What can I say? Check them out! Another good find.
Again, as last time I will review them compared to my criteria, not 'how good are they at Jeet Kune Do, mainly because I would be completely under qualified :)
The club meets in a dedicated large room - very large in fact - it has a reception, a gym, a boxing area and a large-ish floor area for the class. It is probably the same size as some school halls - plenty of room.
For the kickboxing class there was one (very good!) instructor with about 5 students and the same (although a different, but no less skilled instructor) for the JKD class.
The atmosphere was very friendly - the JKD instructor spent about 20 minutes after class answering my questions, letting me know about the calibre of the school (which I think is very very high), going through training regimes - including training elsewhere which they don't object to at all.
The caliber of the teaching was high and the students all seemed to have fun and enjoy it. I was corrected by the instructor on a particular point (not bending my knees enough when I dip and weave) twice - which was good. My partner was also happy to answer my questions and give advice.
The class started with the obligatory warm up which consisted of 'the zombie game'. Half the class were zombies (who had their arms outstretched and could only shuffle) whilst the other half had to evade. Good fun and quite effective.
We then paired up and went through some drills. The usual pattern of watch the instructor and then repeat. The instructor gave just the right level of detail and explained the principle rather than just the mechanics, which I find really helpful.
We didn't do any sparring as such - it was all pad work or conditioning, but we were encouraged to make the pad work realistic by moving around. I suspect it was everybody's first day back so they were taking it steady :)
So what do I think about the style of the art - suits me much better than Ju Jitsu. What do I think about this particular school. Excellent, without a doubt.
Am I going elsewhere - I am still going to check out Tae Kwon Do, although probably not with the (James Freer school) who after explaining that I had a good number of years experience and would expect to progress through the low ranks quite quickly still insisted that I could only grade once every three months and I couldn't grade for more than one belt at a time! I don't get that attitude at all - if I am not ready for a belt I wouldn't grade. If I am, then let me grade - weird. So I don't think I will be going there.
My next school will be Sahotas Tae Kwon Do Academy of Blackbelt Excellence who has arranged to give me a 30 minute assessment to identify where I should start (in beginners or juniors) and who *potentially* grades once a month. Their web site has a ridiculous 'this time next year you could have a black belt' which put me off immediately, but after speaking to him I realise what they mean - it still takes 2 to 3 years, but they do intensive summer camps which condenses a lots of the training hours (i.e. three weeks of 9-5 training). As a 7th Dan he might just have the experience to pull it off. He also made it clear that this wasn't an academy that handed out belts - if you weren't up to the grade you didn't, er, grade :) Which was encouraging to hear - no big 'pay upfront' either. Looking forward to checking them out.
Anyway, back on track - I have booked another free lesson with urban martial arts, this time a kickboxing session. If I do train here my strategy would be to do one hours kickboxing followed immediately by one hours JKD. If that doesn't get my fitness up - who knows what would :) I think it all depends on how Tae Kwon Do goes.
I was also worried about belts - they are somewhat controversial in kickboxing/belts but they do do gradings, although belts aren't worn. This is a nice half way house - I get the satisfaction of ticking a box, but they don't get hung up on belts. Experience always needs clarification - an excellent sparring partner who isn't so good on technique would pounce their opposite - irrespective of belt, for example.
Pros:
- excellent atmosphere
- high calibre of teaching
- passionate instructors who are there because they love it
- very mature martial arts school (in terms of the attitude of the instructors and students)
- real "street smarts" but with an art behind it
- will be fun getting fit
- familiar ground (or rather, I used to do this type of thing)
Cons:
- made me realise how utterly unfit I am
- made me realise how much I had forgotten - I was pretty embarrassing - being beaten up by a 6 year old girl....OK, not that bad, but pretty bad
- I like the comfort of a strict belt structure - I want that false sense of security of a coloured belt :)
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