06/02/2007 - ZSK

University of Warwick Zhuan Shu Kuan, (ZSK), Rod Richardson, Coventry, UK - 06/02/2007

Amazingly enough, people weren’t overly keen to go see a Wham tribute band (imagine that), so ended up spending the evening doing some more reading on Robert Lowell. It’s a little depressing that a large number of the poets I admire were apparently pretty unpleasant people, but hey, it’s the poems that are important, not necessarily the person (though Lowell is a bit of a special case, given that autobiography – if not always entirely truthful – remains an integral part of much of his work).

Had three new people in today, which was kinda cool – still need to make 30 members, as we’re currently only up to 26 (anyone from Warwick, sign up here!). If I got their names right, there were two guys, Ed (chatted to him on Facebook already, and he’s signed up) and Matthew (previous experience in JKD), along with Ed’s friend Jenny (might have heard her wrong). Due to the number of beginners, class was geared towards the basics, and we also didn’t do any free sparring at the end. That’s fine by me, as not only am I a wimp who doesn’t like getting hit, but I can always do with working my basics.

So, lots of simple drills (like blocking, alternating low kicks which you had to slide away from, punches from riding stance) followed by equally simple combinations in linework (jab cross, jab cross low kick, jab cross hook, low kick mid kick high kick etc), finishing up with pads. I still need to work my hook, and hitting the pads bare knuckle I noticed I continue to occasionally let the thumb creep up, which is a really bad habit that is going to cause me some serious pain if I don’t lose it soon. I’m fairly happy with my kicks, if only from a “yeah, I can kick you in the head” perspective: not much power behind them, so if I ever wanted to grade again, would definitely need to beef up the impact.

At first wasn’t sure if Rod was going to be there tonight, but turned out not only did Rod show up, but so did one of the other black belts, Tim. He runs his own web business now, so decided as work was slow he’d drive up and train (normally comes on Thursdays and Sundays). Nice to see him again, as its been a fair while since I last had an opportunity to speak to him.

To close on a slightly more random note, if there is anyone Chinese and/or expert on CMA who happens to be reading this, would be brilliant if you could offer your opinion on whether or not Zhuan Shu Kuan ‘counts’ as Chinese – information is here, and the discussion link is here.