The Thunder

December 2014

The wonderful thing about Tukido is, once you are in it or have experienced it, then no matter how far you travel it invariably travels with you.

I currently live in a city called Ningbo, on the east coast of China (it’s a two hour train ride from Shanghai). Since it is near the coast, but slightly to the south, in the late summer it often picks up the edges of typhoons and thus has some fantastic storms. At the end of August in Ningbo we had one of these fantastic thunder storms, and this one lasted for around three to four hours!

My usual evening habit is to return home after work and do some exercise in my flat – press-ups, twist trunk curls, twin foot raising, etc, then some basic Tukido movements, or if the weather is good, Sparring Forms outside. I am very lucky that I have windows on three sides of my flat and these are very large, so I get an excellent view of outside. That evening, in order to appreciate the storm, I kept all the lights out in the flat as I did my workout.

lightning

The university I work for is a satellite campus for a British one and its very un-Chinese style clock tower is now a local landmark. These and the other images are screen grabs from videos I took that evening on my walk back from work.The university I work for is a satellite campus for a British one and its very un-Chinese style clock tower is now a local landmark. These and the other images are screen grabs from videos I took that evening on my walk back from work.

When I began my Tukido career in 1994, I was extremely lucky to join the Kirkintilloch club since at time Grandmaster Teh taught regularly there. Thus, I had the very good fortune to receive direct teaching from a world class master, as Grandmaster is, for many years.

Training away in the dark interrupted by regular flashes of lighting outside the windows reminded me of many years ago at the Woodhead Centre in Kirkintilloch (now Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre) training in one of Grandmaster Teh’s classes. At this time, I was possibly a Yellow or a Green Belt. It was already dark outside, and although there were black clouds in the sky it was a very hot evening, so Grandmaster Teh had opened up the fire escape doors at the corner of the hall. Grandmaster Teh had all the students (around twenty of us) doing a movement combination in free direction, when suddenly there was a tremendous crash of thunder from outside and all the lights went out. Before any of us had a chance to react, Grandmaster Teh boomed across the hall: ‘Keep going!’. And so we did! Kicking and punching in the pitch black hoping not to hit each other and being lit up by the occasional flash of lightning from outside. An extremely memorable experience!3

Back in my Ningbo flat, once I was on that train of thought, the crashes and flashes from outside also reminded me of a focus pad seminar Grandmaster Teh gave in Irvine a few years ago, which some of you reading this may have been lucky enough to attend. Among the various combinations Grandmaster Teh demonstrated that evening was a combination of Backfists which really has to be seen rather than described. With the sudden pauses followed by bursts of explosive energy typical of Tukido, and these being delivered by the Grandmaster who created them(!!!), the poor Instructor holding the pads for Grandmaster Teh had a very tough time of it! This particular combination had been named by Grandmaster Teh ‘The Thunder!’ and was certainly a force to be reckoned with!

4

The final strike I caught on film, just narrowly misses the tower block I live in! It seems to have hit the river (same one as in the pictures above) that runs by the flats. Phew!

With all those thoughts running through my head and the constant crashing of the storm outside, it was a great workout that night! Probably the hardest Tukido training I have done since leaving Scotland. The miles from Ningbo to the nearest Tukido club are many distant, but both Tukido and Grandmaster continue to be a constant inspiration.

Good luck to you all with your continued training, and having the benefit of a Grandmaster regularly teaching, grading and overseeing championships! No matter how far you run, Tukido will always catch you!


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