21 Activities

Kickboxing and Mixed Martial Arts - The Martial Arts School - 23/4/10

2010-05-04T23:39:00.000-07:00

After our positive experience at the Karate class last week, we were looking forward to what would be an 'interesting' 3 hours - and we wern't dissapointed!

What we received could only really be described as a 'beasting'!

STAGE 1: Kickboxing (1 hr)

We started off with a cool 30 mins cardio warm-up which included such pleasantries as "Touchdown suicides", "Jumping Jacks" and "Dorsel raises" to which me and Kis were not accustomed too, but attacked with our usual vigour.

After our beasting we finally got down to some kickboxing! We learnt a few punches and kicks

before putting our new-found skills to the test on actual 'victims'.....

....and even more painfully, becoming the victims.....

...for the remainder of the first hour. The kickboxing class was over and we had survived!

STAGE 2: Mixed Martial Arts (2 hrs)

Thankfully, we had another warm-up......

.....before getting a little more hand-on with eachother. Again, we were shown some moves step-by-step and then asked to put them into practice. These moves were more complicated and far more aggressive. People were even being "put to sleep" throughout - scary stuff!

But it was all in jest and very much controlled and no serious injuries ensued!

For the last hour of this event, we were advised that it was going to get too aggressive for beginners. What we witnessed suprised both of us. An all-out brawl! On went the gloves and out came the punches! It was a sight to behold.

We however, after taking our leave of the main class, were being tutored by a guy called Tony. We were advised that he was one of the most highly qualified Martial Arts instructors in Great Britain and his appearence at the club was a rare occurance, so to get the chance to train with him was fantastic!

He taught us some Aikido moves that proved very effective, quite painful and very methodical before we had a quick warm-down before finishing what had been a very interesting and very worth-while session.

In conclusion:

It's suprising how much you can pick up in three hours, and after the initial effort to keep pace with the warm up, we found we acually managed to last the whole two sessions! Obviously we were tired, but we both felt amazed that we'd managed to last and even more amazed at how good we felt at the end! Both of these sports are a terrific work out, and Im sure regular attendance would increase your strength, stamina and focus phenominally - so they both get our seal of approval!

Just make sure you don't need to do anything physically difficult for the next week! The next day can only be descirbed as..... arthritic! On a serious note, we ached for a week after this event and it really proved how much work we had actually done. Kickboxing and Martial Arts are fantastic workouts and for anyone serious about losing weight, or improving stamina they are a MUST!

Many thanks to Tyrone Power (Far right), Mikee French (4th right at back) and Tony (second left) for having us along and taking photos throughout. They all instruct at the Martial Arts School, Northampton. If you are interested in taking part, you can atttend any of the classes shown here.

Dentokan - Karate - 16/4/10 Northampton High School For Girls

2010-04-19T03:58:00.000-07:00

So, Event 3 of 21 was a Karate lesson with the Dentokan Karate and Self Defence Class.

As a prelude to this event, Kis had already promised to kick my backside so I was feeling pretty nervous as we arrived. My nerves weren't helped much after a short introduction to the trainers - Eddie and Jo, who then kindly allowed me to step forward in front of 50 odd people to deliver a short (unprepared) speech explaining why we were attending and what we hoped to get out of the event!

Soon, after a quick warm up, we were straight into the action. We watched as Eddie and Jo gave a full bloodied demonstration of each technique, and we were all asked to pair up and copy it.

Me and Kis worked together so we only had ourselves to blame for black-eyes and bloody noses, and we got to it.

We were lucky enough to received the expert tuition of Jo, who really helped explain things and Kismet seemed to grasp things rather better than me!

After the first 4/5 techniques, we thought we were doing rather well......then they stepped it up a gear. The next 3/4 techniques became really clever and (to us) complicated, in the end we had to call in the help of another couple who have obviously been attendding for some time. They helped explain some of the theory behind the moves and made them seem a lot less compliacted.

In the end, I just resorted to what I knew best...... :)

Donations:

The kind people that attended the class generously donated £20 towards our £1000 target, which we are most grateful for and that takes our total upto nearly £200 so far! Fantastic!

