http://www.whitecraneacademy.com en-gb whitecraneacademy.com 2012-10-25T00:00:00Z whitecraneacademy.com http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#126831 It is all too common for students to separate training from other aspects of their lives. Martial arts shouldnt necessarily be something that you practice in isolation but a daily practice that is integrated into your everyday life. All of us would love to be able to put aside a designated amount of time to one side each day to practice and train but in reality we all have family work studies friends and many other commitments that demand our time and attention so this ideal scenario becomes almost impossible. Many people give up at this point frustrated in the lack of time to train and thinking they will never improve. The mentality to get into is one of integrating training into everyday life. Why not get up 5 or 10 minutes earlier come on you can set that alarm 5 mins earlier to go through a quick but very effective joint mobility routine see previous post have a pull up bar on one of your door frames and perform a set of pull ups as you walk through to the kitchen to put... 2012-10-25 11:12:08 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#126804 NOVEMBER CHALLENGEEarlier in the year we had the 10000 kettlebell swing challenge. This November take part in the 3000 press up challengeThats just 100 press ups per dayYou can do them in any setsreps combination any type of press up standard wide narrow Hindu clappingWho is up for the challenge 2012-10-24 15:42:25 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#123067 Joint mobility If you train for long enough and keep an eye out for whats going on around you youll see trends come and go in the martial arts and fitness worlds. In martial arts training weve seen explosions of Wing Chun mostly thanks to Bruce Lee who actually rejected this style... but thats a story for another day karate kickboxing and now everything is about MMA or as many incorrectly claim UFC. In the fitness world weve gone from a running craze to aerobics yoga to kettlebells to triathlons and zumba I may have missed one or two... but you get the point. Fashions and tends are fickle beasts and as soon as people start following the latest guru theres another one further down the line coming up with the latest fad Xtreme Zumba anyone However its always beneficial to look at the less exciting aspects of training delve a little deeper than the glitz and glamour of the latest health club boxercise class and think about whats really important and how we ... 2012-8-11 15:08:57 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#121200 2012-7-6 11:50:33 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#121199 Hello all It has been a while since the last blog but a busy few weeksmonths have seen a slight reorganisation of classes and a steady rise in attendanceWednesday and Thursday evenings continue to go from strength to strength and in Mid and West Sussex. A new Saturday morning class is about to start in East Preston on the cricket ground see timetable for details. The class will be an outdoors morning class once the autumn weather hits the the class will be moved indoors but I thought itd be a great way to start the weekend by doing some Tai Chi in the fresh air and adding an extra class as well. The cricket ground is a very pleasant enclosed area so we wont be on view for everyone to seeThe details of the Kung Fu camp competition and the grading will all be finalised soon so keep your eyes and ears open for them. As for me Im about to have a short break in Madrid for a week so get along to class support the students who are covering and Ill see you on the 14th for a nice outdoors and ... 2012-7-6 11:43:36 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#115450 Personal trainingLife often throws spanners in the works of even the most committed practioners training and if you are like me and not as committed as youd like to be these spanners can often mean a complete break from training. The big risk with this is that training is a habit and like any habit it can be broken. Sure the more you do it the harder it is to break but we all know that missing a few weeks training can become a few months and maybe even giving up altogether. All that hard work all those lessons and all the stuff youve learned slip away all too quickly and soon enough youll be saying yeah I used to do Kung Fu instead of yeah I do Kung Fu. Believe me Ive been there and done that. So this time around with the birth of another baby I really wanted to keep training even if I couldnt attend as many classes as I used to. I knew however that all my good intentions for training at home would probably come to nothing if I wasnt being pushed motivated if you prefer with challengin... 2012-3-28 10:15:31 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#113935 Apologies to regular checkers of the blog has been a busy few weeks... moving house and getting ready for the new Tai Chi class opening in a couple of weeks.Those of you who are part of the Facebook group or have been in class recently will know that myself and a few students have begun a challenge for the month of March.... to complete 10000 kettlebell swingsThose of you who have used kettlebells in the class masterclasses or at homegym will know that they are a fantastic piece of equipment and very adaptable towards the type of training we do at WCA. The swing is the basic kettlebell exercise from which all others can grow so it is really a key one to get right and practice regularly. I decided to challenge students and myself to the 10000 Swing Challenge for the month of March. That is approx 320 per day they can be completed in any weight and it seems weights ranging from 12kg 32kg are being used and they can be completed using whatever setrep system the student wants to use. So ... 2012-3-5 15:05:45 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#111633 I am glad to see that everyone is sticking to their new year resolutions and weve made a great start to 2012 at WCAMany clubs are struggling to grow these days so its great to see some new faces and the enthusiasm of existing students to keep on training On top of new students we have new arrivals and potential future members as Hamish and family celebrated the birth of their son Archie in January congratulations to the McDermid clanIn addition to the existing classes running at present I will be opening a kickboxing class in West Sussex. Keep your eye on the site for more information on its way very soonRemember to keep up to date with Twitter WCAcademy and the ever growing Facebook group tooAs well as this the first masterclass of 2012 is almost upon us Kettlebells in the Haywards Heath hall from 10am 12pm on Saturday 18th February. Mark. 2012-2-2 14:19:15 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#111322 I had wanted to start martial arts for years but something always seemed to get in the way lack of time nervousness about starting classes there always seemed to be an excuse. Just over two years ago I finally decided to just go for it. I thought about Karate KungFu Aikido but something in me always thought KungFu was the coolest probably something to do with Bruce Lee Jackie Chan and Jet li Searching on Google I never realised just how many styles of Kung Fu there were and how