My cover is blown

My cover has been blown. It seems the boys at the BJJ class are all aware that I am a ju-jitsu instructor and my days training as an anonymous beginner are over. No idea how they found out as I certainly never said anything, but it seems they are cool about the fact and the coach even chatted about how good it was to don a white belt and try something new. It's a different attitude to when I told the other BJJ class about me and they all saw it as a green light to thump me to submission. Anyway, making interesting progress with the BJJ as I managed to get a couple of tapouts. In fact I enjoyed it so much time just flew and sparred for over an hour past the official finishing time. Sadly, two weeks holiday for the coach means I am BJJ-less for a fortnight and with Nationals fast approaching, I may not be match fit in time.

byMeerkatsu

in

September 28, 2004

My cover is blown

My cover has been blown. It seems the boys at the BJJ class are all aware that I am a ju-jitsu instructor and my days training as an anonymo...

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Not enough days in the week!

Ko-budo on Saturday started off badly as during the very first warm-up exercise, the sleepy headed Meerkat managed to bash his injured elbow with nunchakus. Severe pain, but managed to hack way through 6 hours of weapons training, the highlight was some nifty new tonfa strikes and a new nunchaku kata.

Sunday was a day of rest thankfully - calm before the storm as I willingly stepping into the BJJ class on Monday. Two hours of grappling fun. MP commented that I was going rather manic on the mat. Manic is not the word - getting tapped out for six is what I would say. But Eddie is a good instructor and the club is the friendliest I've been to.

Today, Tuesday, was our guest systema seminar. I was worried no one would come but in the end, an ace turnout and most of the members were raving about systema. A couple didn't seem to think much of it, but that's usual I guess. It might even have pursuaded a couple to try it out on Friday nights.

Tomorrow is more training and then off to Milan....phew!!!!

byMeerkatsu

in

September 22, 2004

Not enough days in the week!

Ko-budo on Saturday started off badly as during the very first warm-up exercise, the sleepy headed Meerkat managed to bash his injured elbow...

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Eye-eye!

Injury-bedevillled Jamie has come back from a few weeks absence of training to tell us of his amazing injuries. I'm pretty sure he won't mind me recalling his antics but this one is a corker: Jamie is frustrated at with his niggling joint injury so decides to do a spot of exercise using those giant elastic bands that you have to pull and stretch to gain resistance workout. This he does fine until, doing an upward pull, the rubber thingy slips from his foot grasp and, in the recoil, slaps him full force on his right EYEBALL!! Hitting it so hard that it started bleeding, and to top it off, starts to close up like a twelfth round boxer. Everytime he closes it to sleep or blink, the wound opens up again to bleed some more.Ok, horrid injury, go see a doctor you say, but Jamie is hospital-phobic and has so far resisted the temptation to see anyone. A week after his accident, he still can't see properly out of his eye. The best we can convince him to do is to at least see a high street optician.

byMeerkatsu

in

September 16, 2004

Eye-eye!

Injury-bedevillled Jamie has come back from a few weeks absence of training to tell us of his amazing injuries. I'm pretty sure he won...

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My Hero

I cannot recommend enough the forthcoming epic movie 'Hero'. It is a martial arts spectacular following the traditional storytelling of Chinese folklore - you know, ancient King, mystical assassins, lots of wire-fu action etc. Very crouching Tiger, but what sets this movie apart from the others is the sheer majesty of the cinematography. Colours - Jeees yes COLOURS wrap the film like a soft silk sheets. Action - you can believe a man can fly. Acting - love, betrayal, vengeance, kick-ass swordplay it's all there. Stars - ha! could you GET more famous than Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Donnie Yen and Zhang Ziyi.
This film screams OSCARS!!! It's also number one film in America right now, a stunning achievement when you consider it is in a foreign language.
Go see it.

byMeerkatsu

in

September 11, 2004

My Hero

I cannot recommend enough the forthcoming epic movie 'Hero'. It is a martial arts spectacular following the traditional storytelling...

