Tag Archives: sparring

Chilly Starts and Chilli Ends

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Yesterday we gathered students from all three of the different schools in the county currently training under our Kwan’s banner and got together for a big training session. It was the first steps toward the European championships being held this spring, and it was to give us a chance to have a look at what categories we might want to compete in. It was an early start for a Sunday morning, I’d normally be tucked up snoozing at 7.30, but instead I was in the kitchen ironing my dobok and making some sandwiches. It was absolutely perishingly cold too, there was ice outside and just after we got to the dojang in Falmouth it started pouring with snow. Conversely the dojang was really warm inside thanks to the central heating, a blessing which soon turned into a curse once we started exercising, it wasn’t long before I was dryer than a <insert dubious metaphor here> and gasping (although having a cold didn’t help my cause any).

The day was a great success, we all mixed and worked with people we wouldn’t normally train with or speak to, and everyone got on well. Everyone got a taste of competition style performing, being marked and feeling what it was like to perform in front of a crowd of people, and I think it was a bit of an eye-opener for some. While the first half of the day was entirely forms-based, the afternoon saw the stark contrast of sparring. After some tough strength-building exercises things got moving and everyone got to feel what it was like to throw, and more importantly take a punch or kick. We organised a mini-tournament towards the end of the day and stood out (as seniors) to referee and take charge of the teams. It was really encouraging to see how into it everyone was getting, so much so that the fighters couldn’t hear us screaming ‘stop!!’ when we wanted to award points. Seeing and talking to some of the junior students afterwards, for many of whom this was their first taste of proper sparring, it was a real flashback to my own first tastes of it. Everyone was buzzing and grinning and saying they wanted to get back in and go again, which is always a good sign. Sure, there are going to be some bumps and bruises today, and at least one black eye, but that’s all part of it. Six-and-a-half hours after we started and a few of us trundled down to the local pub for a quick pint and a natter.

Actually it would be remiss of me to not mention the other thing that happened before the end of the session while I’m at it. Everyone was asked to sit, and then I was told to stand, walk to the front and turn to face everyone. In all of the excitement of the day I forgot that I was due to have my black (blue) belt presented to me. Sadly I’ve seen enough of these presentations to not know what was coming next, the legendary ‘Chilli powder test’. Lots of martial arts clubs like to take their newly promoted students down a peg or two to make sure ego doesn’t get the better of them, for some it’s a run down the line as the rest whip them with their belts as they go, for us it’s the chilli powder test. ‘Chilli powder’ is a bit of a misnomer, as times and tastes have changed, so just plain chilli powder doesn’t cut it any more. No, today our instructor likes to mix things up with his own concoctions, and it wasn’t until after that I found out what was in mine. A spoonful of the ‘stuff’ was pushed into my mouth and then I was told to do twenty good pushups in front of the assembled mass without swallowing any or spitting any out, with everyone counting them out for me (and don’t think I didn’t notice those of you who tried to reset the count partway through!). I took my trusty old red belt off and had my new one tied around me, and then made a hasty retreat to the kitchen to rinse my mouth out! It turns out that my own personal blend of heat was a mixture of chillies, chilli sauce, rehydrated chillies that you’re not supposed to touch with bare hands(!), a tub of wasabi paste and to top it off, a sachet of the sauce from a Bombay Bad Boy pot noodle. Nice.

I’m enormously proud of what I’ve achieved, and it was made all that more special by having it presented to me in front of the rest of the students. It still hasn’t sunk in yet really, maybe once it does I’ll have more to post, but I think I’m going to be kept pretty busy in the meantime now. Here’s what my 1st Dan certificate looks like (it feels good writing that).

My 1st Dan certificate - this one's going in a frame!

Bring It

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My feet are stinging and throbbing, my legs are aching and my ankles are stiff. I can barely move my neck and shoulders. What a great weekend.

