Ninjutsu Uncovered

Years ago, when I saw people warm up, I used to think that will not happen to me; as they complained about everything. Fast-forward to the present day, were I am just rehabilitating my shoulder that was partly dislocated last year and I did not know (It had jumped out and back in during a pad work class and had rolled forward and my traps and frontal deltoid had been holding it up until I stopped at Christmas). When I went to my chiropractor he told me it was out, but my muscles were keeping it up, so I have spent all of Christmas and new year in pain trying to get my shoulder back in place but to do that I must stretch and rest my shoulder; easier said than done when you have my kind of lifestyle. Sometimes you don’t realise you are in pain until you rest because you keep doing the same actions day in day out until you physically can’t move. When you do rest you seem to be in more pain than you were before you stopped, not very fair it seems. You must go through the painful light str...

When your life feels like it wants to change, and you try, and try to make it happen, but it feels like a slow burning ember fuse that is attached to a 105-round firework; yes, that feeling. I know the problem and it is me! I may come over as a cheeky, fun loving character but there is a shy boy that sometimes does not let the cheeky part of me out. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy (can’t we all be at times). I do struggle with my own mind when it comes to bigging myself up, firstly thinking who am I to give advice on martial arts and self-protection, secondly who is going to listen. Then I give myself a swift mae keri and try to push forward. I have embraced the world of media were the whole world can be reached from your smart phone, but I feel like a pre-historic man in a digital age. My blog (which you are reading) has changed my view of myself from being a timid very insular character in my teens, to a confident writer that loves to express myself through the written word. I ha...

Nev loves chasing leaves, catching, and tearing them apart as we go for a walk; this is his best season, he loves leaves. I was thinking about the life journey of a leaf as I look at an overly excited King Charles Cavalier run around in a sea of leaves like a kid in a ball pit, then coming out shattered and panting; and that is just the kids. When you see the buds just coming out on the branches they look so fragile but with so much potential just as we see a little baby born with everything waiting for it and a whole life ahead. As the bud grows you see it grow into a little leaf perfectly formed and making the tree seem that it has just put its clothes on after the winter months cold and barren, looking unloved and isolated. As the leaf grows bigger in late spring and early summer it is like watching children grow in size and character in equal measure, and the personality comes out. The leaf’s colour is vibrant, strong, and full of life. So as the leaf goes into full summer it blo...

In every part of your life you feel different levels of frustration, from when you are a baby to adulthood the level goes up and down, but it is always there in the background. Watching a baby cry for everything it needs, parents then develop a 6 th sense of what the cry means, like decoding the Morse code. As the baby begins to turn over it firstly brings its knee up and flicks it out to create enough momentum to turn over then promptly cries; funny little things. Then once it has learned how to turn over, it starts to work out the mechanics of crawling and is often seen face down in the carpet, sobbing with a face full of snot and tears getting very frustrated with the lack of forward progress. Once crawling has been mastered clinging on to things, like a drunk leaving the pub, the little one makes it to an upright position only to fall over, and then repeat the process several hundred times; quite a work out. When you see your child walk for the first time, it is an amazing exper...

How far does £5 go these days; I will answer for you, not far. So, when this comes in an enquiry, both myself and my lovely wife and head of admin Kerry we both point out what you are getting in the children’s clubs. Firstly, we recommend you pay as you go for the first four weeks to see if your little one enjoys it, if they do not join in at first and just watch then you get your money back until they join in the fun. We know children get excited about training and want to buy everything from a t-shirt to gloves in the first few classes, but we try to curb that enthusiasm so that the parents don’t buy everything only for the child to decide after four weeks they don’t want to train anymore; so, the cupboard in your house will be filled with lots of fail sporting endeavours. This might sound mad losing sales and making money off excited children, but we do this to help the parents to make it easier for the children to stay.  If they enjoy the class, we ask them to get an Gi and...

                                           A DATE WITH “THE DARK DESTROYER” When you get a text “Do you want Nigel Benn to teach at the gym? What do you text back? This was the text I got in July and it sent me into a spiral, thoughts of the ex-world boxing champion standing in the ring at the AFC, teaching how he became one of the most exciting fighters in the world was just too good to pass up so I said yes. The Day was to be split into 2 parts; 1.         A masterclass; teaching all the little details of movement of this skilful, powerhouse of a boxer. 2.         A question and answer session; answering all the questions you care to ask about his life and the fights he has had. After discussing the pros and cons of getting an event like this organised, along with the head of admin (my lovely wi...