Ninjutsu Uncovered

Some time ago Kerry and I went on a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland to see John Edward (a spiritual medium) who we have watched for years, read all his books and were so excited to be seeing him in person. He was amazing, inspiring, but he was not the only thing that inspired us on the trip. We were walking around this lovely city of Edinburgh, when we came across Jenner’s, an amazing shop, which had been there for over 170 years. It was a very expensive shop with a lot of high-end items but as we walked around comparing high prices with even higher prices, we saw an hourglass that would be perfect for our living room and was even more shocked to see the £22 price tag; result. So, we bought it as a memento of our travels. It made me think as I watched the sand slip down from the top to the bottom, like a metaphor for life. You could watch the time slip away as everyone dies sooner or later! It might have made me think a lot after hearing the readings of John Edwards as he gave messages fr...

You must have heard this quietly under someone’s breathe “he’s loaded!” Is this remark supposed to impress me or make me act in a certain way? Respect to me has nothing to do with money, but so many of things in life seem to cater for money or money is used to gain respect from others. People seem to change their attitude towards others when they think they have money or don’t have it. This has been irritating me for a while know and I want to get it off my chest. I have watched people completely change the way they act around people if they think they have money, or if they don’t, I am going to use an example. One rainy day long before Kerry and I had the girls we would go for walks along the coast, so when Kerry’s walking got worse, I would push her in the wheelchair and for anyone that has had to do that, you get very hot very quickly. So, one day on are walk we stumbled on a military fair at the park hotel, so we went in. It had been raining so standing dripping with water pooli...

We have always taught our girls and all of the children at the AFC to not tolerate bullies, what are the signs to look out for when you think you are being bullied. So, we were very surprised when Erin came in complaining about girls in her year, this is a group of so-called IT girls that think they have some sort of rule over the other kids in the year. When you drift your mind back to your school days, you all knew who the girls were, and even now you will still put them in that category, times have not changed. I was a quiet lad that loved school, I would run straight across the field to get a quick game of tennis football before the bell, I enjoyed my classes, football again at break and loved school dinners. But because I was quiet I became the target of bullies, they would do the usual things, throw insults and other things at me, shove me and generally try to break my fun-loving spirit for their own enjoyment; It gave them a feeling of power over people. They tried to rule by ...

When do we lose our full range of motion? Watch a baby/toddler move, see how natural their movements are, they crawl, turnover, squat and are generally bendy little things. I love studying how they move, balance, and strengthen themselves via movement. As a child we take movement for granted when we run around skip and climb on things, we don’t notice that we start stiffing up and become less agile, we lose our range of motion. As an example, I can go through a stretch routine with my kickboxing class and I can hear them stretch, with lots of grunts, puffing and panting that go along with the movements like a commentary of stretching. I love it when people start encouraging themselves to stretch and talk themselves through the movement “Come on Julie you can do it!” it is like your inner coach coming out and spurring you on while you stretch. This inner coach gets annoyed at you if you can’t “What you can’t touch your toes?” then starts to guide you to the task in hand “Just a little ...

“My shoulder hurts, they hit hard, my fingers hurt, they hit me” all these statements and many more is what I hear as I walk around teaching martial arts. Pad work is a skill that a lot of people overlook they think of it as being put in goal when you were a kid when the two pots and in rule was applied. Meaning when you scored two goals you went into goal until someone scored two goals past you; funny how bad you get as a goal keeper when it is your turn in the nets. Then you are back out pretending to be Keegan or Shearer. Most people want to do the punching side of pad work but as you progress in your martial arts you will somehow end up holding pads. Pad work is used in many arts to develop technique, power, timing, rhythm and focus, sometimes pads are even referred to as focus mitts as that is what you must do, focus. The role as pad man is to make the puncher get better, smoother, and more accurate with their striking so that they can strike better when sparring and fighting. Th...

Bob Sykes and Paul Barnett of M.A.I magazine have run the Martial Arts show for the past 3 years, but this year was going to be the best ever, and I wanted to be there. Bill Wallace, Benny the Jet Urquidez and Brian Jacks were all going to be there along with a host of amazing martial artists at the Doncaster Dome. I was gearing up and getting myself excited, like a kid going to Disney world when disaster struck; my knee locked out. I have had a reoccurring injury where my knee sprains and locks out, so I can’t bend it, walk well and definitely not train well. I had tried to ignore the pain for a little while doing all my stretches and even put my knee brace on to try and keep my knee from locking, but one week before the show my knee locked out at the end of my Saturday classes to the point that I could not remove my brace. Sunday was no fun at all I had rest it, ice it, and then have a hot water bottle on it overnight along with pain killers, and anti-inflammatory tablets which I pr...

Standing in the gym was as surreal moment that was shattered by the 15/16 years old I was just about to teach boxing to! I had stood in that very same spot not knowing the path my life would take until I returned to this place, this school, and this gym. When I was 15 I had already begun my martial arts journey, travelling to Darlington every Thursday to train for 3 hours and then practice what I learned in this gym of St Anselms RC high school (now St. Thomas More) at the youth club every Monday and Wednesday evening. Myself and my friend Peter would get the mats out, roll, do wristlocks or try to remember Kamae No Kata and run around like real ninjas. My life was already planned, I was going in the Junior leader, I had passed the tests and was due to go in a week after finishing school. I did this, but during a particular hard assault course I tore my pectoral muscles; After being in hospital in Aldershot I was medically discharged due to my age but would be allowed to return at a l...