We had the pleasure of having Drew Neal come down to teach a three hour sparring seminar yesterday, and although I’ve been lucky enough to train under him once before, this was much more personal and tailored to our club. There were only ten or eleven of us in attendance, and because of that we were able to work on the things we really wanted to. The first hour was spent going over some of the basics, which was good as it’s easy to overlook them and take them for granted, and that can be a bad thing, especially if you’ve gotten lazy or into bad habits. The next couple of hours were much harder work, concentrating on more advanced techniques and tactics, and then spending a long time sparring with everybody else. I’ve no idea how many rounds I fought, I completely lost track, it must’ve been about fifteen or so I think. Included in that time was the chance to spar with Drew himself, and it is just frightening how fast that guy can move and react – no wonder he’s got so many World and National championships under his belt. I’m glad we were totally padded and working at semi contact because otherwise I’d be totally black and blue this morning. He does everything that I try to do myself (but usually fail at within ten seconds of starting), mostly making the most of my advantages. Standing tall and staying tall throughout an exchange is the main thing, but not throwing more than two techniques in a row is another bad habit. I’ll get it, eventually.

When I sat down in the evening after a shower I realised how much the balls of my feet are hurting, I’ve managed to get carpet burns from the rubber mats. I’ve sneakily got my shoes off and my heels propped up on a foot stand under my desk, when really all I want to do is stick them in the fridge with my yoghurts. In fact I feel like a bit of an invalid all over now, after Friday night’s antics.

The last Friday of every month is Rock Night as regular readers will know, and I was determined to get a lot of dancing and a proportionate amount of alcohol under my belt after a few really stressful weeks. I bumped into an old friend there only to find out his band were playing a set there on the night – ace! They were great and surprised me with the variety of bands covered. I never thought I’d hear them do Wolfmother and Queens Of The Stone Age, but I did, and very well covered they were. Once the DJ got back on and Adam had a few drinks under his belt, there was some dancing going on and no mistake! I’ve been suffering ever since with very sore and stiff shoulders and neck, but it was definitely worth it. Awesome music + drinks + dancing like an idiot with your mates = a good night in my book.

Speaking of awesome music, any metal fans with taste similar to mine should treat themselves to The Way Of The Fist by Five Finger Death Punch. I’ve been listening to it a lot and I can honestly say there isn’t a bad track on the album, just a lot of excellent songs which make me want to get up and hurt my neck even more.

Thanks again to Drew for making the long trip down to us, teaching me a lot of very useful things, and giving me a thumping. It’s hard to get annoyed at someone kicking your ass up and down the hall when he’s such a nice bloke.

“Kick! Punch! It’s all in the mind….”

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The mighty Master Onion-Head from PaRappa the Rapper certainly knew his stuff.

My instructor returned from a week break to teach our lesson last night, and with him he brought some hard exercises and tasks. My fingertip push-ups didn’t go so well and my little finger made an interesting clicking noise and pointed in an unexpected direction which smarted. Were it not for the class full of people around me (and the young girl in front of me) it’s the sort of thing which would normally have brought a few choice words to my lips. Later in the lesson we were working some full-power reverse punches into kick shields and it hurt so much that I found my kihaps much louder than usual, and although I wasn’t expecting it, it actually helped me perform a little better. After a bit of practise punching by the count, we were told to do fifty more in our own time, and I found myself giving a big kihap on each and every punch, which I’m not sure I normally would. I found it help me in the same way I find listening to music through earphones helps when when I’m running, in so much as I find I can keep going longer if I can’t hear myself gasping. Maybe that sounds a bit weird, I’m not sure, but it’s true for me. It’s obviously psychological and I really noticed it when I stopped – both punching and yelling – and could barely get a breath. It’s almost like mu shin (no mind), although slightly different in my perception. It’s almost a bit trance-like. Maybe it’s something similar to chanting?

