Chung Do Kwan Northern Ireland

No training on Sunday so we went to the swimming baths. It was more like an aqua park and there were slides for the kids and a zip line over head. We had plenty to eat too, and I think Xenia is doing her best to counteract the slimming effect of Steve’s training!

It was an eventful outing too. When Ian was watching the karaoke singers, Davy and I looked over to see a tanned, darker haired figure with a leopard print mini-skirt and black thong bikini clearly showing at the back handing over a hastily scribbled phone number to Ian. Davy and I asked ourselves, is he really giving Ian his phone number? He was. We laughed. Ian didn’t. We did come to the Philippines to experience new things, but you have to draw the line somewhere!

We rounded Sunday off with a shiatsu massage. It was then that we were reminded of all the knocks and bruises we’d picked up during the week!

On Monday we has our Arnis (Eskrima/strick fighting) lesson and Master Mario took the time to let us experience the competitive sporting side of the art. It was great to watch, but I became a little more apprehensive when handed a helmet and some pads. It’s a very fast sport, and my main memory is of the “ding” that the stick made when hitting your helmet (which was a lot)! It was great fun though.

We had our last session with Steve on Monday after Arnis class. Steve finished the class by showing us the next step in Muay Thai training, just to let us know the sort of thing we would learn in the future. He also gave us an introduction to some combat/self-defence techniques. During some of the wrist locks I didn’t realise my hand could twist back so far, although I’m sure my Arnis will improve as a result!

On Tuesday we spent the day at a farm. Another fantastic day out and we got to try even more new foods, including 100% pure cocoa, grown on the farm. The chocolate was bitter, to say the least, but the day was fascinating, and we has such a laugh with our hosts. The farm was south of Davao, and it covered 5 hectares. It was breathtaking to stand at the boundary of coconut tree fields and rice fields, looking out to the rainforest covered mountains in the distance and knowing there were no towns or cities in between.

It is now Wednesday mid-morning and sadly we’re about to head home. The trip has been fantastic, Filipinos are really friendly and we’ve made some great friends here. Steve’s training has exceeded our expectations and we were really pleased to be given Moo Duk Kwan and Muay Thai certificates.

We would all love to come back again although Ian says he’s shaving his head next time, partly to avoid unwanted attention, and partly because Davy was told how handsome he was a number of times. I’d like to spend more time wandering around the shopping malls, as the girls here seem to think I’m tall and handsome! Must be a glitch in the matrix…

The intensity of the training continues to increase, but its very rewarding. What we normally do as conditioning and fitness training, back home after we’ve warmed up, is what Steve has us doing at 5am as our pre-stretching warm-ups. Sparring is a lot trickier too when the floor is soaked with sweat!

After Friday morning’s training we got the chance to train with professional firearms combat trainers. These guys train the police and the army in effective and rapid combat response. Davy, of course, went straight for the 45 (the highest calibre handgun) and was essentially our response team leader for our rapid-fire combat drills. The weather was fantastic and it was great fun, although the emphasis was upon responsible gun ownership and use. Incidentally, citizens are allowed to own handguns in the Philippines (within certain parameters), we haven’t come here to train as assassins.

When you work hard you get to play hard, so on Saturday we still got up around 4am and met with Steve, but we also met up with our now familiar friends from Alvin’s family and we hopped on a ferry and went to Samal Island, which is in the large bay of Mindinao just south of Davao City.

Samal Island is known as paradise island, and for a very good reason. As if the tropical conditions in Davao aren’t enough, where you are surrounded by rainforest, and coconuts and various other fruits grow in abundance, Samal Island is surrounded by white coral sands and azure sea. We had a bit of picnic and a swim in the sea before hopping onto a boat that we had chartered to take us round the smaller island adjacent to Samal. Well, you can never have too much of a good thing!

When we got to the smaller island we found a small cove where we could swim for a while and have some mid-morning snacks. Despite being in a secluded cove on a small island, off another island, the people on the only other boat there recognised Steve and had to get their photographs with him before he got a chance to have a splash about in the sea. It was strange to think of the guy that has been training us for the past week and half as being an actual celebrity. Of course, by the time it happened later at the waterfalls we were sort of used to it.

We continued round the island, had a swim at a coral reef (awesome) and more snacks and we finished the day almost as tired as on our normal training days, given the amount of swimming that we had done!

