Kung Fu

I just wrote an entire post about my frustrating evening yesterday, and I switched to another tab to download the Fallout 3 trailer, and my browser fucking crasht, so I lost the post. Let me see if I can recreate it…

I had a very frustrating evening yesterday, since I badly wanted to go to Kung Fu, since I haven’t been there with everything that’s been happening lately. I couldn’t reach my step-father, and therefore kind of took a gamble that he had left his car for me to use. He hasn’t been using it a lot lately, so I took the train to Hoorn, walked over to his house, only to find that his car wasn’t there. I ended up taking a taxi from my mother’s house to Kung Fu, and after Kung Fu one from there to my father’s house to pick up some things that had to be returned to the doctor (mophine pump, etc.) and then drove on to my mother for some food and a shower. It cost me 35 euro, which ticked me off, but I wasn’t going to let anything stand in my way of going to Kung Fu again.

At Kung Fu everyone was really glad to see me, which warmed my heart, and I got to train in the new gym we share with a kickboxing school. The space was a bit smaller than what we had before, but the mat was perfect, and it has a dedicated boxing ring, which was great, too. It also has very neatly attached hooks all along the wall, with a full-length kickboxing bag hung from them, which you can slide forward, away from the wall and lock in place; a really nice way of storing the kickboxing bags. The area is high, which is good so that it doesn’t run out of oxygen quickly, and it has windows and a door to the outside. It’s abit more spartan than what we had before, which I like, but good ventilation in the summer is a luxury you get used to really quickly.

The training went well. The push-ups I’ve been doing every morning have really helped out, because I didn’t get too winded when we did them during training, which normally does happen. My legs had become quite a bit weaker, though, but that’s just a matter of time. I was really happy when my sifu told me that we’d knock off the extra weight I had put on over the last few weeks in no time. :)

Karel, my Kung Fu brother, immediately challenged me to a sparring match in the ring, and when we started I immediate shot for a double-leg take-down, tried to put him in a kimura but pinning his arm instead and I went for a full-mount. It was all over from there. I got applause. Not really Kung Fu…but fun nonetheless. :)

I’ve decided that if I can find a BJJ school in Amsterdam I’m going to go and have a look at it. Kung Fu is really cool to do, but it’s a sport, not really combat.

9 comments on “Kung Fu

  1. jo_alex

    What’s BJJ?

    I’d give a lot to have better ventilation for my capoeira training. Last Sat we were all wet all the time. Aside my teacher, damn his Brazilian blood. But he took pity over us and we mostly did stretching and acrobatics – less fast movement involved.

  2. DV8

    Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It’s a particular Jiu Jitsu style that was brough to Brazil from Japan by old daddy Gracie, who taught it to his (very large collection of) sons, who went and spread the style further, and it’s become very popular today. It’s a style of submission fight that mostly takes place on the ground. It’s like a combination of brawling, wrestling and Jiu Jitsu, and it’s [i]very[/i] affective.

  3. DV8

    60 to 80% of all real fights, and all low-rules, mixed martial arts fights end up on the ground. In those situations, where you can’t kick or hit from your hips, nor throw your entire body into the punch, it’s easier to either “ground and pound” or submit someone by breaking the bones in his joint or choking them until they pass out. Submission fighting is very effective.

  4. Tiny DV8

    I wanna do so much:P BJJ would be cool, and i’d join you in that totally.. and Caooeira, i totally wanna do.. And Kung Fu i like and i don’t want to quit. :P

  5. DV8

    Capoeira ain’t all that, though it’s great for flexibility and tumbling. Although, don’t let jo_alex hear that, because she’s a capoeirista. :)

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