September column from the excellent Jonathan Blaustein. Enjoy!
As a kid, I grew up on the martial arts/action movies of the 1980’s, and then went down the Jackie Chan/Bruce Lee rabbit hole in the mid-90’s.
Kung Fu movies are cool, without question, which is why Quentin Tarantino fetishized them so well in Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2. (Of course there was plenty of Samurai-movie-porn going on there too.)
I never thought I was the kind of guy who’d learn martial arts, as I punked out of studying Aikido a couple of times because it was too slow to be functional, and I was just plain lazy.
Now that I’m in my 40’s, a sneaky-powerful time of life, (truth be told,) I’ve settled into a Wing Chun Kung Fu routine that makes me stronger, and as it’s based upon Qi Gong, or Chinese moving meditation, it also helps chill me out.
My main training partner is the equivalent of a black belt who weighs 220 lbs. He can bench press 400, also knows Aikido, and is a power-lifting security guard, so dealing with him is a challenge each time.
But other than getting thrown to the mats a lot, (as ours is an aggressive style of Wing Chun,) I never get punched. Or kicked. We practice in a collaborative way, and almost all of the violence is hypothetical.
I get to have my cake and eat it too, as the martial arts style is flowing and fun, and the skills would likely, hopefully, probably translate in a street fighting situation.
Possibly. Probably.
Yes, Wing Chun is designed to be vicious, as we aim for the throat and the eyes, but still. I sweat a tiny bit, and my kit stays clean, as the English say.
But a few months ago, I started occasionally training Brazilian Jiujitsu too, as it’s the predominant art at the dojo where I study. (Kung Fu has a tiny following there compared to the house specialty.)
Since then, and this is only in 6 classes mind you, I’ve scraped my foot so bloody that took two weeks to heal, cracked my head on a dude’s hip bone during a takedown and almost passed out, sweated through my underwear, t-shirt and gi each time, gotten kicked so hard in the shin it brought up a welt, been tossed up and over someone’s head so I landed on my neck, and then, this week, of course, I got kneed in the balls.
People have rubbed their sweaty bodies over mine, many times, and crushed my windpipe in a choke out, my head in a pincer, and my elbow in an armbar.
To say this shit is brutal is perhaps over-simplifying.
I’ll take my Kung Fu over this Japanese-Brazilian hodgepodge every day of the week, though. It’s graceful, cool, and stylish, and I think it will work. (Probably.)
But without question, the new training is toughening me up. These guys like to bleed, (they say so openly,) and I’ve seen a dude carted off for injury twice in six classes.
(How do you like those odds?)
What I’m getting at is that in sports, winners need grit. They have to be mentally and physically tough. They need to know how to win ugly, and these rules hold true in almost all cases.
From football to American Football to MMA to basketball to rugby to swimming to speed skating.
Arsenal Football Club are still in so many ways a product of the Late-Wenger rot. It culminated with winter capitations in two consecutive seasons, and that ghastly run of away defeats in the first half of ’18.
It was clear to any and all that Wenger’s teams lacked mental toughness at the least, and physical toughness in many cases too. Credit where it’s due on those FA Cups, (in particular the Man City>Chelsea double,) but over the course of the Premier League season, and in the Champions League, Wenger’s team was as brittle as a piece of salt water taffy that’s been left in a closet for 8 years.
(Editor’s note: I wrote this article BEFORE the Petr Cech story dropped on Monday.)
Unai Emery’s first job was to instill some spine, and some guts, into Wenger’s team. At any given time, Guendouzi/Torriera and Sokratis are the only players on the pitch that didn’t play under Wenger.
In most cases, a coach with 7 games under his belt, coming in after a dude who held court for 22 years, and we’d all be patient. Especially after five wins straight.
Each to his own opinion and all, but I very much like what I see with the Emery-era-Gunners.
Sure, the lack of fluency is not exactly fun. The first half of the Everton game being a great example of flat football, no passes strung together, no quickness of movement.
Nada. I get it.
And sure, Everton cut through Arsenal multiple times and should have scored. But how many times do we say that about lesser opponents: they should have scored?
The truth is that only the big teams have the kind of clinical strikers and forwards that can score when the pressure is on. Most of the small-to-middling teams miss most of these chances against bigger opposition.
Time and again.
Arsenal, on the other hand, now have two players who can summon a moment of magic to win a game. (RVP was the last to do it consistently over a season, and Alexis for months at a time, but rarely more.)
Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have proven that they can make something out of nothing, and they will finish most of the presentable chances as well.
