and I went through some stuff, working on the 2-person choy li fut set and the 2-person butterfly knives. Then T showed me some of the stuff he'd learnt on his trip down to Southampton last Friday - some good wing chun stuff. Also apparently he's discovered that the bokken vs pole that we've been trying hard to revise is in fact only half of the set - so lots more to work on there.

The Search Continues

More lunchtime kung fu today, long fist forms again to try to consolidate. I felt a little less self-conscious today and the passing runners didn't seem particularly curious about what I was doing prancing round like the Karate Kid.

I think I may have found somewhere I can use when the weather gets wetter too - perhaps even while it's actually raining if I stick to wing chun forms and tai chi. Need to think about shoes though - don't want to use the shoes I usually train in 'cos I make an effort never to wear them outside. But all my other trainers are really a bit too big and heavy. So the search for the perfect training shoe is back on again.....

Lunchtime Ninja

First lunchtime outing to my new secluded training ground today. Didn't have long but spent around 40 minutes doing some of the "long fist" forms I know, from both the adults and the kids syllabus. Most enjoyable. A bit tricky to do the low sweeps properly on grass though.

Then a normal Thursday evening of kung fu and tai chi, S and her boys were back today, the 2 young ones are so keen to learn it's a pleasure to teach them! Went through bokken v pole afterward with T and N, we've got most of it now although the end is still a bit sketchy.

Sword, pole and pa kua in tai chi. More training tomorrow lunchtime too I think, as not enough time for a run before a meeting with some big cheeses.

New Toy

2 miles at lunchtime today in the company of my birthday present - a new ipod. My old shuffle was dying (needed charging after every use), so now I have a new companion with a lot more capacity and hence more options for variety. Wonder if I should treat myself to one of those nike things that measures how fast and far you're running?

Dusting Off the Archive

Message from T asking me to look out any notes I might have on bokken vs pole for the Monday class because it's back on the syllabus. Fortunately it's one of the seminars that I made extensive notes on, so I was able to unearth them and have a quick look through. Despite not having done the set for at least 3 years some of it seemed a little familiar and when we tried going through it after the class it mostly made sense - just a bit rusty

.

Good classes generally on Monday, although the kickboxing was down to a select few again - but at least that meant I got to teach some of the 2nd set to N. Wonder when I'll go over the 3rd set with T?

Bonus

Sunny Sunday morning, lie-in and breakfast in bed because it's my birthday.....then a short notice invite from R and A from tai chi to join them in the University Park to do a bit of practice with them.

So a run through the long form and plenty of pole revision. The funniest bit was a crowd of chinese students stopping to watch us and take photographs - probably to show to people back home and laugh at the strange westerners who think they can do tai chi.

Then a picnic lunch in the park with the family. Why aren't all Sundays this good?

Cat Stance

We had the fire doors open in the training hall yesterday morning during the kids classes. Just after we'd started training a cute cat wandered in and sat to watch us for a while, much to the amusement of the kids. I was surprised it didn't run away- my own cat at home seems to freak out when I practise - generally he will hide behind some furniture for a while and then after he's screwed up his courage leap out and attack my ankles, almost always managing to draw blood!

My new training regime started yesterday too, so after the kids T and I did an hour and a half of training together, going over choy li fut, kwok sau thay, some throws and chum ku in detail. Lots of little subtleties for me to think about.

(I've resisted the lolcats for a long time, but today I have weakened. Let's call it a birthday treat)

Location Scout

3 miles at lunchtime today (hard going), followed by a bit of hunting around for a good spot to practise kung fu at lunchtimes. I've decided I want to spend at least one lunchtime a week going through my forms, but I need to find a spot to do it that is reasonably secluded as I don't want people to stare.

I think I've found somewhere that's fairly suitable, not too overlooked, only problem is it's on a slight slope, but I'll give it a try.

The view is fairly industrial;

but, if I kind of squint at it, maybe I can convince myself it's similar to the Shaolin Temple's pagoda forest?

Setting the Pace

Mainly Choy Li Fut in Kung Fu, which made a nice change, followed by trying to teach the "two step" bokken set, which initially filled me full of dread as I thought it was pretty sketchy, but actually turned out much better than I'd expected and even got a rare "good" out of T when we showed him what we'd learnt.

A scary stick drill paired up with T that put my knuckles in a lot of danger, then sparring with the padded sticks at the end. For some reason I am absolutely hopeless at stick sparring, I think it's partly that I feel constrained by the limited targets you're allowed to aim for and partly that you're not allowed to use your free hand to grab or block your opponents stick. If it were a real free-for-all I think I'd do better.

Arrived at Tai Chi just in time for D to ask me to lead through the short yang form while he observed. This is a first in Tai Chi, and although it wouldn't make me bat an eye-lid in kung fu, and although I've been doing the yang form for longer than anything else in martial arts, this filled me with fear/paranoia that I was going to get it wrong. Thankfully after the first few moves I managed to relax into it a bit and concentrate on my tan tien a little, so I think it wasn't too bad. It was however at a (relatively) fast pace as I was still a little hyper from kung fu, which was commented on as a bit of a change for most of the tai chi guys who tend to take it fairly sedately. (I wish I knew the long form well enough to try to go through it at a faster pace. I've heard that it can be done in around 10 minutes if you step it up a bit....).

After that I taught one of the new-comers to the advanced class a portion of the sword set (teaching is another first for me in tai chi), then we all went through some drills from "Living Pole" which I haven't done for a long time. Anyway, by the end of the night I was feeling a little more confident about my Tai Chi than I have done for a while.

