This weekend, I happened to be staying only a short train journey away from Rayners Lane, where Mr. Stuart Anslow IV teaches. I don't mean to cause any offence here, but most TKD schools I visit have problems with people they don't know. Either they aren't happy for them to train at your current rank, [Either you come in as a beginner or not atall] or they're so scared of being sued that they won't allow you to train in certain aspects, such as sparring. Rayners Lane had none of that. Not only that, but he didn't even mind that I'd rang him early in the morning and woke him up. - The training is excellent. The warm-ups are intense and thorough, the sparring is fast and focused, the patterns are disciplined and given much attention to detail from the instructor, and then at the end the mats were took out and we did choke sparring and grappling. Something that we do almost none of. I won a mini-sparring competition, possibly thanks to the things I'd learned from my seminar with Tony Sewell, or possibly because I was very lucky. [More likely. ] - But did get choked out quite a few times in the grappling by people far better than I am. - I even got to see Mr. Anslow in action! The Do-Jang is excellent, it isn't as expensive and flashy as where I train, but it doesn't need to be. The class is smaller and the sense of community and closeness is so much more. We trained til well past the end of the lesson, and I'm glad we did. Mr. Anslow's knowledge, experience, dedication and discipline all shine through in his students. The training is top quality, and I can't wait to go back. He was even kind enough to give us a lift to Tesco's so I could buy some pasta. To anybody who's down that area, you'd be cheating yourself not to train with Mr. Anslow, and thankyou, Sir, for a fantastic day. - Rags -
Wow Rags you're really having a great summer aren't you? Sparring with the "Iceman", and training with Mr. Anslow at Raynors Lane... that's big stuff!! I'm very happy for you, and thanks for sharing those experiences!
He teaches intravenously? That's an innovative approach - pure taekwondo through a drip directly into the arm.
Hi, It was good to see you and your lovely lady at Rayners lane this saturday and I'm glad you enjoyed it , its nice seeing fresh faces at the club once in a while. hope to see you guys again soon ! Lynz
I just noticed that! That's too funny. I don't think a Taekwondo drip would be done in the arm. A leg would be better because of the focus on kicking.
Yeah you bet! British Championships next month as well. Hehehe. You're the red belt that got me in that headlock and took me down right? - Yeah it was fantastic to train with you all. Back as soon as I can.
Yeah, that was me lol!! It was a bit of an extended sesh , but it was good training with the both of you !
Glad to learn you had a good time Rags. I visited Suart's Dojang earlier this year with Rick Clark and was lucky enough to be able to teach some of his students for a short while as Prof Clark needed a rest (he'd had a heart op 2 weeks earlier). They are a great bunch of people. It is nice to see more of the close up work like grappling from the Kata being taught at a TKD club. I'm sure that there will be a bit of that in Stuart's new book which I think will turn out to be a must have for serious TKDers. If you go to www.ao-denkou-kai.org you'll see a provisional list of the ADK seminars for November. It's still possible at this stage that the Monday I'm down to host at could be at either Hull or Raynors Lane... but you could always drive to Chesham... I do seem to recall you saying you wanted to learn more pressure points. You and Xue Fang are welcome at Wycombe to train any time. I'm actually hosting RobertMAP for a wicked travel self defence seminar in October.
Nearest one to me there is Essex I think. But yes, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to make it. I have friends in that area so I'll see if they're able to make it. Thankyou for notifying me Sir.
Au contraire Paul, it had been a year since anyone had stuck a knife in me. I suspect the professor's tiredness was as much due to the post teaching entertainment in Cork as the heart surgery. Now, YOU ought to get across for a training session with your fellow TKDer Mr Anslow.
Thats good to hear man!! No! He had quite an easy time here last outing!! Now, YOU ought to get across for a training session with your fellow TKDer Mr Anslow.[/QUOTE] Why should I go anywhere?? Sure Cork is the centre of the World bhoy!! It's hard to get a "Get out of House Free Card!" Never mind "Get out of Cork Free!" card!!
