CARISMA is running a new beginners course, starting on the 19 January 2010 to run for 4 consecutive Thursday and Tuesday classes (e.g. 19, 21, 26, 28).

The club is at the moment very close to its saturation point and January is usually one of the busiest months for beginners: that means  that the following beginners’ course may be in March or later.  If you would like to join (or you know somebody who would like to) please do it on the 19th of January.

If you’d like to check our prices please look at this page.

Feel free of advertising our beginners course at your company or your social club: you can do so by downloading and printing our flyer from this page.

There is no need for booking for beginners: please just turn up at 6pm at Kelsey Kerridge Sports Hall, Queen Anne terrace, Cambridge.

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Beginners Course January 2010

Considering the great success of the latest beginners course we are going for a drink on Thurs 12 Nov at 8:30, after training.  We hope to be welcoming the beginners well as having the usual chat among regular members.

We are meeting at The Snug on East road (ex Vine): please come along and let us know if you are joining us.
Street View Here: google’s picture is out of date and still shows “The Vine”

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Drinks on Thur 12 Nov 2009

Here is a short demonstration of how to perform an axe kick to the head with the front leg:

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How to do an Axe Kick

Courtesy and Copyright © Duncan Grisby 2006

Different schools and styles of martial arts teach the hook kick (also called reversed round kick) in different ways.  Main differences manifest essentially in the way the movement originates, how the kicking leg is moving during the kick and what part of the foot hits the target that can be the hill or the sole/ball of the foot.

When I teach how to perform a hook kick, I first clarify that to maximise performance the leg should follow a whipping movement to ensure maximum acceleration of the foot toward the target.

I also suggest to always hit with the ball of the foot.  Here are for 5 good reasons both physiological and in terms of pure performance for doing that rather than the (side of the) hill, keeping the foot at 90° to the ankle:

1. better reach: having the foot extended it increases your range by nearly the full length of your foot ensuring you will hit, from the same position, targets that would not be reachable if you bend your foot.
2. stronger impact: if the angular speed of the leg moving is constant having a longer weapon (by the length of the foot) increases the speed of the foot itself, build up a higher momentum and delivers a stronger kick..
3. safer for you: the Achilles’ tendon is a weak point and if you squash it against a skull it will hurt your foot to the point you might not be able of walking for some time.  Even if the impact is not straight on the Achilles’ tendon it can still hit the many nerves that are exposed both on the internal and external part of the hill, moving toward the ankle. The ball of the foot is very well padded and can bear much stronger impact than the edge of the hill.
4. improve flexibility: with the foot fully extended the natual flexibility of the leg is highly helped; to the contrary trying to extend a leg while the tibial (shin) muscles are tensed in order to keep the ankle at 90° will have some groups of muscles that are fighting against the direction of your kick getting the muscles behind the leg less prone to extend
5. faster: if all muscles involved in the movement are pushing in the same direction and the others are simply relaxed the overall speed will be improved.

In terms of pure power the hook kick is not to be considered at the top of the scale where round kick and other forward kicks can develop much stronger impact.  Things change when spinning backward where the whole spinning momentum adds up to the actual mechanical movement of the kick itself.

Extra information about the hook kick can be found by checking this post.

As usual, any comment is highly appreciated.

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Hook kick: 5 good reasons to hit with the ball of the foot

Here is a short demonstration of how to perform a hook kick to the head with the front leg:

Any comment is, as usual, highly appreciated.

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How to do a hook kick

Due to Cambridge University’s Freshers Fair Kelsey Kerridge will not be available for Tue 6 October 2009.  Training will be held at the Rex Freeman hall in Chesterton Community College in Gilbert Road at the same time, 6:15 to 8:00pm.

Please see the directions below and I’ll see you all there:
Check the map here

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Training on Tuesday 6 October 2009

CARISMA is running a new beginners course, starting on the 20 October to run for 4 consecutive Thursday and Tuesday classes (e.g. 20, 22, 27, 29).

October is usually one of the busiest months for beginners so we might not have a beginners’s course later this year.  If you would like to join (or you know somebody who would like to) please do it on the 20th, it may be the last opportunity to join us in 2009.

Feel free of advertising our beginners course at your company or your social club: you can do so by downloading and printing our flyer from this page.

There is no need for booking for beginners: please just turn up at 6pm at Kelsey Kerridge Sports Hall, Queen Anne terrace, Cambridge.

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Beginners Course October 2009

CARISMA are pleased to announce the introduction of a new range of discounted monthly fees. These reward all members for a commitment to the club of three months up to a year with discounts equivalent to almost two free months of lessons for a full-year’s subscription!

For more details, please visit the Fees page:
http://www.carisma.org.uk/join/fees/

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New Discounted Fees

Participants at Thurston September 2009

3 victories, 1 draw and just one loss is an amazing result for the 5 fighters that entered yesterday the tournament in Bury St. Edmund:

• Heley Matthews (20), a 1^st Dan black belt instructor for CARISMA and coach for the Varsity Team of the Cambridge University Kickboxing Society, managed to dominate her opponents during all of the 3 rounds.
• Andrew Gilham (26), a green second belt with several years of experience and a number of successful fights and victories in his past, managed to easily dominate his opponent on both technique and ring strategy.
• Andrea Cristofaro (37), a martial artist with many years of experience that started kick boxing early last year, also managed to impose his own technical expertise onto a less technical opponent; Andrea was at his second official fight.
• Georgios Evangelinos (30), a blue belt with less than 3 years experience,  managed very well his skills and energies controlling a technically less capable but more aggressive opponent, finishing his first official fight in a draw.
• Nas Salmi (39), a green belt with 15 months experience, was fighting his second tournament although he recently suffered an injury and he was surely not at his best.

Once more an obvious observation should be made: apart from very few exceptions the average technical skill from other clubs is pretty low and CARISMA’s members even when beaten because of other reasons, always demonstrate superior technique, posture, guard and repertoire.

We would like to thank all fighters for their committment and dedication in representing CARISMA in such a tournament, Robin Turner for his precious assistance and for coaching Andrea to his victory and Linda Silvestri for her help in filming the event.   We are missing Andrea’s video because of technical difficulties (two fights happening at the same time and just one camera) but please have a look at the others and leave a comment:

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Three more victories for CARISMA

YouTube is full of martial arts video: nonetheless the number of decent clips about good quality kickboxing is scarce.  I recently found this video and I was impressed of the quality and the rich variety of the techniques used to cause the many KO you will see.   Good boxing with nice, tight guard, axe kicks, hook kicks, spinning back side kicks, quite an amazing repertoire.  Any comment is, as usual, appreciated:

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Best Strikes from Michael Kuhr