My journey into martial arts has been one prewritten for me. I joined karate when I was way younger maybe 7 or so? Only for maybe 4 months maybe as dad pulled us out cos he didn't think we were getting anything from it. They would joke about years later when I began promoting that during the bow in process one class when I was a kid with my head down thinking about the class ahead I actually fell asleep lol. Then again, thinking back, I can understand why. I joined the same club again in 2009 except this time it was as one its self defence consultants, selling karate memberships as well as training in the art with the aim of teaching it later. After that fell through, I stopped training.....as I found my self training not because I enjoyed it anymore but because I felt obligated to continue, seeing the path before me I quit.
It was also during this time I had been reading up and rewatching alot of Bruce Lee Movies and documentaries. I got my hands on as many books as possible and through his work I realised what it was that I was missing. No holds barred, free expression martial arts based on the science of using what works for you and discarding what doesn't work for you. I knew I couldn't learn from books alone but there were no JKD schools around me in Christchurch. So I kept fit in my backyard and by playing indoor football. And thought one day I could travel to America.
Then Last year March 2011 I moved to Auckland to pursue my dream of being an actionstar. And it was during my first time walking around the city centre that I discovered the martialarts shop, and that shop, thank god, I found a flyer about NZ's first JKD school opening up. I texted him right away, we got conversing and I was invited to his house as he and a couple of his students were training, Chris was his assitant instructor and those 2 taught me heaps. Sifu showed me some things and some nunchaku and I was hooked. I finally found the missing pieces to my expression. There is a bhudist saying, that when the student is ready, the master appears. I think this was happily, the case here :)
Anyway over a year or so later with a life full of ups and downs training and not training I am back in the gym. After my sanda fight a couple weekends ago I am back to prove to myself not let myself down again. True to form, on the thrusday after I returned to training and got back into spar, I won 6-1 sanda rules and didn't get taken down once. If I just don't think, relax and attack in broken rhythm I have all I need! The Wushu tournament showed me that I don't need to do anything but be myself and let my body do the work instead of overthinking things. I read book where Bruce lee once said when somebody asked him how come he can kick so fast, he said one day a ladybug asked a centipede how was it that the centipede could walk with all of those hundred legs? when the centipede tried to think about how he did it he stumbled and fell over. The moral being just be. Your eye blinks before you see the speck of dust in the air, alot of us speak before we think lol I just need to let my fist find the opponents target instead of taking that second to think how I'm going to throw this punch, because it's that second that the opponent uses to duck my punch and take me down.
So yeah, learning some Dummy stuff at the moment and more wrestling take down techniques, and the more I'm learning the more I feel I've found my calling. Just wanting to share this with you all because it feels good to find a home away from home. Sifu took his JKD class from his house to a memorial hall then to a school hall, and now he owns a fully customised gym with punching bags, a ring, weights equipment, dummies and wallbags. I'm happy I was there near the start and can see how big the club has grown, I also feel I'm a more complete martial artist then I once was. I hope to one day teach it. Because though sometimes the sweat and energy burnt on that gym floor can seem crazy, the rush you feel when walking away with a smile makes it all worth it :)
No comments:
Post a Comment