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.

Stick Together

More solo practice on Friday lunchtime, it was pretty warm and by the end of an hour I was regretting wearing all black - trouble is I don't really have anything else. Spent some good time on li pi, choy li fut and biu jeet. Then, since I had risked the wrath of the security guards by smuggling my sticks in to work, I tried to work on the stick set I'm learning, but realised fairly quickly that halfway through I was morphing into a straight-sword form I know, and that I wouldn't be able to go any further without checking with T - practicing it wrong would probably be worse than not practising it at all.

On Saturday the little ones kids class was completely manic and it seemed like one of those lessons where all we do is tell the kids off for various types of messing around. It got a little better right at the end when we got the beams out for some balancing/footwork practice though, so I think most of them went home happy - just me and T felt emotionally drained! The next class went a lot better, more work on the Baby Tiger set which I'm quite enjoying.

A pleasant change afterwards, instead of just me and T, A and J came along too, so we spent some quality time going over the higher grade stuff together - biu jeet again, and the 2-person stuff, along with some revision of the first part of the char chuan that A and J are starting to learn. Then T helped me with the stick I had forgotten and added a bit more, so that I now have the complete form. I must try to practice it later today just to check I have it in memory at least, if not in my muscles yet.

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 :-(

Feint / Faint

One of the kickboxers fainted fairly spectacularly last night during some structured sparring drills! My first thought was that she'd taken a kick to the head (not from me, I hasten to add!), but it turns out that it was probably because she'd skipped lunch and the room was quite hot (despite sub-zero temperatures outside). She was OK after a brief rest and some sports drink, and joined in happily - hope it hasn't put her off too much.

I was happy with the quality of my sparring in both kickboxing and kung fu, my kicks are definitely improving and becoming quite difficult to handle I think...and I managed to survive both sessions without aggravating my finger again, which is a bonus. I'm not convinced it will ever properly mend though, I think it's just something I'm going to have to live with/adapt to.

After the classes T, me and N went through the Wing Chun Butterfly Knives and then the new stick set I'm starting to learn. The knives sets are starting to re-surface in my memory, but that probably just means that something else is being moved to deep storage to make room for them...

New sparring gloves (pink, of course!) arrived for my eldest in today's post, so a bit of impromptu practice before tea ensued. Younger one also tried them. It still amazes me how hard she can punch - she seems to just naturally have fantastic technique.

Bartitsu and the JiuJitsuffragettes

My legs were like lead in this morning's kids classes, I don't think I warmed up properly until we'd been going for about 2 hours - obviously a week off on a business trip hasn't done me much good.

We've decided to have a grading in 3 weeks time, for the kids, the kick-boxers and the lower kung fu grades. Getting these disparate groups together and grading them all within a 3 hour period will be a bit of a challenge - T and I need to figure out a plan, particularly regarding what to do with the littler kids who don't know much of the syllabus yet (and also have a short attention span!)

Went through plenty of wing chun 2-person drills again today after the kids had gone, culminating in some wing chun sparring, which I really enjoy. Then I started learning a new single person form using a stick, just the first few moves today but it's nice to have something new to work on.

Whilst searching for a suitable picture of stick fighting, I came across this, which appears to be an old form of mixed martial arts for the victorian/edwardian gentlemen.

After the class T was pondering whether to incorporate more of the 5-animal forms into the kids syllabus instead of the more modern wushu forms we do at the moment...I'd like it if it did go that way as eventually I'd get to do a sai set which I've always wanted to learn.

The bad news is that it looks like Master Wu isn't going to make it up to Nottingham on his brief UK tour next month. So if I want to do one of the seminars it looks like a trip to Southampton or Bristol will be needed.

Stick with it

Kids kung fu this morning, didn't feel much like going especially since my two were not around, but dragged myself down there anyway. Turned out to be not too bad - couple of new kids in the tinies class who were trying really hard and having lots of fun, then the new style combined over 8s class which was fairly well behaved.

Also D turned up to use a bit of the hall to practice his stuff because he struggles to get to the weeknight classes, which meant I got to spend a little bit of the time helping him with choy li fut.

