Sunshine Shone Brightly

Got through kickboxing without acquiring any new bruises last night, mostly pad work and a bit of syllabus stuff. I'm still having extraordinary difficulty remembering one kickboxing 2-person set from another, a problem I never seem to have in kung fu. Fortunately at the moment we're doing the beginners part of the syllabus so I only need to be shown them once to catch on, at least in the short term.

Taught a bit of bokken/miao dao in the kung fu, then kwok sau thay again. Tried a mantis approach to the sparring with quite a lot of success. The stamping and moving forward but not stepping through seems to fox my opponent fairly successfully - I just need to be careful not to become a one trick pony.

Went through the Chen tai chi a few times after the class, and again this lunchtime at work, when I spent a good hour out in the sunshine going over a few bits and pieces. Definitely better than a desultory trip to the canteen.

From the Sublime...

In stark contrast to the complexity and subtlety of yesterday's Chen seminar, tonight's Chinese Kickboxing training was pretty full on, and has once again resulted in a fresh set of bruises all across my forearms and shins. Not sure why I keep doing this to myself...the fact that part of me enjoys getting completely mashed up says something deep about my psyche I expect. I did learn however that our kickboxing syllabus is drawn from 3 different chinese martial arts, the main one being Tibetan White Crane style, also sometimes called Lion's Roar

Taught a bit of Siu Lim Tao and then the Kwok Sau Thay at kung fu, then afterwards went through the Chen with those who had come along to the seminar. Between the group of us we seem to have most of it fairly well recalled.

Ahem

Two and a half hours of "projecting" (i.e. shouting) to make myself heard by the graders tonight, which has caused quite a relapse in my sore throat. I can hardly speak, but chances are I will improve enough to have to go to work tomorrow. Interestingly I found out that T has also been poorly while I've been away with very similar symptoms to me - so maybe its not something I picked up on the plane but something I was already incubating before I left.

As the man at the front T took plenty of opportunity to stand and watch tonight, unfortunately I couldn't really do the same so had to work hard even though it wasn't me who was grading....generally the standard was pretty good although some of the younger ones were struggling a bit with the kwok sau thay and chum ku.

T has decided we're going to go back to the old syllabus (the one that I did!) which I think is a good decision. He's also given me a copy of the chinese names and flowery translations of everything on the syllabus (like "mantis grasps cicada", "white crane demonstrates wings" and "spiritual tiger presenting claw" (that's the one that I rather more prosaically think of as "that one where you rip their face off")). How enigmatic I will sound once I've learnt all the new names...

Grand Rewards for Special Occasions

Thursday night was the last class for a while as me and the girls are off on our holidays to the land where they grow Maltesers (at least that's what my youngest thinks - she's going to be a bit disappointed when we get there and can't find any malteser trees - maybe I should tell her we've missed the harvest?). Very busy class, probably because the grading is coming up. Tried to go through kwok sau thay with about 12 people which is not easy. Also taught a bit of pole (in kung fu, not tai chi this time!) and some chang chuan.

After the class T had to get straight off, but N and I hung around to go through a few things. Then down to tai chi which was almost entirely straight sword work - again a relatively busy class, so not much room to really go for it unfortunately.

No classes for me for a while now, and I'm missing it already. Hope the terrace of our apartment is big enough for some practice.

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)

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....

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.

Never Too Late

Despite still being in Birmingham auditing at 6:00, I decided to dash to kung fu this evening, and against all the odds I arrived only about an hour late and in one piece. Straight in to a bit of kwok sau thay, then kicking, sparring and some bokken with T and young J.

Felt much fresher than usual going down to tai chi, presumably because of an hour's less exertion than normal, and had a very enjoyable lesson, doing the long form as badly as ever, then some sword and some Hsing I (also as badly as ever - I enjoy Hsing I but I think it really doesn't suit my body type). For some reason my inadequ

acies didn't seem to annoy me this evening, they seemed vaguely amusing instead. Not quite so the inadequacies I discovered during my audit earlier in the day.....

Self Help

Thursday night kung fu was in the small hall, and as it was pretty hot the floor wax had done its usual trick of going slightly tacky so that it was next to impossible to pivot on your feet, which cramped my style a little. After recovering from the rather disturbing images brought to mind when T opened a letter addressed to our club that turned out to be from the "How to look good naked" TV  programme asking if a bunch of us wanted to appear (presumably with no clothes on - we've decided to decline their kind offer) I taught some Chang Chuan to the yellow belts and then some kwok sau thay to the blues and above.

T had to leave on time but I stayed by myself for a while and went through all the single person empty hand forms I could remember.

Then Tai Chi. D is on holiday so N was notionally taking the class but in fact it was more of a collaborative effort / self help group for Pa Kua and Hsing I. Then because I was a free agent for the night (the rest of the family being up north visiting their granma) I went to the pub with a couple of the guys, which is a rare event indeed.