After lurking around here for a few weeks I thought it's high time I made the obligatory intro post.
I don't have much in the way of an MA background. It's never been something I was interested in before. I've dabbled in the gym with mates and used to enjoy lifting a bit - never anything serious and I enjoyed playing badminton and squash for three or four years in my 20s.
For my early 30s I pretty much stopped doing any working out. I probably convinced myself that I didn't really have time for sports. Work and family was more important at the time, as was pissing away my spare time playing video games. Enjoyable though!
My first taste of anything resembling MA was about 3 years ago when a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to try a Self Defense class. His friend, Martyn Morrison, had been practising Kung Fu for several years under instruction from Keith Dwan at the Colchester Dragon Martial Arts School. Martyn was reguarly acting as one of the CDMAS instructors now and had earned his 4th? Dan BB and he now wanted to start his own, secondary class focused on teaching practical SD. We went along to check it out.
It was a real eye opener and as Martyn's regular KF class was on immediately before his new SD class we got a chance to watch them practising. In retrospect the venue could of been better - it was a school sports hall which is rented twice a week for Keith's club. He had other venues around Clacton and Manningtree he used for teaching in the absence of his own teaching dojo. We neither minded nor knew any different.
After a couple of weeks of getting to know the other people in the SD class I decided that I would try out the KF lessons too. It was great to start to work on techniques for fighting, practice doing some of the forms or lines that would be used in grading and following it up with some basic SD. We managed to spar semi-reguarly in KF too. it was only touch-point sparring but it was the first time in my life I had been exposed to what could be considered 'fighting'. I had realised by now that I was very out of shape and told myself I would keep doing the KF - perhaps go along to some of the other lessons in the week too. The belt grading was something I could focus on - a tangible measurement of my progress and it spurred me on.
After about 18 months or so real life started to interfere. I got promoted at work, had a house move to Ipswich, Christmas was coming up soon and I decided that I wouldn't give it up but maybe take a bit of a break for a while. I had at this point managed to earn my Blue Belt and thought I would take the next couple of months off and plan to return to training in the new year.
It didn't happen. A couple of months turned to six, seven, eight and I went back to doing no excersise at all. My friend had kept going and he had managed his Brown 1 belt. He had reported however some aspects of training he did not enjoy and wasn't sure if he would be able to keep it up either.
In the end Martyn had decided that he was leaving CDMAS too - for his own reasons. But he would start up his own class in Kung Fu. He found that the Colchester School Of Martial Arts was looking to add Kung Fu to their list of martial arts lessons and they signed him up as an instructor. Deja vu - my friend was now asking me again to go back to class and help support our instructor in his new venture. I hastily agreed as I always enjoyed Martyn's instruction and his teaching method of ignoring the BS and adopting a 'what works' mentality.
So a couple of months ago I restarted my Kung Fu classes back up and I'm back enjoying a good workout. The class is great - we get sparring practice which is generally as hard as our sparring partners agree with and the SD is incorperated to the KF as part of the same lesson. The Colchester School is also in a properly equipped gym with matted floor. I still have both elbows damaged somehow due to bad falls on the hard sports hall floors where I must of missed the mat. I don't feel anything wrong with them but I can get a shooting pain up my arm if I lean on my elbows 'wrong' somwtimes.
This time, and these lessons, have motivated me again. I wanted more. More fitness, more fighting. I decided that as I live in Ipswich I would still support my KF buddies but I would find a local MT club and give it a go. After a couple of weeks I got up the courage (I'm not a naturally confident person) to stop into Ipswich Kickboxing Acadamy for one of their MT classes. This is a school run by Gary Staff who I understand was a semi-pro boxer in his time but I haven't been able to find much in the way of history. I still don't know the MT instructors by name yet - I should really work on that.
The IKA again opened my eyes to a different world of fighting. The Colchester gym is large, well equipped - very 'presentable'. They cater to adult classes as well as the Little Dragon's kids' classes where their mums can sit down and have a chat about... whatever. IKA was different - there are no tables and chairs for the mums. The toilets were small with questionable hygiene practices and a slight smell of stale sweat in the air. I realise this was a gym with a priority on training, on fighting.
My first lesson goes well. I learn that I can't skip rope to save my life. We work on pads practicing basic punch and kick drills. We work in some basic knee techniques on the pads. On of the other beginneers mention to me, "You've done this before." which gives me a bit of confidence as some part of the Kung Fu must of rubbed off somewhere along the line.
