01209dom’s Weblog

Surprisingly I didn’t get much sleep on the Thursday night! I curled up in bed at around ten and I don’t think I actually drifted off until about two in the morning. I just kept tossing and turning and eventually woke up (and got up) at about half five as I was clearly not going to get any more sleep. I had packed my case and done everything the night before so I had to just wait painfully to set off. We hit the road at about half ten, and apart from my interesting navigation of Exeter services roundabout and almost hitting a car going up a hill, we got into London Docklands at around half six without too much hassle.

After having a shower and a lie down we headed off for some food in a cracking Chinese restaurant (same as last year) and had some great food and some very powerful Chinese spirits, Ouch! The Yi-Ban is one of my favourite restaurants even though I have only been there twice, but the food, scenery and live music is really nice and I look forward to going there almost as much as Seni itself!

After a good fried breakfast we headed over to the Excel complex for day #1. First up we had a good look around the various stalls. We found the Bruce Lee exhibition pretty quick, which contained some of his old costumes and other memorabilia including the original scrift of his fight with Chuck Norris in ‘Way of the Dragon’!!! We then checked out some of the various demo’s and displays, including Muay Tai, Kickboxing, Wing Chun, The Royal Marine’s and even a few odd ones like ‘Cane self defence’ hhmm ? Got to say the Shaolin Monks were again probably one of my favourites, mainly because of their whole lifestyle and total dedication and commitment fascinates me as much as their art. Totally inspiring.

That night I was so tired I didn’t really contribute much to the evening, I just ate our evening meal in relative silence and crashed out super early as I was shattered. In a way I’m glad I did as I woke feeling fresh and ready for day #2.

Our main priority was to watch some of the fight and weapon competitions having watched most of the displays and done most of the shopping the previous day. Unfortunately it did mean standing around for long periods of time watching people warming up and stretching etc. It was worth the wait in the end as I saw some awesome things. First we watched some of the various Jujitsu bouts and then turned our attention to the various sparring and weapon team events which were a little more associated with our TSD and Viper Squad training. We were familiar with a lot of the teams such as the ‘Mad Dogs’ and ‘Team Fusion’ and one of the referees was Jacey (2fast4U) Cashman who is one of the best point fighters in the country. Shame he was only reffing!

The main highlights were a couple of guys from Team Fusion with some great weapons performances and freestyle forms. But I think the most impressive for me was a young chap called Luke Scott. He can’t have been older than about nine but I can’t say I have ever seen a kid with as much talent as he has for his age. His bo-staff display was absolutely astounding! The future of Martial Arts surely lies here.

After another long day it was time to hit the road. Apart from a brief stop at Exeter for some food we pretty much just hammered it all the way home. I was shattered today as I had work this morning and have struggled to stay awake all day, but now in the comfort of my home and a whole night to myself I can relax and reflect. The only downside to the weekend was that we were missing key members of the team which subsequently left us all feeling a little incomplete, but a great time was had by all and it was still one of the highlights of the year.

Fantastic weekend

Ahh the eve of the annual Seni trip. This year six of us will be travelling up to the capital to attend the biggest Martial Arts show in Europe and arguably the world. Last years theme was pretty much aimed at the UFC (ultimate fighting championship) which meant lots of ego filled beefcakes walking round and scantily clad women ( v nice). This year though sees mainly a Chinese theme which I’m sure everyone will appreciate more being the traditionalists that we are.

I’m hoping to see lots of great displays, mainly arts like Wushu and hopefully the Shaolin monks will be there again plus some good weapons demos. Would be great to see Master Han’s sword display again! Also very keen to check out the Bruce Lee exhibition, which will have loads of memorabilia including his old pads, etc and hopefully get to meet his widow and daughter who will be in attendance!

Have been saving up and looking forward to this for months and I can’t wait now! Hopefully I will be able to buy some cool stuff this time, only came home with a set of focus mitts last year. Not looking to buy anything in particular but I’m sure something will catch my eye!!!

It may seem a bit sad but I even enjoy the journey up. It’s a long old haul and I’m driving this year, but to me it’s all part of the experience. To be honest the show itself isn’t the most enjoyable part, it’s just great to have an excuse to go away with all the guys and cause mayhem!

A little music now…

This must be listened to REALLY LOUD!

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Unfortunately Jason Becker now has Lou Gehrig’s disease which has taken his ability to play, but back in the day Jason was king! Check this out!!!

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It’s been a while since my last post, so here is what I have been up to recently.

As far as training goes it has been going really well lately. I had some small sparring issues at Viper squad training a couple of weeks ago, which I have seemingly managed to rectify. My main issue was to try and be a lot sharper and try to be a little more aggressive. I got into the habit of moving around, waiting for my opponent to make a mistake before striking, which usually resulted in getting hit first. I decided to try and mix things up a little and throw in a few different combinations and commit to my techniques more.

Squad training is now every week as we have a tournament next month (which I will mention in a minute) and last Sunday was the first ‘adult’s only’ squad session which will take place every other week. This differs slightly as it’s a ‘points accumulator’ session, which means there are no winners or losers, we just count how many points we have all scored and add them to the league. With my new mentality in place I had a really positive session. I came away with 11 points which I normally don’t get in a month, and also scored six points in one round! I was over the moon and have sworn to keep up my efforts and not have another dip in form (at least for a while).

As mentioned we have a tournament to attend next month. I can’t remember the exact date but it’s a regional ‘S Factor’ comp which is going to be in St Austell again. I am going to absolutely go for it this time and enter as many categories as I can. Point stop obviously and definitely forms this year! I have been practicing Pyung Ahn Ee Dan constantly since the last grading, in lessons, in the evenings, on days off and sometimes even at work, so hopefully I might be able to impress the odd judge or two when the time comes. I am also really thinking about entering ‘adults continuous’ as well, mainly because of how well the last points accumulator session went. I really hope I get a medal/trophy this time. I don’t care what for, but I promised my mum I would win her a trophy for the front room mantle piece and I mean to stick by that.

In my spare time I have become absolutely fascinated with the history of the Martial Arts. I am currently spending every single night (no exaggeration) looking into the foundations of Tang Soo Do/Karate Do and all of the great Masters associated. I am currently reading ‘My Way of Life’ by Gichin Funakoshi, which I haven’t been able to put down! I read about a quarter of it the first time I opened it! I am also spending lots of time on the internet too which has led me to some fascinating information. I have created loads of separate documents in Microsoft Word so I can save all of my findings and information to come back to later.

Had another ‘hell’ session at Kickboxing tonight which has left me aching all over! My shoulders are absolutely killing me and my stomach feels like its been hit by a bus! We did pretty much an entire lesson of physical stuff and also a bit of skipping which I absolutely suck at! Then onto half an hour of non-stop sparring! I think everyone felt exhausted by the end and it was absolute bliss getting into a long hot shower afterwards!

I’m feeling very happy and content at the moment. Training has been great and I am really enjoying every lesson. I have a week off in just over a week’s time with Seni as the final weekend, followed by a competition the following month to look forward to and train for. We are all going out on Saturday night to the Corn Exchange to watch Pritchard and Daignton from ‘Dirty Sanchez’ hurt each other again! Then the following week we are going to have a ‘Fight Night’ where we all have drinks and munch food watching fight DVD’s at someone’s house! The following weekend….. Seni!!!

Could it get any better?

No!