We had an hour of continuous full-contact sparring after the main lesson as is quickly becoming the norm, and I remember before my first bout thinking ‘I’m really not sure how much energy I have’. The first fight went reasonably well, but against my brother it’s always very close. As the evening went on the fights seemed to be taking the level of contact up a bit, and although I did much better than I was expecting to in many aspects, I was absolutely out on my feet. I turned my (never healing) toe over again, had my clicky finger taped to its neighbour and was honestly struggling to take a full breath at times, but it was awesome fun and I took so much from it. Attempting to ‘box’ my way through the rounds seems to be the best option for me, and I’ve started to take a kick or two if it means I can get inside and start working with my hands. In some ways I wish I hadn’t, I’m sore all over today and have plenty of ‘ouchy’ spots where I took some heavier kicks, not least of which being the great jump spinning back kick which I didn’t even feel at the time. I only realised how good a kick I’d been tagged with when I heard the others in the hall go ‘oooooh’. By the time we left I was running on empty and my legs were shaking, which brought with it a little satisfaction ;) .

Murph’s agility lessons are still going well and he had a go at the dog walk this weekend (picture a sloping plank up, a long plank in mid-air and a sloping plank down) and did brilliantly. Next week we’re having a go at the see-saw and I’m really keen to see how he copes with it. His attention has been tried to its limits over the last four weeks with so many other dogs being there and him having to behave himself and not play with them, but he slowly seems to be getting the hang of it, despite being utterly besotted with a little brown Cocker spaniel who goes. We also went for a good walk in the woods yesterday and it was just glorious. Proper autumnal sunshine, a bit of haze and brown leaves everywhere. The only problem comes with his fur being so long and fine, we tend to end up with half the woods attached to the dog once we get him home! Winter is well on its way now too, it was still pitch black out when the alarm went off this morning. Bring it on I say! All that remains for the next few weeks is to get my pumpkins carved, and somehow try to source a very cheap pinstriped baseball uniform for my Halloween costume. I really hope I manage to find one, I’ve wanted to do the costume for years and I have every intention of doing it this time around. Those Warriors won’t know what’s hit them!

(I promise I’ll try to get around to fixing comments soon!)

Hit Me, I Like It!

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September’s ebbing away now and October is bearing down on us full-bore, not stopping until it arrives with a pumpkin-sized slap in the face. More power to it I say, it’s already feeling colder and giving me opportunity to wear the bargain of a coat I picked up in a sale last week. October is, by and large, a good month. I have lots of really good memories from Octobers gone by. I’m hoping my plans hold up for this one and make it as memorable as some of the other recent ones.

Moving swfitly along, we had the *best* sparring training session on this Sunday just gone. There were only four of us fighting and I knew it was going to be continuous (as opposed to point-stop) training, so I was expecting to be very knackered by the end. I was right, but it was the most enjoyable sparring I’ve done in a long time. We took contact levels all the way up and pretty much just pounded one another for an hour, which to anyone who doesn’t fight often doesn’t sound like much fun at all – including my bemused friends who I saw later that evening. They’re wrong though, it’s very enjoyable! I got kicked in the throat which made me gag and cough a lot, but with hindisght even that was quite cool :) . I took quite a few lessons and improvements from the session, little things I wanted to work on and improve so I was doubly happy – I’d learned AND been beaten like a red-headed step-child.

I’m really enjoying GTA4 at the moment. I was a bit disappointed when I first started playing it, because for all it’s purty looks it was still almost identical to the previous games. The more I play it however, the more I realise there’s quite a lot more depth to it. The story is much more involved, the missions manage to pack in quite a lot of variety and some of the choices the game forces you to make are very tough. If I had to pick holes, I’d say the only annoying thing is trying to keep your acquaintances happy. If you’ve got a mission in mind, or are halfway across the city with intentions of buying some new weapons or kitting yourself out in some new togs and someone calls you on the in-game phone you get a choice of whether to meet up or not. The only way you can win in this scenario is to agree and then to get there sharpish – one game hour goes very quickly. If you get there late, or decline their invitation, they dislike you a little more and your relationship sours a little. I understand it’s in keeping with the nature of the game, but it brings to mind the things I dislike in games, the things which make a game feel more like work than fun. That minor gripe aside, it’s still an awesome game!

