My Martial Arts Goals for my 60s
Published: Sat, 03/09/19
Venetia and I moved back to East Yorkshire in the summer of 2017. On pretty much the first evening I was here I decided to go for a walk along the Beck. I came out at the lock where the Beck meets the river Hull. It was a beautiful summer evening and there was no one around apart from an older man supervising two boys who were fishing. I got into conversation with the man. It turned out that he was Ted Oxley who runs the local Chinese Martial Arts club. I told Ted that I had just returned to the area and he asked me if I was looking for activities to get involved with. If so, I would be welcome at his Kung Fu or Tai Chi classes. A bit of a coincidence that almost the first person I talk to in Beverley runs the local martial arts class. Even more of a coincidence is that between the ages of about 18 and 20 years old I trained in North London with a Kung Fu teacher who was a student of Professor Chee Soo. Ted trained in the
same system under Chee Soo as well but started a couple of years after I have moved onto another style. I went to Ted’s class the following week and have been training with him ever since. I have a grading coming up next month and I have always had a slight sense of unfinished business as far as that style of Kung Fu was concerned. So, my first goal is to see if I can get my black jacket (equivalent of black belt) with Ted.
Yorkshire is the home of Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) in the UK. Not that surprising since the Royal Armories is in Leeds and there has always been historical fencing taught there. HEMA is well represented in Lincoln, Sheffield and York amongst other places in this area. But not in East Yorkshire, meaning Hull and Beverley. Over the past ten years I have done quite a lot of HEMA training and some teaching at events such as Fightcamp. Generally speaking Stav is not accepted as HEMA. The problem is that we don’t have very old book with cryptic pictures and undecipherable text to base our training on. But a HEMA club can still be a fun environment to train in. Over the last year I have been cultivating a relationship with the York School of Defence, including attending their excellent Easter seminar and weekly classes in Victorian Antagonistics. This Autumn I have booked a hall in Beverley in order to hold an
introductory seminar of several HEMA disciplines. Chris and Lauren who run the YSD have agreed to teach seminars and I will find a couple more instructors to make a really interesting day of it. If we can get the right interest locally then we can establish HEMA training in East Yorkshire too. That is my second martial arts goal.
On Wednesday morning at the weekly business network meeting I attend I was asked if I would be interested in teaching some self-defence sessions. The context is a sports club which offerers a wide range of activities. My third goal has been to teach self-defence based on the principles of Peacock Kung Fu. It works well when I get the right opportunity to teach. Will have to see what happens with this sports club, if nothing then there will be other opportunities.
When I started learning Stav the emphasis was on principles more than techniques. Over 25 years of training with a Stav awareness has enabled me to see the principles of martial arts at work in almost any martial training context. This is why I will train many different situations and with various students of different styles and arts. By training with people who do not know me and have absolutely no interest in my knowledge, skill and experience I can test out the principles underlying martial arts. I can then develop training methods which are most likely to bring an understanding of principles to anyone I teach. For the past year or so I have been working on material for a book on Principles Based Martial Arts. Completing and publishing this book is my fourth martial arts goal.
My fifth goal is to continue with my own Stav training. I am sixty this month and I have been thinking about Thor’s wrestling match with the old woman Ellie as told in the story of Thor’s visit to Utgard. The old woman represented old age and, despite Thor’s best efforts, the old woman still brought him down to one knee. We all die one day but the right training is a form of wrestling with Ellie. I intend to maintain and continue to develop my personal abilities as a martial artist, particularly my own health, strength and well being for a while yet.
I am teaching on a pretty regular basis. A cudgel seminar in Beverley on the 23rd of March https://www.iceandfire.org.uk/train.html
I will be teaching a day seminar in Somerset on the 6th of April http://crewkernestav.iceandfire.org.uk/060419.html
regards
Graham
PS It seems that the Rune Retreat at midsummer is now full. However, if you would like to be on a reserve list in case anyone drops out then let me know.