Went through the start of nam chuan towards the end, which I'm keen to get sorted - it was actually the first kung fu form I learnt all those years ago (coming up for 10 years soon!) - I'd been doing some lightweight tai chi for a few weeks when someone persuaded me to go along to a seminar with the head of our school where I got thrown in at the deep end with nam chuan which is a very bold and energetic form, very unlike the internal stuff I was used to - but I was instantly hooked!

Didn't stay for too long afterwards because both T and I are still recovering from a virus, but did manage to revise the second stick set and the 2 person mantis set ("Mantis grasps Cicada"). Slowly but surely getting back into shape....

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....

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.

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

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....

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.

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.

Reminiscing

Thursday night was a grading for the adult beginners. Around 20 grading in all, going for 3 grades - yellow, green and blue. T used all the students above these grades to help out with the teaching (well, revising) that went on during the evening - I was assigned to the yellow-to-green group, which meant plenty of work on Chang Chuan, the first proper two person set (which I think is called char chui?), Mantis San Sau, chi nar locks and the first stick set.

At the end we went back to the way beginner gradings used to be back when I was doing them, in that we all sat down and watched just those people grading going through their form. A welcome change from the more recent trend of everyone who knows the form going through it together. It's undoubtedly a bit more stressful for the gradees - but as T pointed out afterwards, if you were ever called on to use the martial arts in a real situation, that would be pretty stressful too.

Rap it up - I'll take it

Thursday's Kung Fu - T introduced a new routine for doing stance work which was pretty good, similar to chang chuan really. Then I got to do single and 2-person pole with the purple sashes who'll be grading on it soon, and revise Choy Li Fut a few times, then Mi Chong. So basically all my favorite forms in one night! I also went through a two-person double sticks drill with the beginners, which is fun, and only got my knuckles rapped once.

One of the guys who use to train with another part of the school in Bath is going to show me his Double Sai form next week. I've always wanted to learn the Sai's, and didn't know that Wutan had a form for them, so there's something to look forward to for some point in the future, hopefully.

Downstairs to Tai Chi, managed to get a short break between which helps a lot, then short form to the left. Single person sword this week, learnt a few more moves, feeling quite comfortable with it this time (I should be as this must be about the fourth time I've been taught it). Double pushing hands to finish, which was difficult as always - not least because everyone else there is about a foot taller than me.

Defenceless

Realised just after leaving home that I'd left all my weapons and my sparring stuff at home - but it was too late to go back, so went I went to Kickboxing and Kung Fu without any of my usual clobber. For the pad work in kickboxing I borrowed some gloves that are heavier than mine, which is good, but as I'm typing this my arms are aching slightly. We started work on the second form tonight, which I learnt in a day about a year ago, so it's a bit hazy, but it seemed to come back to me fairly quickly.

In Kung Fu spent some time going over Siu Lim Tao with the beginners, then some stick work and some Chi Nar (?) locks.

After the class T and me and A, J and N went through Li Pi a few times. I seem to be able to do it at the same pace as them now which is a good sign that I'm about ready to grade on it.

Then we went through the 2-person butterfly knives, I'm happy with the defence side but the attack is still a mystery. Lots to brush up on before the end of April...and I'm going to miss a few lessons around Easter!

Kickin'

First kick-boxing, enjoying this more and more - and I think it's really improving my kicking, just the sheer number of repetitions is helping I think, added to my stretching regime, which, while it still hasn't made me particularly flexible, has certainly freed up my movements within my existing range. Perhaps if I persist, and persist, and persist, I'll eventually get a higher side kick?

One newbie at the KB which was good too, need to get a few more in though.

Then Kung Fu, a busy class, I got to go through Chang Chuan with the Yellow sashes, char chui 2 with the higher grades and then the first and second stick set (apologies for my spelling on all of these which is completely phonetic...despite my best attempts I can't manage to get a grip of Chinese at all). Sparred with A at the end, who, as usual, completely marmalised me.

After everyone else had gone went through Li Pi by myself. I watched a programme about Japan on television a couple of days ago which described learning kata as making a sequence of moves "part of yourself". This strikes me as a really good description of what it's like when you know a form really well. Starting to get there with portions of the Li Pi, but not the whole of it yet.