Rock Band still holds me captive in its greasy tendrils, but I don’t really mind. It’s so satisfying to play when you ace a favourite track, or even just make it through a paricularly difficult one. Maybe I’m a tendril kinda guy?

I can’t add music to posts here really (work filters to blame), but if I could I’d have a really hard time picking today. On the one side I’m loving me some In Flames recently, but there’s some other stuff I haven’t listened to in a while which I’d have to consider too. I heard a Bjork track the other day which took me back and made me totally gormless, so maybe that, or maybe a particular Moby track, I don’t know. Maybe by the time I get home I’ll have chosen one and might even edit this to include it :) .

Tick…………. Tock…………….

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If you were to listen to the likes of Steven Hawking, or even Albert Einstein, they’d tell you the one certain way to slow time is to travel at near-to light speed. I however, offer an alternative theory, friends – waiting to go on holiday.

I’m off to Spain this coming weekend, and up until now time has just raced away from me. But now, with just one working week left, time seems to have slowed to a crawl. Early on Saturday evening a minibus will be pootling its way around west Cornwall gathering the suspects for our first ‘friends’ holiday, after a scant ten years of talking about it (and even now there’s still two who won’t be there). From there we make the short run up the road to Newquay airport, which is essentially a shed in a field, and then a direct flight to Espana! Naturally I’ve not even done half the things I need to, so that’s my week sorted out for me. I still need all sorts, including a couple of good hats, sandals, currency, a small vat of sunscreen (I burn very easily and managed to do just that yesterday at my parents’ barbecue) and various other bits and pieces.

Somehow everything seems to have come at once yet again, I was thinking ‘Hmm, I need to spend quite a lot to get my Euros’ and then remembered that I need to renew my road tax too. Oh, and my car needs an MOT. It usually doesn’t cost me much, but I can’t help but think it might need some work done this year. I do hope not.

My friend came around on Saturday afternoon for the first time in ages, which was a great treat. He’s been extra-busy for months now renovating his house with his other half, and we managed to have some quality rot time. Rot night was something we as a group of friends used to organise every fortnight or so, which gave us a chance to crash at someone’s house for the evening and just play games or watch the kind of films our girls would never sit through, but it’s not happened for ages. Saturday’s impromptu rot was a classic, we just sat down and played Smash Bros for about four hours I think. That evening more people gathered at our place and we all headed out for the evening. We went to the meadery (think ‘Medieval eating house’) which was awesome, I hadn’t been for years. A few libations and plenty of scampi later we headed into town for a for more drinks and a lot of Pool and Table Football. A thoroughly enjoyable day!

Sunday’s training was good fun for the most part. I’m back up to nearly completely uninjured now, so I’m training for the full two hours each time I go, and the second hour last night was the adults-only fight squad training. The traditional class went well, even if I did manage to muck up part of pyung ahn oh dan, and it was good to go through ho sin sool and il soo sik dae ryun with the 10th gups before their first grading next week. It’s unfortunate that I won’t be there to watch them and wish them well, but I know they’ll do me proud. The sparring for the second hour was really odd. When we do the adults-only training the contact levels tend to come up a bit and with it being continuous, but never with (much) animosity. In my second fight I took a kick down below which put me down for a minute or so, but luckily it was more frank than beans so I was able to finish. When I said it was odd before, I meant from a scoring point of view. Every fight I had I came off the mats believing I’d lost, where in actual fact that was only true of my first fight. I have no idea why, but either way I managed to clock up some points before my penultimate fight against my brother. I’m still not sure what I did, but during a hook punch I threw, something very strange and very, very painful happened to my arm. I tried to carry on just using my legs but it was so painful I had to stop, and had to concede my final match too. I’m not sure why but I don’t seem to be able to go to training without coming home with an injury at the moment. I wouldn’t mind so much if it was someone hurting me instead of me doing it all the time! :) .

