My style introduction...

[Laevolus]

Well, at the request of Arnisador (did I spell that right?) I thought I'd use this forum to give a brief description about the style I train in.

It's basically a freestyle MA based around Wing Chun with elemnts of lots of other styles mixed in as well, such as Western Boxing, Ju Jitsu and Aikido.

The style is called Black Cat Do and was designed by our chief instructor, Ian Winter. It's very much a style of self defence rather than sport and the basic tenets behind it are things like evasion and quick finish. He chose the rather unfortunate name as he is English and wanted an English name for it.

It's difficult for me to describe the history of it much as I don't know a lot yet, but I will do soon as I am designing the website for the club and this will be one of the pages.

I've been training in it for about 3 years now, although I did take about a year off after the birth of my daughter, and I've just recently passed my second grading

I love the style as a lot of it is very intelligent and it's constantly evolving with the several instructors always looking at the movces to see if they are practical and how they can be improved and it very much emphasises using what works best for you rather than following a strict pattern.

It does have a belt grading system, leading up to the inevitable balck belt and beyond into the Dan grades. Personally, I would love to reach the black belt grade (as I believe that's when I would truly start to learn) but I'm not sure if I ever will, what with my advancing age (I'm 30 now!! )

I'll be glad to answer any questions about it, but I can't always promise a good answer as I'm still learning about it all myself, but then, aren't we all?

thanks for listening...
Laev.

 

[arnisador]

Sounds a lot like Jeet Kune Do! I take it the emphasis is on punching, as opposed to kicking or grappling?

 

[Laevolus]

Actuall, I forgot about the very basic web prescence the club has already

Nothing spectacular, just on a local communities thing, and it would appear to be VERY out of date, there's a club photo on there and I don't recognise anyone on there!!

It's here if you want a laugh.

http://beehive.thisishull.co.uk/default.asp?WCI=SiteHome&ID=1601&PageID=6709

Later,
Laev.

 

[Laevolus]

Sounds a lot like Jeet Kune Do! I take it the emphasis is on punching, as opposed to kicking or grappling?

Actually, yeah, I have mnoticed a lot of similarities, at least in the philosophies behind it, if not entirely in the practical applications.

There is more emphasis on puches than kick, we don't feel that kicks are as useful in a street level fight for defence, they do have their uses but not as much as punches and stikes do. (shame really, as I', quite good at kicks )

at the moment we don't do a lot of grappling work, at least not ground work, although I think the instructors are planning on adding more of this to our syllabus.

There is a lot of captures, restraints and escapes though, which I probably enjoy the most.

LAter,
LAev.

 

[arnisador]

The website makes it sounds heavily kung fu influenced!

Black Cat Do style is based upon numerous classical styles such as Chin Na. Wing Chung, Black Leopard Kung Fu incorporating circular movement of aikido and western boxing.

If you have practiced a kung fu type style and would like to try a more dynamic style effective for unarmed combat contact us now!

 

[Laevolus]

[

The website makes it sounds heavily kung fu influenced!

yeah, it does, that's what i mean by out of date

It is quite influenced by that, but I think that more to do with Ian originally training in Wing Chun.

Plus, I think he was trying to make the club style easily recognisable to anyone that reads the beehive site.

That's why i'm working on a more up to date and fuller site for him....his web designs leave a lot to be desired, bless him

Later,
Laev.

 

[theneuhauser]

I love the style as a lot of it is very intelligent and it's constantly evolving with the several instructors always looking at the movces to see if they are practical and how they can be improved and it very much emphasises using what works best for you rather than following a strict pattern.

sounds like an exciting time for everyone. and the heads realize that reevaluation is crucial in those early stages, thats right on too! any black cat do in phoenix arizona? sign me up

 

[Laevolus]

[
any black cat do in phoenix arizona? sign me up

Sorry, as far as i know there's only us in little old Hull.

Still, you never now, one day in the future....world domination and all that.

.....why do I feel like I should be raising my pinkie to the corner of my mouth and have a white cat on my lap to stroke?

 

[sweeper]

personaly I always wanted a tazmanian devil, but I was always afraid it would naw through my hand or something...

 

[KennethKu]

Originally posted by Laevolus
Sorry, as far as i know there's only us in little old Hull.

Still, you never now, one day in the future....world domination and all that.

.....why do I feel like I should be raising my pinkie to the corner of my mouth and have a white cat on my lap to stroke?

LMAO Greetings, Dr. E !

 

[white dragon]

Is the only club in the UK in Hull? Not anywhere a bit more... closer to london?

 

[Laevolus]

Sorrry for dragging up an old thread, but I remembered that some people asked about our style and I thought I'd let everyone know that we have a new website that I did for the club!

It's only a basic site for now, more of an info site for people looking for agood club to train at, but if anyone has any suggestions I'll be grateful.

Be gentle though, it's my first site

 

[Laevolus]

Ofcourse, it would probably help if I actually provided the link!!

Black Cat Do

Move along now, nothing to see here...nothing to see..

 

[arnisador]

Are you in any of the pictures?

 

[Laevolus]

Yep.

I'm on the Members page under Steve Ducker and I'm also on a few of the photos page.

The photos somehow manage to make me look a lot more impressive then I actually am, benefits of have a friend who's a photography student doing the photos

 

[arnisador]

Ah, doing the flying side kick, right?

 

[Laevolus]

That's the one!

Not very realistic, I know, but I built the site, so I got to choose the pics for each page

 

[Kingston]

Black Cat Do? why is there a Do in it? doesn't Do usualy mean "the way" or "way of" in some other languages. would that mean its the way of the black cat? im confused. it would be the other Do right? not the "do not go there" Do, it would be the "way of" japanese or whatever language Do. i think im to tired:idunno: or do i have no idea what im talking about?

 

[Laevolus]

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure.

From what I can gather, whenIan (Our Chiref Instructor and style founder) created the style about 20 years ago, he decided that as he is English, he would give it an English name, bt he still wanted to reflect the history of the different styles he had done over the years, so he added the Do to show it was a martial arts.

He once told me that it was also partly an advertising trick, when new people see the name, they associate it with martial arts and so come along.

Way of the Black Cat sounds a bit daft, really

The irony is, most of the styles he studied were the Chinese Kung Fu arts, such as wing chun and chin na, and the Do part, if I remember correctly is a Japanese word, meaning Way

Ah well, it' still a great style.

 

[Master of Blades]

Originally posted by Laevolus


Way of the Black Cat sounds a bit daft, really

So does Black Cat Do........:rofl:

Still, sides the name it sounds like an interesting style :asian: