Choi Kwang Do still feels great

Predlet 2.0 and I are still very much enjoying our now biweekly Choi Kwang Do sessions with South Coast CKD. We started on the Tuesday family sessions in Sarisbury Green but now regularly head out to Fareham for the Thursday family session then he takes a rest whilst I join the adult class. Yes a double session ! It is not so much a social occasion in gossip and human relationships but a social occasion in a shared goal and helping one another enjoy the training. It is a real pleasure training with everyone not to mention we have a great Sabumnim in Mr Webster - Pil Suhng Sir!
I am still mixing this with my daily dose of UFC Kinect training, which is primarily a gym workout at home with lots of press ups and weights. It does have punches and kicks of course but I now modify the straight locking punches of that code with the rolling round punches of CKD. The Kinect sensor and the application only really count the direction, which it great, if it sees a fist coming forward from the right it does not cause it problems or mark you own for rolling with the punch. The CKD patterns and combinations also give me something to focus on in the free striking sessions on the Xbox.
It used to be when doing the UFC workout over the past year that I was trying to clear my mind of the days stresses and strains. Now when I do it I am concentrating on what it means for the CKD training which makes it much more meditative.
CKD is proving to be hard work, but also very rewarding and relaxing. As with everything thing effort is relative to your capabilites. The lack of competitive tension  may seem counter intuitive if people want an art that is about winning, but it seems to fit my attitude.
I thought about this some more and I think that CKD is like Blues and Jazz compared to other arts that may be more Classical or Operatic. It has some scales and some forms but much of it is about a flow of improvisation and relaxed enjoyment whilst telling a story. In many ways it also becomes a set of dance movements too but with a real meaning and intent behind them. These are real punches and kicks after all. The technique used to wind up a punch and return to deliver the next blow seems pretty real!
We do also, in particular in the adult classes get to unleash some physical aggression though on pads and shields which makes it a real mix of relaxing Blues jams and frantic high impact Jazz numbers.
CKD has just had its 25th anniversary but it is of course built on the foundation of many years of traditional martial arts. I am sure it is regarded as slightly quirky in mainstream aggressive competitive martial arts, but then I like quirky :)