Never mind, a week of reading, supping cold beers by the pool and relaxation should help me mend up nicely. I’m not looking forward to that first lesson back though ;) .

“Who Loves You, And Who Do You Love?!”

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The famous words of Killian from The Running Man. That was as clever a title as I could come up with at this time in the morning, because last night you see, I was the running man! Ok, I was a running man. I took to the gym as intended with my running mates in an attempt to step up my training for the run in October. I’m not the greatest runner in the world but I’ve slowly been getting better, and last night I was determined to push myself a bit harder.

I had no specific goal when I pushed ‘Quick Start’ on the treadmill, but the last time I ran on one I remember feeling really bad after only a mile or so, and having done more than that on the road since I was determined to do better. I won’t give you a blow-by-blow account of every last step, but in order to track my own progress I can record that I completed 3.5 miles in 37 minutes, which includes a 2 minute fast walk to get my legs moving and a minute walking at about 2 miles to take a drink. I’m quite pleased with it, it puts me on course for around a 2h 30m half marathon, which isn’t great, but I’m sure as it ramps up over the next few weeks I can take the pace up and go longer. I think the plan is to go for around 2h 15 on the day, but I think I’ll just be pleased to survive it at the moment.

Tonight I’m back in the dojang again (although my legs really wish I wasn’t!). The last time I trained was on my birthday, and it’s traditional in our club to get a birthday punishment to remind you how old you are. We ended the class with a few rounds of sparring and then got told to form a circle around the floor. I was called into the middle and everyone was given the command to bow. It suddenly dawned on me that this was going to be my punishment…. I had to fight the eight others training that night in continuous style, and seemingly everyone wanted a little contact too! I ended up absolutely gasping, my headguard half-way round my head and pouring with sweat, but it was worth it for my card from the guys.

Straight after training tonight I’m heading to Plymouth for a much needed night out! It’s my friend’s girlfriend’s birthday so a few of us are headed up for a bit of an outing to a rock/metal night up there. I used to go there every other week in my younger days (I can say things like that now ;) ) and I went back a few months ago, unsure what to expect and not knowing how much it had changed. I was so glad that it was almost exactly the same as ever! So I shall be throwing myself around the dance floor like some kind of bearded Dervish into the small hours of Saturday morning before a day of utter relaxation with any luck. After this last week my plan is for a lie-in, shopping for some meat, then spending the afternoon and evening in the garden with a lazy barbecue and couple of nice drinks – maybe the little bottle of bubbly I was given for my birthday. I’ll definitely be cracking the BBQ cookbook out and getting creative again. Sunday is going to be an utter sweat session, a two hour seminar in the afternoon followed by normal training and then sparring training. It’s really hot work in a 14oz dobok, but very rewarding.

Whatever you’re doing this weekend, I hope the forecast is as good as it is for here and you manage to get out and enjoy it.

A Hard Sunday

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Yesterday was hard for lots of reasons. Firstly I forgot how hard it was chasing dogs all over the dunes, I was a gorgeous day, and stood on top of those dunes looking out over the sea, I was absolutely miles away. In fact I was gormless for a lot of the day, I had late nights for the previous two nights, something kept me up all night – I have no idea what though :S

In the evening I had training, and extra sparring training. By the time training came round I had perked up a lot, I was seriously ready to go. The weight loss (which is going so well now) I’m sure is helping me already. I was the fastest I’ve been in the races to warm up, fired out jackknife sit-ups faster than I ever had before, and generally am starting to feel a little more lean. It’s not obvious to look at, but I can feel it. I even got comfortably into a football shirt I bought more than 4 years ago but have never been able to wear because it was too tight. I was really up for sparring in the second half too.

We resumed the small internal club sparring league last night, and of the three fights I had I’m pleased to say I won two of them – my instructor is just too fast – one day…… I had to fight pretty hard to get my points though, I’m not normally aggressive in fighting but I gave it a go last night, I really felt like I could try giving it some ‘umph’ for once. I think I have to find a happy compromise now.

