Two FA members meeting in Beijing !

Ayub and myself had a short talk yesterday morning (very short, because I was late for work and still rubbing the sleep out of my tired eyes). We haven’t set any details yet because that phone-call was given in such a hurry, but the initial idea is to meet next weekend, and look for some place to train together (probably a park, so I hope it won’t rain). I really look forward to it (partly because I miss training, but also because I’m very excited about meeting one of the members of this forum in person).

We shall keep you informed of any update, and hopefully post those pictures Matt requested with such a convincing tone in the “Chinese New Year” thread (I still haven’t a camera, but I’m precisely meant to get one this weekend: hope the timing works).

Now, I’m affraid none of us two is a very experienced MA practitionner (2 years for him if I remember right, and approximately 4 for me - but with frequent pauses and style-switches), so I guess I should warn you to expect more Qingdao beer drinking than brilliant kungfu moves . Still, this might nonetheless prove an interesting meeting (from a martial point of view, I mean), since I believe Ayub and I have rather complementary physical characteristics: I assume, from his allusion to weight-lifting, that he his a strong, well-built man; however he told me he is very stiff. I’m quite the opposite: a skinny guy, with a very small frame but a rather nice share of flexibility. So I have good hope that we shall have a lot to gain from each other.

And by the way, if there’s any other member around (I find it hard to believe there isn’t, when I see how bloody crowded Beijing is ), please join in: the more, the merrier!

Sounds good, Tash! I hope you guys can get some pictures of the [possible exaggeration]devastating hematoma and other atrocious injuries[/possible exaggeration].

Its true, we shall meet up soon hopefully. I very much look forward to it.

I am still sure we can add to each others martial arts knowledge and grow. All excited to meet another martial artist, from the site. A first for me too. I have not been in any formal martial arts classes for some time, have just been doing some of my own training, so I hope I dont dissapoint you too much.

You never mentioned which styles you have trained.

For other peoples reference I have trained:

Northern Style Shaolin Kungfu
Wing Chun
Jun Fun JKD
Boxing
Muay Thai
Sanshou

Pictures and maybe video should be up hopefully [runs to the gym]

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You never mentioned which styles you have trained.

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Oops, true. Here you go!

The first martial art I learnt was capoeira (not a very academic capoeira, though: my master was Japanese and taught a very personal form of capoeira, influenced by the many other styles he had studied, and meant for self-defense). After a year, I moved to England for a while (that’s when I started posting on this forum, by the way), and had to find a new instructor. I found an excellent jujutsu teacher (even though the dojo he was running had many of the characteristic features of a McDojo), and studied that art for a while. The next year, I moved back to France and started to look for a new master again. I tried a few dojo and finally found out that the city where I lived housed no less than the best gongfu instructor in the country. I joined his school, but kept looking for additional instruction in other styles since I still had some spare time in my weekly schedule, and finally added some iaido classes to it (I also made a few other short trials in various styles, the most interesting ones being Uechi Ryu karate and Shorinji kempo). So I’ve been studying gongfu and iaido for approximately a year and a half or so, until I was interrupted two months ago by moving to China. I was hoping this would boost my skills, but so far it has rather done quite the opposite, since my job here takes pretty much all my time and I’still without a master presently . However, I met a chinese student yesterday who might help me find an instructor (he does Chen-style taiji-quan and yi-quan, and damn he is skilled! ).

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I have not been in any formal martial arts classes for some time, have just been doing some of my own training, so I hope I dont dissapoint you too much.

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I’m afraid I’m the one who should worry about disappointing you: my skills and physical abilities certainly haven’t improved over the last two months, but the last two weeks have been quite a catastrophe , for some reasons I won’t detail here (I might post about it later, since I could really use advice from experienced practitionners).

Looking forward to that meeting. I’ve started to do some heavy liver-conditioning with Maotai-ju (for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, well, let’s say Maotai-ju is for the liver what a makiwara is for the fist. A two-inch-thick steel makiwara. Set in the Great Wall for additional stability. ).