Odd Legs

Hard impact shin-on-shin on Monday at kickboxing. Didn't think too much about it after the initial swearing had stopped, busy looking after a couple of new people then working on bokken at kung fu (in a confined space with people swinging bokkens it pays to be focussed on where they all are or something worse than a bruised shin may result). Went through the stick set with T and N afterwards, I think my Sunday solo training in my garden has paid off.

Tuesday morning however I woke up noticing that my leg was hurting thanks to the weight of the covers, which seemed like a bad sign, and indeed on inspection the whole of my lower leg was quite badly swollen - although strangely there isn't much discolouration. Fortunately load bearing doesn't seem to be a problem so I was able to carry on pretty much as normal (to the extent that I went training at lunchtime again - stick, biu jeet, char chuan) but I think it will be a couple of weeks before I can wear anything but trousers or boots without getting odd looks.

Baby Tiger Shows its Claws

Busy kids class today. With the older ones we did some more of the new 5 animals form we're learning, which I think is called Baby Tiger Shows Its Claws. The remarkable thing was that because we were all learning it together it was really quiet, you could hear a pin drop. A refreshing change for the Saturday lessons.

Afterwards T didn't stay for long so I went through some stuff by myself for a while, did some good work on the Li Pi, a bit of Baji and then dusted off the Char Chuan...unfortunately there's a bit in the middle I seem to have forgotten.

Resting up now ready for tomorrow's exertions at the Wu seminar.

Coming soon to a zoo near you

Two good kids classes again this morning. Having some of the bigger lads there is really helping the little ones class have a bit more structure, and with the older ones I got to go over some of the adult's syllabus with the higher grades who have started crossing over into learning that.

It looks like we're going to start adding some new stuff into the kid's syllabus after the grading at the end of the month - forms and 2 person sets from the 5 animals style. That will be new for me, so I'm looking forward to it.

Good training session with T afterwards, too - some more of the stick set I'm learning, butterfly knives, char chuan and then pretty much all the 2 person sets in the syllabus. I expect I'll be covered in bruises tomorrow.

The only bad news is it looks like various family and other social things are conspiring through April and early May to make it unlikely I'm going to get to a Master Wu seminar even though I'd decided I was willing to travel down to Southampton or Bristol for the opportunity :-(

Last Thursday

Neck felt good enough to go to training last night, and since it was the last opportunity I'll have to go to a Thursday kung fu/tai chi combo for a while, I decided to strap up my fingers to protect my painful knuckle and go along to see how I felt.

Last residues of stiffness in my neck disappeared once I'd warmed up and I had a good class, other than the fact that we focussed quite a bit on mantis, where it's quite tricky to get the requisite "hook" hand shape when your fingers are taped together. After kung fu first D came up from tai chi to get my help with a section of char chuan he'd forgotten, then I had a good chat with one of the intermediate guys about plateauing in training and having to work through it to start seeing more improvement.

In Tai chi we worked on the Yang Long form, then some chen and some mi cheong, which I haven't done for ages, but D helped me revise the opening few moves which I've always found particularly tricky. D wanted to talk about me becoming a proper instructor, he wants us plan out my "development", start applying for my CRB checks, getting my first aid qualifications and so on....

Off to the pub afterwards with a couple of the guys because it will be a while before I get the opportunity again, given that I'm going to have to (at least temporarily) give up Thursday's for a while to concentrate on the Wednesday night classes we're starting up in Derby. I'll particularly miss the tai chi guys, since I get to see most of the kung fu lot on either Monday or Saturday at the other classes.

It's all in the wrist

Two big classes on Monday night with newcomers at both kickboxing and kung fu. In Kung Fu T asked me to teach the Chi Nar wrist locks to the beginners, which I duly did, only to discover, when one of the lads reacted rather more strongly than I was expecting to the fairly gentle lock I put on him that he had several bits of metal work in his wrist as it had been broken in about a dozen places a couple of years ago. Don't think I hurt him too much though as he was enquiring afterwards whether he could come to the Thursday class as well as the Mondays.

