01209dom’s Weblog

Well the last month or so has been a very strange time for me.

My 29th birthday actually managed to span an entire week and I received some really nice messages from people who I haven’t spoken to for ages which was unexpected but very welcome. I obviously had my ass well and truly kicked at training too, but that is how it works these days and I wouldn’t change it for anything. On the day of my birthday I hit an all time low though, thinking about how much my life has changed in the last couple of years and the realisation that my youth is now officially over hit me like a train. I’m sure it is something we all face at some point in our lives but I can be a bit of a sensitive soul underneath my ripped, rock solid exterior you know! To make matters worse my birthday excesses also came at a price and the successive late nights, alcohol and sleep deprivation caught up with me one Monday morning when I woke up feeling like absolute death. I managed about an hour in work before being driven home. I spent the next three days in bed with the worst bout of illness I have had for years. Not cool. Luckily it only lasted for about a week or so unlike some of my more unfortunate friends and I didn’t miss out on too much training.

Training has been extremely cool recently and is always the best way to take your mind off the stresses of day to day life! I feel a bit under par fitness wise but we have all been a bit under the weather recently so the lessons have sometimes needed to be a little slower than normal, but this has been made up by the intricacy of the technical side of Tang Soo Do especially in our senior class, we could easily spend four or five hours training on Wednesday night and still not scratch the surface with some of the higher forms. My main aim at the moment is getting Bassai into my head which I have requested at the last two sessions and with the right guidance is starting to come along now (my favourite form is still Chil Sung Sam Ro though!) and had a good question and answer style, form based senior class yesterday which helped iron out some of the differences and stumbling blocks we all pick up along the way.

It was followed by a really different Sport Tang Soo Do class which I thoroughly enjoyed. It started off with boxing style drills using various partner assisted combinations against focus mitts which absolutely killed me, I couldn’t catch my breath at all. I have been really into boxing at the moment probably due to the recent Haye – Valuev fight but am also becoming a very big fan of Manny Pacquiao too who is just unstoppable at the moment, so it was great to work on some hand techniques in light of that. Very tiring though. We then moved onto some takedown stuff and luckily I managed to perk up a bit as it would seem that I enjoy being thrown around almost as much as I do dropping people, which is a little worrying! It is something I have always thought about trying again, although I would probably veer more towards Jujitsu than Judo now especially as there is a club we are quite friendly with a stones through away. My friend has been asking me to come along to his old boxing club with him so I am not really sure what to do (if anything). Maybe one day. The best part of the lesson was the one on one groundwork and submission fighting with my instructor at the end which completely drained the rest of my days energy from me. I haven’t done anything like that for a very long time and it was great to try some locks, chokes, arm bars, etc. The most fun I have had lying down for a long time, which definitely isn’t a good thing!!!

It is apparent that the whole Christmas thing is beginning to creep in again and even though I always end up moaning about how much I hate the festive period, I am determined to have a good one this year! After days of negotiations the work rota for December has finally been agreed and for once I am actually ok with it. The only harsh thing I can see is that I might have to miss one or two training sessions on Wednesday due to the Truro late night shopping and am going to have to set a new Guinness world record by getting from City Music to the Dojang in under half an hour for the kids class on Sunday, but apart from that it is all good.

It would also appear that I have gained an unexpected birthday present too, which I might be allowed to keep…

Well it would appear that in two days time I will enter my final year of my twenties. This is something which I have thought about for a while and reaching the age of 30 really is quite a big milestone. I have always said that I wanted to go somewhere really special like Japan/China/Korea which I will definitely still do at one point in my life, but the following year is the World Championships in Florida which will probably be more than enough to look forward to as far as trips away go, but we shall see..

So far my birthday celebrations have already kicked off. On Saturday despite it being the final weekend of my week off I went into work at around half five to meet up with the guys from work as they had organised a bowling night for my birthday. I was also greeted with a helium filled pirate balloon strapped to a can of Tennants Super Strength, nice touch. The night started quite rapidly and as we were in the (first) pub at about 6:00pm and the bowling alley was booked for 9:00pm I knew that there was a large amount of drinking time in between, so I decided to pace myself. Some of my colleagues were on a mission though and when we eventually got to bowling were quite far gone. I managed to call upon my previous Camborne bowling experience to claim first place in both games but to be fair I was probably the least inebriated of the group, which didn’t go down well!! My two possible train journeys home were 10:22pm or 11:10pm but that was just never going to happen. We ended up in a bar/nightclub called Vanilla which is a bit classier than I am used to but the upstairs club was packed, I bumped into lots of very cool people from past and present and even a couple of my fellow martial artist friends too which was awesome!