There is front-line talent on this team, a few truly exciting midfield prospects, and a defense that needs more athleticism and cohesion. But rebuilds take years for a reason, and you can bet that Raul and Sven will spend on the backline in the coming windows.
To respond to the Man City pasting and the close Chelsea away loss, in which the opposition showed off that “winner’s mentality,” Emery’s team went out and won 5 consecutive matches, including away in the North of England, and dispatched all comers.
Remember, this coach expressly said he’d rather win games 5-3 or 3-2 instead of 1-0, which means he’s not going to park the bus. But he also tipped off that he knew he didn’t have the defensive talent to run through the EPL ripping off clean sheets like I discard bandaids from my sweaty, bloody hand.
I like the winner’s spirit, and think that if these guys often play halves in which it looks like they’ve barely played together, and that they have a new coach, it’s because they’ve barely played together and they have a new coach.
Great teams build culture over time, and develop cohesion by working together over seasons, not weeks.
Unai Emery has taken a team of Wenger’s guys, who weren’t winning when they should, and now they are.
That is a huge improvement, out of the gate. The fluency and free-flowing football will come with time, but only if the wins keep coming.
Winning breeds confidence, and confidence breeds success.
Let’s see where it all stands in a month, as I think we’ll know a lot more then.
Make sure to give Jonathan Blaustein a follow here.
Also, jump on the damn pod, it needs your ears on it right away.
Pierre
Emery has improved Welbeck. Another thing to add to the list
He didn’t lose to a Forest level club in Brentford.
And most likely 6 wins a rows in all competitions.
Emery’s red and white army!
said you. He can be very good i early in the cups and against weaker PL teams. Also good option coming from the bench when game is won.
Yes I am a Tory. Rich. Well off. Intelligent. Educated. Made good. What of it…you fucking peasant?Red truth? You treasonous bastard. Go die cunt.
Some man guns some man. Real eye opening stuff today
I’m pleased to see the 2nd goal..but not surprised. This is the way Unai wants to play from the back. We just don’t have the quick transitioning from DMs to out attackers in EPL currently to create such opportunities on consistent basis right now. And lack of right personnel is the key to this, not the vision or lack of practice in the training ground. Must say, Mikhi had great turn and the right pass to for the goal. Makes his case much more stronger for the #10 role.
let’s smash ’em 5-0! Up the Gunners!
Yes I am a Tory. Rich. Well off. Intelligent. Educated. Made good. What of it…you fucking peasant?
Bald man wanking to LeGrove in the basement of his mum’s 3rd floor flat?
“Woaaah Cutter. What a tough guy!!!’
It’s actually just basic sports positioning strategy.
But, to some 5 foot 7, 150lb soccer playing Euro-pussy, it probably does seem “tough”.
good game now
Marko
I thought we had agreed we weren’t commenting on each others posts? Or have you already forgot the rules?
I made a massive mistake outing myself when I posted earlier re that cunt Corbyn…yes. I am Tory. Doing okay. Educated. And unapologetic. I’m also Jewish by birth mother. Aristocracatic by family and fucking patriotic. Father was in the military, killing lots of peasants. Good.
I think I’ve reached my limit with le grove and it’s encumbered posters.
lol Marko
We suck
fuck 2 -1
When we do lose a match…whatever the quality of the opposition, the emery-aters will be out in force.
IMO, he seems to be doing a reasonably good job so far. I’m pleased and still relieved after the massive “tool” left
Leno is allergic to clean sheets.
Poor goal keeping for me
Leno looking every inc the no2 right now
Leno lol
Sudenly squeeky bum time
What the fuck is going on. Leno was a little late to react there.
that was great fk. Cant blame Leno too much
Aristocrat from Hackney. Story checks out.
Pierre and Pedro sharpening their knives right now.
Unai
Go and make a shish and fuck off. You’re the ‘people’ my father was killing back in the war against the Turks.
Do not address me again.
Game on. At least the crowd are making some noise.
Guns
Don’t apologise. Nothing wrong with being conservative. The Labour Party are highly antiemetic and anti british and anti democratic and anti capitalist anti european despite their pro Eu stance and anti western.
Fuck em.
Up the trump I say
Just lying communist weasels.
Tory aren’t much better these days though. May had shown her true colours. The Eu are making it so easy for her yet she can’t help but crawl back and lick their boot heels
Jamie
Go and fuck yourself.
Wenger would took Welbz off and put extra defender.
Mike Dean has to make it about himself
Lool this comment section is a mess tonight
Bald man confirmed then I guess.
Hey Pedro — what do you think your bosses and clients would think if they knew you hosted a blog with so much hateful white trash like GOH?
