Poster Girl

Good Kung Fu class on Thursday night, first teaching some biu jeet, then the first char chui 2-person drill and then a short mantis 2-person thing I don't have a name for. Afterwards T, N and I went through the bokken versus pole a few times, then down to Tai Chi.

2-person pole work in tai chi, with D making me work really hard on technique (which is good, because I tend to coast a little bit when we do pole in tai chi because I know it pretty well). Plenty of focus on waist-turning and using technique and speed rather than arm strength.

Then a little pa kua, concentrating on the two new changes we've learnt (unfortunately I don't know what either of them are called, so they just have the stupid names I've made up for them in my head - "the swimming one" and "exploding monkey").

Then D called me and a couple of the others over to one side in order to take some photos of us for the poster and leaflet campaign in Derby for the new classes. So it looks like I might be the poster girl for kung fu, striking a very fetching pose with my pole - just call me the monkey king......

Metal, Water, Earth, Wood, Fire

Just a small group of us at kung fu on Thursday, and all fairly advanced, so we spent the evening going over some of the intermediate bits of the syllabus in great detail and practising the relevant applications. Having decided that this year I'm going to take training more seriously I was working really hard, and even managed to get a compliment out of T, which is rare indeed!

He and I went through the bokken vs pole at full throttle, in a kind of you'd-better-block-this-like-you're-supposed-to-or-I-will-hit-you kind of way that is really quite scary when weapons are involved - but focusses the mind very effectively. Both sides of the form are fairly well embedded for me now I'm pleased to say.

Then Tai Chi which was all Hsing-I, first the pi chuan (metal, splitting, lungs) and zu'an chuan (water, drilling, kidneys) drills and then the short two-person set we know. Good stuff, but I have very bruised forearms today. Looking forward to learning the other elements in due course.

Forgotten Steps

Thursday night kung fu, I got to take the higher group initially and teach them the single person bokken drill. Then a bit of time with the beginners (mostly kids now) working on Char Chui 1.

Quite a few rounds of sparring which made a nice change.

Then a brief run through of Li Pi with T - all my problems solved just by the addition of a forgotten step in 2 places. I must write it down this time while it's fresh in my mind.

Went through bokken vs pole a few times with N, which was just as well because when we went down to Tai Chi D asked us to give a demonstration of it to the rest of the class. After that lots of time working on pole which is always fun, then the 2-person pa kua - starting to get quite reasonable I think, providing I'm paired up with someone who can keep their end up.

Grabbed D at the end to run through the first part of the Chen style that was getting a bit rusty. As we were leaving D asked me if I wanted to start going to the Southampton training days. I'm quite keen except it means using up lots of precious holiday days at work. I'll have to try to figure out how much I can spare.

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.

Crane Spreads Wings

More kids than ever on Thursday night, they're virtually outnumbering the adults now which gives a very different feel to the whole session. Trying to manage 2 groups doing siu lim tao and one doing chang chuan all at the same time was something of a challenge, but fortunately it didn't last too long and I then got to do the single person and two person choy li fut sets. After the class S, J and me went through biu jeet with T, then J and I went over it a couple more times. It's starting to feel quite powerful now for the main part, although there's still a couple of sections I need to work on some more.

Down to tai chi to find them playing "guess the application" with a section of the yang short form. I was able to contribute the Crane Spreads Wings throw that we've learnt in kung fu. Led through the pole a couple of times, then we did a lot of rows of Hsing-I "pi" practice with P.

After the class I had a long talk with D about whether his "Tai Chi on Prescription" class would be suitable for my little brother - sounds quite promising....

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....

Upper Class

Managed to get out at lunchtime and do some practice - quite an intense session with quite a bit of wing chun and a couple of more open forms.

Then Thursday night kung fu - I got to teach the senior students, first taking everyone through choy li fut, then splitting them up and rotating round the different groups. I think I handled it fairly well, the trickiest bit was teaching part of the biu jeet that's really hard to explain (although physically not the hardest part to do, strangely enough). Then afterwards more bokken vs pole with T, this time with me trying the pole part - quite tricky!

Down to tai chi, went through a small section of the sword in fine detail, then practised the

relevant applications. Went through the 2 person pa kua set too. D slipped in the promise of some revision of the tai chi fan in the near future which I'm looking forward to.

On The Rack

Lots of partner stretching on Monday night at both the kickboxing and kung fu. Still feeling it slightly this morning, so maybe I've actually been taken beyond my comfort zone for a change.

Taught some biu jeet for the first time too - another promotion!

Bokken vs Pole afterward, right the way through both parts, it seems to work but now I need to figure out the other side.....

..and home in time for vespers and bandages.

The Mighty Atom Returns

My youngest made it back to kung fu today for the first time since she broke her arm. Just to be on the safe side I strapped up her wrist with some old kick-boxing hand-wraps I've got, which she was really chuffed about. I was concerned she would be a bit cautious and not try stuff out of fear it would hurt, but I needn't have worried - she was full on straight away!

After the kids classes T and I went through some stuff, working on the 2-person choy li fut set and the 2-person butterfly knives. Then T showed me some of the stuff he'd learnt on his trip down to Southampton last Friday - some good wing chun stuff. Also apparently he's discovered that the bokken vs pole that we've been trying hard to revise is in fact only half of the set - so lots more to work on there.

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

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....

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....

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.

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.

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.

Last Chance Thursday

Thursday was my last Kung Fu session before the grading at the weekend, so I was hoping to spend much of it revising the higher sashes stuff like choy li fut, wing chun pole and so on. That hope was quickly thwarted though by it turning out to be one of the biggest Thursday classes I can remember, with close to thirty there, including half a dozen from the kids class wanting one last practice before their grading on Saturday too. Also a couple of first-timers. So plenty to keep me busy. I did manage to briefly go through Biu Jeet and the knives after it was over though, along with the kids wushu pole set, which was very rusty!

Tai Chi was two-person sword, we got right to the end of it this week, with me actually making a useful contribution for a change, suggesting a small footwork subtlety to D when we were working together that he liked so much he taught it to everyone else. Then we did some Hsing I for the first time for an age, which was good. And a promise of more to come next week...

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.