On Saturday the 30^th of August IL Shim Melbourne hosted an IL Shim squad training session prior to the ITF Victorian Challenge tournament. The training session was conducted by Mr Frans Christensen (V degree) and Mr Gerard Kelly (IV degree).

The warm up commenced with some general loosening up but we quickly moved into stretching. We then ran through strengthening exercises for the adductor muscles. Adductor strength helps to keep the front leg up for quick sidekicks.

The sparring drills included front leg sidekicks to a target and then moved onto hook kicks. I particularly liked this drill as the aim is to score points as well as drawing a warning for being kicked in the back. The opponent uses a turning kick off the rear leg, to counter a hook kick is used off the rear leg. The hook kick allows you to turn inside the turning kick which then strikes the back.

We then moved onto the “Bull Rush” or blitz punching, first with one front jab and then onto using both hands.

We then moved onto more advanced drills to try and suck the opponent into jumping back kick. The premise was to use a front leg turning kick, follow through and turn the back to your opponent. The opponent seeing an opportunity to attack is then set up for a jumping back kick.  

The session ran for 3 hours and we covered a lot of drills useful in tournament sparring. It was a tough but very beneficial workout prior to the tournament on the Sunday.

Photos available here

Aberdeen Master Class – August 2011

On Wednesday 27^th of July Master Daher conducted a Master class at Aberdeen ILShim club. Many of the new students were “first timers” for a seminar with Master Daher and were full of nerves, not knowing what to expect.

The seminar was a mix of revision on some of the basic techniques that we had learned during previous Master Classes, followed by some more advanced self defence moves that really had everyone “rolling around on the floor”. Master Daher demonstrated a number of scenarios, followed by moves that were extremely effective at controlling an attacker. As these were more advanced moves, it was made very clear to the younger ones that some of these techniques were only to be practiced under supervision in class, “not at home on your brother or sister”.  It was a rare privilege indeed, to see Master Daher in full flight whilst demonstrating some of these techniques, and to witness just how capable this man really is.

With a twisted sense of humour, a great indication of how well the class went was the amount of stiff and sore bodies reported over the next few days. As always everyone who participated in the seminar left feeling that they had really enjoyed the day and couldn’t wait until the next “Master class”.

Check out the Photos here