GOH behave
Jeeez what is up some of your arses??
Have a word with Banford
This did make me chuckle earlier. Another classic from CC.
GoH are you ok mate???
full of welthy educated ppl lol
Hey cutter
Why don’t you go fuck yourself. Peter can do what the fuck he wants but you don’t call the shots, arsehole.
You still didn’t address the last question.
“I think I’ve reached my limit with le grove and it’s encumbered posters.
Yet here you are…
Brentford making us look like championship level now
one touch too many Licht
Joey
Good one you tit, you’ve jinxed us with that.
Samesong
Don’t work in a theatre for no reason! 😀 lol
Mkhitaryan with pure class on that second goal. He absolutely should be starting on the weekend.
Cunter
Go and have a roll around with some of the other posters that disagree with me.
I cannot believe I’ve actually engaged with you this evening? Bah!
If guns is banned then ban cunter for his white trash comment Not the first time his anti white comments have come filtering through the little snake. Guns Chill man. Don’t get wound up. Most people in the western metropolitan cities are anti Israel and anti Semitic. They’re indoctrinated from early and they don’t even realise it Palestine doesn’t exist Israel is and always has been Jewish land Hezbollah are are terror organisation who won’t agree to a any form of peace talks and just want to wipe Judaism from the face of the earth. You know it. I know… Read more »
GOH — tell us more about how many brown people your daddy killed.
“I think I’ve reached my limit with le grove and it’s encumbered posters.”
Arsenal giving up far more possession in their own third for stretches this half. It’s like the squad can’t put together two good halves, not very good these last 30 minutes at all.
get the fuck out
No one is getting banned.
Why is everyone acting like they are Banford suddenly.
What a goal from Hazard!
Great goal by Hazard. He is a class act.
If Wenger has paid the money Hazard could have been ours, Hazard wanted to come too.
If Wenger had paid the money Hazard would be badly broken from being played out of position and playing second fiddle to Arsenal legend Jack Wilshere.
“If Wenger has paid the money Hazard could have been ours”
We would have sold him to Madrid for 40M three years ago or given UTD in exchange for Rojo two seasons ago.
Ramsey isn’t the sort of player to close out a game….oh well, Emery knows
Un
Thanks.
Palestine doesn’t exist
Israel is and always has been Jewish land
sorry, this sounds like bullshit to me.
“No one is getting banned.”
No one is asking. But if Pete doesn’t think there could be blow-back on his professional career by allowing Angry White Male Trash to spew their shit all over his blog, you are mistaken. He’s not anonymous, like everyone else here.
No what would have happened is Hazard would have left us for Utd on a free!
Cutter
He didn’t kill lots of brown people…he killed lots of Turks. It was the Greek v Turk war. Cyprus.
I have a couple of Jew friends that really digged firing 50 cals into the West Bank. They fucking loved it.
Father was in the military, killing lots of peasants. Good.
Having an absolute shocker today guns. Father might have been in the military and he might have been good at killing peasants but he was shite at raising his kids if you’re anything to go by.
cunter
How do you know he’s white? He could be Israeli. Israelis are middle eastern. Middle easterners aren’t white.
Did you just assume someone’s race? Tut tut
I’d stuff that bitterness down if I were you as you’ve got another 4 years of trump on top of the two left on this term
x D
I really don’t care either way, but talks like this:
He didn’t kill lots of brown people…he killed lots of Turks. It was the Greek v Turk war. Cyprus. I have a couple of Jew friends that really digged firing 50 cals into the West Bank. They fucking loved it.
you need to get banned. Sorry, I don’t condone stupidity.
4 minutes more of this shit
Some real odd balls on this blog…
This is the kind of game. Wengers arsenal would. Have lost
Was a very wenger performance tonight
I have a couple of Jew friends that really digged firing 50 cals into the West Bank. They fucking loved it.
Think a name change is in your future guns
Nice finish
Everything is the same with our playing style, i’m afraid.
never in doubt
Marko
Father was busy killing people for his job and didn’t have a lot of time raising kids. But he was REALLY FUCKING busy making the world safe for idiots like you to be able to spout garbage on the internet.
Left wing jerk.
But thank fuck
Lacazette with an insurance goal.
Auba simply doesn’t score that goal, it’s that type of play as a number 9 that Laca shits all over him
Naai
Palestine was there before. Second war broke out and after the war Jewish people were resettled in Palestine/Jerusalem by the American forces.
Its basic history. You’re clearly not that well educated.
Lacagoal
nearly 4
Liverpool out, Manh U out….who’s gonna knock City out???