By the time I got home I still hadn’t calmed down, I was literally bouncing off the walls and ceiling. I don’t know where this extra energy has come from lately, but I’m grateful for it. Long may it continue!

edit: I love this song, it’s cheese but who cares :)

Journey – Don’t Stop Believing
[youtube ip1zsUIosoA]

Box Clever

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It’s been a busy few days. In the traditional lesson on Friday evening we pretty much just ran over all the stuff we’re going to need for this week’s(!) grading, making sure our Il Soo Sik Dae Ryun and Ho Sin Sool are tight, and I think on the whole they are ok now. We also had a walk-through of the newly changed first Bo form (Bong hyung il bu) which is now a kind of amalgam of what we knew as the first form, and a different form which is more like Kicho hyung il bu from the traditional curriculum. The form itself isn’t too hard, but the ‘presentation’ version of the form has a lot of spins in which are actually a little confusing at this point. It’ll be fine, once I have it set in my head which way the spin starts.

Saturday was fairly sedate, in fact sitting here now I really can’t remember much of the morning or afternoon at all. We took the dog for a bound on the beach, where he met an absolute clone of himself. Seriously, this dog looked almost identical, save for being a couple of years older. I wonder if there’s hope for ours to actually learn to chase and retrieve a ball….

Sunday morning had me up bright, early and industrious. As part of the healthy eating/weight loss (I refuse to say diet) thing I’m on at the moment, I can pretty much eat as much fruit as I like – and yes, I know there’s a lot of sugar in things like grapes, just before anyone points it out. So on Saturday evening I stocked up, and I mean seriously stocked up. Melons, mangoes, blueberries, white grapes, red grapes, strawberries, pineapples, kiwis… – you name it, I bought it. I had in mind a plan for the finest fruit  salad known to man, which it has to be said, in my humble opinion, I managed. My enthusiasm in the supermarket means that I actually have enough left over to make it all again – great news! Mrs AdamR had a good laugh at my expense when I revealed the night before I had dreamed about not being able to find a massive bag of crisps in the kitchen. I think my body’s crying out for some crap to eat.

In the afternoon I popped round to see my Mum (it being Mothers’ Day and all), where she promptly dug out an old box of my stuff she came across while tidying. In the box were all sorts of keepsakes; things I’d made at school, little certificates, and the highlight – my old writing books. The books I wrote in at school when I must have been about 6 or 7 I suppose. They’re full of wisdom and interesting insights, for instance, did you know that ‘Red Indians (Native Americans P.C. crowd) used to kill buffalos so they could cut their tongues out and use them as hair brushes’? I must have been taught that at some point, surely there’s no way I came up with that by myself.

Sunday evenings are always training evenings. The irony of me saying that is that next Sunday our evening class is canceled due to the grading, but I digress. As always I got to the gym about half an hour early. You think I’d have learned by now that when the training venue is about half a mile away it doesn’t take 35 minutes to get there, but it’s a habit now. My car’s CD Player stopped working the other day and the last time that happened it was a fuse, so I decided to use the spare time to my advantage and show my prowess in electricals. I found the right fuse which was hidden away in a place only a highly-trained, very skinny monkey could get a hand to easily, yoinked it out and pushed a replacement in. Unfortunately I’d plugged it into the back of the fuse next to where it was meant to go, and when I pulled it out the other fuse came away too. Oops. I re-sat this second fuse (and reset the car’s clock, apparently that’s what fuse 21 does on a 1994 VW Polo if anyone cares) and actually managed to get the new one in. Lo and behold, music!