Bloke with a beard

3 miles at lunchtime today. On arrival back in the office slightly breathless and red-faced, one of my colleagues asked me if I'd been out chasing that bloke with a beard again (A does indeed have a beard). This fairly lame witticism cheered me up a little bit from the funk I've been in since yesterday evening.

(I'd just like to clarify that this is not actually my boss's beard or anything like it)

Aaaaarrrgghhhhhh

Bad end to tonight's training session that has seriously upset me - hence why I'm still up at this time of night. Don't think I even want to talk about it, suffice to say I think I have been completely mis-understood. Need to think through how to put this right....

Riding a Mad Goat? Not too sure about that one....

Kids classes today, three in a row which is pretty exhausting. When we were going through the stance training with the tinys, T was spinning some line about there being an invisible mad goat in the room which was butting people to make them wobble and fall over if their stances weren't right....god knows what their parents must think when they explain what they've been doing after the class...but I was going with it, playing along, until we got to horse stance when he said now we were riding the mad goat. At which point I got a complete attack of the giggles and couldn't stop snickering for the next five minutes. Tee hee.

The Friday Lunchtime Dash

Not to the pub along with the rest of the company, but for a 3.25 mile run with A around the local fields. I'm definitely starting to find it easier again, in fact I finished with a bit of a sprint because my legs still felt a bit bouncy.

Scary

Thursday night kung fu. Spent the whole lesson with the kids and beginners again going through siu lim tao and the first stick set. I'm trying hard not to get frustrated by it, not sure I'm succeeding yet. After the class we went through Char Chuan briefly just to check I'd remembered it OK, then the first 2 bokken sets, which, as ever, I couldn't remember in isolation but managed fine as soon as I was actually paired up with someone, when instinct takes over.

On my way down to tai chi one of the teenagers, L, was in the foyer just being picked up by her dad, who had their dog with him - a young husky I think. Anyway, the dog was terrified of me! This was a first for me, usually it's the other way round - when I was a kid I was very scared of dogs, it's only after a few years of martial arts that I've started to feel a bit more comfortable round them (one of the happy side effects of studying kung fu does seem to be that it has generally made me calmer and more able to cope with things I used to be afraid of). The dog was cowering behind L, even though I wasn't conscious of being at all threatening - in fact when I saw how afraid it was I tried crouching down to make myself smaller and less frightening - but it didn't seem to work - it didn't want anything to do with me. Obviously I'm getting pretty scary!

Tai Chi was a little frustrating, we went through the sword form and the pole, but there were quite a few of us so space was extremely limited and in the sword form in particular we became so crowded into one corner of the room at one point that it was getting quite dangerous. We also paired up to practise the shoulder push, I was working with A who is a good foot taller than me so it was fairly difficult for both of us

Shoulders still hurting. Am I growing a new muscle?

3 miles yesterday. Who knew that running uses the muscles across the top of your shoulders and front of your chest?

Punching above my weight

or above my height to be more precise. In kickboxing last night T told me I needed to practise punching a bit higher than shoulder/face height, since most of my opponents would be considerably taller than me. True I suppose, but if I were really defending myself against someone bigger than me I don't think punching them in the head would be my first choice strategy - in fact I doubt very much whether I'd use kickboxing at all, it seems pretty much like a sport to me rather than a serious martial art (not that I don't enjoy it, cos I do...) if I were in a corner I'd probably use some Tai Chi or mantis. Anyway, cue twenty minutes or so of punching high wearing my heavy gloves, so today my arms and chest ache somewhat

Kung Fu afterwards was pretty good, went through some bokken/miao dao drills with the green sashes, then some basic Mantis stuff with the beginners. After the class I finally got to the end of the char chuan set I've been learning. I think it is a most fantastic set, I only hope I can

do it justice with enough practice. A big moment actually, since I think this marks the end of the official syllabus, from now on new stuff I learn will be what takes Master They's fancy/what he thinks is appropriate for me, rather than the standard stuff that

everyone learns if they stick around long enough. I'm thinking of it more as just starting out on the real stuff, rather than having "finished" anything

Pleasant Valley Sunday

4 miles this morning around the local town centre. Lots of people at coffee bars and taking their kids out for bike/scooter rides. The smells of coffee, various types of Sunday dinners (and breakfasts) cooking, launderettes and morning-after pubs all reminded me today that I am definitely a city girl - country smells and fresh air just can't compare for me. Although since the smoking ban pubs with their doors open in the morning just don't smell quite the same....

Normal Service is Resumed

T back from holidays so a "normal" Thursday training session today. I spent most of it with the beginners taking them through Sui Lim Tao and then the first 2 person set, glancing enviously at the choy li fut going on at the other end of the room. I have a bad feeling that the introduction of more kids into the Thursday session is going to mean I spend most weeks with the beginners. I hope not though, as I've always considered Thursday the day when I do training for me on the more advanced stuff, rather than as an instructor going over the basics - Mondays session is for that....

After the session D appeared and we went through Char Chuan a few times. He brings a slightly different flavour to it than T, which gave me a few things to think about. Then down to Tai Chi, and the long Yang form, which is slowly but surely getting better. I still have no idea what order things are going to happen in, but now at least I recognise each individual section. Spent a while chatting about the practicality of using Tai Chi in a real self-defense situation, then did some Pa Kua, in which I think I had a bit of a breakthrough moment on the latest 2 changes we've been learning. D is trying to organise a seminar with Master They later this year on Pa Kua, so I'm keen to get fairly solid on what I know so far.

Widdershins

Did my normal lunchtime run in the opposite direction today just for the hell of it, 2.5 miles. Don't think I managed to summon up any demons....it did feel weird though. Can't let myself become a creature of habit - must destroy routine!