Often I find myself having discussions with people that train in various martial arts. The tone of the talk will frequently turn to what's effective and what isn't. I remember back in the days when I was a kid wearing a blue belt in Kyokushin, finding myself dissatisfied with the seemingly very basic level of the skills that I was learning. More to the point, the skills of those I was looking up to often came into question in my mind. One of the high grades at my club had an unfortunate altercation at a local Indian Restaurant with a local hardcase and came off much worse, it went to court and was plastered over the local paper 'Karate Expert blah blah'. I also went to watch the European Knockdown Tournament at Wembley Arena in 1982 expecting to see something spectacular, but through my child's eyes all I saw was big, tough looking blokes smashing eachother quite crudely.
As children, it's fair that we can be seduced by films and television, and 'special powers', to the point where we question the legitimate things that we're learning, through lack of excitement. For some reason, this often extends into adulthood where the mind of a potential student can be tricked into thinking that alot of the stunts that instructors can show them have any relevant value in the harsh world of real defence. I myself have been guilty of teaching some fairly useless self-defence applications (although I believed they had some usefulness at the time), I've since tried them out far more robustly and found some to be completely useless. Sorry to everybody that I taught them to.
Whether it's making yourself apparently immovable in a static position, or demonstrating a clever way of reversing energy back into the direction it came from, or effortlessly releasing a hard grip upon your person, it all seems to appeal to the 'inner child' of the student, the 'wow' factor. If we disengage and adopt an objective 'adult' position , we can often very quickly see that (for example), there's little use in being rooted to the spot using physics to prevent yourself being seemingly pushed back by a row of six people. You're unlikely to find yourself in a position where six assailants have the combined objective of pushing you back a few inches and who will give up and walk away, despondent, if they can't move you.
My child mind's disappointment with my level of learning was of course foolish, and the seemingly brutish and basic skills of my instructors and the combatants at Wembley was actually far closer to reality than I wanted to admit. It meant that there were no quick fixes, and I didn't like it. The guy that beat up the brown belt from my club was a just a hard man, another harsh reality to swallow.
So I'm still amazed that almost thirty years on, many of us still seem to buy into things that we shouldn't. We're all guilty as instructors in my opinion. Alot of these things seem to work in controlled conditions where, even when your training partners become reasonably 'difficult', you can still pull it off.
One of my first ever students at my club persistently avoided becoming licensed with the BKK (essential for my insurance and the student's liability also), citing that he and his wife couldn't afford the approximately £50 required to cover the pair of them for the year. I was, therefore, somewhat bemused when he approached me at the end of last session that he ever attended with me, enthusing about a 'Pressure Point Seminar' he was planning to attend, at a cost of £40! I told him that £40 could buy a fairly decent meal at a local restaurant and that would personally be my preference of how to spend the money. Needless to say I didn't see him again.
The truth is that, no situation is predictable. People never do what you expect them to and in real fights are usually far more aggresive and violent than a budding martial artist would expect. There is no full preparation for it. Kyokushin has some fantastic preparatory factors, it really toughens a person up and gets them very fit. However, with so many older students in Kyokushin now, for those that join in their fifties or late-forties, the 'school of hard-knocks' is a far less practical way of familiarising them with violence. If my students are all in their twenties and openly up for hard contact then it's possible and desirable to push the boundaries and take them through all the pain and emotion of real contact and hard fighting. With older students, it's just not possible to go down that route with them, there are too many risks. We just have to push as much as we can safely, and hope that they have the life-experience to make up the rest. We still have to push older students to a level of age-appropriate fitness, but potential athletes they are not.
To quote Shihan Liam Keaveney, the point is that we shouldn't be afraid to question and think for ourselves about what does and doesn't work. After all, when we really need it we'll undoubtedly be all on our own.
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Time...
Probably around twelve years ago, I was busy berating a friend called Jag from our club at Gravesend about not training often enough. Jag replied by saying "I'll be interested to see how you keep it going when you've got a young family". Jag had recently been married and had a young baby.
Of course, I'm now finding out exactly what Jag was talking about!