Char chuan afterwards, and more bokken.

Sick List

Monday morning started early being woken by the youngest arriving by my bedside to tell me she was about to be sick....so one very quick dash for the bathroom later it was obvious that one of us was going to have to stay at home with her as she wouldn't be going to school. And it was my turn. After a fairly long day of cleaning up (although to be fair she is pretty good at getting to the bucket in time!), I was happier than usual for the other half to arrive home after work to take over while I slopped off to kickboxing and kung fu.

Having done next to nothing except sit by a sick bed all day I had plenty of energy to burn off through both sessions and through the sparring at the end. Taught siu lim tao, biu jeet and stick, then the first mantis 2 person set that I can't remember the name of.

Afterwards went through char chuan and bokken vs pole, then had a long conversation with the hall caretaker about iceroad truckers, which although I've never seen it is probably going to get much more relevant to me when I get sent out to the frozen far north of Canada next winter for work....

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

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

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.

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....

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....

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.

Stormy Monday - again

Serious rain led to a flood in the training hall this Monday.

Although Bruce Lee advises us to "be like water", we didn't feel the need to get our feet wet, so we de-camped to upstairs. Here it was notionally dry, but like a sauna, so we were all soon soaking anyway.

In polite company I think the phrase is "Ladies glow, gentlemen perspire, horses sweat". Well, I must have been glowing pretty brightly after 3 hours of it.....

A little more Char Chuan added at the end. Still loving it.

The Great Outdoors

Very warm for Thursday evening's classes - so hot in fact that some people had called T and told him they weren't coming because it was too hot - honest, if nothing else. The real problem is that the windows of the hall we train in don't open, so it's not only hot but very close.

Chum ku, char chuan, the beginnings of a wing chun 2-person set and then some kwok sau thay in the class, with some bokken afterwards. Talked about what we'll do over the holiday period in terms of classes which usually get fairly small because everyone with kids is away. It looks like we'll just run the Monday night classes through August and encourage those who normally only come on Thursday to swap to Monday just for the month. And I'll take the classes when T is away, which will be a first for me.

The Tai Chi class was in the garden, which was really nice, both for the fresh air and for the fact that there was quite a lot more room than when we're indoors, which given that we went through sword and then pole was a good thing. We also learnt a neat application for part of the Yang form that I haven't seen before involving breaking an arm and then some ribs. Tai Chi's not quite the gentle hand waving that so many people think it is.

Blammo

Finally got to the end of the 2nd two person set in kickboxing, it seems much longer than any other 2 person set I know, but I suspect the 3rd one is longer still ( I have known the 3rd, 4th and I think 5th set at some point in the dim and distant, but really don't recall them now). Did some kick pad work right at the end of the class which is unusual but worked quite well for me because I was definitely thoroughly warmed up by then so I was kicking quite fluidly.

Kung fu class was busy, I got to teach the yellows Chang Chuan and the stick set. Then during sparring I walked straight into a punch which was a bit careless, luckily it was more embarrassing than painful!

Full of energy again tonight, T tried to tire us out through kickboxing but in the end I think I lasted the pace better than him, especially at the end when we were going through the next bit of Char Chuan together. I knew that running wasn't really good for me....seems like I'm better off without it. I'm thinking of deep-sixing the half marathon idea altogether.

Where's it coming from?

I was full of energy for Thursday night's classes, literally bouncing around all over the place, even though it was hot as an oven in the training hall. Lots of Tiger Claw Zi Chi in the warm up, including the wushu warm up we sometimes do with the kids. Went through chang chuan with the yellow belts, then bokken with the greens. I was trying to watch the choy li fut out of the corner of my eye because there's quite a lot of fine tuning I think I could do with. Then it was those flying kicks again, this time I was a bit more sensible and managed not to hurt myself. T had to leave straight after the class, but I stayed for quite a while going through choy li fut 5 or 6 times, then char chuan more times than I can remember, starting to get a proper flow to it, it's the type of form that just makes me feel really happy when I do it... a feeling that's hard to explain to someone who's never felt it.

