Martial arts and an awesome weekend.

I spent this weekend at a live roleplaying event in Stoke. Very kindly the Gryphons faction wrote an event about my character's background. After a weekend of fighting ninja and hanging out with my friends the fights and the physical challenges offered by the site has got me thinking about martial arts and my physical capabilities.

I started Martial arts after watching a Shaolin Monk show. I began my training at Ancestral Mountains Kung Fu training with Matt Williams who has since gone on to teach Eagle Claw Kung Fu.

In 2007 after attending a Miao Doa (Grain Leaf Sabre) Seminar by Mike Martello (who has sadly since passed away.) K8 and I got the opportunity to go to China to spend a month learning Tai Chi and Ba Gua. We got to go thanks to the generosity of our friends and we chronicled our experiences in a blog here (I later co opted the blog to chat about Gaming).

K8’s Background in martial arts comes from Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. We found a local school and trained with them for a short while.

Recently we have come back to martial arts and are currently training Tai Chi with Cherry from Surrey and Hants Tai chi.

Kung Fu and Martial arts were the first thing that made me realise that I was capable of more than I expected of myself. After three years of Kung Fu I could do things that I never thought I would be capable of. Both from an agility and from a fighting standpoint.

To help myself get back to the level of capability I had I am going to set some goals. Each largley inspired by someone I have trained with or fought alongside at a larp event.

Tom is a guy from Live Roleplaying and a Bronze medalist with a Katana. He is one of the peopel I want to beat on my way to being the best larp sword fighter.

Calum is a guy I used to train Kung Fu with he has gone on to make a living doing and teaching Parkour. His Jumping and Backflips are something I want to be able to do.

I mentioned Mike above and His fluidity of movement and grace as well as the focus he had whenever he held a weapon is something I want to emulate.

Who inspires you to improve what you can do?