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Tommy Carruthers China Seminar Jan 09
The second day was just as good, we did a review on the first day and went through anything they felt that they didn't understand fully or just wanted me to go over it again which I did. Moving on the first thing I wanted to do was cover the possibilities of somebody blocking or parrying your attack, I showed them trapping and how Bruce moved away from it and just disengaged the arm with the leg or just shifted from inside to outside or high to low or low to mid level etc or even high to mid level its purely fencing. We have a few drills that teach the basic ideas, one where you feel the energy then move around it, the other where you just change the angle by altering your elbow and aligning your feet, very slick and subtle. So what have we got so far? stance, moving the feet, the lead, rear, backfist, hook, shovel, uppercuts evasion, open and close, the kicks thrusting or extending and the foot and arm disengagement. Now was the time to put it all into practise, GET YOUR GEAR ON GUYS!!!!!
On closing the seminar I asked the guys if there’s anything they wished for me to go over or explain which I did. I thanked the folk for being so friendly and training so hard and I asked them to thank there teacher Neil who did an amazing job pulling this together and making it work, its he they should really thank because he did more work than I did, all I had to do was just turn up. So after a very hearty round of applause we took some photos and I signed a few autographs then we went for dinner, MAN BY THEN I WAS REAL HUNGRY.
Thanks Tommy
More Pictures to Follow |
Later on dinner that night was in a local Chinese restaurant, well it would be since I was in China, just for the guys who haven’t been to China it’s not the same food as you get from your local Chinese restaurant or take away in Europe, the UK or America, this stuff is the real thing, before I eat anything I like to ask first so that I know what I am eating, so that I don’t eat anything that I am allergic to, the beer and tea were very good and my favourite was the beef with a type of glaze on it, very tasty, other thing well I’m not to sure off if I would eat the chicken, it’s just boiled and then cut up and served completely different from the Chinese food in the UK where there’s not a bone insight. I can honestly say my host Neil and some of his assistants went out of there way to help me and look after me, I felt like some kind of celeb, they were certainly amazing folk.
Once they get loaded with protective gear I allow them to find how it goes together, that bit they do themselves, I watch and adjust and give them the freedom to explore and find how THEY can make it work. So we have no stance, we close from as natural a position as possible like you would do for real on the street, nobody in there right mind would ever dream of taking a stance and telling your opponent your about to attack, that's always the most difficult thing for folk to do, attack from nothing. It just takes time for you to get the feel of attacking from nothing, once you try it and train it, well it becomes easy. It took a bit of time to get the guys to attack from nothing, most wanted to lift there hands up before they attacked rather than just bursting forward to attack, again it just takes time. The last drill we done and one we do all the time at my school is we put two folk in the middle and get them to be surrounded by all the other students, now anybody can attack with anything they wish and you have to defend yourself and not let them inside the distance to get you but they can attack from anywhere 360. The purpose of this drill is to get you to save energy and be as efficient and as effective as you can and yes it clears anything up in your mind about doing anything complex once you have done this your certainly reborn, JOB DONE.
The next day the guys took the effort to show me the sites, the first place we visited was Tienamen square, it’s not like I thought it would be like it’s much bigger. I must add that on the day it was bloody freezing even though if you look at the photos I am wearing a lot of clothes I was still cold but everybody I saw was just the same as me. We passed by Mao tse tungs place of rest, that was truly massive but it was closed, I would have loved to have a look but I think we were far too early so we made our way across the road to the forbidden city, which was the palace of the emperors, well palace I don't know I would say city because it’s so big it really doesn't look that big from the outside but once you step through the first door you can see its not as it seems. I think Jacky Chan filmed a part of one of his movies there because I did remember seeing it in one of his films, anyway we took photos and walked through, my interpreter was giving me the history and fact about it, I am glad he was with us because I learned so much about the sites, on my own these places would only be building without history. The forbidden city is certainly some place and I think we never got to see it all because we were on our way to the last place of call but not the least of them the great wall, well its very well named GREAT if I am right its about 2,000 miles long. We drove about 45 minutes to the great wall, we were heading for the country, once we got there and saw it from the car park it was massive. I couldn't wait to get up there and have a look, once we got out of the car I can only say that with the step and wind chill it was freezing and that's an understatement. We moved onto the wall through a fort and a stairwell, climbing up to the main part of the wall then we started to climb, I will say climb because its not that flat when you go up you certainly go up at a very steep rate and when you go down well its even more dangerous. I had these boots on that I bought in the states, there great in the desert but up on the wall they were treacherous because they had no grip, so walking was very difficult. I was walking as though I had wet my pants well maybe I had because it was so cold at one point we had to duck down because the chill from the wind was so cold your hair would freeze, but we went about a mile or so. Looking ahead it was going even higher so I said to Neil lets go back while we still have some circulation in our limbs, I had visions of us just freezing stiff, my other guy who was doing the fact and history about it all he didn't have any thermals on nor a hat or anything, he had a very light jacket on and he was beginning to turn a funny colour of red, it didn't look that good and I think he was so relived when I said ok guys I HAVE CAME SAW AND DID lets get back to the car for some heat. Going down was harder than going up and Neil had to grab my arm because I was slipping with the boots that I was wearing, I am so glad he was there because it would have took me ages to walk the mile or so back, eventually we got to the lower fort and down the stairs and into the warmth of the car what a relief, boots, jacket and hat come of it was great. 
Our last stop on route to dinner was the Olympic stadium called the birds nest, its certainly an engineering bit of modern art and looks amazing, when your close up to it the thing, I looked at in all the places and I was taken aback to what the standard of workman ship was. Whether it be modern or old the craftsmen who built all this stuff were true craftsmen, the great wall there’s not a brick out of line, more a level, not square or uneven, works of art. So the adventure is over and the long haul home to the other end of the world in the north, so thanks to Neil who was an amazing host and who couldn't do enough for me and for making all this work, to all the translators I had, without them I would not have learnt so much about this amazing place and places I was taken to, to the masters I met who were very respectful to me and to the guys who came to take part in the seminar and thanks for the gifts and the very large scroll that I was given it now hangs in my school for all to see.