Between massive changes at work and being a dad that loves to spend the evenings with his wife & baby daughter, virtually everything has gone onto the back burner! Having written a glowing testimonial about the fantastic time I've been having learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from the fabulous Dean Taylor for my last blog, I've had to miss training since September to make the time that I need. The months are passing so very fast. One moment Nieve is virtually static in her bouncer, seemingly the next she can traverse a good section of the living room! All working dads will sympathise with the feeling that I'm already missing far too much of her beginning to grow, so it's no contest when it comes to deciding how to spend my spare time.
Of course, teaching at the dojo and my coaching responsibilities for the BKK remain unaffected, although this has its frustrations. The BKK has a massive calendar of events the whole year round, which inevitably means competing for students against other events and training sessions. It also has its rewards; just one or two new students coming along that make an improvement, and enjoy the training, make it all worthwhile. Development has always been the goal in coaching.
One thing that I did find time for was the BKK National Clicker Tournament yesterday. This was hard work, as it always is when you're a referee! It's hard work in many ways, the task itself is physically and mentally demanding, and often takes courage of conviction to make the decisions that you know to be right, that others often disagree with. Thankfully this year's tournament went very smoothly in comparison to others, at least as far as my area was concerned, despite the odd personality clash here and there, which is always to be expected! This year I was also lucky enough to officiate over the men's and women's black belt finals, always the most exciting events in the game of combat-chess that we call clicker.
It's with some sadness this week that I have begun the process of relinquishing my responsibility over the Gravesend BKK website. I trained at Gravesend since the late eighties when I began travelling there from Tonbridge on a Monday night in order to supplement my training. Eventually I joined the club by 1992 and had many great times there, as well as a few lows along the way. It was the first ever website I attempted to build and started with one of those cheap CD programs I bought back in 1999, and was very basic to begin with. Gradually I decided to learn more about html scripting and eventually the site grew into probably the largest UK Kyokushin site on the 'net. Naturally, things change, and the birth of my own club and other responsibilities meant that the site began to suffer, as well as my involvement in the club vastly diminishing. I look forward to handing the baton over to its next custodian whoever that may be. The site deserves more attention from someone with more free time than I have.
I wrote in an earlier entry, somewhat scathingly, about seeing a UK martial arts franchise owner on Sky News jumping on the 'I tried to save Jacko' bandwagon less than a week after his death. I happened to stumble on the aforementioned's website whilst Googling the term 'CRB martial arts' in search of a registered body to renew the club's instructors Enhanced Disclosures with. In all honesty I have no other issue with this franchise outfit other than their leader's, perhaps, ill-advised interview with Murdoch's news channel. However, something on the page did catch my attention. They have the usual rhetorical Q & A on their FAQ page.
One of the questions was;
"Has *********** Martial Arts Schools attracted a lot of jealousy from other martial arts instructors or organisations?"
The answers included:
"But, with success comes envy and as the saying goes, 'The lead dog gets all the thorns.' "
"We would like to tell you that all martial arts Instructors will practice what they teach and that should be courtesy, self-control and respect".
"A true martial artist or Instructor would never make defamatory comments about another Martial Arts Style of organisation. "
Whilst I appreciate that these Q & As are largely directed at internet forums discussing 'Mcdojos' rather than my own blog entries , the propogation of martial arts myths is something I try to dispel time and again and with reference to the first two statements, they're just BS. There is nothing remotely discourteous or disrespectful about offering a differing view, or even criticism, provided it isn't rude. Expecting deference and false approval based on some 'code' that doesn't exist is deluded, in my opinion.
As for the third statement, I would like to see anyone from this outfit visit the dojo of a particular, highly respected (feared), well-known, ex Goju Ryu and Kyokushin practioner (who now has nothing good to say about either, very publicly!) and suggest to him that he isn't a true martial artist. I have no loyalty to the above person and am part of an organisation that he openly dislikes, but I have no doubt in my mind of his real status as a true martial artist, talking the talk and walking the walk. I certainly wouldn't want to fall out with the guy in a dark alley.
Unfortunately for those looking for myths and nice stories, the reality in martial arts is similar to reality outside, the best guys and girls aren't always the nicest!