Hi All, I know that it's been a while since I've said this - and this may or may not be the best place to give it a mention - but I am ALWAYS happy to have visitors - anyone want to come to Luton on a Wednesday, let me know and you can visit and play at the Tai Chi class I teach at. On a Thursday you can come and partake of a Karate Jutsu session at my dojo. Anyone is welcome though please email me in advance at <email removed - violation of ToS> so I can confirm the where and when details... Personally I'd LOVE to have Rags come and play - my senior Karate Jutsu student Paul is nearly as follically challenged as I am and hair pull take-downs are just SOOOOO much fun - What is the emoticon for EVIL GRIN??? All the best. Robert.
Hi guys, Was great to have you there. I always respect vistors who come to train and try to make them feel welcome (as do most of the class I believe). Why anyone wouldnt I do not know!! And my alarm was just about to go off when you rang.. honest - LOL - you wanna come to the adults only class on a week night, that was a 'quick and simple' stroll on the beach in comparison!! (I see Lynz is on here, she can verify that) Its always hard when people visit as I want them to feel comfortable, hence why we did the sparring early on, but also want them to perhaps try somethging different - hence the grappling stuff. I think we found a good balance. Now who was 3 - 0 up before I said next point wins eh! I cant remember now. And dam-it, I forget about the seminar you just did and would have liked to have chatted to you about it - next time eh! Again, I would have trained with you directly, but didnt want you to feel pressured or anything. Next time perhaps. The class was smaller that day cos of the summer holidays, we have seperate classes for adults in the week anmd Saturdays (being mixed) can get pretty full. Rags (and Xue) were great to have train with us, willing to join in everything. They are obviously dedicated to their TKD and open to views that may differ, which is great to see. they got skillz too Anytime my friend. Which I think could be pretty regular as love blossoms :love: Hope to see you both again soon, thanks again for coming over. Stuart
Finally got online! Yep. Me and Rags went up to visit Stuart Anslow's club. Rags told ya all about it so I don't need to repeat what we did or anything. I'm kinda in a thoughtful mood about that whole thing. *furrowed brow* I've been hit pretty hard by the Tae Kwon Do Blues since about mid-June (though on some level it's been niggling at me since January) and I've been thinking hard about what direction I want to take next as a martial artist. Whether or not I want to transfer clubs or even whether I should quit Tae Kwon Do entirely and take up a new art. It'd take too long to explain the situation at my current club, but I'm beginning to feel like I've gone as far as I can with them. So I'm looking around, and Stuart's club was my first stop. Nice to see Lynz and Colin again (met them at Bracknell in the Jiu Jitsu though I didn't know their names at the time. Thought they were pretty darn good then). I think you two are really up there at the top levels of your club. I found the experience kinda frustrating. I definitely didn't go into it as fit as I should have been. *guilty look* Since having these Tae Kwon Do Blues, I've been missing most of my non-compulsory classes, and in the week beforehand, even skipping some of the compulsory ones. Which means my fitness was of a quite appalling standard, for which I apologise. I should really keep up with it for the time being simply to maintain my current level of fitness if nothing else. I wasn't performing well. Felt like everything I did was just slightly off no matter how much I tried to correct it. And I was terrible at the jumping reverse turning kicks (urgh! Even though I think I told you, Stuart, that I needed to work on them, so from that perspective I was grateful for the practise). I've never been officially taught them yet and being so unfit I find it a challenge to haul my weight up and around and get the kick perfect all at once. (I still get chewed out at my own club for my regular reverse turning kicks looking like back kicks). Then, as Rags said, we did some sparring. Wow. :love: Proper rough and ready sparring with odd, mismatched equipment and missing pieces of armour and nobody cared, we just went for it anyways. I did get hit right in the eye though a very nearly lost my contact lens, putting me out of action for a while (can't wait to get the laser surgery done on my eyes - no more contacts!). Found the throwing a challenge as well. In my club I've only seen the blackstripes and above getting to try out that kind of thing, so the only stuff I really had to draw on was my Judo training which I did for a couple of months a year or so ago. Bleh. Still felt like I did terribly though. Like one of those preppy girlfriend types who gets dragged along by their martial artist boyfriend and is so, soooo bad at everything. I felt that awful in my performance. Rags turning kicked me in the head right on my left eyebrow and it's all swollen up and bruised now. Weirdly though, I also have a big bruise and swollen up area on my right temple as well, and no one even touched me there so I don't know how I got that. It's a