I was on Reddit/r/WingChun today and someone was talking about a blog they'd set up to talk about martial arts and it sounded like a good idea. I'm constantly trying to find people I can talk about martial arts with so instead of forcing my conversations on people, who often don't care, I've decided to voice my opinions openly and if people choose to read it then they have no one to blame but themselves.
I started practicing Martial Arts in 2011 when I went to University, there was a Muay Thai sports club so I signed up. It was brilliant, it was the first time I'd been pushed physically for a reason I enjoyed, I've always been a large guy and have battled with my weight for years so this was my chance to turn it around. I joined the gym, I started training twice a week, I improved my diet and invested in stuff like whey protein powder, I was ready to change my life.
I trained from September and in December of the year I came down with a chest infection which triggered my asthma and I couldn't train. I turned up a few times but every time I'd start anything physical I'd go dizzy and I even collapsed a few times. I ended up taking a few weeks off for rest, and then it was Christmas and then we returned to campus in January. I went to a session but was so far behind, I didn't know what any of the moves were anymore and I got more and more frustrated. My fitness had dropped off completely after 2 months of being ill and inactive and eating away my frustration. I eventually stopped attending because I couldn't keep up and felt like I was letting the rest of the club down. Around this time I broke up with my girlfriend and began to get incredibly home-sick, this led to a pretty low point of my life that I won't get into here.
So flash forward a few years, I'd dropped out of uni, worked a string of shitty jobs and eventually met a girl, got a job and moved to Leeds. When I started working I decided it was the best time to start a health kick, I started going to the gym 3 times a week and counting every calorie that came within a foot of my face. A few months into this fitness boost someone I work came to me to ask me to build a website for his martial arts club, TaiJutsu Leeds. I'm a web developer so I figured sure, why the hell not? I could use the money and experience. After meeting with his Sensei a few times to talk about the project I got invited to train, I pined it off for a while, afraid that I was still too unhealthy to start.
One lunch time I was off to the gym and bumped into my friend and his Sensei and watched them train for about 20 minutes and got a little bit stuck in, it was the first training I'd done in years and as soon as I started I didn't want to stop. I was bitten by this martial arts bug and it seemed to give me the power of infinite curiosity and passion to learn everything about the style. I got tucked in and after a few months attained my first belt, after 4 hours of hell that was the grading. I was exhausted, I had been pushed as far as I think my body could have gone and it paid off. It was one of the best feelings of my life.
In July I decided that I wanted to expand my knowledge to further styles, I was googling around, I remember seeing Ip Man and thinking about the way Donnie Yen represented the style. It was incredibly fast and stylish but it was different to other styles I'd seen. I looked into it and I found a school in Leeds with direct lineage to Ip Man, the Sifu of the School is one of 13 people in the world allowed to teach the style that Ip Man passed onto his son to teach and was personally taught by Grandmaster Ip Chun, who better to learn from but someone who was taught the same style, in the same was as Bruce Lee? I signed up to the beginner course and after a few months I was training with him.
This is where you join my journey. I've just finished the beginner course (which I'm going to talk about in my next post which I intend to write over the weekend) and on Tuesday I start full classes.
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