After paying £40 for a taxi home I seem to remember it being about 4:00am before eventually stumbling into bed. It was an amazing night and I think we all needed it as the atmosphere in work over the last month or so has been a little negative. There were certain ’events’ that took place which I have thought about pretty much every minute since but wont go any further, I think? I definitely don’t regret anything and hopefully the feelings are shared. It makes me a little sad in a way as it gave me an insight into what my social life could be like if I maybe made a little more effort, or maybe I am just getting too old for all that nonsense now!

I know that I am not going to escape lightly on my actual birthday on Wednesday either as if training is anywhere near as hard as my last birthday then I am a dead man walking. It’s cool though as we have a fun packed weekend to follow with apparently the best Halloween rock night ever in Plymouth on the Friday followed by a Poker/DVD/Beer night on the Saturday and then a Halloween party for the kiddies run by myself and my fellow coaches on Sunday! It is going to be amazing but I think I might need another week off to get over it.

Training on the whole has been great and all of the classes are starting to get really tough again. The merging of the classes all under the Tang Soo Do name will make everything a lot more accessible for everyone and I think will ultimately help each class to steal students from each other, there has already been interest here. We have all been feeling a bit under the weather recently so we unfortunately had to put a hold on squad training last week, which was mainly my fault to be honest as I was rough as a badgers ass, but this week we were pretty much back to our best again and we had a hard but very enjoyable session. I am a bit stop start with my new forms as I was advised to study one at a time, but on Sunday I was taught the first half of my newest form Bassai which I have been extremely anxious to learn. A real landmark form in my opinion, I am also really loving Chil Sung Sam Ro which is definitely my best form at the moment even though I suck at it.

I think that is all for now, lots to update soon so will stay posted.

It was a good journey up on the whole. We didn’t get that much heavy traffic and I think I would be right in saying it took around seven hours. There were a couple of minor scares and I managed to fall out with a truck driver who wouldn’t let me into his lane. He received some very colourful language and internationally recognisable hand gestures which will teach him to mess with angry Camborne folk.

It was good to get a quick power shower before we headed off for a light training session as I felt a bit more awake and human. It was surprising to hear that the hall was also where our instructor had taken his second Dan grading. Even though I could quite happily have crashed out in the hotel room I did find the two hours or so of training very useful. The warm up wasn‘t as bad as we had initially anticipated and I enjoyed the sparring drills. The free period at the end for Hyung practice was invaluable to me as I left feeling very confident with my two forms for the following day and a lot of the pre-tournament nerves were calmed, at least for a while. It took every ounce of energy I had to take the convoy of cars over to Kimbolton School afterwards and help set up the hall for the following day but it was good to get an early look at the venue. When we finished I was absolutely famished having only had a Nutrigrain bar and one crisp for the entire day so after a hurried taxi trip into town I took extreme pleasure in sitting down for our late evening meal. I hardly ever have Indian so when I do I usually challenge myself with something hot like a Madras but I decided against it in view of the tournament this time much to the displeasure of my curry comrades!

I didn’t have the best nights sleep on the rock solid sofa bed, so the 7.00am alarm call came much to my annoyance. I had been practicing my sleep Hyung (which involves thinking about forms for most of the night) and the pre-tournament nerves had well and truly kicked in by the time we were back in the cars again. The very high class School/Castle is visually stunning and it was nice to be back again after only a couple of months. The bow in was announced extremely quickly and we only just made it onto the mats in time for the opening speeches. Even without the newest grade addition(s) to my belt it felt quite strange to be standing so close to the front at a major tournament. It was also great to see a few familiar faces and the occasional “Hello” and handshake personally made me feel very welcome and goes a long way to show how well we are bonding with the other clubs around the country now.

Being an all day event (which is roughly the same amount of time as a normal working day) the standing around, waiting for the next category to be called, along with the increasing feeling of dread is definitely the hardest part of a Martial Arts tournament in my opinion. I was aware of the separate room for practicing but if you go in there you can’t hear your name being called so I was too scared to risk it. It meant going through my forms in my head, which I STRONGLY advise against as I somehow managed to question myself on Pyung Ahn Oh Dan which I have been practicing for the last six months and subsequently worked myself up into a bit of a panic.

First up for me was Traditional Hyung. There were six people including myself in this category; a young second Gup from Scotland, an older and slightly shorter second gup, a third gup roughly about the same age as me, a tall brown belt with a disrespectful bandana and a skinny green belt. I was up first and gave my absolute maximum. I had noticed that the general Kihap’s were a bit on the tame side in the previous category so I unleashed mine with fury in an attempt to win brownie points from the judges. I didn’t see my score as they made you turn around, but I was quietly confident that I had bettered the following scores of the next three competitors. Unfortunately the last two competitors were the two second gups and both did Bassai, which is much longer and a bit more technical than Pyung Ahn Oh Dan, so they both outscored me. Their forms were extremely good though I must say.

