I am no stranger to hardship and pain. I had a difficult childhood, a misaligned knee joint caused me arthritic pain on a daily basis, childhood obesity made me the playground victim for most of my school life, my mother had more time for her religion than me and my father had an affair and left when I was quite young. I got pregnant when I was 16 and by 19 I had two children and a physically and mentally abusive alcoholic husband. The birth of my second child was a very traumatic emergency caesarean section due to a cord prolapse (only happens to one in a million people) which almost cost both our lives. This experience caused me to look at my life and as a consequence I got divorced, and lost seven stone in weight. I had soon met another man and found myself pregnant and married again.
I started Ju-Jitsu when my youngest daughter was just a few weeks old after an incident where a man exposed himself to me left me feeling concerned about my ability to defend my self. I joined the only club in the area and as I didn’t drive it took me 45 mins to cycle to each lesson. I never had a natural ability for it, I had never been fit, flexible or athletic, in fact I never took part in physical education at school due to my size. I had to work my socks off for every belt but eventually after 8 years saw myself training to take my Shodan. My Shodan grading took about 4 hours (doesn’t sound like much these days) but it was the hardest thing I have done and could barely stand afterwards, but I was proud of my self for passing it. I inevitably spent more and more time in the dojo much to my husbands displeasure. He gave me an ultimatum, “Ju-Jitsu, or me”, as he had already had an affair with my so called best friend and later on my daughters best friend choosing Ju-Jitsu over him was not as difficult a decision as it might have been. I waved him bye bye and at the same time gave up smoking.
I passed my black belt after a hard 4 hour grading (which seems nothing now as I have witnessed Ishin Ryu Dan gradings that take a whole weekend!). Shortly after this my instructors handed the club over to me and a couple of other black belts. Eventually it was just me teaching all the time and getting no training myself. This is when my weight started to pile on again. I started dating Stephen peil (3rd dan) at the time, he also had a weight problem and had been recently divorced so we had a lot in common.
Even though we had our own clubs we never really had much opportunity to train ourselves and no one to teach us. We started travelling around going on different seminars to full fill our needs. This is how we met Kevin Pell Hanshi in September 2004 on his 3rd Shochu Geiko.
We liked Ishin Ryu, we had never come across students who were so fit, so in March 2005 we affiliated our clubs to Ishin Ryu. Later that year Stephen (by now a 4th Dan) and I (now second Dan) got married. We just wanted to train with Ishin Ryu as much as possible even though most of their training sessions would leave us throwing up and unable to move for a week due to our lack of condition. We began to lose weight and get fitter and spend more and more time at Honbu (even though it took 4 hours to travel there!!) During our time as an affiliated club Stephen has gained his Renshi title and I have gained my 3rd Dan. My husbands fitness increased much faster than mine as I had to take some time out after having my gall bladder removed and he soon saw himself able to complete the Ishin Ryu Shodan-ho fitness test, the 12 mile run, river swim, 50 press ups, 50 sit ups, 50 leg raises and 50 burpees. I too was able to run for 10 miles (a miricle with my knee and flat feet) and can complete the 50 of everything. Our dedication to martial arts totally changed our lives, Stephen lost more than 5 stone, I have lost 4 stone and we were the fittest we have ever been. In August 2010 we decided to go our own way and formed our own Renmei (Aka Ryu Ju-Jitsu Renmei) and wrote our own syllabus that we now teach. Our reasons for leaving Ishin Ryu will remain private – but some of you know our reasons. As a result we have lost a bit of fitness and put a little weight back on but now our heads are in the right place we will regain our fitness. Fitness is not everything as we get older our bodies naturally find it harder and harder.
As well as Ju-Jitsu (which I train and teach 5 hours a week). I also train in Krav Maga (contact combat) 3hours a week. Krav Maga can be seen as an essential Life Skill which is easy to learn, with practitioners becoming very proficient in a short space of time. Krav Maga is not a Martial Art, and has none of the flowing movements that can take years to perfect and master. Instead the techniques and principles have been developed with the body's natural reactions and responses to threats and violence at the forefront. Krav Maga teaches individuals to deal with unpleasant situations that they may find themselves in and provides them with a means to come out from such a situation intact. It gives individuals a greater knowledge of how to neutralise a possible attack before anything happens, and how to avoid dangerous situations. This is all great stuff but Ju-Jitsu is my passion and my art.
Being a female martial artist has not been easy. In the early days I was made to feel a bit of an outsider. Men didn’t really want to train with you for fear of hurting you or even worse you hurting them. They also considered it a bit of a boys only club and didn’t want their wives to find out that women could do it too!
On my very first lesson I was told to punch someone in the face so he could show me a technique, I don’t think he was expecting me to throw a decent one so didn’t put much effort into his avoidance resulting in his nose bleeding all over the mat! I think that earned me a little kudos along with the time I kicked some one in the groin so hard I split their groin guard which caught their skin. I have had to constantly battle to prove I can do just the same as any man, even though this has and still does result in my body being 80% covered in bruises most of the time. But I give just as good as I take.
My husband and I are so obsessed with martial arts that our honey moon was a 2 day martial arts seminar where my husband broke my nose with a kick to the face within the first hour. This resulted in me training with two black eyes for the rest of the course. This is where we first met Joe Carslake Hanshi.
In conclusion I am glad men made training difficult for me and that I have had to compete with them on equal terms because in reality I am more likely to be attacked by man. My training although severe at times has given me a fighting chance if I am ever attacked.
Laura Peil Sensei
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