Forgive my loose quoting of Hanshi Arneil in the book 'Conversations with Karate Masters' by Dr. Clive Layton, but I recall the passage;
"I'm not one of these blokes that says you musn't do this or musn't do that, I don't expect people to make false promises. If someone offers me a drink I say 'sure I'll have a brandy', if someone offers me a cigarette, I'll have a puff, although I don't really smoke".
This is the reality, real martial artists are just people that do martial arts.
Of course, I'm now finding out exactly what Jag was talking about!
Between massive changes at work and being a dad that loves to spend the evenings with his wife & baby daughter, virtually everything has gone onto the back burner! Having written a glowing testimonial about the fantastic time I've been having learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from the fabulous Dean Taylor for my last blog, I've had to miss training since September to make the time that I need. The months are passing so very fast. One moment Nieve is virtually static in her bouncer, seemingly the next she can traverse a good section of the living room! All working dads will sympathise with the feeling that I'm already missing far too much of her beginning to grow, so it's no contest when it comes to deciding how to spend my spare time.
Of course, teaching at the dojo and my coaching responsibilities for the BKK remain unaffected, although this has its frustrations. The BKK has a massive calendar of events the whole year round, which inevitably means competing for students against other events and training sessions. It also has its rewards; just one or two new students coming along that make an improvement, and enjoy the training, make it all worthwhile. Development has always been the goal in coaching.
One thing that I did find time for was the BKK National Clicker Tournament yesterday. This was hard work, as it always is when you're a referee! It's hard work in many ways, the task itself is physically and mentally demanding, and often takes courage of conviction to make the decisions that you know to be right, that others often disagree with. Thankfully this year's tournament went very smoothly in comparison to others, at least as far as my area was concerned, despite the odd personality clash here and there, which is always to be expected! This year I was also lucky enough to officiate over the men's and women's black belt finals, always the most exciting events in the game of combat-chess that we call clicker.
It's with some sadness this week that I have begun the process of relinquishing my responsibility over the Gravesend BKK website. I trained at Gravesend since the late eighties when I began travelling there from Tonbridge on a Monday night in order to supplement my training. Eventually I joined the club by 1992 and had many great times there, as well as a few lows along the way. It was the first ever website I attempted to build and started with one of those cheap CD programs I bought back in 1999, and was very basic to begin with. Gradually I decided to learn more about html scripting and eventually the site grew into probably the largest UK Kyokushin site on the 'net. Naturally, things change, and the birth of my own club and other responsibilities meant that the site began to suffer, as well as my involvement in the club vastly diminishing. I look forward to handing the baton over to its next custodian whoever that may be. The site deserves more attention from someone with more free time than I have.
I wrote in an earlier entry, somewhat scathingly, about seeing a UK martial arts franchise owner on Sky News jumping on the 'I tried to save Jacko' bandwagon less than a week after his death. I happened to stumble on the aforementioned's website whilst Googling the term 'CRB martial arts' in search of a registered body to renew the club's instructors Enhanced Disclosures with. In all honesty I have no other issue with this franchise outfit other than their leader's, perhaps, ill-advised interview with Murdoch's news channel. However, something on the page did catch my attention. They have the usual rhetorical Q & A on their FAQ page.
One of the questions was;
"Has *********** Martial Arts Schools attracted a lot of jealousy from other martial arts instructors or organisations?"
The answers included:
"But, with success comes envy and as the saying goes, 'The lead dog gets all the thorns.' "
"We would like to tell you that all martial arts Instructors will practice what they teach and that should be courtesy, self-control and respect".
"A true martial artist or Instructor would never make defamatory comments about another Martial Arts Style of organisation. "
Whilst I appreciate that these Q & As are largely directed at internet forums discussing 'Mcdojos' rather than my own blog entries , the propogation of martial arts myths is something I try to dispel time and again and with reference to the first two statements, they're just BS. There is nothing remotely discourteous or disrespectful about offering a differing view, or even criticism, provided it isn't rude. Expecting deference and false approval based on some 'code' that doesn't exist is deluded, in my opinion.
