The intensity went up for this class. I'm having a hard time running even if it is only 5 mins. My ankles and back are still giving me problems. Good workout though, seems like its just barely under the max of what I can take but I need to do this more often than 1x a week to get any more benefit, or at least suppliment with something equivocal such as bike riding, home training or a training partner. I did notice its a 96 mile round trip to class, it would be expensive if I went twice a week. The ladies in the wednesday class make it a nice mix. Im a little sore and stiff today - think I'll take a dip in the jacuzzi tonight to relax the muscles.
Got an email back from Donny B about the old style muay thai seminar were putting together here in Orlando. Nice that he has family in Casselberry so I dont have to pay for his plane ticket or a place to stay. Just the cost of the seminar. I'm liking this guy more and more, he has the same philosophy and outlook as me about martial arts. Should be an intersting meet.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Wednesday UST Class
First time attending class on a Wednesday instead of a Monday. Usually Wednesday is when the women train but there were plenty of the guys there as well. I went in short of breath, asthma will do that, and I was having a bad couple of days with it so I considered sitting it out but decided that since Wed nights were supposed to be a little easier I would at least try. I also thought that perhaps the activity would open up my lungs a bit.
Well Wednesday nights are not easier but Im glad I joined in, great workout with just the right amount of techniques and drills mixed in and I actually found I had more wind than I thought. I think my cardio may actually be improving - at least thats the hope........my cardio has always been bad but I'm hoping with this kind of training it will improve despite having asthma.
I felt strong tonight because I wasnt so much out of breath. Good rapid fire drill on the bag at the end. I need to do this more often so it has a cumulative effect - improved cardio and strenght.
My biggest regret was having dropped out of any martial arts training for nearly 10 years. Having only returned to it 3 years ago I feel the effects of negligence and letting my health go........its a long road back. But I press on. Move or Die !!!!!
Well Wednesday nights are not easier but Im glad I joined in, great workout with just the right amount of techniques and drills mixed in and I actually found I had more wind than I thought. I think my cardio may actually be improving - at least thats the hope........my cardio has always been bad but I'm hoping with this kind of training it will improve despite having asthma.
I felt strong tonight because I wasnt so much out of breath. Good rapid fire drill on the bag at the end. I need to do this more often so it has a cumulative effect - improved cardio and strenght.
My biggest regret was having dropped out of any martial arts training for nearly 10 years. Having only returned to it 3 years ago I feel the effects of negligence and letting my health go........its a long road back. But I press on. Move or Die !!!!!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Just Beginnings - Late in the Game
I know its a little late now that Im 47 to begin a martial arts blog but when I began martial arts at 15years old there werent even computers around, no cell phones, no video games, not even cable tv. We were lucky to have a new invention called 8 track tape.
Anyway, I digress. My first taste of martial arts was from my childhood hero "Bruce Lee" and then soon after the kung fu series with David Carradine. At age 11 I took a few months of Judo at a local school house then it wasnt until I was 15 that I began any kind of formal training. A friend of mine at school was carrying around a book bag with some kind of martial arts logo. I asked him about it and he said his uncle just moved here from Rhode Island and had studied martial arts. I was interested so the next weekend he introduced me. Sensei Al, though he just preferred Al, showed me a little bit about the style. It was my first introduction to an Okinawan/Chinese system I had never heard of by some strange sounding name called Uechi-Ryu. I became his first Florida student.
Weeks later some friends of mine joined. I remember us all going into the woods to practice our kiai's or my back yard to practice kata, techniques and kotickitai to toughen our arms and legs. There are alot of leg kicks in Uechi-ryu. I had to bruises to show for it but i did eventually get stronger. Our dojo consisted of Al's fenced in back yard. It kept the costs down as he hardly charged us anything for lessons. I think it was something like 25$ month. I was fanatical about training, practicing wherever and whenever I could. After a year of training I remember inviting some of the football team over to train with us. We had a good workout - sanchin kata, horse stance training, self-defense techniques and lots of kotikitai. This was on a Sat., when they came back to school on Monday some were limping around and barely could walk, one player went home sick. I got new respect from that.
A few years go by, I graduate from high school and move down to Naples with my father to work out of his office. I would make the 6 hr. drive every weekend to continue training. Eventually I earned my shodan (black belt) then a couple of years later nidan (2nd degree black belt). Work and life got in the way so i didnt get to go back as often but i did continue to train then I think it was 1983-84 i became friends with a brother and sister that lived in the apt. complex i was in. They were interested in learning karate and they became my first students. We trained in the shed that was on the back of the property. Soon after I taught lessons in a ballet school in town. I acquired additional students, mostly from the Vanguard School. Most of them were teenagers with learning disabilities. I think I learned as much from them as they did from me. Great kids though.
At this time I was also supplimenting my training learning Okinawan Goju-Ryu at the local YMCA. The instructor let me train for free as long as I taught him Uechi-Ryu kata. The two styles are very similar having come from the same area in China.
Eventually the Vanguard school closed and so did the ballet school but by this time I met Jim Bryan and began training in Wu Ming Tau Chuan Fa. It was an eclectic system that combined Boxing, Jeet Kune Do, Kali, Wing Chun and Muay Thai. A few of years later I earned my black sash ranking but by this time we had gotten away from wing chun and JKD having absorbed its principles and we concentrated mostly on Muay Thai and Kali for weapons. We trained under his carport but eventually moved into the Winter Haven Boxing League. I competed in several fights and supplemented my training under some of Jim's instructors including Buji Mateen, Gerard Finot, Vut Kamnark, Mike X. and Tong Trithara.