My following category was called literally a few minutes after which was perfect as I was still buzzing and totally had the bug for it. I was more confident with the Chil Sung category than any other and I was determined to do well. Chil Sung Il Ro is one of my favourite forms which definitely worked to my advantage in the build up to the competition! The other competitors in my group were virtually the same as before but I was also blessed with the company of one of my fellow team mates who did a sterling performance of Chil Sung Ee Ro if I may say so! I didn’t perform the form as well as I had done in the previous nights training session, and was asked to perform it again as I was tied with the same young Scottish chap from before. He eventually outscored me but I was told it was very close.

I wasn’t too optimistic about my sparring category as I usually get a tough draw, and somehow manage to get the absolute giants every time. Surprisingly though when called to the mat I saw that I had avoided a few of the bigger red belts and was in with a bunch of lads around my age and size. I knew it was my last activity of the day and didn’t really have much to loose, but I did want to give a good account of myself and luckily managed to sneak past my first two opponents and into the final. I should have given it everything but I dropped my game slightly and let in a couple of costly points at the start, (completely disregarding my VS training sessions) which I just couldn’t claw back. I think the final score was 5 – 3 so at least I put up a half decent fight. Because of the structure of my group I actually had all three fights in a row and when called to the mat for the third time in a row one of the judges (third Dan) said “Christ, you can fight me in a minute if you want!” I declined his offer.

I was very relieved when the tournament had finished and my feet and back were killing me from standing around all day, I was also insanely tired having had little sleep the night before and when we got back to the hotel I just crashed on my sofa bed with a bottle of beer and struggled to stay awake. I got a second wind when our room was invaded by the entire team and I think we must have consumed about four bottles of Sake and more beer before heading into town for some food and surprisingly… more beer. The meal in the Chinese restaurant was superb and due to the warmth and full stomach I had to stop myself from drifting again, luckily when we got into the nightclub I bounced back for a third time and we partied long into the night.

I know nothing has been openly said, but I’m sure everyone at the club recognises my prowess on the dance floor, and I could see the appreciation on all of their faces when I busted my moves. I think they all knew they were witnessing something magical that night. I was pretty gutted that the so called DJ didn’t play any of my requests though, what’s wrong with Ice Ice Baby and Hammer Time? Someone tell me? It was a well deserved night out, made more special because all three clubs were in attendance. The journey home was a little painful especially as we were still up at about 4:00am in the hotel, but it just had to be done.

It was an amazing experience which I wont forget. The team spirit was there right from the start and I felt very sad saying goodbye to everyone and having to end the weekend. A fantastic team which I am extremely proud to be part of.

Next up…. The European Championships.

It is only two days now before my martial art prowess is put to the test again at the British Tang Soo Do championships hosted in Kimbolton. Luckily we attended a seminar in the same place only a few months ago so at least the venue will be familiar. Pre tournament nerves are starting to set in a bit now and I have purposely suspended practice on all of my new syllabus forms and requirements, so as to concentrate solely on the forms I will need on the day. I actually registered myself as a third gup so obviously it is paramount I make sure that I have a firm grip of the relevant forms for this grade. I have been practicing continuously in my spare time and it was all going so well… I was absolutely fine up until tonight!

It was a normal senior class and we were told that we were going to be given a nice light session, no brutal stuff just plenty of free practice. That was fine up until fifteen minutes before the end where we were told to perform our tournament forms to the rest of the class. This was unexpected and took me completely by surprise, so when it came to my turn I was a bag of nerves. I don’t get anywhere near as nervous performing forms at a competition as I do in front of our class. That may seem like a strange thing to say but in a tournament you are often being judged by people who you never or rarely train with, so to me it is like showing off how good you are. In a lesson (especially a senior lesson) you are being watched by your instructor and all of your seniors, so the pressure to get it right is so much higher. I was literally shaking, which I don’t get very often and made some pretty basic errors but I at least got a round of applause at the end so it cant have been too bad.

I never get too strung about competition sparring, which is either a good or bad thing (haven’t worked out which yet) as you never know how good your opponent(s) are going to be and there is no set pattern, you just have to rely on your experience and instincts. I will probably get the worst pre-fight nerves ever on the day now!! I also had a really useful kickboxing lesson after TSD where I picked up some very good sparring tips. It is amazing how something that you have always done and thought was fine can be corrected in the most simple way. It feels like I have learnt months of sparring tips in just forty minutes!

