martial
arts past.
present. future.
past
I started doing Tae Kwon Do in 1987 for a year or so before
my then teacher, Marshall Perera, went with Grandmaster Kwang Jo Choi
and his newly formed Choi Kwang Do, which I stayed with, leaving out
the 8 years where the 'demands' of a rock'n'roll life style (cough,
sniff, burp, ooze, scratch etc) had got the worse of me, until 1998,
when Gideon Hajioff, the head of C.K.D. in Britain & really one
of the best teachers I’ve ever met, especially his approach to
healing and understanding the body by becoming a qualified acupuncturist,
cranio sacral massage, tui na, and all other physically healing parts
of Chinese medicine, finally broke away and formed the British based
self defence system now known as Dynamic Self Defence (see links section
for all details on this most excellent discipline).
I took my provisional black belt grading in Summer 1998, followed by my first
degree black belt in November 1998. I attained my second degree black belt in
Summer, 2001. Hardest thing I've ever done, and on a physical level, the achievement
of which I'm most proud.
When I was in New York for 12 weeks in 2005/6, I trained in the Brooklyn school
of Hapkido, under a really good teacher, and the head of that club, Ms
Eva Salden. I was made to feel very welcome immediately by her and her students,
and trained until I took my yellow belt exam, which I passed successfully. It
is a very good , traditional, disciplined martial art from Korea, with many kicks
and strikes but also take downs and throws etc, joint locks...if you are in the
area of Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, I suggest you try it out: Hapkido: 475 Atlantic
Avenue, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, New York. Thank you to a great club, and I hope
to see you guys again.
I have become a massive fan of MMA since watching that first ever UFC in 93,
then Cage Rage took off over here, I did a documentary on it all or Channel 4,
and even had a little go myself. Made some friends in the British scene, you
know who you are.. I believe we should be allowed to have and watch this kind
of thing, as long as its in a safe sporting environment, and not round the back
of the pub” See the CageRage <http://www.cagerage.tv/> website
for further details.
present
Sadly, I moved house and it became too far to travel three times a week
with my heavy schedule to go to DSD, so I looked around my local area,
and found a really good class, called “The Richmond Academy of
Martial Arts”. It is under the umbrella organisation of Master
Curtis Page’s www.londonpredators.com, and here we can learn kickboxing
( sporting: points and light continuous), Lau Gar kung Fu, Competitive
Forms, Weapons, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and they have seminars from
time to time in specialist areas of the Martial Arts, such as knife work,
sticks, super kicks, and more. Our head instructor is the irrepressible
Wes Lucas, with a team of good, friendly, and hard taskmaster instructors
under him. The phone number for this class, if you are interested, is
020 8940 5577.
I do like it and it is really good for my fitness levels and sharpness
in my kicks, but I do miss leg kicks, and full contact. Maybe I’m getting
old and should stop all that anyway, but the leg kicks are for me, the best kicks
to deliver to any foe.
I am staying as fit and active in Martial Arts as I can, because I love
it, it keeps me fit, supple and handy. However, I am now in my mid 40’s
so have also taken up Ashtanga Yoga as a help to my flexibility, relaxation,
and continued health. My vegetarian, mostly organic and non pharmaceutical life
style I believe helps me enormously with this also. Sanctimonious arse face? Maybe,
but you just go and eat another Mac shit burger cancer meat, drink coke the devil
juice, and enjoy all the pesticides on your horrible food, whilst watching more
TV chefs denigrate vegetarians, and big up the red meat full of antibiotics,
and we’ll agree to disagree. Do you how bad you smell, by the way?
future
I’m hoping to use my skills in up and coming acting work, both
in film and stage over the next 3 years, and who knows, but I hope to
be one of those cool 60 something’s in class, and will strive to
maintain the skills I have learnt. “Impose your will, no
retreat no surrender, certain victory!”
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