Barely able to stay awake, we still decided to go out for dinner. At the café, the pizza looked like a pretty good choice, but there was only a choice of a slice, or a full pizza. In order to ascertain the size of the pizza to decide whether to get a slice, or go for the whole thing, I asked the girl how big a whole pizza was. “8 slices”, came the response. When I asked again, trying to make my point by gesturing with my hands like a fisherman boasting about his catch, the girl reiterated “8 slices”. Thanks to Alvin we finally agreed on the criteria for defining size so the girl showed us a round tray about 10” across. As that seemed a manageable size of pizza we ordered one each. Little did we know that the 10” tray held a 14” plate holding a 14” pizza! Admittedly they were cut into 8 slices each!

Sunday was the hottest day here, so far. Sundays are also our day off. At this stage we’d only had 2 days training but we were beginning to feel the effects of training hard in the heat and humidity.

A few lengths of the pool and some light stretching preceded a stroll around the City in the midday sun, an hour into which we could vaguely remembering Alvin telling us not to go out between  12:00 and 3:00! The local people are friendly, although they do think we’re American and shout “Hey, Joe!” at us as we pass by. The children, being unfamiliar with Gi Joe, just shout “Hey, man!” and run over for a high-five!

5am Monday saw us out running through the City to get to the car park at the Victoria Plaza Shopping Mall for our drills and sparring. The Plaza is a popular place for Filipinos to exercise and there are lots of people exercising by the time the sun comes up. During our training I look over at one of the groups leisurely practicing tai-chi and wonder if I’ve picked the wrong martial art!

On Monday night we got our first Arnis/Eskrima lesson before our normal training with Steve. The lesson was fascinating and it’s a very graceful martial art, though you wouldn’t have been able to tell from watching us. This also meant that we were already warmed up for Steve’s lesson, so he was able to start beasting us right away!

We finished Monday’s training session with boxing training. I can only assume that we all make amusing expressions after being punched in the face, because the more Steve hit us, the more he laughed! Normally we wouldn’t write on the internet that we’ve been punched about the head in training, but given that Steve Grandeza does 12 rounds with Manny Pacquiao’s sparring partner on his lunch breaks, its not so bad.

It was raining when we finished our training. I’ve never been so glad to see rain. It only rains at night here, and the rain is warm, but it was still more refreshing that the stifling heat of wearing a headguard in a hot gym. It only rains at night here, which makes a perfect balance.

On Tuesday morning Steve told us that we were going to stretch out our muscles to loosen up. It sounded that it was going to be pretty relaxing. It was as relaxing as doing the splits with someone sitting on your back can be!

Tuesday evening included moulding training (conditioning the body to take blows), which wasn’t fun, although by the end of the night Davy had perfected his 540 degree tornado kick..

We’re almost halfway through our training, but we also seem to be halfway through all the varieties of food that the Philippines has to offer. Roll on our next meal…I mean… session!

Following Friday night’s training we were invited to another family function with Alvin and his family and friends. It was great to socialise and the hospitality was fantastic. I could certainly get used to this!

Well, Saturday morning’s training session has been the most draining so far. So much for the later start! We’ve all lost about 1kg in real terms, but we’re sweating out 2 – 3kg of water at each training session. Ian even lost a few grams of skin.

We donned boxing gloves for our  punching work this time, not because we use boxing gloves in martial arts, but to make our hands heavier. An additional 12oz doesn’t seem like much, but give it an hour!

We also found out that if your body doesn’t go into the shape required to do a certain kick, Steve will soon make your body go into that shape.

We travelled into the hills surrounding Davao city to visit an Eagle sanctuary and a wildlife park. The journey itself was as fascinating as the parks. Finishing the day-out with some traditional Filipino ice-cream dishes was a pleasant treat.

I also seemed to have sussed out the driving criteria for the Philippines. It seems that everyone has right of way. Whether you get to exercise your right of way is directly proportionate to the size of your vehicle. If you need to cross the lane of on coming traffic you just turn in and assume everyone will stop, and at crossroads you just drive on into the middle and hope for the best, perhaps accompanied by a toot of the horn for good measure. The journeys in the car have become more entertaining than frightening, although some times is hard to tell whether our laughter is due amusement or fear!

We get Sunday off to recover. Brilliant!

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.

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.

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.