In conclusion:

Both me and Kis were amazed by just how much we learned in just one lesson, and how enjoyable it actually was! It's a fantastic sport which quite evidently has many many followers around the world and now we know why. Grabbing, throwing and getting to grips with each technique was a lot more fun than both Kis or I thought it would be and again, we would definately recommend this for as many people as possible. I believe it costs just £5 per person per lesson, or there's a membership you can buy (speak to Eddie for more details on that).

Event 2 - Badminton - Lings Forum 9/4/10

2010-04-16T03:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it's a late update from me unfortunatelty! Sorry Folks!

But, just to let you know, Kis is now back on board and taking part in the activities which is great news!!

Our first event together was Badminton! Kis has never played before and I haven't played since school so it was with some trepidation that we decised on this one!

We arrived and gingerly carried the KeepFitFriend banner through the masses of people attending their various sports and set about playing badminton.

Lings Forum kindly let us borrow some racquets for free as a goodwill gersture so we got going!!

We learnt how to serve pretty fast and it wasn't long before Kis had me running all over the show......and falling all over the place!

We decided with our lack of experience that a couple of games to 21 would be in order. Obviously we didn't really know how to play so just had a good laugh and everytime the shuttlecock hit the floor would award a point! (Which we didn't think were the actual rules but they would suffice!)

So, after some fast paced action, Kis ran out the eventual winner of both games - 21-19 & (even more embarassingly for me) 21-15. I was on the recieving end of a hammering! But it was all in the name of good fun!

<-- Now this is the face of our overall winner. As you can see, all in a days work for Kismet!

In conclusion:

Turns out it is a brilliant game!! Not only is it fast action, but it's energetic but not so much that you really notice how hard you're pushing. It really keeps you occupied and entertained. We would definately recommend it for anyone looking to get back into sport!

Badminton - Lings Forum - 7:30 - 9/4/10

2010-04-09T01:42:00.000-07:00

As the Football was cancelled this week, I have managed to sort a badminton session for today to keep up the pace for the campaign.

It's a good little stop-gap and I hear quite a work out so should be fun had all round!

Will let you all know how we get on tomorrow!

Toodles!

21 Miles For Change - Review

2010-04-04T03:23:00.000-07:00

Having recovered enough now to write on the blog, I can do the write up!!

Well, what can I say other than it was an overwelming success! After arriving a little bit late (1st event jitters methinks), we all pitched in to get the event set up, with Northampton's own Damien Moss joining us from the start and lending some celebrity help.

Unfortunately, Damien was (rather convieniently :) ) injured and unable to rack up a couple of miles for us, even after I offered to provide some Roller Skates and strapping! So, he was along for delegation and a royal laugh - mainly at me since he knew what was coming.....

I like to see people in pain for a good cause! - Damien Moss

On a serious note though, what a great sport! Thanks for coming down and we wish you all the best for the future and good luck on your return from injury in a couple of weeks or so! Hopefully see you representing Great Britain at the Olympics 2012.

With Keep Fit UK.com providing the treadmill and now no less than 3 runners, we looked odds on to complete our task and convincingly too! We also had representation from the Lowdown in the form of Richard and Mark who are old hats at this kind of thing and had a lot of really helpful hints, tips, balloons and sweets!

As soon as we were nearly ready, Sarah jumped straight on the treadmill and in one stint, managed her 7 miles in a time of 1hr 40 mins! Great work and great preperation for the Race for Life she's doing in June! She made it look easy and at this point, I was ready to do 10 miles! Little did I know what was in store..

Then came a bit of a photoshoot with Richard and the Chronicle and Echo - we are still waiting to hear if we made it into the paper, but it was nice of them to come along either way.

Next up into the hotseat was Charlie Batchelor -Sarah's Daughter. Taking on responsibility beyond her years, not only was she leading the way in terms of collecting donations and spreading the word about the event, she then managed to notch up 3 and a half miles in a single go! Excellent! By this time (not even 12 o'clock!), we were well on the way to hitting our target!

