masterwordsmith-unplugged

Despite coming from a very big extended family, I am closest to my male cousins. Perhaps that is why I had the most unusual preference for toys, attire and other pursuits. Strangely though, I was the tallest of them all er....until they overtook me by the time we reached our teens. I cannot imagine what would have happened if I had continued to tower over them. My childhood was great fun as being taller, I could grab the toy machine gun from Hoy ...Gosh! I remember wrestling on my bed with Hoy and Choon Wern - three of us fighting over THAT gun. Needless to say all of us were punished for our violent tendencies. Incidentally, I stopped growing upwards at the age of nine years old. No kidding! Maybe God knew that I would have terrorised the world if I had turned into an Amazon-like woman :-). Anyway, all my cousins became six-footers before they reached 21. Life is unfair!!!

Last night, I had such a lovely evening with my cousin who lives abroad. After we took him for dinner at yet another of my favorite restaurants Everyday Supreme Restaurant at Red Rock Hotel (where he was afire with the prawn curry and had to drink a glass of cold milk by the time we reached his home), he gave us a session in MMA which stands for Mixed Martial Arts.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full contact combat sport that allows a wide variety of fighting techniques, from a mixture of martial arts traditions and non-traditions, to be used in competitions, street fights or for self-defense. The rules allow the use of striking and grappling techniques, both while standing and on the ground.

My family has very strong roots in martial arts. Another cousin Robert runs a Shao Lin school in Sausalito, Choon Wern teaches Aikido and Tae-kwa-do here, an aunt and another cousin are Tai Chi exponents, hubby does Qiqong, my boy learnt wushu for three years but gave up because he could not cope with the more advanced classes which were conducted in Mandarin (he has only very basic Mandarin skills), another cousin Tony also teaches martial arts here and in London where one of his disciples has opened a school. But the expert of them all is this cousin who is an exponent in Shao Lin, Weng Chun, Karate, Tae-Kwan-Do and Muay Thai.

I learnt one thing last night.

ONE NEEDS DISCIPLINE, DILIGENCE AND PERSEVERANCE TO BE A GOOD DISCIPLE.

Of course I know discipline is important having being in the education sector for so long but in martial arts, we are talking about training for many, many years!!! My cousin started his Shao Lin classes at the age of five and trained rigorously under Dato' P'ng Chye Khim who has been Chief Instructor of Penang Sao Lim Athletic Association for more than 40 years. I have only been running with him once and I dare not go again LOL!!! When running with him at Botanical Gardens, I was NOT ALLOWED TO STOP AT ALL!!!! And if I did stop and pant over bended knees like a dying cat, his loud voice would roar from before me, "NO STOPPING! RUN NOW!!!" That one and only occasion I ran with him was also the time when I ran two big rounds at Botanical Gardens with only one rest stop! I felt so close to dying from exhaustion and collapsing..And we could only stop when he said so. Man, he is like an exercise machine - fit and strong!

Training to be a martial arts exponent is even more difficult that training to be a musician or a writer or even studying as an undergrad or postgrad student. The demands are high and the risks are even higher. He has broken three ribs, his ankle, his thumb, three teeth and goodness knows how many other injuries. My Weng Chun sifu trains four days a week and goes for physiotherapy for his injuries twice a week!!!

Now I can understand why my cousins had been telling me all this while to send Nick for his training as early as possible. How I wish my boy would continue his wushu training. Anyway, back on track.

Firstly, he asked us to show what we had learnt in our Weng Chun classes. Er...yours truly does not have strong powers of recall so my boy who explained everything (phew - what a relief!!!). Then he proceeded to interview us as to why we were learning a martial arts style and gave us a brief lecture on discpline, philosophy and the necessity of avoiding altercations of any sort and how for me, at my age (HAHA!!!) I should look at martial arts as a form of exercise rather than to dream of being able to defend myself in the face of attack as he said the best thing to do when confronted is to RUN!!!! :-) at least for me.

Next, he explained the different backgrounds of Shao Lin, MuayThai and Weng Chun and how they differ in style, combat, positions and strikes. He is soooooooooooo strong (er can pump 300 to 500 pounds until the bar bends!!) and quick (67 kicks in one minute Muay Thai style).

Then he told us that roundhouse kicks are only for movies for in reality, it merely exposes us to open attack. But I kind of like the swinging motion - stylish haha! So we learnt the middle kick, high kick, the importance of targetting the sternum and chin, the importance of snap and speed etc gosh too much for my feeble brain but my boy loved it while hubby was just astounded with his speed!

After that, it was action time!!!

And it was better than watching Ip Man or Jet Li cos hey man - it was real combat. So he showed us the different moves, attacks, kicks, deflections and how these differ in different situations and how MMA is the best form in self-defense.

Ok. Confession time. The best student was my son ...so cousin and Nick went on training and then when it came to sparring time, he used one hand whereas son used two and boy, it was really fun to watch them cos when Nick was crumbling and he was attacking :-), my boy ran off with my cousin chasing him!!! What a sight to behold!

Well, it tells me one thing, dear reader. I really have to be very serious about my training, my fitness level and commitment. This morning, my hubby gave me very subtle hints about the need to keep fit and said, "You are very committed to your blog, aren't you?"

I cringed. "What do you mean?"

"You spend hours and hours staring at your laptop," he remarked calmly.

In typical Malaysian style, my retort was, "Where got????"

*chuckles*

"Look at the number of posts you put up each day," he replied. "Be committed to workout everyday and get back your fitness level. Then we can resume our hiking and running on weekends."

OK. Boss has spoken. And he walks the talk. The minute he comes home, he changes into his gear and does his qigong religiously! So, in order to keep fit, and to be serious, and to be committed - I am going to put in black and white my routine for this week. If I don't do it, it will be mega disgrace.

Once I post this comment, I am going to workout at home er after I clean my bench and equipment. Serious. Please don't laugh lah!!! It is different when working out at home alone - easier to be undisciplined, lazy and to cheat whereas back at the gym, Reo would say, "Your arms are wrong etc..." I hope I have enough strength left after cleaning everything :(.

Here goes...the plan - whether I stick to it remains to be seen. If I don't post again, you can guess what happened to me!

Warm up - Stretches
Treadmill 20 minutes ( I hope I survive!)
Elevation: Level 3
Target distance : 10 miles @ slow speed 10 minutes and medium 10 minutes
Target : 200 calories

Cool down - Bicycle 10 minutes @ 30kph Target 100 calories

Shoulders : Shrugs 3 x10
Seated dumbbell press 3 x10 per arm
Front raises 2 x10 per arm

Arms : Kickbacks 2 x10 per arm
Alternate bicep curls 2 x 10 per arm
French curl 2 x10 per arm

Weight of dumbbell : 3 kg then 5 kg if I can cope.

Legs : Partial wrestler's bridge 3 x 10 reps
leg lifts 100

Cool down Bicycle 5 minutes

Wish me luck!!! Cheers...