We head off on Friday morning at about nine and traffic permitting should arrive at Bedford in fairly good time. The general mood in the camp so far is pretty high spirited, especially with regards to the higher from categories which is where we think we will pose the biggest threat. Even as I type I cant wait now, I absolutely live for trips away with the team no matter how big or small. It will also be the chance to see what areas I need to improve on with the European Championships now set for April next year, a month before Seni!!!

Exciting times.

I cant really put into words how I am feeling right now. I feel drained, numb and very bruised. It was a fantastic day and I thought that everyone put in 100% and thoroughly deserved their new belts and tags.

It was an absolute pleasure to see a group of white belts who put so much enthusiasm into their first ever grading. Their confidence was so high which is great, but you have to back it up and they most certainly did. Our youngest lad has not been training with us very long, but his basics and forms where exceptional in my opinion. There is also a lot to be said about sibling rivalry! The two newest students at the academy are brother and sister and it is clear that neither were going to give the other the limelight on the day! I have thought for a while that a few new regular students in our traditional lessons would be good, and we now have three new Yellow belts. Traditional martial arts are not for everyone as it is a lot to commit to, but for the first time in ages I think we have some keepers.

I had a quick chat with some of the Falmouth lads before the grading started and it really does seem that they are all getting taller and I am shrinking! The two Orange belts are both younger and fitter than me so it was quite painful to watch them take their punishment as I new mine would be a bit harder. I thought I would be sparring them and was actually quietly looking forward to it but I was spared (probably for the best) and the honour went to my fellow academy brethren.

The trio of green belts had another pasting and I genuinely felt sorry for them as they were pushed extremely hard throughout. I was very impressed by some of the basics and their overall confidence seemed to stand out the most, they certainly did a better job of Pyung Ahn Sa Dan than I did! On that note it is great that we can now show off our two new Red belts at the British Championships and also means that the senior classes are going to start getting quite cramped soon!

I seem to say it after every grading, but this time it was definitely the hardest so far!! I think it was magnified by the fact that I had to do it on my own, something which I have never had to do before. There have been plenty of threats in recent gradings and I almost sold myself on the idea that I would be grading along with our newly appointed Red belts, but it soon became apparent I would be up there alone. In reflection I am slightly disappointed as I made lots of mistakes which are quite hard to swallow. I thought my fitness was poor and I struggled even with push ups, let alone those of the clapping variety. I messed up quite a few of my basics, couldn’t break my board or the sodding blue brick and the absolute worst of all was completely freezing and cocking up TWICE during Pyung Ahn Sa Dan. I don’t know if anyone has experienced anything like that, but to do it in front of all of your seniors and fellow students makes you so embarrassed you want the ground to open up and swallow you. I found it hard to recover from that and was very glad when it was all over.

The warm up literally killed me so when it came to basics I had a hard job even hearing the commands let alone translate them. I even managed to miss-hear Ha Dan Mah Kee and did something weird and wonderful instead, only to be shamed half way through. I was pleased to get the mountain block correct (as I had a premonition that would be in there!?) but was dumbfounded by the following technique. I new that I could potentially be asked to perform seven forms (which I was) including the first Bo-staff and Dagger forms which cost me about an hours sleep the night before. I thought it was going quite well until my failure at the end, but I was quite pleased to hear positive feedback on my two Chil Sung Hyung, although I ran out of breath on some of the slower moves and felt myself going blue trying to push the remaining, non-existent air out of my lungs. One of the main things I was nervous about was my Il Soo Sik Dae Ryun as it involves a very tricky takedown with the arms. I was told that the key is to dis-lodge the leg with the front hand first, making it easier to sweep the leg with the following arm – easier said than done. Luckily my partner went down each time which made me breath a huge sigh of relief. It was strange being asked to cover my ears while my demise was plotted further but it did give me a one minute window to desperately try and catch my breath. Unfortunately to my surprise I had to perform the five knife and ten open hand EMTF syllabus requirements which I just about managed to get through with plenty of mistakes.

Sparring finished me. I found it hard to survive my opening round with our merciless young pain inflictor, let alone fight four of my seniors. I was told that they were going to go full contact against me, could take me down at any point and could hit me whilst on the floor. If I couldn’t get up or if I gave up at any point I would fail my grading. Apart from a very neatly placed side kick on my frequently visited ribcage, a full power punch in the front two rows of my teeth and a heavy takedown, I remember no more about the sparring. If I scored one single point it would have been a fluke. I had a brief happy spell when I was called to the bench for my terminology as I knew that the physical aspect of my grading was over, but I had been dreading the interrogation procedure and the fact that they always seem to ask you questions on subjects you have revised the least. The hardest question I was asked was the first one; “Do you want to do more Sparring?”

