"JABCROSSHOOK"

OK...Its late but hey, today, I had a private lesson at Greg Halls and we went through some boxing drills. I was a little bit late but I really enjoyed the training today. It proved to me that you can never stop training. Ever. And, even though my left hook was crap before I went training, I felt it had improved a lot by the end of the session. I can hear these words replaying in my mind..."Initiation, delivery, transition, recovery". That's the sequence of events when throwing a "one-two" combination.(Maybe there should me a "delivery" after transition). Also..."jab,cross,hook", should be 1 word, as that should be as fast as it should be executed, "jabcrosshook". Greg said that for him, he made his cross work for him better than any eye jab or groin kick. Also, the most conveninent thing from these combinations is that you can switch from fists to palms or to elbow strikes, as its all coming from the same body mechanic.
Speaking of training, lately I have been getting back into the gym as well, but its no longer the University gym that I use, its a local gym nearby. It has to be said that this gym is a proper decent gym with plenty of free weights and machines. Its got machines I have not seen before and I just don't know why I didn't start going earlier. For me, the Uni gym got too "modern" and I myself felt really out of touch, me being an old guy...Anyway, one of the best things about this gym is the availability of a great protein shake after training, something that was never available at the Uni gym.

MMMMMM nice, looking forward to the next one!

Quiet out there...

August 2011, and hardly a blog entry in sight this year. Ah well...still alive and kicking, well, perhaps not so much kicking these days, but never mind.

Martial arts has taken a back seat now for a while but I shan't forget the lessons I learnt from the many instructors, masters, gurus and so on along the way.

One must not forget those five tenets for example, if your thing is Taekwon-Do. And then it depends which federation you are assimilated to and so on :)

Anyway, just to finish this very, very short blog, remember the following:

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that is why they call it the present
- Master Wu Gwai, of Kung Fu Panda.

I'll be back...shortly.

Not to prove you wrong, but...

Well...thats it, another year has almost gone by and blogging for me has very much been on the back-burner. To date this year I have only had two martial arts lessons which admittedly is pretty pathetic but life takes over in a lot of ways (for me, lots of very good, happy ways). Maybe its good once in a while to take a little break so you can review where you are at.

Anyway, the other day a colleague at work said that I couldn't kick very high anymore, of course, being just the wrong side of 40, I thought maybe yes, I couldn't, but I gave it a go last night with a side kick, just to see.

Not so bad after all, eh? Well we all have to pat ourselves on the back sometime, no one else is going to do so.

Take care
L.

15th June 2010

Hmmm. Now there's a date. It was the date I went back to Steve Powell's JKD class. It has been a very long time, almost a year. But its great to be back. In a way its also a little disheartening, I lost a lot of timing and was well rusty. But here's the best thing. You can go back as if you had never left. And just train, learn and enjoy. There were some familiar faces too. When I trained on a more regular basis in the mid 90's, this was it. It all felt like family. And it still does.

So...next week, I intend to go again on tuesday. And then who knows....?

The end? No...just wait and see.

The other day I tried on my dobok from my TKD days (2001-02) and lo and behold, it didn't quite wrap around so well! As expected to be honest, especially what with the Xmas season with food everywhere. Without labouring the point that I am more and more Samo these days than ever before, (and no, I don't iron my shirt over a wok) I wanted to discuss with you what a coloured belt means.

In the past, I have echoed the notion that coloured belt systems build ego and nothing else. But in an article in the July/August 2009 issue of Scientific American Mind, pride can be a good thing (before it feeds your ego). Pride in fact pushes us to keep going harder and can make others like us more. A message like this would do well at many a martial arts class right at session opening, i.e. don't abuse your pride, its not for building ego.

People who get told that they have done well in a sincere way normally press on for bigger goals. My coloured belt achievement with certificate was me getting told I did well in my grading. The bigger goal was then the journey to the next grade. In fact, if you feel pleased with yourself, the upshot is a more confident posture and perhaps you will even smile more. Other people will see this and, appreciate you more.

It is important to note that pride should not slide into the annoying "know-it-all obnoxiousness or narcissism". That was the thing I noticed in the TKD class, with some of the other coloured belts, the kind of "I am a higher grade than you, therefore you are below me" attitude. Terrible. I always recall one guy who was a green belt blue stripe. He told me he loves freshers, because he can beat up on the beginners. NOT GOOD!!

In any case, I only got up to yellow belt, green stripe but whenever I look at that belt, I have to admit I am very pleased to have obtained it. A lot of training went into the grading for it. I remember the grading well, with Master Liversidge saying that we would all (potentially) become black belts.

Be proud of your coloured belt achievements. You earned it, but don't let this overwhelm you. KEEP HUMBLE! There's always someone you can learn more from and there's always going to be someone better than you. This holds true across the many paths that make up life.

2010 approaches us very very soon. I go into it knowing that I have finally (happily and proudly) reached fatherhood with a beautiful little girl. As the first decade of the 2000's reaches its ultimate year, I know that this in this decade I have met and trained with many many great people. Its been an extra special martial arts decade. Oh and a yellow belt, green stripe (that now doesn't fit so well).

Keep on training, and I wish all the best to you for 2010.

L.

An easy drill....?

Just now, I was thinking about a way of training the angles 1 and 4 into focus mitt training. When you take away the stick and do an angle 1, that's like doing a hammerfist or forehand strike, and angle 4, without the stick becomes a raking back knuckle strike. So here is a way of partner training, "A" holds the mitts as if he was saying the classic bully-type "come on then", i.e. the mitts are target side up, not quite flat but slightly diagonal, with arms at shoulder-width apart. So "B" has his hands down by his sides, not in a guard or fighting stance. You may do this to the count if you like, 10 to a set, two strikes to one count, i.e. a forehand and a backhand together. Or perhaps have them go at it for a one-minute round. After one minute, get the hitter to do 10 normal grip knuckle press-ups, 10 squat springs and 10 situps, or other exercise variations. The second round: get the student to double-up, i.e. two forehand/two backhand for one-minute. Then follow up with bodyweight exercises, 10 squat thrusts, 10 hindu squats, 10 crunches, (or if you are mean and just because its the second round, do 20 of each). The third and last round might be to try triple hits in quick succession, full of intent, always beginning with hands down by the sides. Follow this with either a final round of 30-rep bodyweight exercises, things like star jumps, wide grip press ups and over-the-knee sit ups. Final round would perhaps be to do the same with the soft-padded stick on the pads, working the same angles, 1 minute, all-out. Bang bang bang! Repeat this with the mitt holder now.

Who knows, it might work and maybe your students will like it. You could always vary it, after all.

Train hard,

L.

Salford University gym

Salford University's gym has had a massive facelift. A brand new feel to welcome the students of 2009-10 and beyond. Its looking all rather good.

A lot of gyms have sprung up in the Manchester area, but Salford Uni has the best! All the new stuff is very impressive. The following pic shows where the running machines used to be.

All the equipment is brand new and the old equipment is hardly there apart from all the free weights as before.

Good stuff.

L.