After the lesson my instructor gives me some more information about the gym - lessons, costs, begineer vs intermediate classes for MT. He tells me that I'm welcome to come along to the intermediate classes if I want as they normally tailor the class who the level of people who show up. I decide I will give it a go and join up for �40 per month for two classes a week.
So here I am now. Still going to KF once a week and, as of yesterday, done my 5th MT lesson and enjoying it immensley. I find the MT gym a different world now. I have prmised myself now I won't give up. I will make it to lessons EVERY time - no excuses. We spar every lesson and the guys I spar with are going easy on me - I know they are. Yesterday we were working on kick counters and my sparring partner is being very good to me going through the drills. I ask him how long he has been doing MT. "A long while" is all he says.
I still feel fear when sparring with these guys. I know they have been doing this for longer than I and it shows. I am gassed within a minute - all my weak ass punches meet air or are deflected off the side of their gloves. When they come at me I flail my arms in a desperate bid to do the same but it's always the same result - I get hit once, twice, three times and then a kick for good measure. I managed to counter a couple of the kicks my partner throws and pat myself on the back for it. In the back of my mind, no matter how good I may of thought I was, I realise that everyone in this gym could take my head off in a real fight. It's a bit depressing when I think of it like that but I know that it takes practise, commitment, all those other words they use in youtube videos when you seach for "Muay Thai Motivation". Pain is temporary.
My main problems at the moment is controlling my fear of 1) Being Hit and 2) Hitting someone else. I have never been in a fight in my entire life. I am also questioning myself on if I can be competent. I am 36. All the other fighters are probably in their mid twenties if not younger. Maybe this is why I'm the one who gets hit and cannot land a punch? At this age I'm too SLOW?
My age is the reason I keep trying to convince myself I shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't be putting my body through this. Thai Boxers RETIRE before they are 25 so WTF am I doing this for? I persuade myself that I do this because I WANT to. I know I have limits but I will never find out what those limits are if I don't continue.
So this is me, too old, too overweight, too lazy etc. But for now - fuck that shit - I'm going to train.
I don't have much in the way of an MA background. It's never been something I was interested in before. I've dabbled in the gym with mates and used to enjoy lifting a bit - never anything serious and I enjoyed playing badminton and squash for three or four years in my 20s.
For my early 30s I pretty much stopped doing any working out. I probably convinced myself that I didn't really have time for sports. Work and family was more important at the time, as was pissing away my spare time playing video games. Enjoyable though!
My first taste of anything resembling MA was about 3 years ago when a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to try a Self Defense class. His friend, Martyn Morrison, had been practising Kung Fu for several years under instruction from Keith Dwan at the Colchester Dragon Martial Arts School. Martyn was reguarly acting as one of the CDMAS instructors now and had earned his 4th? Dan BB and he now wanted to start his own, secondary class focused on teaching practical SD. We went along to check it out.
It was a real eye opener and as Martyn's regular KF class was on immediately before his new SD class we got a chance to watch them practising. In retrospect the venue could of been better - it was a school sports hall which is rented twice a week for Keith's club. He had other venues around Clacton and Manningtree he used for teaching in the absence of his own teaching dojo. We neither minded nor knew any different.
After a couple of weeks of getting to know the other people in the SD class I decided that I would try out the KF lessons too. It was great to start to work on techniques for fighting, practice doing some of the forms or lines that would be used in grading and following it up with some basic SD. We managed to spar semi-reguarly in KF too. it was only touch-point sparring but it was the first time in my life I had been exposed to what could be considered 'fighting'. I had realised by now that I was very out of shape and told myself I would keep doing the KF - perhaps go along to some of the other lessons in the week too. The belt grading was something I could focus on - a tangible measurement of my progress and it spurred me on.
After about 18 months or so real life started to interfere. I got promoted at work, had a house move to Ipswich, Christmas was coming up soon and I decided that I wouldn't give it up but maybe take a bit of a break for a while. I had at this point managed to earn my Blue Belt and thought I would take the next couple of months off and plan to return to training in the new year.
It didn't happen. A couple of months turned to six, seven, eight and I went back to doing no excersise at all. My friend had kept going and he had managed his Brown 1 belt. He had reported however some aspects of training he did not enjoy and wasn't sure if he would be able to keep it up either.