It was a shock to hear that I was being considered for a double grading, let alone pass. After my numerous blunders I was actually preparing myself for a referral or a failure, so I couldn’t believe it when I was told I had attained my 1^{st Gup, I did not see that coming at all. It still hasn’t sunk in yet and the prospect of learning three new forms is far too much for me to contemplate at the moment. It seems like a big achievement, but it also means that I will have to work so much harder to learn my new syllabus requirements in what is a deceptively long period of time.}

As proud as I am, I cant help feel like I have intruded on my 1st Gup seniors somewhat. I feel extremely humbled to be wearing the same belt and tags as my two senior Red belts, who both have over two years experience in Tang Soo Do than I do. When I first started as a White belt the nearest grade to me was 7th Gup (Orange Tag) so it feels a bit wrong to be where I am now. I just really hope they don’t resent me to a degree. For the record both of you are and ALWAYS will be my seniors and you have my utmost respect. The fact that you were both there on Sunday to give me support inspired me and made it a lot less daunting! I will always walk in your shadow.

Right now I am celebrating the fact I somehow managed to avoid a long term injury and can work towards the British Championships in a couple of weeks. I am quite possibly the happiest man alive at the moment but the hard work starts again on Wednesday.

Tang

Soo

Do

As the summer slowly starts to come to an end it has been nice having a few days of sunshine for a change, which seems to have had an effect on myself and everyone in general. The consistent rain is very depressing especially for me as I live for summer and have not had the greatest this year I must say. For a couple of reasons I haven’t been able to book any time off work which means that I have only had ten days paid holiday in about eighteen months now and due to some unfortunate circumstances doesn’t seem likely I will be having any this side of Christmas. We are also very short staffed at the moment too which means that along with the summer holiday emit/kid fest I have been absolutely flat out. Couple that with the persistent rain and you can start to see where I am coming from.

It has not been too good on the training front either where I have been suffering from severe forgetfulness, especially in the senior classes and my sparring of late has been poor. I have had a couple of bad squad sessions over the last two weeks and it got to a point last week where I actually quit the team, albeit for about twelve hours until I realised that I had just let it all get to me. I am certainly not the cocky lad who started training over two and a half years ago and it seems I have lost a lot of the confidence I had when I think back to my earlier grades. I don’t really know where I am going with this but I want things to change and soon, and get back to the way they were.

Luckily the last few days have seen a big improvement in my mood at least and I have had some great laughs at work and with friends. On my day off on Wednesday as the sun was so nice I decided to head down to the beach and get a few hours of surfing in before training (wave permitting). I didn’t hold much hope of there being any waves as the week of sunshine we had would normally indicate a flat sea. To my surprise upon a closer inspection it was a good two to three foot with the occasional bigger set so I dashed back to my car to get suited up. I put on my aging wetsuit up to my waist grabbed my board and jogged back over to the beach. I reached the waters edge, grabbed my zip and pulled. Unfortunately I managed to pull the zip completely off my wetsuit and knacker the back of it for good measure meaning it flapped around all over the place. Hellish. For an additional twist of the knife a couple of pesky kids laughed at my expense until I gave them a look that would have withered flowers. I then spent the best part of half an hour trying to fix it before heading home defeated and extremely angry. In hindsight very funny though.

It was also good to get back into some air soft last weekend as myself and a few friends headed over to the usual site and had a few hours of shooting each other. I would say that it was probably my best skirmish to date as I managed to get some good ‘kills’ and tried out a few things which actually seemed to work for a change. I bought a whole bag of ammo before we started and somehow managed to use half of it, so I was clearly a little more trigger happy than usual. Half way through I actually had to switch my MP5 for one of the hire guns as I was going through my low cap magazines too quickly in games, which makes me want a new gun which I most definitely cant afford. Bugger. I got shot full auto in the face which hurt immensely and also took a round in the groin, which took me completely by surprise as I stupidly assumed that I had cleared a room when a sight was on me the whole time. Great fun!

I have lots of things to keep me busy for a month or so at least as the British Championships in Kimbolton are now only a few weeks away. I have entered three categories this time round so along with the usual sparring and traditional Hyung I have also entered the Chil Sung Hyung category. I really want to do Chil Sung Il Ro as it is one of my favourite forms but this will depend entirely on whether I can get it up to scratch over the next few weeks as it has been one of my stumbling points in senior classes recently so we shall see. It will certainly be one of my biggest challenges yet but I am really looking forward to it now and am literally counting down the days. More than anything I just love a good road trip. We have a very strong team heading up this time, with I think about twelve confirmed so far, so the Cornish flag will be flying high.