Guns tanning the special brew tonight.
I have a couple of Jew friends that really digged firing 50 cals into the West Bank. They fucking loved it.
——————————–
Half a million jews live in the West Bank, did your couple of jew friends kill any of them?
Wanker
guns lost it
London gunnerSeptember 26, 2018 21:45:01
NaaiPalestine was there before. Second war broke out and after the war Jewish people were resettled in Palestine/Jerusalem by the American forces. Its basic history. You’re clearly not that well educated.
Thanks London gunner, not a lot will accet or admit this, but this is fact.
Guns
Can’t belive you are from Hackney. You seem like a wack job Eton cunt.
Remember this the future is left. Majority of young people voted for corbyn.
Once you old selfish cunts die of (the guys who fucked this country sideways with your greed) we will begin to build a slightly less shit society.
Danny
No. They were obviously trained frontline soldiers. They only fired at Palestinians. Father was a trained soldier.
Most
Obviously
Sucks
At
Dumbo.
Idiot.
London gunner
Not true
The whole area was Jewish dominated before Islam spread during the conquests if the 7th century
When Israel was given to the Jews after the second world war it was a barren wasteland until the Jews cultivated it for agricultural purposes.
Clearly you don’t know your history
Islam also took over India for centuries and murdered an estimated 400m Hindus in what is widely believed to be the greatest genocide in history but you wouldn’t know about that would you?
But he was REALLY FUCKING busy making the world safe for idiots like you to be able to spout garbage on the internet. Left wing jerk.
First off this isn’t a left wing right wing thing this is a horrible cunt on a blog bragging about his father killing peasants. And no he wasn’t making the world a safer place he was just some man who neglected his duties as a father
Hackney is a fucking shithole.
Guns what in the hell are you talking about tonight? There’s idle chat and then there’s shit that has no place being here, clam up with this crap
Unai
Don’t think too many third floor flats have basements
The Jewish people were resettled by the British and the French, the territory that was given to them was British territory that they took from the Ottomans after WWI. A two state solution was advanced at that stage but the Arabs wouldn’t have it. They expressly stated they would not tolerate a Jewish state in the Middle East.
A Palestinian Mujahideen then attacked the Israeli settlers and lost, the Israelis took their land.
Further issues arose when when on two separate occasions Jordan, Syria and Egypt attacked Israel and basically got their arses handed to them.
London
Yes Hackney. And???
Do not associate a place with a person.
6 on the bounce now, well done arsenal, well done emery. It’s been a good few years since I’ve enjoyed watching arsenal this much.
Auba simply doesn’t score that goal, it’s that type of play as a number 9 that Laca shits all over him
Definitely more of a mistake from the defender than any great bit of individual play.
Cool Arsenal win. on to the next
just stepping stones to winning and getting better.
ohh and please ban Guns for his racist comments
I thought Iwobi was great tonight.
He is really putting the effort in to catch Emery’s attention.
lol I know western education is not great but please
Unai
Thats a riddicalous argument if you are going back to the 7rh century.
If that’s the case I might just go round reclaiming Malta for the knights templars.
Or better yet reestablish the Holy roman empire.
I’m not even a big fan of Muslims(religion in general I loath)
But the fact is a two state solution is the only solution. To disagree is to accept the genocide of whichever side you don’t support.
Two. State is the only way
London gunner
Not true
If that were the case then why has the west taken a shift to the right recently when socialism had all but dominated the culture, universities and media?
Two other points to negate your wild prediction
1. People grow more conservative as they age and amassed wealth and property naturally.
2. Generation z is predicted to be the most right wing generation since ww2
You’re wrong pal
The Eu is falling
Hillary lost
We voted leave
The Italians and poles and Hungarians are leaving too
The French and Dutch won’t be too far behind.
Agreed cesc, iwobi had a good game
CC / Rollen
Why should I be ashamed?
You wouldn’t be allowed to spout your garbage if it wasn’t for people like my father etc.
Watford on the verge of an epic victory vs spuddies. Equalized with 10 ppl in the 89-th minute. On to penalties probably.
‘Remember this the future is left. Majority of young people voted for corbyn.’
Hear this all the time, what happened to the flower children of the 60s? No right leaning governments since then.
I think it was Churchill who said if by the time a man is 18 he does not vote liberal he has no heart, if by the time he is 30 he does not vote conservative he has no brain.
Jay
He was very good tonight. I would be playing him at LM from now on. Puts a real shift in.
Smith Rowe worked hard but I thought his final ball was lacking a lot, nothing wrong with his effort in attack or defence though.