Snow joke run

View Larger Map

Chocolate

..is the name of a wonderful foodstuff and also of an average martial arts film with pretty good fight scenes.

As mentioned in previous articles I'm not a big fan of the genre, but a good friend reckoned I should check out this Prachya Pinkaew (maker of Ong Bak and Warrior King) film. Although this was somewhat tedious with a very bizarre storyline I didn't feel like I wanted my 170minutes back. The gangster plot is led by an autistic (?) girl with amazing reaction abilities who learns fighting skills from films and her rather annoying fat side kick's helping exercises.

The fight scenes are epic and also quite entertaining. It feels like there's much inspiration from Jackie Chan films with acrobatics galore, rolls and use of the immediate environment to enhance the entertainment value of the fights. This comes to an amazing head at the end of the film with great struggles along balconies in a Thai street.

My favourite part of the film is when the heroine, JeeJa Yanin, takes massed killers with two (empty) saya (sword scabbards). What a wonderful idea! My iai teacher always said the nihon to was a two piece weapon....

If you like martial arts movies I guess you're going to love this! If, like me, you're not so into it, you might find the hammy acting and two dimensional characters a touch annoying but might enjoy the fights.

Watch out for the 'documentary' clips at the end of the film...!

Hitting stuff

Our Tang Soo Do lesson last week was pretty high tempo as Master C obviously wanted us to burn off some of those Christmas calories. Joy...!

So we started off with some bruising shuttle run combinations which had us all gasping for breath and followed that up with some stretching. After this we then started hitting stuff which is always satisfactory: focus pads and bagwork was the order of the day. In kempo pairwork is essential and this is very good for seeing how bodies interact and work and feeling where to strike but you can't, obviously, go at it full pelt or you'd soon run out of training partners. It's good to thwack a bag occasionally to get feedback as to how a full power kick feels.

There is other martial arts equipment that can be used too. Paddles give a good focus workout for turning and spinning kicks: strikes that aren't possibly as powerful but require a degree of skill and accuracy when turning. Straight kicks and punches are much better done on a shield or heavyweight held bag. In fact we have a pretty old shield which has softened somewhat so it has a good feel to it without crumpling your hands into a bag of bones!

On that note: I do seem to be having some trouble with my wrists these days and I think it's the increased training I've been doing at Shorinji kempo. Lots of juho techniques attack the wrists and hands (from grabs and holds by the opponent) and mine seem to be especially vulnerable. I'll have to see how things progress but am worried that it might cause long term damage.

Then again, I worry too much!

Clearing the car of snow

I experienced an interesting snippet of body movement plus snow the other day when I was clearing the car before setting out. As I pushed the snow off with my arm my body twisted and slipped backwards. This is a fairly normal reaction to pushing but the snow made me realise I was weighted backwards on my heels and imbalanced.

As I pushed hard forward with the arms my heels went forward too, effectively toppling myself backwards.

Check out a Professor's solution to slipping on ice:Try

"For example, if you were on ice and starting to fall forward, you

would instinctively try to push backward on the ice.  If you do not  slip, by Newton's Third Law (action = -reaction), the ice will push  forward on your feet, helping you to regain your balance.  If your  feet slip, you could lose your balance and fall forward.  If you are stationary, you can stay upright as long as your center  of gravity is directly above the area on the ice defined by your  feet and the space between them.  By pressing on your toes or heels  and/or your left or right foot, you can keep yourself balanced.  If  you take small steps, it is easier to keep this balance and the  corrective forces will be smaller, making it less likely that you will slip.  Keeping your balance is not an easy problem as small children  quickly learn. For example if you are walking on a railroad track  and start to fall to the right, you can regain your balance by  bending the top part of your body to the right or the bottom part (a  foot and attached leg) to the left.  Try it!  Dick Plano, Professor of Physics emeritus, Rutgers University" (http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy05/phy05103.htm)

Try the exercise he prescribes: stand feet shoulder width apart, 'slip' your right foot forward (on imaginary railway lines)-if you endeavour to keep your weight where it was you feel unstable so lean into it to regain your balance. Best done in socks on a wooden floor.

And hey presto: front stance! Our sturdy everyday practice stance. As endorsed by professors!

Happy New Year with happy feet

After a somewhat long absence from the dojo I returned this week to normal lessons and found that my foot regime had worked a treat. Over the holidays I had a bit more time than I usually have so I was able to pamper my neglected feet. Don't get me wrong, they're not *that* disgusting but other than clipping my toenails and keeping them clean I don't really pay them much attention. After all, they're just feet, right?

As a martial artist though I really should give them more time. The reason? Hard skin. This is pretty pesky stuff and I don't really want to end up with calluses or corns on my feet. Towards the end of the year they'd been groaning a bit from barefoot practice on cold, hard dojo floors so over the holidays I took a bath and used a pumice stone on them. Following this up I doused them with a rich hand cream. My feet loved it and my first sessions back were pain-free and light.

Look after your feet martial artist!

Ickworth House run

A pleasant post Christmas run around the National Trust's Ickworth House in Suffolk with EP.

3.5 miles on googlemaps but if felt like 5 or 6! Lots of mud and I was carrying a few too many mince pies...

View Ickworth run in a larger map

Me striking a Brucie pose and EP (comically) pointing out the round house on the map. Phew. We're not lost...

The Samurai

In Our Time this morning, as ever hosted by Melvyn Bragg, explored the history and 'myth' of the samurai throughout Japanese history. This is a 45 minute radio show in a discussion format with analysis from experts in this field: Gregory Irvine author of The Japanese Sword, Nicola Liscutin of the Japan Research Centre (SOAS), Angus Lockyer lecturer at SOAS.

This was a good, broad history of the samurai from early settlement and warring tribes in Japan through to the Second World War with some emphasis on the samurai's chief weapon, the sword. The talk also covered the symbolism of the sword within the Japanese culture as well as its effectiveness as a fighting weapon and how it adapted with the changing methods of warfare.

Download the podcast here or here.