Musically I am currently on my second Johnny Cash phase and have been continuously listening to his last few albums recorded, mainly ‘American IV and V‘ which are absolutely amazing. He covers some really good songs such as ‘If you could read my mind‘ by Gordon Lightfoot which I love, and my two favourites ’The Man Comes Around’ and ’Further up on the Road’. Best two albums I have bought in a long time. Apart from that I have been mainly listening to Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple (the early years) and revisiting my ‘old skool’ years by adding essential hip hop albums to my collection. Cash rules everything around me, cream get the money…

There is one last thing which I have purposely missed out, but that will be covered soon I am sure. I haven’t officially been told that I will be grading a week Sunday, but the feel of the imaginary noose around my neck is gradually getting tighter each and every day.

About time for a catch up I think, it has been almost two months! I have so much to write about I am am finding it hard to remember everything, so appologies for this mash of different events.

Backtracking a little here…

At the beginning of the month myself, my instructor and two of my seniors recently travelled up to a place called St Neots which is just outside of Cambridge to attend an EMTF self defence seminar. The drive took about seven hours and as the driver a pint in the travel lodge bar was very welcome. Unfortunately the night extended to an all out, New York, New York nightclub, hell fest which meant I was massively hung-over for our four hour seminar the following day. Doh!

The seminar was a mix of different styles which included Kali/Eskrima which was basically double stick fighting, Penkak Silat – an Indonesian style of martial art which involved some very interesting self defence including sash and belt takedown applications, Trodai Karate (Irish full contact style), Jeet Kune Do and TSD self defence.

Training on the whole has been very hard lately blending the extremely technical Tang Soo Do lessons with the all out brutality of the new look Kickboxing format. We have mainly been covering the Chil Sung set of Hyung in our traditional classes which has been a pleasure for me as I really enjoy my forms. We have also revisited the first of the Yuk Ro Hyung too which is awesome too. I have learnt the first two Chil Sung now and Yuk Ro Cho Dan. One of my current aims is to enter the Chil Sung category at the upcoming British/World championships later this year (depending on whether I can get the required time off), so hopefully I will be able to get this looking good by the time this comes around in October. We have also been going through the EMTF self defence and Knife self defence syllabus in class, but it will only be applicable to Dan grades and above. Some of the applications are barbaric as I learnt first hand , but I actually quite like being thrown, locked, choked etc, which is a bit worrying! It was also the first time I have seen throws in a Tang Soo Do syllabus (meaning obvious ones, not applications from forms) which was very cool and also includes dragon sweeps, some immensely painful arm locks and very cool takedowns.

After suffering a nasty shin injury over a month ago my training has gradually started to pick up again after a bit of a low patch – hence the lack of posts. My fitness has suffered a bit recently which I have definitely been feeling in lessons, so I have tried to attend every class and work as hard as I can to get back to my best again. I have been really enjoying coaching the kids as our instructor has given myself and three of my seniors control of their classes now. It feels very strange teaching as opposed to being taught and very hard trying to make every lesson different and interesting. I also had a bit of a shock in a recent Tang Soo Do class when I was asked to take a section of the class through their forms! I have never been given responsibility of this magnitude before, i.e. teaching adults, but I really enjoyed it and I hope they managed to take something from it, even it was something very minor!

Sparring has been very good too and I have been learning a lot from our squad sessions recently. Unfortunately due to pretty much everyone being injured we have not had more than three fighters each week which makes the rounds fast and extremely tiring. Luckily last time we had a full team and it was one the most enjoyable sessions we’ve had. I still make the most basic of errors when sparring but I really think I am moving forwards (albeit very slowly) and I can only thank my team mates for working with me each week on my improvement. It is weird as it feels like I have two diaries going at the moment, this one and the one on our club website for the squad sessions! We also recently had the second Kickboxing grading which for some of us meant moving from red belt up to yellow belt as we have now adopted a more Japanese style belt system. It was basically an hour of non stop partner assisted drills which left me completely shattered but very content.

The Sunday just gone was host to another sparring seminar, this time hosted by Jacey ‘2fast4U’ Cashman who is two times WAKO world kickboxing champion and one of the UK’s top points fighters. The seminar itself was very similar to the ones we have attended before with Drew Neal and Robbie Hughes, but there was certainly a lot to learn. The guy is just exceptionally fast and this seems to be mainly down to his footwork and timing, which is something that I seriously need to start trying to incorporate into my sparring, although coming up to the age of 29 and as my workmate put it “almost dead” there probably isn’t much hope for me on that one! It was a great day and always an honour to be taught by such a talent, my only regret was that I didn’t get the chance to fight him myself.

A bit of a scrambled mix on this post, but at least I’m up to date now!

Grading days are extremely hard. You dread them and unfortunately the higher up the belt system you go, the harder they become. But… they are the most fulfilling experiences ever and leave you with a massive sense of pride and accomplishment. Due to the increased time scale between my gradings now I didn’t take part in the recent grading and had the pleasant role of assistant, which was quite nice but (being totally honest) would have much preferred to have been involved in the action first hand.

