empty"/nnWhat's up everyone, I'm new to the forum and just wanted to say hey. Hopefully I posted this in the right section!

Hi

Pleased to hear from you and welcome to the public forum.

Are you a krav practioner currently or just looking generally ?

Paul

Hi,

I'm new as well. (This is one quiet forum! Sorry, I'm used to places like IMDb where you can't stop some buggers posting!)

Anyway, my background - I'm a professional writer and editor living on Exmoor. I started KM about two years ago because my raggedy-arsed style of fighting just isn't suitable for more formal martial arts, despite being a black belt in Tomiki Aikido and having a Iaido/Aikido Sensei for a father. It's almost impossible to find a good Tomiki dojo in the West Country so I tried Ushiba, got a yellow belt in that (for just turning up I think...) and my new belt, which I'm sure was actually made of lead, caught in the mat during a rolling breakfall and ta-da! One buggered back for 5 months. So that kinda put me off Ushiba (and besides, 80% of the stuff we were doing I'd already done in Tomiki). So, still looking, I stumbled across a KM class in Exeter and have been hooked ever since.

The guys at the centre are a fantastic bunch of lads. We've got every discipline represented there from Aikido (both Tomiki and Ushiba), Tae Kwon Do and Ju Jitsu as well as plenty of people with no formal training at all. The classes are loosely controlled by Carl, who is notorious for 'breaking' Martin on a regular basis when they MMA spar and one of the best instructors I have ever met. His style may not be exactly textbook but damn, it works! We spend more time laughing than we do hitting each other and Dave's farts can clear a room faster than you can say 'pad up, people!'. All in all I love my Thursday night training sessions and am delighted to have found that KM suits me to the ground. For some time I was the only woman in the class but we've recently started to see a lot more women joining in, which proves that KM is ideal for everyone, regardless of sex, age or experience.

Right then, that's probably one of the longest posts on this forum in some time so I'll sign off now. If you're ever in Exeter check us out at Devon Krav Maga. We're the ones down a side street playing silly buggers and occasionally running out of the centre screaming in horror when Dave lets one go...

Hi Mate.

I know Carl well - say hello to the big girls blouse !! Is he still flashing his ballcock - i mean plumbing...

Tell him that ugly bald git in weston said hello. We have a great lad down your way - Mark Edwards - Taunton way mostly but lovely guy if you are up that way pop in and see him - for some krav training.

Thanks for posting

Cheers for the welcome Paul, and yeah, buggerlugs is still 'winging it' on a regular basis, although he came dangerously close to actually following a lesson plan the other night. We were shocked, I tells ya, shocked and stunned!

If I can get to Taunton some time when Mark's got a class on I'd love to pop in and say hi (I'm only about 25 miles from Taunton anyway so it's not exactly a trek and a half...)