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Codswallop?

I never used to prescribe to alternative therapies and supplements, I still very much doubt 99 percent of it stuff actually works, but I thought I would give Cod Liver Oil tablets a try. These fun sized translucent egg-shaped pessaries allegedly alleviate joint pain and, after a couple of weeks of eating them, I must admit, I am waking up with far less joint stiffness and the aches have virtually disappeared. Now all I have is muscle pain.

A fresh intake of newbies last night at class. It’s kind of like the start of new academic year at school. Keen, eager young students stand there wide eyed giving me there best “show me what you got” stare. Well, I think I did a good introduction as they all left with smiles and promises to return. Sadly, as is tradition, there is always one for whom the pace of warm-ups exceeds their own fitness expectations and he had to run to the loo, hand holding back a mouthful of vomit. He was fine afterwards and seemed very embarrassed. The irony is I thought I did a very short and easy warm-up segment. Oh well, we all have to begin somewhere.

Speaking of feeling sick, I was told that the girl we were watching very carefully hash her way through green belt grading on Sunday promptly collapsed in a feint at the end. Blimey, if you thought green was tough, wait til brown and black belt!!

byMeerkatsu

in

September 09, 2004

Codswallop?

I never used to prescribe to alternative therapies and supplements, I still very much doubt 99 percent of it stuff actually works, but I tho...

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Volunteer punchbag

Grading day at the big HQ and it's here where us dan grades have to offer to volunteer as spare uke for partnerless kyu grades. My first one was incidentless as a yellow belt uke - pretty easy stuff. I get my pass stamped, breathe a sigh of relief and think: ''well, done my bit.'' But they are a man short down at the purple belt end and I'm the nearest one to the room...darn, I have to uke again...and this time, I get Big Tom. Big Tom is so tall that my pathetic over head punches barely reach his nose. Conversely, I'm too short for an effective shoulder wheel that he merely stoops over, making us both look rather dodge. Despite our height difference, he pulls off a near faultless grading as I get thrown around the dojo with gay abandon and the senior senseis have observed that I have given of myself to association causes more than adequately. Still, I think I had it lucky as all the other dan grades had to partner for brown belt, and man, that is one hell of tough a grading.

byMeerkatsu

in

September 06, 2004

Volunteer punchbag

Grading day at the big HQ and it's here where us dan grades have to offer to volunteer as spare uke for partnerless kyu grades. My first...

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MY BIG FAT THAI KICKPAD
KBXG coach is back from his sabbatical in Thailand and don't we know it! I'm still sore after endless hours of roundhouse kicks to a big fat kick shield. It's such good fun and it puzzled me why his club didn't use shields before - relying instead on gloved partner cooperation. Shields are ace since you can whack them with mindless full force. Mind you, they are so big that you simply can't miss the pad, which probably means bad habits creep in, and probably why coach hasn't utilised them before. The kick drill where you start with one, then two, then three etc all the way up to ten is hard. One to five are great, then you hit a mini-wall and by the time you get to nine and ten, your previously invincible kicks are turned into a pathetic and weak imitation, then, you have to do the whole thing again for the other leg. And that's only the first drill!
I do like the fact that coach is still finding new ways to improve his own martial art development (we're talking about a real World Champion here) which ultimately we will benefit from. It's the right attitude and something I hope to emulate.

byMeerkatsu

in

September 01, 2004

MY BIG FAT THAI KICKPAD KBXG coach is back from his sabbatical in Thailand and don't we know it! I'm still sore after endless hours...

