A New Life Path...
When I was young and still at school, I was fairly lucky. I was small but very fast and also good at most sports I attempted. I was in the school Cricket and Football team’s, represented the school at certain athletics sports such as long jump and the 100 yards, and 200 yards, etc. Hey, later I even had a try out for a League football team, but as I didn’t want to be a professional footballer I blew the trial deliberately. Never ever give less than your best. That “failure” or, as I prefer to call it now, “learning experience” has stayed with me all of my life, but I leave it there tucked safely in my mind so I always remember to go for it!
So I managed to mostly escape the school Big bullies and survive the mental battering that some guys were faced with, but not entirely!
So later, luckily I sprung up to a just above average height and decided I wanted more confidence in myself, and my ability to defend myself. So I started Kung Fu classes. I really liked the feeling I got but boy was it demanding physically, at first at least. Soon I was training at home every day and belonged to three different Kung Fu clubs going at least 4 times per week. I felt wonderful. Move over Bruce Lee! My confidence increased and I felt I could cope with anything. Then, after about 3-4 years I picked up a really bad virus from drinking contaminated water at a rural golf course. According to the doctors’ I was dead! However they hadn’t realised how strong my mind and body had become and with tender nursing from my dear wife and although going from 13.5 stone to 6.5 stone in weight I survived.
During this long period I couldn’t train properly of course so I had to focus more on the “internal” chi aspects of breathing and meditating and internal healing processes that I had learnt, albeit only superficially, at the time.
Afterwards I became very interested in what are called the internal Chinese martial arts. The main and most well known being:
Tai Chi Chuan, often called the supreme ultimate martial art.
Pa-Kua (Ba –Gua) – based on circular movements and the I-Ching (Book of Changes).
Hsing-I Chuan, a more destructive and direct martial art.
I studied these for some while under a number of different teachers but my family, and work and career interfered with my ability to pursue them in the dramatic way I had previously attempted. Nevertheless over the years I have made progress and will continue to study not only the practical but also the academic and philosophical aspects of the Chinese and other martial arts.