The normal lesson that night went smoothly and as is customary on every other week, those of us in the fight team stayed for an extra hour of sparring training. I got a couple of fights in, one against D which is always a fun event. I’ve taken more backfists to the head than I care to admit to from him, but usually manage to give as good as I get. I like fights I walk away from smiling and laughing. My second bout was with a newcomer to traditional TSD (we dragged him across from our kickboxing class), but is already shaping up to be a good fighter. JG opened the same way as he did the previous week, slipping a side kick under my guard. This always annoys me, it’s the point I tend to give away far more than any other, I guess there’s still more work needed on my part. It was such a close fight, considering he’s a 10th gup I took a bit of a pasting at points, including my least favourite part of the evening.

We’ve been asked to wear a groin guard in sparring training now as too many people have been taking accidental low-blows. Last night was the first time I remembered to bring mine and wear it, and what timing on my part. I can’t remember what I’d done, possibly a high left footed roundhouse, but I remember vividly being almost lifted of my feet by the kick which met with my nether regions. I couldn’t even stand, I just remember my legs buckling and being face down on the mat, curled up in the foetal position, utterly jack-knifed. My kidneys ached, as did the tenderised area, but not badly enough for me to finish the fight (which somehow I managed to edge, I’m not so sure I deserved it) – I can only imagine how much pain I’d still be in if it weren’t for that plastic cup. I might have cursed it when I bought it and when I have to wear it (the phrase ‘pint in a half-pint pot’ comes to mind), but it’s like an old friend now. I might call it ‘Mr Box’.

On second thoughts, I’m not sure I want a ‘Mister’ anything cupping me….

Train Drain

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I’ve had quite a hard time of it with my training recently, it’s felt very difficult at times with a lot of ‘one step forward, two steps back’ in my own mind, which hasn’t been very nice at all. I’m not under any illusion that it’s always going to be great and I’ll never forget anything and suchlike, but it’s the first time it’s really hit me as hard as it has. I’m going to keep grinding and work my way out of the slump, but it’s surprised me at just how draining it’s been, both physically and mentally. Last night was a much better session for me for several reasons.

Kick paddle work is right up there with kick shield as far as I’m concerned, I love striking something, so last night was a bit of a treat being able to work some of the more difficult kicks. Jump spinning crescent kicks are hard, but I got a few to come out with that I was pleased with and I also spotted something which I think might be holding me back on aerial kicks. I noticed that I really don’t like to lean back on them, I guess it’s an innate fear of losing the landing leg from under me perhaps, but the only jump kicks I feel are working are those which don’t require a lean. In dwi bal ee dan apchagi (rear leg jump front kick) it’s necessary to make sure you stay as upright as you can, as the temptation is to lean forward if anything, and in my new favourite – ee dan dwi hurichagi (jump spinning hook kick – I think!) there’s a big lean but in essence you’re leaning forwards whilst facing backward. I can’t put it into words very well but it feels much stronger.

I really enjoyed being given five minutes to work with one of the new white belts, where each junior was paired with someone senior to them, and as a senior I had the responsibility of teaching my junior his first two preset Il Soo Sik Dae Ryun. I really enjoy teaching and I love the satisfaction of seeing something ‘click’ and sink in. There were a few times last night with this, admittedly relatively small things in the grand scheme of things, but it was great to see his shape changing into something resembling a TSD practitioner, even if it was just for two or three movements.

We had an hours extra training for the sparring team after the main lesson again, and it was something I was looking forward to and dreading in equal measures. My sparring’s been annoying me lately (as I’m sure it does for everyone), and I’ve been very much in a rut in terms of how I fight. I know how to blitz, when to cover, when to jam and so on, but my execution lets me down. I’m a big chap and even the smallest movements are more obvious when I do them, so I have a tendency to telegraph what’s coming next. My first blitz step is a big culprit – I can move forwards fast off of it, but getting it into position is something I need to work on. As much as I love to take points and even win (imagine!), my sole objective last night was to mix it up. To change what I do and take some risks, and I did just that, with varying levels of success.  My axe kick is a lot faster thanI gave myself credit for and being tall, is something I’ll be working on as an ‘opener’ I think. I’m taller than a lot of people, I might as well use it to my advantage.

