morgothan’s kung fu repository

One of my favorite students came to me on Monday and explained that she maybe getting into a fist fight at school with a boy. So the first thing I did was try and talk her out of it, and make sure that she was not going to just go and fight the kid. However, her reasoning for thinking she is going to get into the fight, is she thinks he is going to try and hit her. So not wanting to see one of my favorite students getting beaten up I decided to forgo my own training for the hour, and work with her one on one. I put her in gloves, and grabbed some pads, and had her go to town on me. Working punching patterns, punch kick combinations, and punishing her when she dropped her hands. For a fourteen year old girl she is pretty mean. She follows the get in your personal space and dont leave policy of fighting. None stop attacks too. The only thing she needs to work on is keeping her non attacking hand defending her face. Too often I was able to whack her in the side of the head while we where fighting. I worked with her for almost a full hour non stop aggression. By the end she was getting a little winded, but still had enough energy to work on her forms, and not just die on the floor. Her cardio is great, and will be an asset if she does get into this fight. Next class I work with her, I plan on working some chin na, to get her better at grappling, and maybe work some ground work with her. Teach her how to handle herself should the fight go to the floor. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night teaching the beginner class a student who is not really a problem student, but is the type of student that resists every time you are trying to show a move, or teach a technique. For the sake of his anonymity we will call him Joe. As a class we where working on Tan Toi(springing leg). In particular line 9. Which has a very odd hand movement. There is one application for this that turns the pull into a joint lock. It is right out of Chin Na 6. While the students where practicing this application Joe was tensing up, and not letting his partner get the lock. So I had to show his partner how to do it. I tried to get the lock on Joe, who of course tensed up, and did not let me get it, so I lightly kicked his shins to distract him, but as he is a meaty young man, it did not work. So I tried to put him into a shoulder lock instead, which he resisted. So I pulled the other way for an arm bar, which also did not work. So now I am getting annoyed, but because of how Joe resisted I am behind him, so I show you have a few free hits to the back of the head here, then I pop in front of his leg, and tossed his ass to the floor with a modified leg sweep. As I said before he is a kind of meaty young man so when he went down he went down hard. Now mind you this whole exchange, from starting to try the wrist lock, to him being on the floor was about one second, at the most. Afterwords I explained what I did, how as soon as I felt that I was fighting him for the lock, I changed it. I spoke to Sifu about it after class, and was assured that dropping Joe to the floor was the correct thing to do. He assured me that he has done it to him before, and that Joe likes that kind of treatment. Still it was the first time I had to floor a student to prove a point.

Over the past two weeks I have been increasingly focusing on my Shaolin curriculum. This culminated in yesterdays class in which I ran through everything I needed for my Black Sash test and more. I figure if I can maintain the rate I am going now I should be set to test by the end of the month. Then I will focus on Hsing Yi, as I should be able to get my Black Sash in that by the end of October. Then all of November and December to work on Pa Kua. I still am not 100% on being able to do this, but if Sifu is insisting on me getting my Sash is all three styles, the I must give it my all, and not let him or more importantly myself down.

I was recently given the opportunity to spend a year in Germany for work. Nothing is set in stone as of yet, but there is a good chance starting January of next year I will be in Germany, and consequently unable to continue my training at China Hand Kung Fu Academy. Because of this Sifu has decided that I “need” to get my black sash prior to me leaving in January. This means that I need to focus entirely on my training, and get ready for the tests. I say tests because although I am most proficient in Shaolin Sifu wants me to test in Shaolin, Hsing Yi, and Pa Kua. This may prove to be one of the most difficult things I will have done at the school. I am confident that I can test for my Black Sash in Shaolin, but I am still a little shaky on Ba Sil, and Ja Sil, from Hsing Yi, and as for Pa Kua, we ll I am shaky on pretty much the entire system. So I will need to focus on them, but I can not let my Shaolin suffer for it. This will be an intense couple of months. My current plan of attack, is to focus entirely on Shaolin in September, and test at the end of the month for my Black Sash, Then Hsing Yi in October, and finally Pa Kua in December. Hopefully I can clean up each system in only a months time. What ever happens this should be an entertaining couple of months.

Yesterday for reason I would rather not get into, I needed a release. I needed to feel. Yesterday also happened to be the last day Shane was going to be at the kwoon before he goes back to college. The two events made it abundantly clear that our fates where to be intertwined. I asked him if he wanted to spar, and I ask one of my instructor to ref the fight. Since Shane didnt have his cup with him, I elected not to throw any kicks, to simply work on hand techniques. The fight was good, it was exactly what I needed, I was able to work out a lot of stress, and I even got thrown to the ground once, giving me the pain or getting hit that I wanted. After about 45 minutes of the sparring session, my left glove ripped from a strong strike to Shane’s cage. This singles the end of the fight. After cleaning up from that, Shane and I did some two person sit ups, passing the bricks back and forth between the two of us. This laster till the end of the intermediate class. The beginner class was about to start, and I still felt like I needed to hurt. I asked Sifu if it was ok to work out the class extra hard, which he of coarse said it was. We also had a new student, which made it all the better. I started out with something simple, horse stance exercise, for about 15 minutes. Then onto 5 minutes of nonstop burpies, then 5 minutes Helen Kellers, Then some stretching, then 5 minutes of sit ups, and ended with kicking drills for everyone. So today my body hurts. I jambed my thumb, my knuckles are cut up, my abs are sore, and my legs are tiered. Yet I still feel like I didnt push myself as hard as I should have. My body needs to be punished. Maybe on thursday when I go to Krav Maga with Tim I will finally get the abuse I deserve.