Probably about time for an update I think as it has been a while.
It seems the World Cup has reached fever pitch in this country and you cant bloody move without seeing the St Georges cross emblazoned over every sodding thing you look at. Don’t get me wrong, I do love a bit of football now and then but come on. What really gets to me is that on match days it brings out every type of scum possible who think that just because their country is about to play it gives them the right to act like a complete t**t in public as seen on my way home from work on Saturday evening. I watched the game at home with my better half who unfortunately had to witness my frequent verbal outbursts, but it really bothered me and I am just tired of seeing the same mistakes being made over and over again. Frank Lampard is probably the most over rated player in the world right now and I hate him almost as much as John Terry. He’s more likely to hit a low flying plane than put the ball anywhere near the goal so for Christ’s sake stop letting him take free kicks!
Emile Heskey?
Yes, he does play well for the team but as a striker would it be too much to ask of him to actually score a goal every now and then? He wasted our best chance to score our second goal last night which Crouch or Defoe would have easily taken, it’s not rocket science Fabio, get him out of the team. As much as I want to hate Joe Cole I just cant understand why he didn’t play yesterday especially when James Milner was replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips who is… uhh… a right winger!? I would feel sorry for Robert Green too if he didn’t earn more money in one week than I will ever see in my lifetime. I almost cant bear to watch, if we cant beat a team who are supposedly far weaker than us then how are we supposed to beat one of the many teams who are better than us? Rant over.
Training has been going well over the last couple of months although I have picked up another niggling little injury to my left knee which has limited me a bit this week. I’ve been a bit old and boring recently and have spent most of my free time expanding my collection of Martial Arts literature and I also got my hands on a copy of the Moo Duk Kwan dvd’s (courtesy of my instructor) which accompany the White Belt to Red Belt series of books which I will hopefully pick up too at some point. It’s worth it just to see the Grandmasters son HC Hwang performing forms himself. His movements are so relaxed and calm but the amount of ‘snap’ and power he gets is insane! There are loads of differences which we are currently experimenting with in our Wednesday senior class, especially regarding the Chil Sung Hyung. Some I disliked at first but I am really coming around to them now although I’m not quite sure why. I have been practicing my three traditional forms; Bassai, Naihanchi Cho Dan and Sip Soo a lot on my days off and have managed to find a few things which I was doing wrong in all three, but I corrected them. Naihanchi is a deceptively tricky form and I still struggle to get all the way through it without making a mistake somewhere along the line!
We have also had some great squad training sessions too and I have felt a steady improvement over the last month or so, especially with regards to my footwork. I sometimes have a very bad habit of not varying my movement and being far to one-dimensional, so I have been working hard on staying out of range, not shipping unnecessary points and trying to become a lot more unpredictable. I have found it has worked quite well although only from a defensive point of view. I still need to incorporate more techniques into my sparring as I tend to stick to what works best for me, so I have been experimenting as much as I can. The problem is that no matter how much you practice a technique in training and perfect it in various drills etc, it is never the same as using it in a ‘live’ situation where you have to throw it instinctively. When I’m refereeing I see so many flashy techniques thrown that never even look close to scoring so why bother if it isn’t going to score? There is a grading at the end of the month which I am looking forward to although I’m unsure as to the extent of my involvement yet, I’m usually good for a round or two of sparring at least! I also have the privilege of attending a Dan/Master’s seminar in Rushton next weekend which will be covering some of the higher Chil Sung Hyung, the second and third Yuk Ro Hyung (hopefully), plus Knife and Sword Hyung if I’m permitted. It should be extremely beneficial to me personally and I do love a good road trip.
Outside the Dojang I have been keeping myself relatively busy, and my girlfriend and I had a great trip to the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth a couple of weeks ago. I have always had a fascination with the sea and sea life since moving to Cornwall as a young lad (many years ago) and I used to make frequent trips to Camborne library to fuel my obsession with sharks. It was a bit of a nightmare to find, especially if you drive like me (Exeter services roundabout) but well worth the trip, it’s apparently Europe’s deepest marine aquarium don’t you know! One of the main areas was similar to a cinema but the whole ‘screen’ being a tank full of different types of fish, rays, sharks, and numerous other aquatic stuff. It’s not often you get to see a six foot reef shark swim over your head, so needless to say I was a very happy man. We took a stack of photos which I will try to upload here if I can work out how to do it!? We headed into Plymouth city centre afterwards for a bit of a ramble around but unfortunately the weather decided to turn a wee bit nasty and we got absolutely soaked, although we did stumble across a milkshake bar and I experienced the best drink of my entire life.
This is my family. I found it, all on my own. Is little, and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good.
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