24/04/2007 - ZSK

University of Warwick Zhuan Shu Kuan (ZSK), Rod Richardson, Coventry, UK – 24/04/2007

Term has started up again, so I had the opportunity to go to ZSK for the first time in about 1.5 months, having had a writing meeting immediately before. There was a ZSK social at the weekend, though it effectively turned into a Warwick-Birmingham RockSoc social instead – mostly made up of Paddy’s metal mates. Despite lack of ZSK people, cool house party: instead of watching UFC 70, we went retro and relived Teila Tuli’s tooth flying past the Gold Gym sponsors at the inaugural event. Paddy’s friends all seemed pretty cool too, so hopefully we can do the house party thing again some time later in the term. Would be nice if ZSK people could make it this time, though!

Paddy isn’t going to be able to make many Tuesdays, as his PhD is (finally!) coming to an end, so getting intensive. So, that meant I took the warm-up, doing the usual run around the room thing with forty press-ups, sit-ups, leg raisers and squat thrusts, divided into sets of ten. Rod’s arrival marked a shift to the formal, with Rod going through compulsories, then moving on to forms. For the first time in a while, we did something more advanced than just the initial set of movements: if that continues, looks like I’m going to have to get some revision in, as I struggled to remember during class. As Rod suggested, I should be treating forms as a workout, given my disinterest in the traditional side of things. So, need to remember to put in as much effort as possible.

Rest of class was padwork. I was working with a guy I hadn’t seen before, Steve. Or rather, I don’t remember seeing him – he apparently started way back in 2001 and has been on and off since then, due to living in the area rather than studying at Warwick (he’s a Bristol alumnus). So I must have been in a class with him before at some point over those six years.

My punching still sucks, particularly my hooks – I find myself slipping off the target, and probably doing more damage to my knuckles than the guy I’m trying to hit. I was a little happier with my jab cross, but I lack power, and also have to watch over extending on the cross. On kicks, power is again the main problem: I should concentrate on putting my hip into it more. They were all off the front leg, which accounts for some of the weediness, but still need to be harder.

Also met another guy new to me, called Buzz (not his real name, which is a bit more complex, hence why he’s chosen that easier abbreviation). Class in general was pretty tiny, although it always is on Tuesdays, particularly now that we’re into the exam term.

I’m hoping to get people to buy rash guards with me, as the more people who order, the cheaper it gets. Rod was interested, having tried on mine after class (we’re roughly the same size, although Rod is considerably more built), so that’s at least one. As nobody has offered up any other artwork, we’ll go with the old logo Rod sent through – the only addition I might make is the Warwick crest, but I’ll see what people think. I’d also quite like to go for a short sleeve, so would be good if XFGear allow a mixture of long and short sleeve. The guy I’ve been emailing there seemed very helpful (its also where I bought my non-custom rash guard), so might well be flexible.

My main goal is to get people out to a social, so I’ll be trying to push that through on Facebook. Understandable that attendance was low at the last one, seeing as it was right at the start of term – hopefully ones later on will be more popular. Depends on when people’s exams are.