Today I’m shattered if I’m honest, it was a real effort getting out of bed and my legs and ankles make me feel like I’m wearing full-leg plastercasts. It’s getting there slowly, I just have to put more work into managing expectations.

Creating A Human Panda (Man-da?)

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I woke up this morning in pain, pain around both of my eyes. Last night I managed to not only get my first partial black eye, but to go one better and give myself two black eyes.

I’d like to say my first came with some kind of fantastical tale of martial arts bravery, but it’d be a great big lie. No, instead the first bruises came (to my good eye) before I’d even got in the Dojang. I was chatting to my instructor as we were taking our kit bags out of the cars, and had forgotten that my boot door has a tendency to slip down a bit, especially when there’s a winter hurricane happening as there was last night. I was distracted, the light was dim, etc. etc. Basically I turned without looking (you’d think I’d have learned better by now with my training in the dojang) and caught my eye on the door. Ouch. Just as I was told that we’d have at least two new students starting that evening, what a great impression that would give, a student coming in holding a bruised eye before any kind of training even started!

I managed to get through the normal lesson unscathed and was trusted enough to take one of the new guys for the evening, showing him the ropes and trying to explain the ettiquette, and trying to make sure I could do everything asked of me. There’s not much point in demonstrating a technique if you can’t do it yourself. I think in some ways it helped me to be honest, the modicum of pressure kept my standard pleasingly high. We did some work last week on our kicking, building stronger and higher tollyo chagis, and it’s already paying dividends. My hips tend to be very tight when kicking, but yesterday I was able to go straight to head height and to the best of my knowledge, lock them out (hopefully!). The latest form I need to know, Pyung Ahn Sa Dan, is coming along nicely too. At the very least it feels stronger than some of my previous hyung have.

After the normal lesson we had one of the fortnightly training sessions for the competition team. The theme of the year so far with regards to training has been stripping everything back down to basics, and the same’s happening with our sparring. Most of us who compete have a style which has been built and adapted since we first started, which means there are some pretty fundamental problems inherent in the way we fight, so this too has been torn down and is being rebuilt, and with great results. I think nearly all of us are feeling at least some kind of benefit. Anyway, back to my tale of shiners. One of the drills we worked last night was building a decent backfist strike and one of the drills was reflex and response building, one person throwing a quick backfist to the head, the other covering up with a decent reverse guard or just plain getting the hell out of the way! This moved on to random timing, as opposed to the ‘one-for-one’ patterns we’d started building up the speed with. At one point my training partner (who happened to be my brother and I’m sure took no satisfaction from it) and I both chose the same moment to blitz and dive forward. My fist was slower, there’s no excuse, and the penalty was a fist in the eye which wasn’t softened any by my own diving in at the same time. It was my bad eye* this time, so I wasn’t overly concerned, but it meant I had to haul myself off the mat after being unceremoniously dropped.

I had the good common sense to get something cold on them when I got home, so thankfully all that remains in the way of evidence of last night’s misadventures are small bruise to the corner of my eye socket on the ‘boot’ side, and a couple of blood blisters/bruises on my eyelids coupled with a bit of swelling on the ‘fist’ side.

Off on a total tangent, here’s yet another song which has been on pretty much constant repeat in my car over the weekend. I’ll certainly be looking out for a studio album.

Glamour Of The Kill – Rise From Your Grave
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*bad eye – I have a condition called Amblyopia in my right eye. It doesn’t affect me in day-to-day life, but it means I’ll never be able to do some things, like fly a jet fighter. It’s very hard to describe what it’s like to someone with 20-20 vision, but here’s the closest way I’ve found. Look at this page and notice how you can see things in your peripheral vision, maybe a mug or picture or something. You can see they’re there, you can see the shape and colour, but you can’t see any detail. That’s what it’s like over my entire right eye, even where I’m focusing. Unfortunately there’s no fix. I’ve never known any different, so it doesn’t really bother me, but there’s times when I wish I knew what it was like to see through a pair of normal eyes.