Chris Meistre

We had a longer than usual training session tonight, an hour and a half. We’ve decided to keep it this way, because as we get used to the exercising we can do more cardio and strength exercises beforehand.

We spent a lot of time on the deflections and stances, concentrating on doing it right. Leg movements, arm movements, everything.

The Kata Dante is also going good and I’m sure we’re close to the 15 second time limit for which we have to complete this form.

One concept that we’ve been taught is Inside and Outside. This might sound weird to some people, until you realise what it’s about.

Stand with your hand together and infront of you. Make a slight circle with your arms so that they are parallel with the floor and away from your body. Everything inside this circle is called your inside, and everything on the outside of it, well, that’s your outside.

You use these terms when it comes to defending or fighting. You either move into the inside of your attacker or towards his outside. Might sound stupid to move into your attacker when he’s attacking you? No it’s not.

Think about this:

You’re about to hit someone, and as you throw the punch he moves backwards and defends himself. Nothing strange about this, because that is how many people do it, and it won’t surprise you.

Now, let’s say you throw another punch, and this time he steps towards you and defends himself. Immediately you’ll be thrown aback because you have someone that doesn’t seem scared that you just tried to punch him, he’s walking right to you!

What is fairplay when your life depends on it?

If my life depended on it, I wouldn’t even know how to spell fair play. This is something I learned very quickly when I first start with Kungfu. You use what is available to you in whatever way possible to protect you and your family when in danger. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.

It doesn’t matter if you look like an ass doing something

It doesn’t matter if you look like a girl because you’ve decided to scratch or bite someone

It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t look “pretty” and “in form” when you’re defending yourself

It doesn’t matter that you kick the guy in the nuts (even though that is an unspoken rule between guys)

I will rather be laughed at and be alive than someone calling me a HERO and be dead.

Tonight we started with a couple of deflection drills:

• Inside and outside Mantis deflection
• Inside and outside deflection drills
• Chicken wing deflection

Part of our warm up for the training incorporates our turning techniques and moving:

• Four Quadrant Walking
• Fire Step
• Mantis Step

For the next couple of training session we will carry on with what we’ve learned to far, to try and get it 100%. I’ve always believed in taking things a bit slower and getting it right, rather than rushing through this.

At the beginning I wanted to get through everything, grade and go onto the next level. But that’s the type of person I am. I have come to realise thinking more and more about this the last couple of days that doing a martial art is a lifetime commitment, and not something you do for a year, get to a certain level and then be happy with it. It’s about pushing yourself mentally and physically each time that you train, to make yourself better.

Tonight was our 5th training session. We decided to have 3 training session a week, each of an hour long. Each session incorporates 15 minutes where we do a bit of strength and cardio exercises, after which we move onto the techniques.

Thus far we have learned the following:

Kata Dante – this is a 25 step form incorporating a selection of the techniques that you will be using throughout the art. This is a prerequisite to study before you can go ahead to any other techniques. This was put together to see how quickly a learner can grasp and perform the techniques in the form. This also forms a basis of 25 techniques that you could use to defend yourself. Learning this came quite easily to me as I’ve done a couple of forms during my Kungfu training as well. We will do this at least 2 times every training session to keep it fresh in our minds.

The various elements we’ll be making use of:

• Earth
• Wind
• Water
• Fire
• Void

Each of these elements have got their purpose, of which I’ll write about another time.

The various movements we’ve learned are:

• Fire
• Earth
• Mantis (wind/water elements)

And then there’s the various stances:

• Natural
• Side Body Defense
• Rear Body Defense