So, it was my turn. With what had transpired before, I had a couple of benchmarks laid down for me. I was about to discover how well they'd both done.........

With advice from Damien ringing in my ears......

Keep it at a steady pace, its not a sprint

......I hopped on and stupidly (hindsights a wonderful thing) set off at a blistering pace. Within 10 minutes I looked like a beetroot! I couldn't believe how far just 1 mile was! Everytime I thought I'd done a mile, I'd done half. It was seriously hard work.

I had to look deep within myself and eventually slipped into the 'the zone' for what seemed like a long time - turns out it was only for a mile! I honestly thought I was going to pass out on more than one occasion!

After an hour of toil, I decided to call it quits after 4.5 miles with my intention to come back and finish my other 2.5 miles later. I'd set the target in my mind as was going to achieve it! But I knew now just how well Sarah and Charlie had done!

At this time Damien left us having stuck around for 4 hours or so - I'm sure I could see him chuckling to himself all the way out - and having filled in some gaps and walking about half a mile for us.

Then came Gary Smith - a friend of Jamie and Keep Fit UK.com. He's training for the London Marathon this year and it showed, with a quick 3.5 miles he made it look easy! Thanks for your support Gary and good luck at the marathon!

So, we were on 18 miles and it was about 1:45pm - we were sure by now we'd make it by 5pm!

After Gary came my best friend Andy Summers. Drafted in last minute (and forgetting his trainers....), Andy had so far been unsure as to how many miles he would complete or even if he would be needed! But, needed he was and within 30 minutes, we had hit our target! 3 miles achieved at again, a blistering pace, we managed it at 2.15pm!

Charlie then put in another mile stint before I stepped up to complete my remaining 2.5 miles! Rather more slowly this time!

Andy put the finishing touch to the run and carried us over marathon distance with another 1.5 miles and took his personal tally to 5 miles for the day! An excellent return in the 1st event of 21activities!

So, heres how we finished up:

Sarah Batchelor - 7 miles
Charlie Batchelor - 4.5 miles
Anthony Brindley - 7 miles
Gary Smith - 3.5 miles
Andy Summers - 5 miles
(Damien Moss - 0.5 miles)

During the course of the day, we had a lot of interest and donations came thick and fast! We finished up with just over £90 in the collection boxes, as well as sponsorship money from friends and family, which is a significant step towards the £1000 target for the campaign!

Thanks to all the participants and an even bigger thanks to those of you that generously donated to the cause. We do hope you'll continue to follow the campaign and maybe get involved in some of the events further down the line!

I'd love to hear any feedback you have about the event and/ or the campaign, so please feel free to leave messages!

For now, I'm off to recover some more!

Next event - Monday 5th April - I will be taking part in a 6-a-side game againd the NTFC multi-disabled team. See how I get on in the next 21activities installment!

Last minute change!

2010-03-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hi people,

Unfortunately, due to personal reasons, Kismet has dropped out of the 21activities campaign. But I will be slogging on to make sure things are as successful as possible.

It means that I'm going to need even more support from you to get through this monster campaign! Messsages of support will help, as will donations etc!

May we just take a minute to wish Kismet every success in the future. Thanks for everything.

See you all Friday - Weston Favell. 21 miles for change.

Donation Widget

2010-03-23T23:36:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is our donation button enabling you to support ME and Kis through this campaign. Please dig deep and help our cause, we really appreciate all the support we can get!!

Race for Life, 9th June, 7pm - 5k @ Silverstone Circuit

2010-03-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

Hi again all!! Just a quick update to let you know about Kismet's participation in yet another charity event this year - the Cancer Research 5k Race for Life!

Kismet has wanted to do this for the last 2 years and finally is getting the chance to this year, so she's really really up for the challenge and hoping to raise some significant money for another great cause!

It should be a fantastic day out and an experience all round! I hope you'll all join me in wishing Kismet the best of luck and support throughout!

We will be adding a donation button to this blog and the website in the near future for anyone generous enough to lend their support!

Bye for now!

The Lowdown 21 Campaign Launch - 1st April, The Bantam!