In the end Martyn had decided that he was leaving CDMAS too - for his own reasons. But he would start up his own class in Kung Fu. He found that the Colchester School Of Martial Arts was looking to add Kung Fu to their list of martial arts lessons and they signed him up as an instructor. Deja vu - my friend was now asking me again to go back to class and help support our instructor in his new venture. I hastily agreed as I always enjoyed Martyn's instruction and his teaching method of ignoring the BS and adopting a 'what works' mentality.
So a couple of months ago I restarted my Kung Fu classes back up and I'm back enjoying a good workout. The class is great - we get sparring practice which is generally as hard as our sparring partners agree with and the SD is incorperated to the KF as part of the same lesson. The Colchester School is also in a properly equipped gym with matted floor. I still have both elbows damaged somehow due to bad falls on the hard sports hall floors where I must of missed the mat. I don't feel anything wrong with them but I can get a shooting pain up my arm if I lean on my elbows 'wrong' somwtimes.
This time, and these lessons, have motivated me again. I wanted more. More fitness, more fighting. I decided that as I live in Ipswich I would still support my KF buddies but I would find a local MT club and give it a go. After a couple of weeks I got up the courage (I'm not a naturally confident person) to stop into Ipswich Kickboxing Acadamy for one of their MT classes. This is a school run by Gary Staff who I understand was a semi-pro boxer in his time but I haven't been able to find much in the way of history. I still don't know the MT instructors by name yet - I should really work on that.
The IKA again opened my eyes to a different world of fighting. The Colchester gym is large, well equipped - very 'presentable'. They cater to adult classes as well as the Little Dragon's kids' classes where their mums can sit down and have a chat about... whatever. IKA was different - there are no tables and chairs for the mums. The toilets were small with questionable hygiene practices and a slight smell of stale sweat in the air. I realise this was a gym with a priority on training, on fighting.
My first lesson goes well. I learn that I can't skip rope to save my life. We work on pads practicing basic punch and kick drills. We work in some basic knee techniques on the pads. On of the other beginneers mention to me, "You've done this before." which gives me a bit of confidence as some part of the Kung Fu must of rubbed off somewhere along the line.
After the lesson my instructor gives me some more information about the gym - lessons, costs, begineer vs intermediate classes for MT. He tells me that I'm welcome to come along to the intermediate classes if I want as they normally tailor the class who the level of people who show up. I decide I will give it a go and join up for �40 per month for two classes a week.
So here I am now. Still going to KF once a week and, as of yesterday, done my 5th MT lesson and enjoying it immensley. I find the MT gym a different world now. I have prmised myself now I won't give up. I will make it to lessons EVERY time - no excuses. We spar every lesson and the guys I spar with are going easy on me - I know they are. Yesterday we were working on kick counters and my sparring partner is being very good to me going through the drills. I ask him how long he has been doing MT. "A long while" is all he says.
I still feel fear when sparring with these guys. I know they have been doing this for longer than I and it shows. I am gassed within a minute - all my weak ass punches meet air or are deflected off the side of their gloves. When they come at me I flail my arms in a desperate bid to do the same but it's always the same result - I get hit once, twice, three times and then a kick for good measure. I managed to counter a couple of the kicks my partner throws and pat myself on the back for it. In the back of my mind, no matter how good I may of thought I was, I realise that everyone in this gym could take my head off in a real fight. It's a bit depressing when I think of it like that but I know that it takes practise, commitment, all those other words they use in youtube videos when you seach for "Muay Thai Motivation". Pain is temporary.
My main problems at the moment is controlling my fear of 1) Being Hit and 2) Hitting someone else. I have never been in a fight in my entire life. I am also questioning myself on if I can be competent. I am 36. All the other fighters are probably in their mid twenties if not younger. Maybe this is why I'm the one who gets hit and cannot land a punch? At this age I'm too SLOW?
My age is the reason I keep trying to convince myself I shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't be putting my body through this. Thai Boxers RETIRE before they are 25 so WTF am I doing this for? I persuade myself that I do this because I WANT to. I know I have limits but I will never find out what those limits are if I don't continue.
So this is me, too old, too overweight, too lazy etc. But for now - fuck that shit - I'm going to train.
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