2 posts tagged “brighton”
My first gig since Reading 2007, it's been too long. It was a fun night, everyone loves a bit of moshing about. One of the warm up bands was Johnny Foreigner, who played a couple of songs that sounded like the BBC Blue Planet theme song. Sufficer to say they were good.
But then The Subways were about to come on. And as I pushed my way through the crowd to the front, someone muttered "tosser!" That's bloody uptight Brighton folk for you! The Subways started. Once I'd got reasonably close and found one of my fellow moshing mates I was having fun. Now I don't know much of The Subways repertoire, but that didn't dampen the experience in any way.
They put a great rock and roll set. By the second half I was at the front, which was awesome. I got loads of good photos and a couple of videos. And just when I was thinking why the hell haven't they played Rock And Roll Queen they closed the set with it! Billy (lead singer) crowd surfed and everyone was happy. Go on Subways you legends!
A few pounds lighter*,
a few decibels deafer,
and a few beer's drunker,
that's value for money in my book.
*from all the sweating
Martial arts has been an interest of mine for years. Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Bruce Lee have all demonstrated some amazing feats of martial arts in thier films. Until now I've been just been watching, today I decided to take up martial arts for real. Aikido to be exact, Brighton Aikikai.
A couple of weeks ago I researched through the internet into martial arts in Brighton, and Aikido seemed like the most interesting. From watching countless you-tube videos I got the sense that it was about using the other person's force against them. Taking the force of their attack and having them on the floor in seconds. It also involved weapons and that's got to be fun!
When I arrived at Kicks Martial Arts Club in Brighton I was welcomed by instructor Mark Hale Tori. I learned that tomorrow they are having a seminar at The Brighton Judo Club with Pascal Durchon, 5th dan, a very important Aikido master. With most of the students preparing for tomorrow, there was only two students in tonight. So I watched.
For the first hour they practiced with weapons. They progressed through 5 different moves with a Staff or Jo. Allot of the techniques start with both fighter's Jo, held out and touching at the end. One person steps forward as the other steps back. The Jo is held out and the moves begin. It's all about your centre of balance and how the Jo is aligned with it, making all the movement become very fluid and graceful. One move involved waiting for the enemy to strike. As he begins to lift his weapon the opponent steps, lunges and strikes foward. Thus throwing off the enemy's centre of balance. And by this point the enemy is learning back and vulnerable, while the opponent is ready to attack again.
Physical fighting was next. The first move involved the enemy grabbing the opponent's Gi (martial art clothing) from behind. As he does so the opponent elbows the enemy, spins around, grabs the wrist, and twists the enemy to the floor. It very impressive. After they had practiced several different techniques they moved away from the "perfect world" situations. And onto more realistic fighting, still using a single technique at once, but against a more reactive opponent.
The stronger and taller fighter has your wrists tightly locked and immovable. In order to break the lock, you swing your arms 'up and down'. As 'up and down' is not where the strength in his arms lie. With the arms now more flexible, you twist out and back into an attacking stance.
You stop and you're in trouble. Constant movement was one of the most important points I took away from watching the Aikido lesson. All the while your steadily walking towards your opponent, with your hands in their face, lightly hitting them from side to side, you are in control. Then it's just a case of waiting for the opportunity to throw them to the floor.
A little wiser and a lot more curious, I think Aikido could suite me well. Everything I saw today was fascinating; the techniques, the theory behind it, and how different moves can fit into different situations.
Tomorrow I am going to check out the seminar at Brighton Judo Club with Pascal Durchon, 5th dan, as he'll be demonstrating some very high level Aikido. It should be fun.