many schools there are locally. I decided that probably the best thing would be to go along to a couple of different styles and see which one I preferred. To be honest I never made it past White Crane From my first lesson I was hooked. Kicks blocks punches ground fighting and grappling weapons and thats just the Kung Fu Theres also Tai Chi including more weapons and Chinese Kickboxing there is just so much you can learn with White Crane and as a student of White Cr... 2012-1-28 16:29:32 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#110840 Kettlebell Masterclass Feb 18th 10am12pm. Haywards Heath.The first masterclass of the year is certainly not one to be missed last year the kettlebell masterclass proved to be one of the most popular extra curricular classes for WCA students..... and this year will be bigger and better than everThe crossover and benefits you gain from kettlebell training for your Tai Chi Kung Fu and Kickboxing is immense.... articles can and have been written on the subject and indeed I am in the process of writing more. You can expect a review and expansion of the exercises we worked on last year the swing clean and press as well as moving on to the kettlebell windmill as well as a few surprises along the way. The kettlebell windmill is an almost unbeatable exercise when it comes to developing a strong yet flexible core and is also great for shoulder strength and stability. So it is defintely something you should be interested in and motivated to do... it will have a direct and great benefit for al... 2012-1-21 18:01:28 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#110561 Well done to Andrew who passed his first grading and picked up his red sash last night Always good to see students moving onwards and upwards 2012-1-17 16:09:19 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#109685 ...it is not daily increase but daily decrease Bruce Lees famous quote precisely sums up the subject of this blog. Whether it is in your martial arts training or in general strengthfitness training both of which are covered in this blog keeping things simple is quite simlply the best way to go I often find myself saying in class as my instructors said to me and his instructors said to him and so on and so on..... that the more advanced practitioner isnt someone who knows all the flash moves like jumping kicks or spinning backfists its the person who has practised the basics for longer and more diligently. For all of its complexity martial arts training is essentially quite simple train hard and keep things simple by working on your basic techniques and forms regularly and you will improve. I like to think of it as building a house. Id much prefer to have a home built on solid foundations than forget the foundations and skip straight to building a fancy conservatory Going back ... 2012-1-4 14:27:05 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#109580 Well it is the start of a new year and I am looking forward to what will hopefully be a great year for everyone. I have just finished the calendar of events for 2012 so take a look at the list of Kung Fu and Tai Chi masterclasses and events if you havent already I am really excited to be offering Online Personal Training now and am enjoying working with me first online clients I am not a great believer in resolutions or anything like that. I think that if you want to start something or quit something.... right here and now whenever that may be is the best time But I do think at certain times were more prone to reflect and make plans.... and the new year is a good time to do this. So whatever your aims are for the new year..... I hope your health and fitness are part of them and I am looking forward to all the teaching and training in the year ahead 2012-1-3 15:04:18 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#108788 A major aspect of any martial arts training should be about balance. At the WCA we are fortunate enough to offer Tai Chi Kung Fu and Chinese Kickboxing which allows students to train in an internal soft style Tai Chi right through to the other end of the spectrum with a hard style weekly kickboxing class. As well as a balance of styles its also important to balance out any strength and conditioning program. It is often tempting to push out lots of press ups without thinking about working the muscles required in a pulling motion or squats are often done for countless reps leaving the posterior chain all the muscles you cant see in a mirror neglected. Training in this way unfortunately leads to one inevitable outcome injury I was speaking to a work colleague the other day and he was telling me how he just goes to the gym and feels lost meandering from one exercise to another.... ones that he feels comfortable with. I introduced him to the concept of balancing out his training and ... 2011-12-15 15:51:44 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#108761 With the kickboxing and kung fu classes on a Wednesday students are really getting to see two distinct styles within the White Crane Academy system. With the kickboxing first the lesson covers all the areas of modern Chinese kickboxing. A lot of emphasis is based on fitness and conditioning as well as all the skills and techniques essential to the sport of kickboxing. After the kickboxing session the kung fu lesson focuses on the more traditional aspects of the style. As White Crane is a forms based system once we have had a good warm up and stretch its a great chance to explore the White Crane forms and all of their martial applications. I am sure students will agree its a real eye opener and a great way to develop effective self defence skills if practiced regularly. One of the great things about a system like the one taught at WCA students can pick and choose individual aspects of the system that they want to focus on.... whether thats Kickboxing Tai Chi or Kung Fu..... or to ... 2011-12-15 11:33:41 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#108667 Great to give out more sashes last night. Its always rewarding to see students develop their skills and earn the rewards of their first sash learning a new form after a grading and moving up to becoming a senior student and taking on more responsibility within the club. So well done Matt and David S. for earning your blue and red sashes respectively. 2011-12-13 16:10:42 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#108593 I am currently planning the calendar for next year...... any requests for masterclasses they may be taken into consideration... 2011-12-12 15:26:01 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#108354 After resting up for a week or so after my knee operation it was great to be back in class teaching last nightIn sparring we did a lot of work on ducking bobbing and weaving to avoid strikes and kicks from your opponent and followed up with Kung Fu and some very nice hidden martial applications from the first form. I am pleased to say that Danny received his red sash for passing his first grading and Hamish received his blue sash for becoming a senior student So well done Danny and HamishRoll on Monday..... 2011-12-8 10:13:38 http://www.whitecraneacademy.com/page2.htm#108240 Sashes will be given out tomorrow and Monday for those who passed their first gradings and the senior students who have earned their blue sashes 2011-12-6 14:26:27