My daughter's first Martial Arts Class

Published: Wed, 01/15/25

Last week evening my daughter attended her first martial arts class. There has been a Jujitsu class running at the local leisure centre for many years with a children’s class from 1830 to 2000 hrs on a Thursday evening. I had inquired about the class last year and I was told Iduna could not start until she was 5. Her fifth birthday was in December and so we persuaded her to give it a try. There were probably about a dozen children between early teens to seven years old, so my daughter was certainly the youngest and she looked very small. There were several adults acting as assistant instructors, so each child seemed to get plenty of attention. While I was watching I saw practice in falling and rolling, punching, and some simple throws and Iduna joined in with great enthusiasm. Afterwards she was full of how much she had enjoyed herself and can’t wait for next week. I could teach her myself, and indeed I have shown her a few
things while play fighting (which we do a lot). However, there is no substitute for joining in a class with children who are just a little be older and an instructor who is not daddy, and therefore not to be messed about as she tends to do with me. It also doesn’t hurt that her 6 year old cousin, who she loves to keep up with has recently started a Korean martial arts class near where he lives in Norfolk. (I am not quite sure of the style as the name didn’t mean anything to me and I could not pronounce it to look it up.) We will just have to see how she gets on and she does seem to stick with things once she gets into them.
Seeing Iduna taking part in the class had me thinking back to when I was her age. I was vaguely aware that there was such a thing as Karate which sometimes cropped up in films or TV programmes along with references to Judo or Jujitsu. I didn’t know anyone who actually knew any of these skills and my parents had no interest in such activities. My first contact with oriental martial arts came when I was probably about 13 when my school hosted an after school Judo class. I can’t remember anything about it except that it folded after a couple of weeks because the instructor injured himself and could not continue teaching.
Then, in 1973 everything suddenly changed with the theatrical release of the Bruce Lee film ‘Enter the Dragon’ and the broadcasting of the Kung Fu TV series starring David Carradine. I would have been no more than 14 years old and Enter the Dragon carried an ‘X’ certificate which meant no one under 18 was supposed to see it. Since films on video were not due to arrive for about another decade and I lacked the gumption to bluff my way past the box office (as quite a few of my friends did manage to do) I didn’t actually manage to view Bruce Lee’s last completed film for many years. However, the Kung Fu TV show was readily available and between the two events a whole generation was turned onto the excitement and mystique of martial arts, particularly ‘Kung fu’ by the middle of the 1970s. I have Enter The Dragon on DVD and have watched it quite recently. To be honest it is not a very good film as the producers didn’t think that Bruce
Lee alone could carry a major film intended for a western audience. So, John Saxon co-stars for the white audience along with Jim Kelly to appeal to the African American market meaning that Bruce didn’t get all the screen time that he deserved. However, no one had ever seen anything quite like it at the time and suddenly martial arts were everywhere. Although your usually saw more enthusiasm than skill the 1970s was a heady time to be young and keen on the oriental fighting arts.
Bruce Lee was dead before I really knew who he was, and yet his impact certainly helped to start my martial arts journey, which has covered several different disciplines with my discovery of Stav over 30 years ago being the most influential.
Now, more than half a century later I find myself watching my daughter starting her martial arts journey. Hers may be a very short trip if she loses interest in a few weeks or months. If she gets seriously interested then it will be a long time until she knows more than I have already forgotten. She has a lot of growing to do both physically and in knowledge and understanding. I find myself thinking that the purpose of my current training is mainly to keep old age at bay for as long as possible, just as Thor wrestled old age in the form of an old woman when he visited Utgard.
I think that Ju Jitsu is the right art and class for Iduna to start with. However, I feel no inclination to join the youngsters and risk the injury which might follow an awkward throw and hard landing. Some Kung Fu and Tai Chi suits me fine. I do the Stav stances every day and most days some weapon training too with axe, cudgel, or staff. My teaching these days emphasizes being centred and aware, working with the lines of the web, and understanding and applying the five principles of Stav. Perhaps appropriate to my age it is the walking stick or cudgel which seems to suit my teaching best these days.
Regards
Graham
Classes on Monday evenings in Beverley http://iceandfire.org.uk/selfdefence.html
Day courses in Tickton, East Yorkshire on the 1st of March and Salisbury on the 5th of April, updated web pages to follow very soon.
Interesting write up on the Enter the Dragon film https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230817-the-inside-story-of-how-bruce-lees-martial-arts-epic-enter-the-dragon-changed-cinema-forever
Graham Butcher
21 Beaver Road
Beverley East Yorkshire HU17 0QN
UNITED KINGDOM

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