Crash Landing

Lots of throwing at both kick-boxing and kung fu last night, with me in the role of rag doll / crash test dummy. Took one particular slam that knocked the breath right out of me. I can't seem to get used to be thrown however much it happens. I am, however, getting gradually more proficient at throwing other people and can now get T down without too much trouble when the opportunity arises.

Good news on the Master Wu seminar front. It looks like I will definitely be going to the Li Pi / Pa Chi one with both T and D (the more of us from Nottingham who go together the better - it's much easier to retain what we learn when there is someone else to practise with). There's also a strong possibility that I'll get chance the following weekend to go down to Southampton again to do the fourth part of the Chen Tai Chi set that Master Wu has been gradually teaching to us for the last few years...but I still need final buy-in from the other half to that one, so I'm concentrating on building up brownie points.

Junior Grading

Grading for the juniors this weekend, a busy session with around 30 youngsters (and one or two parents) taking part. Behaviour was very good, and the standard of kung fu pretty high. My two both did well, making me proud.

By chance N was back in Nottingham for the weekend so he came along, which helped, although not that many of the kids can remember him any more - he's helping with a kids class down in Portsmouth now, as well as his own training in both traditional and wushu.

After the kids had gone we did a quick kick-boxing grading which was pretty full on and hi-energy, so I was fairly exhausted by the end of the 4 hours. Spent much of the rest of the day feeling grotty, and today my ankles are hurting, which is a new one....

Nurturing the Green Shoots

A handful more new people at both Kung Fu and Tai Chi last night, although also a few previous visitors didn't show up...but most of them so far have come back which I think is a good sign. If we could get them all there at once the class would definitely be a healthy size. Mustn't be impatient though, it will take a while for the class to grow and gather its own momentum.

Pa Kua

I've been trying hard to use some pa kua techniques in my sparring, with some success, but need lots more practice. I really look forward to the sparring at the moment which is quite a change from a year or so ago when I would generally avoid it if I could.

Guns and Sharp Swords in the Hands of Young Children

Last kids classes before their grading this morning, so no messing and lots of form practice. Both of my two are grading, S to her green belt and J to her 2nd brown (or is it 3rd? I've lost track and I never remember to sew the badges on her sash!). She is doing the first part of the straight sword form that I learnt around 5 years ago in the adults class and haven't really done since, and she looks pretty good at it to me. I'm wondering if I should buy her a special small sword - she's currently using a stick as both of my straight swords are too long for her to wield properly (marginally too long for me too if the truth be told). I'll have to see what I can find in the corners of the internet...

Frustration

Frustrated on two counts tonight - first, I haven't yet got in to the rhythm of training on Wednesdays, not Thursdays, so I'm on edge feeling like I've forgotten to do something important. Secondly the wireless card in my computer seems to have an intermittant fault and every few minutes I lose my internet connection which is very annoying. Working hard on cultivating a zen-like attitude about it, but obviously buddhism was dreamt up before the challenges of IT.

So a short post tonight - a few new faces at the Derby Wednesday last night and also quite a few of last week's punters back for more, which is a good sign. Still a way to go to build the class up to a decent size though. Chatted to one of the guys afterwards for a few minutes, he's been doing various martial arts for a while and was keen to talk, especially about Wing Chun. Perhaps I'll suggest to D that we try one of the simpler 2-person wing chun drills out in the near future.

Ball of Contusions...

...that what my arms are today.

Serious scrapping at kickboxing last night without any pads, and today I've felt the need to explain to everyone at work that no, I'm not a victim of domestic abuse, and that you should have seen the other guy.

Maybe I need one of these?

Now this I can just about comprehend, although it's really not the type of training I'm into;

Whereas this is really just madness, isn't it?