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FLYING ARMBARS

FLYING ARMBARS
That Guarana choccy bar is definitely giving me a chemically assisted boost to my training. Last night I was working on flying armbars as a counter to a counter to a front kick. Pretty awesome stuff. Might be rather over indulgent in self-defence terms, but it looks damned cool! We should split the syllabus into two parts. Part 'A' are techniques that work for self protection - like a hip throw, naked choke, groin kick or palm heel to the chin - all of them rather simple and unspectacular. Part 'B' techniques that probably would not work but look really cool such as flying armbar, leg wheel and most sacrifice throws. Of course some people are so good at part 'B' techniques that in all honesty, they probably could pull them off in real life. Now if I can somehow integrate my flying armbar sequence into one of the second dan modules, then I will definitely be flying (long as I eat some guarana of course!)

byMeerkatsu

in

August 27, 2004

FLYING ARMBARS

FLYING ARMBARS That Guarana choccy bar is definitely giving me a chemically assisted boost to my training. Last night I was working on flyi...

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COMFORT ZONE

SEMINAR TIME
Been trying to organise a club seminar - usually we invite some of the Mill Hill club down but this year I thought we should take a diversion from ju-jitsu and invite my systema instructors. Speaking to Sam and Mary, they seem really keen on the idea, in fact they've taught the aikido club already so are fully prepped for a session with some jitsuka. Should be a good sesh though I wonder if Sam'll let us do a mass attack as requested, he says he wants to keep it simple. Either way, as he is fresh back from a training trip to Russia and soon Canada, he'll be buzzing with cool new ideas. The lack of matting may scare some of my members initially, but it's good to get out of the comfort zone every now and again. As for systema - it'll be interesting to see who 'gets' it and who doesn't.

byMeerkatsu

in

August 24, 2004

COMFORT ZONE

SEMINAR TIME Been trying to organise a club seminar - usually we invite some of the Mill Hill club down but this year I thought we should t...

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DRUGS IN SPORT

DRUGS IN SPORT
With the recent farcical debacle involving the two Greek Olympic sprinters, I pondered on the question of whether drugs ever affects ju-jitsu (or indeed any martial arts activity). Our Association Governing Body certainly has a drugs officer representative and I suppose in theory, competitors should be submitted to random testing, but I doubt anyone ever has done so.Last night before training, I ate a Gurana Boost chocolate snack - this enabled me to train harder, faster and more intensively than normal, in fact, I was flying and everyone duly noted how intensely I trained. Mind you, being only a small furry creature, I am particularly sensitive to small amounts of stimulants such as caffeine and other alkaloids in drinks such as Red Bull, to extent that I act all hyper for about three hours then cannot get to sleep. Who needs illegal drugs!

byMeerkatsu

in

August 20, 2004

DRUGS IN SPORT

DRUGS IN SPORT With the recent farcical debacle involving the two Greek Olympic sprinters, I pondered on the question of whether drugs ever...

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Windmilling your arm around

The BBC3 documentary Mind, Body and Kick Ass Moves is proving a real hit with the Meerkat and his friends. The highlight in episode 3 was Chris Crudelli volunteering himself to be attacked by genial but deadly karate Master Oshiro, who proceeds to continually poke his finger in the poor chaps neck, sending him flying backwards. There's no doubting Crudelli's expertise in the martial arts and he is an enthusiastic presenter but I'm not particularly wowed by his on-the-street chi-kung demos - in fact I don't buy the whole chi-energy thing at all, preferring to lean on the old 'it's all in the mind' hypothesis. Mind you, windmilling your arm around really really fast and then delivering a knockout punch is rather fun and really works! Looks like a new warm-up exercise for the next training session beckons.

byMeerkatsu

in

August 18, 2004

Windmilling your arm around

The BBC3 documentary Mind, Body and Kick Ass Moves is proving a real hit with the Meerkat and his friends. The highlight in episode 3 was Ch...

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New job

I'm happy to note that the wife has secured herself a permanent job, after months spent freelancing. The celebrations are tinged with a slight regret that this now means she has the excuse to go on a permanent spending bender in replacement of attending ju-jitsu sessions.

byMeerkatsu

in

August 16, 2004

New job

I'm happy to note that the wife has secured herself a permanent job, after months spent freelancing. The celebrations are tinged with a ...

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