It was very strange when I arrived at the Dojang because even though I knew I wasn’t grading, I was still nervous for some reason. Maybe it was because it is still a grading day and the general anxiety in the atmosphere and memories of previous grading experiences make you that way. Or maybe it was because I had the expectancy of representing my Instructor and our class as one of only three red belts in attendance? I knew I would be sparring (which was one of the things that I was looking forward to) and would also be assisting with board breaks, etc, but when you are watching everyone go through their syllabus requirements it becomes very infectious and you can’t help think about yourself and the desire to be up in front of everyone, showing off what you can do!

The general mood seemed to be very sombre at the start and there didn’t seem to be any cockiness or signs of pre-nerve defiance on display, which can be frustrating (and equally amusing knowing what is in store for everyone). All participants seemingly knew what was coming their way this time round – sweat and pain.

For the first time ever we had three separate classes attending; Pool, Falmouth and Truro. It was really nice to have representatives from all of the various belt colours grading and also to train with them afterwards which is something of a rarity at our classes in pool. We sometimes ‘borrow’ one or two adult green belts from the Falmouth class on Wednesdays and have a small contingent of white, yellow and orange belts, but getting everyone together at once and having an entire Dojang full of people of all grades, ages and sizes felt amazing and it seems that we are slowly starting to spread our art across more of the south west, all under one name.

I had a couple of very enjoyable rounds of sparring with two of the Falmouth orange belts and a green belt, who were definitely not in the mood to be bullied around on their grading, both catching me with some great hits, and I also got to partner and fight one of my seniors and friends on his 1st gup grading (sorry for the punch in the throat, nice sweep). I also enjoyed being kicked in the fingers quite a lot when holding re-breakable boards and was generally very happy that I wasn’t sat at the back doing nothing for the afternoon! Everyone seemed to perform to the best of their ability and as always the little guys were outstanding, including a youngster who had only recently had her arm out of a cast! Very hardcore! I guess this shows what we are all about. Even though you sometimes may not be able to train to your usual standards due to an injury, illness or just feeling crap and tired, you should still try your best to attend lessons and train as hard as you can. In theory that mentality should make you a much stronger person mentally as well as physically. There were some people who clearly had that type of mentality on the day and had the desire to keep going when they had nothing left and that gets my full respect.

On a personal note, the grading has really inspired me with my own training and I am now focused on getting my head down and moving towards the next grading which will hopefully be for my orange belt in kickboxing around the end of July. Apart from a slight blip in a lesson a week or two ago I have been loving my Hyung practice, especially some of the much higher Chil Sung forms which I was lucky enough to be introduced to in a class and have subsequently completely forgotten. I know the entire sequence of moves for the first two and have been practicing them at home loads, which I think might have made me slightly overlook some of my previous forms causing some mild in-class-amnesia which I have recently tried to rectify! My next big milestone is Bassai, which I have purposely not looked at yet in an effort to keep my attention solely on my current gup requirements, but the temptation to watch the videos on the interweb has on some occasions proved a little too much! One step at a time Dom…

Forms are my most favourite thing ever in Tang Soo Do, but most of my attention recently has been dedicated to sparring, which has meant watching lots of various fighting footage in my spare time and is what I have been really looking forward to in lessons at the moment. This was also fuelled by my introduction to the WCL (World Combat League) to which I have become immediately hooked on and spent a large chunk of my day off today watching the various WCL youtube shenanigans, definitely going to buy the two DVD’s which I watched at a friends house last night.

Umm… think that’s about it for now. Have had a mild guitar playing resurgence so maybe more on that soon.

Be excellent to each other.

Well I guess its update time again as it has been a month or so. The summer sunshine is gradually starting to appear amid the dark clouds and rain we have been having and the temperature has started to increase which has prompted the beginning of shorts, t-shirts and barbeques. The past two weeks has been host to the years first beach party which was held in our familiar dune location. The weather was pretty good and we managed to have a roaring fire (courtesy of some industrial estate pallet thievery), music and some guitar playing coupled with a midnight stroll down to the beach, armed with beer and a rugby ball. The following weekend was our instructors birthday and a covert operation was organised via the almighty ‘Facebook’ for a surprise birthday party on the Saturday night. There must have been suspicions, but I think we managed to keep it under wraps fairly well, although our cover must have been blown when he saw our cars parked outside. After training the following day we headed to the north cliffs side of Tehidy Woods and had a barbeque until the sun went down to finish off a great weekend.The bank holiday weekend was exactly what I needed, as I have been extremely busy at work having had two members of staff leave recently and have not found replacements which has left three of us in total, going down to two on each of our respective days off. It just means we are rushed off our feet every day and there have been times when we simply haven’t been able to cope trying to deal with all the customers alongside deliveries and service work, which has left me feeling drained and very tired. The worst thing is that I can’t see how any of us are going to be able to book any holiday until we get it resolved, which is going to be a big issue if any important seminars or gradings come up. That’s my only real moan I suppose, I prefer to be kept busy all day just not rushed of my feet!

