Adam Prout
Email: adamp@fwckungfu.com
Phone: 07702 888103
Clubs:
Adam started his martial arts training in judo when he was "knee high to a grasshopper, about 6 or 7". He practiced it on and off for about five years, but due to problem s with asthma he found his progress hampered. Adam describes what happened: "As a kid I would train until hay fever season, which I would then spend in bed dying and when that was over I would continue."
His training was then interrupted, as he puts it, "by puberty and girls". When Adam hit 16 he started training in Aikido. Adam continues on his progress: "I did Aikido for a couple of years, alongside a bit of Jujitsu and then I went to university."
He describes how he found FWC Kung Fu: "During one of the summers I was messing around at one of the dojos at UCL when one of the guys from the Chief Instructor, Dennis Ngo's, class invited me up to come and try it. That was in 1995."
Adam jokily tells why he's always had a fascination with martial arts: "I've always enjoyed hitting people, it's always good fun!"
His training took on a more serious level when he started training for a sparring competition in China. The competition never actually took place. "They simply didn't want to fight us," says Adam. However from then on he was hooked.
Adam's most memorable experience is an interesting one. Adam explains: "It's memorable because it isn't particularly memorable. I don't actually remember what happened, I remember sparring with somebody, I don't know what I did, I'm not quite sure what they did, but they were flat on their back on the floor and I was stood above them. At that time whatever I did it just worked and they were gone."
He continues: "Another time I missed a kick: Someone kicked to my knee. They had faked it, I looked down and they kicked me in the face."
When it comes to achievements Adam is proud to have won the lightweight full-contact sparring at a past FWC competition.
When it comes training in White Crane, Adam is passionate: "There is so much more, every time I learn something new it opens up a new path to follow. It gives so much, it guides me so much in my life, in what I do, I keep coming back because I know there's more to it, and I can keep getting better and better and better," he says.
There are always new challenges. Adam tells of his: "Trying to fight someone with a really long reach is always a challenge. The most challenging thing I find is actually persisting with myself to pull this style off, to make myself actually do what I want to do, do what the style dictates."
Getting it right is the reward: "When you learn something new and things click you realise that actually 'this' and 'this' can fit together and make 'that', or that's how this part of the pattern actually works and then you do it again and find there's even more - it's amazing. Oh yeah, and punching someone in the face is very rewarding!"
Adam gives a little insight into what training Kung Fu can do for you: "This style gives you everything you ever want and you ever need, not just in Kung Fu but in the rest of your life, what ever else you do this style will bring it forward whether you work in computers or as an accountant. It gives you the mental discipline, the strength to take the abuse and actually say that 'I was wrong and I need to keep going'. A lot of people can't take being told they're wrong, but actually you have to be able to accept it and move on otherwise you can't grow."