24/04/2007 - ZSK

University of Warwick Zhuan Shu Kuan (ZSK), Rod Richardson, Coventry, UK – 24/04/2007

Term has started up again, so I had the opportunity to go to ZSK for the first time in about 1.5 months, having had a writing meeting immediately before. There was a ZSK social at the weekend, though it effectively turned into a Warwick-Birmingham RockSoc social instead – mostly made up of Paddy’s metal mates. Despite lack of ZSK people, cool house party: instead of watching UFC 70, we went retro and relived Teila Tuli’s tooth flying past the Gold Gym sponsors at the inaugural event. Paddy’s friends all seemed pretty cool too, so hopefully we can do the house party thing again some time later in the term. Would be nice if ZSK people could make it this time, though!

Paddy isn’t going to be able to make many Tuesdays, as his PhD is (finally!) coming to an end, so getting intensive. So, that meant I took the warm-up, doing the usual run around the room thing with forty press-ups, sit-ups, leg raisers and squat thrusts, divided into sets of ten. Rod’s arrival marked a shift to the formal, with Rod going through compulsories, then moving on to forms. For the first time in a while, we did something more advanced than just the initial set of movements: if that continues, looks like I’m going to have to get some revision in, as I struggled to remember during class. As Rod suggested, I should be treating forms as a workout, given my disinterest in the traditional side of things. So, need to remember to put in as much effort as possible.

Rest of class was padwork. I was working with a guy I hadn’t seen before, Steve. Or rather, I don’t remember seeing him – he apparently started way back in 2001 and has been on and off since then, due to living in the area rather than studying at Warwick (he’s a Bristol alumnus). So I must have been in a class with him before at some point over those six years.

My punching still sucks, particularly my hooks – I find myself slipping off the target, and probably doing more damage to my knuckles than the guy I’m trying to hit. I was a little happier with my jab cross, but I lack power, and also have to watch over extending on the cross. On kicks, power is again the main problem: I should concentrate on putting my hip into it more. They were all off the front leg, which accounts for some of the weediness, but still need to be harder.

Also met another guy new to me, called Buzz (not his real name, which is a bit more complex, hence why he’s chosen that easier abbreviation). Class in general was pretty tiny, although it always is on Tuesdays, particularly now that we’re into the exam term.

I’m hoping to get people to buy rash guards with me, as the more people who order, the cheaper it gets. Rod was interested, having tried on mine after class (we’re roughly the same size, although Rod is considerably more built), so that’s at least one. As nobody has offered up any other artwork, we’ll go with the old logo Rod sent through – the only addition I might make is the Warwick crest, but I’ll see what people think. I’d also quite like to go for a short sleeve, so would be good if XFGear allow a mixture of long and short sleeve. The guy I’ve been emailing there seemed very helpful (its also where I bought my non-custom rash guard), so might well be flexible.

My main goal is to get people out to a social, so I’ll be trying to push that through on Facebook. Understandable that attendance was low at the last one, seeing as it was right at the start of term – hopefully ones later on will be more popular. Depends on when people’s exams are.

05/12/2006 - ZSK

University of Warwick Zhuan Shu Kuan (ZSK), Rod Richardson, Coventry, UK – 05/12/2006

After I went through the warm-up, throwing in some sprawls like last time, Rod arrived to work the formal side of things. Fortunately, he focused on the compulsory movements, which tends to be both enjoyable (as I get to jump around throwing flashy kicks) as well as a good work out (jumps are knackering!). Also good to know that my jumping back kick is still sharp, as it elicited a comment from Rod.

He also incorporated a lot of linework, with combinations like jab-cross-hook-uppercut, jab-cross-leg kick-back kick, jab-elbow-spinning elbow etc. Would have been preferable against pads, but again it’s good aerobic exercise and also works coordination.

Finally, it was time for padwork, or in my case (due to the continuing saga of my dodgy left shoulder), bagwork. Here I got some useful tips from Rod and Paddy, firstly a reminder on the hook to keep my elbow down rather than up. Rod also told me to aim for Paddy’s head (he’s significantly taller than me, so that requires a fair bit of reaching), which meant I had to put my hip into the punches more, as I couldn’t bring my elbow over the top. This has definitely been helping my piss-poor punching, especially on the wrist positioning: my punching has sucked for years, but if I keep getting (and more importantly, take on board) good advice, there’s hope for me yet.

Last drill was an unusual one on turning kicks. Rather than hitting with the instep or lower shin, we had to try and strike with the upper shin. Not only that, it needed to be a high kick. This turned out to really work my side, as well as flexibility, though I’m fortunate in that I can get my leg pretty high so flexibility isn’t normally a problem for me. It also reminded me how little conditioned my left shin is, but I’m fine with that – I’m perfectly happy to hide behind a nice thick pair of Viper pads.

Today will be the first of three consecutive lessons, as I plan to make BJJ on Wednesday and Thursday, then the Throwdown in Brighton on the Saturday. Should be a good week for training.

20/06/2006 - ZSK

University of Warwick Zhuan Shu Kuan (ZSK), Rod Richardson, Coventry, UK – 20/06/2006

Turns out class was on this week, and a fairly fitness intensive class at that. Hurrying from a meeting (which fortunately didn’t run over), I made it to the sports centre expecting almost no-one to turn up given the confusion as to whether this session was running or not. I was greeted by the sight of three people, so assumed that would be it for today.

I ran the warm-up again, but this time knew Rod would be along later. Having chatted to some of the guys after the last class, I decided to keep the warm-up a little shorter this time, and put in some more back stretches. We swiftly went through the usual exercises and stretches, then got on to padwork. As last week, I did the ‘alive’ padwork (although the people with pads still weren’t whacking the striker enough!), moving on to the fitness drills (at this point Rod came in, warmed himself up, then ran through some grading stuff with one of the students while everyone else continued). Jab-cross for a minute or two, then front kick-turning kick for another few minutes, after which we switched legs.

That proved fairly tiring, as it was about 25 minutes of padwork all in all. Rod then took over, and told everyone to pad up for free-sparring, taking up the entirety of the remaining 40 minutes. I still felt my shoulder wasn’t quite up to that, and hadn’t brought any equipment anyway, so pounded the bag instead. However, clearly my cardio is way below standard, as I soon got knackered and found myself reduced to intermittent kicks. I also managed to do them wrong, busting my toes and shin as a result (nothing serious, though).

The main positive thing to come out of class for me was that Rod sounded like he was interested in attending the throwdown in August, and also planned to hold holiday training on weekends. So, looking good for the months until term starts up again! Also, as my shoulder has improved quite a bit recently, I’m hoping to be ready for BJJ in the near future; I’ll give myself a dummy run at home over the next couple of weeks to see if it holds up.