Training has been firing on all cylinders recently, especially our competition team which managed to bring home 20 medals and trophies at the annual S-Factor regional championships. It was held at Polkyth leisure centre as usual, but the numbers were significantly lower than previous years (probably due to the extortionate category prices) which left doubts over the future of the event. It is a shame as it is the only local championship which is worth entering so I really hope they manage to sort it out for next year. Nevertheless, we were clearly the best team on the day for the third year running and I managed to pick up two 4th place medals for point stop and continuous sparring and my first ever 1st place trophy for traditional Kata (Hyung).

The new Kids Kickboxing program has really taken off too following a highly successful promotional day in a local primary school, where we ran martial arts classes throughout the day teaching all of the various age groups. It was so successful we managed to gain just under twenty five students for the opening few lessons which we hope are going to enrol permanently at the end of the month as they all seem to be really enjoying themselves. I have really warmed to my new role as ‘Kids Coach’ and have found it very challenging but also very rewarding. It is my first real experience in teaching martial arts (although it is more like guidance than teaching) and will require a lot more focus when we split the class up and I get my own team of students in the coming months. I have got one or two ‘boisterous’ lads in my group which have started to get a little rowdy in class, so if they sign up and remain in my group the next challenge will be trying to maintain their discipline.

There are two gradings on the horizon, one I will be taking part in the other I will not. The first should be the second adults Kickboxing grading which for most of the regular group will be aiming for Orange belt. We have been working on the syllabus requirements and training will probably start getting very intense over the next few lessons. The second grading will be the next traditional Tang Soo Do grading which is the first one I will not be involved in due to the increased time scale between my current grade. Although it will be nice to experience a grading knowing that I am not there to get destroyed and will only be assisting and having the odd fight or two, I just can’t seem to shift the feeling of being ‘left out‘ if that makes sense. I understand that I need a lot longer to prepare for my gradings now but I always want to be involved in big events so being on the sidelines watching will be almost as hard as grading itself (almost). Hopefully I will be able to help some of the lower grades with their syllabus requirements which I really enjoy doing as it gives me a chance to test myself too. A terminology/beer night at my house is definitely in order!

Lets just say that the past week has not been a particularly good one in the life of Mr D Lewis.Bearing in mind my last MOT came to about 700 quid and ultimately forced me into buying a new car, I was slightly more optimistic about this years annual garage stint. One new tyre and a dodgy fog light* I can deal with. New windscreen? In the words of a former American Tennis player – “You can not be serious”.

I am one of those sad individuals who gains vast amounts of pleasure from the simple little things in day to day life, and had been really looking forward to getting my new Dobok and sewing on all of my patches and new red trim. Now, I would be the first to admit that sewing isn’t one of my strongest assets. The whole process took up an entire day off and was also host to one of the biggest tantrums I have ever had when it became apparent that I had cut the trim too thin and had to start again a third of the way through. Finally I was left looking at my new trimmed and patched Dobok (feeling pretty chuffed with myself) and thought I would give it a wash for the following days lesson. Unfortunately, what I failed to reaslise is that brand new red cloth tends to run… I don’t really want to talk about it, but lets just say “Pink” would be an appropriate word.

That leads me nicely onto the day of electrical failure.

Sunday, AM. Plug my three month old i-pod into its charger and notice that nothing happens. Wont turn off, wont turn on, wont actually do anything at all. Oh f***ing splendid. Thats fine I thought, will just have to get it sorted on my day off and will have to make do with cds in my car for the time being. Wrong. Get into my car, flip my cd player on… dead. No lights, no sound. Unfortunately I am unsure where I now stand in terms of warrenty as my ‘mild tap’ to the front facia encurred a slight crack to the screen area.

Two things going wrong in one day, now thats pretty unlucky isn’t it? The next thing to break was my mobile phone which does do one better than my i-pod and car stereo in the fact that it does actually switch on. Only downside is that the screen is completely blank, so I can’t actually see what the hell I am am doing. Finally, my new PC which I was told is “the ultimate gaming experience for the money”… doesn’t play games.

I am not a bad man. I keep myself to myself and try to live an honset life, but I am beginning to think that I must have sinned real bad in a past life. Sometimes, if I listen carefully enough, I can just make out the faintest sounds of laughter coming from above the clouds.

* What in the name of Christ do fog lights actually do?