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.

On The Hop

Noticed during the kids classes this morning that it seems I can hop (and skip) further and more powerfully than anyone else, including T and S. What a useful talent!

Wonder which of these I look more like?

End of an Era

In this case, perhaps "era" should be said in an American accent, so it's more like "Error"? Tonight was the last women's kickboxing at Portland, for the next few weeks it's at the fight club gym, and if that doesn't take off then I guess it's over. But also it was probably the last time I'll teach a kickboxing class, as now it's a Wednesday T should always be able to do it.

I don't really think the women's kickboxing was an error -

in fact I think that the experience has taught me two useful things - first that I can stand up in front of a class and teach, and second that it's Kung Fu I want to teach, kickboxing has no real finesse to it and isn't my real love. (Although I enjoy doing it myself well enough, as it's always good to practise the basics and it has certainly helped improve my speed and power)

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.

Serious Stuff

First class at the new venue tonight. Turns out to be a serious MMA gym type of place. The class before us looked like something out of Fight Club or UFC, lots of fit young men in shorts with strapped hands and feet kicking seven bells out of each other. Obviously I was checking out their technique, not their well-formed, sweaty physiques....but I need to stop dwelling on that.

Then our women-only class, with only me, T and one new student. Turns out though that she's done some Thai boxing before, so we had a good session, she likes to punch hard on the pads, which gives me license to do the same. And the gym is kitted out with some full-size heavy bags, so we got do do a few serious turning kicks also. I hope the class takes off a bit, because although it's a bit intimidating at first I think it could actually be a pretty good venue for the classes. But we'll need more than 1 student to make it worthwhile. I'll have to do a good selling job at the last Friday class this week to make sure we take some of those students with us to Wednesdays. Maybe I need to mention the six-packs....

Led Boots

Monday kickboxing was my first time for a few weeks, and we went off at a cracking pace, making no concessions at all to the closeness of the weather. My leg felt surprisingly OK, so I was able to get really stuck in. I went through the second set with a couple of the class, although I still think we're not quite at the end (hard to tell though, as it's so long since I last did that particular form all the way through).

Then Kung Fu, first going through the bokken/miao dao applications with the green sashes, then siu lim tao with the beginners. Then some knocking hands sensitivity training - and about half way through it was like someone had unplugged me - legs and arms felt like lead and I could hardly hold up a guard let alone throw a punch.

Just a couple of missed sessions and I can't hack it anymore! I'm dreading the summer break as even with the best of intentions I know I won't train very intensely by myself, and by the time I've had a month off I'll be useless.

Throwing yourself at the ground and missing

Three kids classes on Saturday as usual, but without either of my two there, as they had gone off camping with the other half and some friends. All three classes felt fairly subdued for some reason, and the first two were both quite small, which somehow seems to make them harder work. In the second class we practiced a few kicks leading up to jumping front scissor kicks. It was going pretty well for me, achieving some pretty high kicks by my standard (above my head height, I like to think), then I tried them on the other leg....and aggravated my existing groin strain really badly, to the extent that for the rest of that class and all through the next I could hardly lift my left leg at all.This didn't stop me staying on at the end to go through some stuff with T though - the rest of the wushu two-person pole set, the two-person Tai Chi sword and some sword applications that T is thinking of teaching to the advanced kids who have done the kung fu sword set.

Then T taught me a new throw, which is actually an application of a bit of the first kids set that I hadn't understood. It's a scary sort of throw to be a victim of, and involved me generally getting "rag-dolled" around for a while, but because it tended to be my shoulder that contacted the ground first giving me no chance to put my arm out, I much prefer it to being thrown by the wing chun application throw we usually do. Then it was my turn to try throwing T about, and I must admit it worked pretty well. I'm not sure if it's easier than the other throw or if I'm just getting better at throwing because I'm not so freaked out by making close contact with an opponent as I used to be.

After the class, nipped home just long enough to grab some lunch and numb my leg with Tiger Balm, then in the car and off to Derbyshire to meet up with the family for some outdoors fun. Despite sleeping on the ground Saturday night my leg held up well enough for a four mile hike on Sunday, which is promising for training tomorrow.