Eye Of The Storm Martial Arts

Hello, and greetings to you all. I hope you have been well? It's been over a year since my last blog post, and for that I apologise. I said from the outset that I wouldn't write out of obligation; I would only write when I had something I consider to be of value to share. I have had a very difficult year in terms of my personal, work and family life, and I kind of lost my Dojo-Mojo somewhat.  Laat year (2024) was an amazing year for my martial arts development. I started the year having recently passing my black belt in Karate, I was training twice weekly in Karate and doing a Kickboxing class once weekly. I had some personal training sessions under Raushan Sandhu at IMA in Leeds, and fought in my first Karate competition. I attended a few seminars, started writing a martial arts blog and finished the year by getting first place in a club points sparring tournament. At 48 years old, I felt unstoppable.  This year (2025) started off much the same, and, additionally,...

For many years I have trained in martial arts, across different styles and disciplines. I've always been drawn to the traditional side of things, the self defence side. Competition has never been of interest to me. Even during the short stint I had at a Kickboxing club in 2013 a small group of us would spar for the last part of the session, but I had no desire to ever compete, at any level, be it a small interclub or regional competition. The only person I've ever been in competition with has been myself. As a cyclist, my long rides have never been about speed, always about taking in the scenery and enjoying the ride. As a runner, running 10km organized runs with my wife, who has a naturally slower pace than me, I prefer to run alongside her for company than to run ahead and get a better time. When taking on the Yorkshire Three Peaks, I waited for the slower members of our group, even though that meant missing our target time of 12 hours. Even when I took part in a ...