bit of a trek from where I live, but when I start my term at UCL and go in to London on the underground everyday, it shouldn't be a problem to stop by at Stuart's club on my way back home in the evenings. My main concern at the moment is that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the high standards of Stuart's club! I hardly feel like I'm good enough to join, from my awful performance and what I saw of the students. I don't know. Heart and spirit are there but my body is just so out of shape and seems to get hurt really easily. I'm pretty sure I'd want to work on getting my fitness levels up and toughening up some more before I even considered joining Stuart's club. Hmmm. I've got a lot of thinking to do. Better get a move on though, as my licence is up for renewal at the end of this month. I'll be looking into Dr Titchen and Robert's things and seeing if I can maybe get to any of them. Stuart - Rags says he wants to train with you guys again when he's next in the area, but it won't be for a little while - I've got a club in Andover to check out first. Bless, he went to sleep when we got home. Musta been tired out. Aw. :love: :Angel: :Angel:
Hi 'Xue Fang' and All, We all get days/weeks/months/years (honest) when our bodies decide that they don't want to play - you put on some weight or you pick up an injury and suddenly things just feel WRONG... You have to know what to do at times like these and over the years (many years) of training what I have learnt is.... SOD EM!!!!! Don't worry about what you can or cannot do and don't worry about what others think of you. Do your best and train SENSIBLY - don't rush to get back to some half remembered level of fitness of six months ago - What you should do is take each day as it comes and each day do the training that YOU feel is appropriate. Sometimes you will train with enormous energy and sometimes not - guess what. that's life Do the best you can and do it in a way that allows you to continue to grow as a martial artist. That means looking after your body, your mind and your spirit and allowing them to get a LITTLE better each day. I hope that the above makes sense and wish you the best with your training. You will be most welcome. All the best. Robert.
Hi Xue, To reiterate what I said to Rags, its was great having you come train with us and your welcome anytime. Feeling the 'blues' means your not happy, but coming down to train shows you are committed and interested and that you just need a place to 'pep' your excitment levels a bit. Forget all that "I gotta get my fitness better first" or "Gotta improve this kick or that kick etc".. as training regular ina place you like will do that and its 1000 times more likely to happen there than outside of it all where it just remains wishfull thinking. like Robert says, 'sod em' and just get back in there and do it.. Like I said in the previous post, when people visit the class is freindly and wants to find a comfortable ground for anyone of any level to train. You did just fine that day. LOL - "mismatched equipment and missing pieces of armour " thats the old pads we lend to those that havnt got any. Again, in both areas you both did well. The seniors know they are training, theres no egos and no competition. they tend to go at the pace people can manage and only up it as and when needed, as you and Rags will probibly find out if you train a few more times there - they will get use to you and 'not be so nice' ina nice way (if you get my meaning). Like when i trained that day, i didnt go all out of the others as no one learns that way, just occasionally you keep a 'just above' level for them so they move towards it - is allt hat making sense!! Well ya didnt, so there! Actually, with Rags long hair I thought it was the other way around Yup, a sure fire way to end up single again eh! :love: Like I said, the only way to get there is to do it and be in it - it may be a little tough at first as your not use to how we do things, but your adjust as your spirit is strong enough to manage! See above Again, see above If you did join (not that you have to) all these would improve as you train and its likely they wont the otherway around. Like I said, the door is open, either now or in the future or just to pop down every now and then if you wanna train elseware. Cool, no probs. You guys should try and get down to a week night class next time if possible - lots of fun You must have worn him out LOL Stuart
Hey Xue fang, I personally think you did really well that day , its not easy coming to a different club and training with people you dont know. Remember in the seniors class you performed the best take down I remember Stuart saying The students in our class are used to the type of training simply because we have been there for years and have got used to it . I have gone through similair things and most of it comes down to confidence, In fact Im always moaning about what kicks I cant do , the fact I can't jump and so on and so forth !! I tend to shut up about it at class cause no one listens (for my own good !!) Just keep training and never give up! Its difficult but don't focus on what others are doing, they arent focusing on you , they are busy training themselves up, and so should you . You can do it honey !! Take care and hope to see you soon! Lynz
