On Thursday afternoon we were able to get a swim to loosen up and grab an hour of sleep before our first training session. Upon arriving at the gym we got the chance to meet the highest ranking, and founding members of Moo Duk Kwan in the Philippines. It was humbling to meet at 7th Dan judo master sweeping the gym floor and polishing the mirrors.
It was nice to see that the younger members of the Moo Duk Kwan preparing the Dojang for classes in the evening. We’ll have to bring that sense of work ethic back to instil in our own young people!
After our first session it was easy to see why Steve Grandeza is an undefeated world champion. The session was pretty gruelling, but enjoyable, and we all gained a lot from it. It was pity when Alvin informed us that we were getting it easy for our first session.
Davy at the Moo Duk Kwan Gym
We had the honour of being invited to a birthday party with Alvin and his family immediately after training, which was great as there was loads of food, and we were starving!
We left the party around 10pm so we could get some sleep, given that we had to get up at 3.45 for our next session at 5am. A run through the streets of Davao got us nicely warmed up for drills and sparring in a shopping centre car park in the city. It was great training as the sun rose, marred only by the fact that we had to do knuckle press-ups on the rough concrete.
4am Pre-Training Coffee (It gets light here at 5am)
A shiatsu massage in the afternoon helped loosen us up for the evening session, and before you think it was anything risqué, the massage was almost as painful as the training.
Our 3rd session really stepped things up a bit, and we all only have a few bruises so far. We were able to experience Steve’s impressive side kick. Luckily the gym had concrete walls to stop me travelling any further, after being kicked.
We’re getting it easy on Saturday morning, as our session doesn’t start until 6am. We have also found out that we are going to be getting additional training in Arnis (Filipino stick fighting) on Monday. Suddenly I feel as if I haven’t brought enough tiger balm.