A few years later I graduated from college and took a job offer in Orlando. A few months later the business moved to California and I moved with them to San Francisco. I visited Fairtex and trained for a couple of weeks but it became obvious they were more interested in training their up and coming prize fighters. I pretty much trained on my own, the business owner died and so did the company. I took a job back in Tampa, Florida and trained whenever i could. Eventually in '99 I married, moved to Orlando and got into a pretty bad car accident, then the next year another one (I wasnt at fault at either) but it messed up my neck and back pretty bad, so much so I couldnt train with any regularity and raising a family left little time to do so. It was nearly 10 years before I began training again.
I had this idea of creating a group of martial artists that would come together and train, perhaps other instructors could come in and teach. I found meetup.com and saw that Brian had just created a martial arts meetup group. I was the first one to join. At the same time me and my wife joined a Japanese style class called Torukukai AikiJitsu. It combined Aikido, Japanese Jujitsu, Judo and included Machado BJJ and Suffian Silat. It seemed to fill in the gaps to what I already learned. I trained there for a little over two years and it was a great experience but when the economy tanked I was laided off and could no longer afford it and my wife stopped going so there was no incentive to go back once I began working again.
I recently got back in touch with an old friend from my Muay Thai days, Bob Otto. He had studied and teaches Uechi-Ryu and Krav Maga. Recently he created UST (Urban Survival Tactics). A system designed to address the reality of modern combat, street survival with a heavy emphasis on fitness.
So that brings me up to this point.
Anyway, I digress. My first taste of martial arts was from my childhood hero "Bruce Lee" and then soon after the kung fu series with David Carradine. At age 11 I took a few months of Judo at a local school house then it wasnt until I was 15 that I began any kind of formal training. A friend of mine at school was carrying around a book bag with some kind of martial arts logo. I asked him about it and he said his uncle just moved here from Rhode Island and had studied martial arts. I was interested so the next weekend he introduced me. Sensei Al, though he just preferred Al, showed me a little bit about the style. It was my first introduction to an Okinawan/Chinese system I had never heard of by some strange sounding name called Uechi-Ryu. I became his first Florida student.
Weeks later some friends of mine joined. I remember us all going into the woods to practice our kiai's or my back yard to practice kata, techniques and kotickitai to toughen our arms and legs. There are alot of leg kicks in Uechi-ryu. I had to bruises to show for it but i did eventually get stronger. Our dojo consisted of Al's fenced in back yard. It kept the costs down as he hardly charged us anything for lessons. I think it was something like 25$ month. I was fanatical about training, practicing wherever and whenever I could. After a year of training I remember inviting some of the football team over to train with us. We had a good workout - sanchin kata, horse stance training, self-defense techniques and lots of kotikitai. This was on a Sat., when they came back to school on Monday some were limping around and barely could walk, one player went home sick. I got new respect from that.
A few years go by, I graduate from high school and move down to Naples with my father to work out of his office. I would make the 6 hr. drive every weekend to continue training. Eventually I earned my shodan (black belt) then a couple of years later nidan (2nd degree black belt). Work and life got in the way so i didnt get to go back as often but i did continue to train then I think it was 1983-84 i became friends with a brother and sister that lived in the apt. complex i was in. They were interested in learning karate and they became my first students. We trained in the shed that was on the back of the property. Soon after I taught lessons in a ballet school in town. I acquired additional students, mostly from the Vanguard School. Most of them were teenagers with learning disabilities. I think I learned as much from them as they did from me. Great kids though.
At this time I was also supplimenting my training learning Okinawan Goju-Ryu at the local YMCA. The instructor let me train for free as long as I taught him Uechi-Ryu kata. The two styles are very similar having come from the same area in China.
Eventually the Vanguard school closed and so did the ballet school but by this time I met Jim Bryan and began training in Wu Ming Tau Chuan Fa. It was an eclectic system that combined Boxing, Jeet Kune Do, Kali, Wing Chun and Muay Thai. A few of years later I earned my black sash ranking but by this time we had gotten away from wing chun and JKD having absorbed its principles and we concentrated mostly on Muay Thai and Kali for weapons. We trained under his carport but eventually moved into the Winter Haven Boxing League. I competed in several fights and supplemented my training under some of Jim's instructors including Buji Mateen, Gerard Finot, Vut Kamnark, Mike X. and Tong Trithara.
A few years later I graduated from college and took a job offer in Orlando. A few months later the business moved to California and I moved with them to San Francisco. I visited Fairtex and trained for a couple of weeks but it became obvious they were more interested in training their up and coming prize fighters. I pretty much trained on my own, the business owner died and so did the company. I took a job back in Tampa, Florida and trained whenever i could. Eventually in '99 I married, moved to Orlando and got into a pretty bad car accident, then the next year another one (I wasnt at fault at either) but it messed up my neck and back pretty bad, so much so I couldnt train with any regularity and raising a family left little time to do so. It was nearly 10 years before I began training again.
I had this idea of creating a group of martial artists that would come together and train, perhaps other instructors could come in and teach. I found meetup.com and saw that Brian had just created a martial arts meetup group. I was the first one to join. At the same time me and my wife joined a Japanese style class called Torukukai AikiJitsu. It combined Aikido, Japanese Jujitsu, Judo and included Machado BJJ and Suffian Silat. It seemed to fill in the gaps to what I already learned. I trained there for a little over two years and it was a great experience but when the economy tanked I was laided off and could no longer afford it and my wife stopped going so there was no incentive to go back once I began working again.
I recently got back in touch with an old friend from my Muay Thai days, Bob Otto. He had studied and teaches Uechi-Ryu and Krav Maga. Recently he created UST (Urban Survival Tactics). A system designed to address the reality of modern combat, street survival with a heavy emphasis on fitness.
So that brings me up to this point.
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