2010-03-09T23:00:00.000-08:00

Everyone needs a starting point, and dutifully it's been provided here @ the Bantam! An evening for all potential "21-ers" to get together and bounce ideas off eachother, get fired up or just get freaky!

This is the lauch party for The Lowdown 21 campaign - I understand it will be a FREE ENTRY live music night with food and drink on tap!!

You can join the facebook events page here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10150112409840343 so start spreading the word!!!

See you all there!

What you, the supporters, can do!

2010-03-02T14:05:00.000-08:00

We've had a couple of queries from people generally asking "what do you want from us?".

Well its simple, we want your support! In whatever form it comes, donations (monetary, prizes, objects), feedback, supportive comments, ideas, contacts (other people that may be able to help us) - it really doesn't matter.

We'll be putting a donation button on the site and this blog as soon as we can and will be keeping you up-to-date on the amount of money people have donated to our campaign! At the end (end of August) of the campaign we will be donating all monies raised to the Lowdown and really showing our support for the cause.

Obviously, you can e-mail any feedback to us directly (anthony@keepfitfriend.co.uk or kismet@keepfitfriend.co.uk) or reply on this blog!

So come on people! Show your support!!!!!

2nd Event! Football - 5th April

2010-03-02T05:30:00.000-08:00

Hi again all, its been a couple of weeks but we've pretty much managed to sort another event!

Thanks to the help of Mark Kennedy, we've seemingly arranged to take part in The Shoemakers (NTFC supporters) team against the NTFC Multi-disabled team on the 5th April.

Details yet to be 100% confirmed (will post on here as and when) but it's another great looking event which should raise awareness of the campaign!

Thanks Mark! More details to follow!

21 Miles for Change! 2nd April 2010 - Weston Favell Shopping Centre 9am - 5pm

2010-02-14T23:05:00.000-08:00

So, following a successful meeting with the management at Weston Favell, we will be holdng our first event of 21activities on 2nd April - Good Friday!

Basically the event is summed up by:
3 people - 21 miles - 8 hours - all proceeds to the Lowdown.

The event is also being sponsored by a company you may have seen advertised on our website - KeepfitUK.com (http://www.keepfituk.com/). We've teamed up with them to make this event happen and they are not only generously suppliying the equipment, but also a willing participant!

A little about them:

Keepfituk.com are a company that hire out gym equipment for very affordable prices - as little as £5 a week. They basically "bring the gym to you" - which is a perfectly complimentary idea to that of KeepFitFriend.co.uk! We'll both be around on the day for you to have a chat too and find out a little bit more about us, feel free to come speak to us!

We're very excited about this event and are really hoping people will get behind us to make the most of this opportunity to make some serious money for such a great cause!

Bye for now and check back soon! Remember, get in touch to find out more about our 21activities campaign, KeepFitFriend.co.uk and the great work done by the Lowdown!

Update

2010-02-08T22:53:00.000-08:00

Hi again all! Don't want the blog running cold so I just thought I'd update you all about the little bit of progress thats being made in organising the campaign.

We've had a very successful meeting with Richard (of The Lowdown and "21" concept creator!) and he's given us a little bit more direction and obviously some news about the campaign name change, start date etc. All these changes should now be well.....changed!

We've kindly had an offer from Northampton Roadrunners (http://www.northamptonroadrunners.co.uk/) yesterday to let us take part in a 10k road race in August. We've taken this under advisement and will be considering whether to take part in the next couple of weeks.

We are also in talks with a "large shopping centre" in Northampton about organising an event there, probably in April methinks. This is a little bit under wraps at the moment but will tell you more when we know!

There are also a couple of other ideas floating around at the moment which will become a bit more cemented in the near future, and I will post on here as and when!

So, just thought I'd keep the blog up-to-date and let you all know how we are getting on!

Our 1st activity!

2010-01-28T15:47:00.000-08:00

Well well readers, we have a 'lil bit of news! I have recently been in touch with a very nice chap from dentokan.org.uk who has confirmed we will be welcome to take part in a session anytime we wish!