Then just to top things off, down to Tai Chi, where we started doing some pole (I should call it "bo" I think, but it's pole or staff to me), we're going to learn the Wing Chun set that I once won a medal at back when I was more competitive. The pole has to be my favorite weapon, so things are looking up.

N'Sync

Best training session for ages on Thursday night. Nothing special, I just seemed to be in the groove (or "in the dao" as T might say). Although not completely better, my groin strain is on the mend and I've finally shaken off the last of my cold. We did plenty of bokken during the warm up, then chang chuan, biu jeet, char chuan and a bit of stick work with a beginner.

Then after the class four of us went through the char chuan together. I'd never done it as part of a group before, but we seemed to work well together in really good synchrony. Unfortunately I don't know all of it yet (in fact it looks like I know less than a third of it so far!), so I had to drop out before the end. I think because of its flashy nature, it would be a good form to do for a display. Once everyone else was gone I was still on a bit of a high, so went through li pi and some more biu jeet by myself.

Tai Chi was also good - I've made a conscious decision to try to enjoy it more instead of worrying about it, and it seems to be working. Went through more sword, there's just one section I'm still a bit vague on, then it's just a question of stitching it together. Then some more Hsing I, some Wu-style pushing hands and a bit of chi gung for the solstice. D seems taken with the notion of teaching a kung fu class with me, so it's just a question of deciding where and when now.

Not Dancing

Missed kickboxing tonight as had birthday presents to open and cake to eat with my newly-six year old. I did manage to make it to kung fu though, through a spectacular thunder storm.

Went through Siu Lim Tao with the beginners, including showing them a couple of the applications of the moves from the set, then through the basic pak sau kick drill. Then I got to teach the first half of the stick set to the yellows, giving them the same advice as I was given when I was first taught it - remember that you're not Morris Dancing with your opponent, you're trying to kill them. I think it sunk in because the set was looking quite purposeful by the end.

A little bit of sparring, wearing my mitts rather than my big gloves for a change, which was

good as it gave me more chance to practice the mantis-type hooks and grabs, and throw in a few finger strikes. Like at the end of Dumbo when he drops the magic feather, I seem to have finally realised that I can spar reasonably well even without my "lucky" pink gloves.

Afterwards I went over the Char Chuan again and then the two-person butterfly knives, which was not too bad given that it's a couple of months since we last did it.

Seeing Stars

No, not another accident at kids kung fu, but a new star chart system we're trying out with the tinies to try to keep them focussed. It seemed to work fairly well this Saturday, but I wonder how long the novelty will last

Really good turn out this weekend too, with all three classes pretty full. This, combined with the hot weather and the remnants of my cold (and my groin strain!) had me feeling fairly fatigued by the end of the 3.5 hours, but with just enough left to spend 30 minutes going over stuff with T, including learning the next part of the char chuan.

Then off to prepare for the real grueling marathon of this weekend - my youngest daughter's birthday party.....

Left Brain Right Brain

Late getting away from work tonight after a very busy day. So I arrived towards the end of the kick boxing and pitched straight in. But the strange thing was that I only seemed to be able to do stuff on one side (usually we do stuff first with one foot forward then the other, and it doesn't make a lot of difference to me, although I tend to slightly favour a left foot forward stance since I'm right handed). I think it might be that because I'd been concentrating hard at work, then hadn't done a proper warm-up, that only one side of my brain (the left side I'd guess) was tuned in. 

I didn't manage to get into the "groove" properly until part way through kung fu. Taught some Sui Lim Tao to the beginners, then afterwards went through bokken with T like we meant it, then learnt a bit more char chuan which is shaping up to be a really cool form - but it will need lots of

 practice for me to do it justice.