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Elle Magazine
April 2003
Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting
Zoe Williams goes all Hong Kong Phooey
with the latest celebrity fitness trend.
Normally when I hear about a whole new
vogue in lady-fitness, I’m sceptical. “On the rare
occasions that a celebrity does spouse physical activity –
like Madonna and her spinning, say – you can see where the
thinness comes from, but would be hard pushed to find the fun.
The exception to all this is, of course, martial arts. It looks
hard and excessively sweaty, but it also looks really cool. My
personal reason for a (spectator’s) love of kicking and
punching is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Take a look at the original
Charlie’s Angels – Farah Fawcett Major’s biggest
weapon was flicky hair and a selection of handbag-sized defence
tools…
Zen-Do uses many principles of regular boxing – you have
to stand in such a way as not to fall over the first time someone
tries to punch you. The thing is said Raf, that most people are
scared to make a noise. You’ve got to really shout while
you’re fighting. It can disarm people even more than the
physical contact. “Well, sure, it would have disarmed people
more than my physical contact, which was like being pecked by
an angry goose but, even as he said it, I realised how right he
was. I was scared. All I could think about was “please don’t
make me shout! What if I make a grunting sex noise and everyone
laughs?”
Raf showed me how to frighten an attacker by a) stamping their
foot, b) slapping them in the face with the palm of your hand
c) elbowing them and punching them in the goolies (an old school
yard favourite), not to mention the regulation punching and kicking.
I felt so supremely confident that I went home and tried it all
on my boyfriend (obviously not very hard).
We reached the conclusion that I could overcome any attacker
at all…. |
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