Excellent news don't you think??!! For those of you who don't know, Dentokan is a type of Karate so both me and Kis will be choppin' and poppin' away for a Saturday afternooon in the not-to-distant future!

Here's a description from their website:

"Dentokan literally means ‘House of the Traditional Way’. It is an umbrella term that describes a self defence system which takes traditional martial arts and gives them modern day ‘street’ applications."

Sounds painful huh? :) Absolutely can't wait to take part and get my butt whooped by Kismet (!!) all in the name of good fun, taking part and Fundraising!!

Again, heres a link to to their website: dentokan.org.uk . Very accomodating people and seem to be able to cater for everyone. Based not to far from Northampton. Check them out!

We haven't got a date set as yet as we need a few more responses but as soon as we do, it will be on here!

Once again - get in touch woth thoughts or feelings!

The Rules!

2010-01-23T09:46:00.000-08:00

Hi again,

As promised, here are our rules of the campaign:

1) We have to give 100% effort to the activity and give it a good go!
2) There has to be photographic evedence of us undertaking each activity.
3) We both have to take part in each activity.
4) We both have to DO all 21 activites - no chickening out!
5) One of us will be wearing a KeepFitFriend shirt, and the other a Lowdown shirt!
6) No swearing - its just not in the nature of the campaign!
7) We both have to enjoy it and make to most of each activity!
8) There has to be a blogged review (with piccys!) and we will build a link to each of the venues we attend so you, the followers, can get in contact also.

Feel free to get in touch with any other rules you suggest, preferrably before we undertake the 1st activity which will be in March sometime, so we can mull them over and maybe include them onto our list!

Hope to hear from you soon!

Welcome!

2010-01-21T23:48:00.000-08:00

Hey all, thanks for visiting our "21activities" Blog!

We have started this blog to show our support for "the Lowdown 21 campaign" (http://www.thelowdown21campaign.co.uk/) which we are helping to sponsor in 2010!

The campaign is in celebration of the Lowdown's 21st birthday, click on the link above to find out more about the campaign and the amazing work they do with Northampton's youth!

I just thought I'd set out what we aim to do to raise money and awareness for the campaign throughout 2010.

Me and Kismet (the co-founder of KeepFitFriend.co.uk) shall be undertaking 21 different sports and activities this year. We've made a provisional list below. The order, dates and locations are all still up in the air at the moment but as and when we know, we'll post them on the blog so you can follow our progress!

Activity	Location	Date
~~1) Running - 21 Miles for change~~	~~Weston Favell Shopping~~ ~~Centre, 9am-5pm~~	~~2/4/10~~
2) ~~Badminton~~	~~Lings Forum, 7:30~~	~~9/4/10~~
~~3) Karate - Dentokan Karate &~~ ~~Self Defence Club Northampton~~	~~Northampton High~~ ~~School for girls~~	~~16/4/10~~
4) KickBoxing/ MMA	The Martial Arts School	25/4/10
5) Football - NTFC multi-disabled vs The Shoemakers	tbc	tbc
6) Wii Bowling	Spinney Hill Public House 3pm	9/4/10
7) Darts	tbc	tbc
8) Trampolining	tbc	tbc
9) Rugby	tbc	tbc
10) Ice skating	tbc	tbc
11) Rock climbing	tbc	tbc
12) Fishing	tbc	tbc
13) Pool	tbc	tbc
14) Sports shooting	tbc	tbc
15) Archery	tbc	tbc
16) Bingo	tbc	tbc
17) Squash	tbc	tbc
18) Table tennis	tbc	tbc
19) Cycling	tbc	tbc
20) Tennis	tbc	tbc
21) The big one - Air Sphering!!!	Milton Keynes Wind Tunnel	30/08/2010 (prov)

We're hoping you will be able to donate "your difference" through the blog and our website, but you can definately do it through the Lowdown's website (See link above). I'll be looking into getting a direct link set up shortly.

Just to make sure we do everything properly, we will be coming up with some rules.

As you can see, it's going to be a load of fun and its really easy to get inolved! We do hope you''ll come back and even take part!

Bye for now!