As for the third statement, I would like to see anyone from this outfit visit the dojo of a particular, highly respected (feared), well-known, ex Goju Ryu and Kyokushin practioner (who now has nothing good to say about either, very publicly!) and suggest to him that he isn't a true martial artist. I have no loyalty to the above person and am part of an organisation that he openly dislikes, but I have no doubt in my mind of his real status as a true martial artist, talking the talk and walking the walk. I certainly wouldn't want to fall out with the guy in a dark alley.
Unfortunately for those looking for myths and nice stories, the reality in martial arts is similar to reality outside, the best guys and girls aren't always the nicest!
Forgive my loose quoting of Hanshi Arneil in the book 'Conversations with Karate Masters' by Dr. Clive Layton, but I recall the passage;
"I'm not one of these blokes that says you musn't do this or musn't do that, I don't expect people to make false promises. If someone offers me a drink I say 'sure I'll have a brandy', if someone offers me a cigarette, I'll have a puff, although I don't really smoke".
This is the reality, real martial artists are just people that do martial arts.
Thursday, 6 August 2009
New(ish) Beginnings
I haven't written too much about my relatively new adventure into the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) so far. I'd be lying if I said that part of my motivation wasn't that I'd be very lacking on the ground or if grabbed by a decent grappler during an altercation, like many of my karate peers that have recently dabbled in various grappling arts.
What I hadn't banked on was, luckily, being in the right place at the right time. BJJ has exploded in the wake of the MMA craze. It seems like only yesterday that we read of Gerard Gordeau entering the UFC and losing to Royce Gracie and that the national press were talking about Milton Keynes being the only place in the UK that would licence commercial MMA events. It has since become massive and the uptake of MMA, especially BJJ, is comparable to the karate and kung fu boom in the 1970s after the first Bruce Lee films hit the UK cinemas. The difference then was that charlatan clubs were a rarity and there was a small number of martial arts clubs throughout the UK. Now every town seems to have several MMA clubs, cage fighting is a major arena event as well as featuring regularly on satellite and freeview, it's big business.
I'd known of Dean Taylor, my Jiu Jitsu instructor, as long as ten years ago. He's a local guy that went to school with Gravesend's own Senpai Malcolm Scott, and he used to train his Jiu Jitsu in the same hall that we trained Kyokushin at Gravesend. I always had a curiosity about it, but the demands of Kyokushin are so great in the transition from the later kyu grades to the Dan grades that it is difficult to focus on anything but Kyokushin.
Far from having mastered Kyokushin, some time after gaining my 3rd Dan I felt that it still presented more questions than answers. I remember one new year, Senpai Nigel Foden gave a speech (it was a tradition that all Senpais were required to present a speech to the lower grades on the first session of the year) on a particular type of Japanese archery where part of the required technique was to obscure the target from your view in order to hit it. I decided that this might provide some inspiration so I decided to get in touch and have a look at Dean Taylor's Jiu Jitsu, in the hope that it would inspire me further in Kyokushin.
What I couldn't have imagined was what a superb club that I was about to enter. I did some research and found that the club was affiliated to Rickson Gracie's international organisation, and on further research I found that Rickson was arguably the most revered of the Gracie family. However, it was only after spending some time at the club that I found out that Dean had been a student of Rickson's for many years, and that his club had been one of, if not the, first BJJ clubs in the UK. His dojo is little more than a room in an industrial unit in Northfleet, but once the club is gathered there to train it has all the atmosphere of a Kyokushin dojo of old. Let's not be silly about it, this club has all of the same problems as any other I've ever attended, with differences in opinion and frictions that are inevitable, despite how subtle and well-hidden the participants may think they are, but as you get older and learn more about the world and realise that everyone is human and fallible, you tend not to experience disillusionment or disappointment in people quite so much.
What is unmistakable about this club is the depth of knowledge and passion of Dean with regard to his Jiu Jitsu. I was recently discussing my training with my mate and top UK knockdown fighter Wai Cheung who has trained in some groundfighting, and he asked me if I'd developed any favourite techniques. I had to be honest and say that in a year I hadn't really got that far, that I was still trying to learn the subtleties and principles of the art. Sure I know how an arm-bar or collar choke goes on, but applying it when in the mix with an experienced adversary is as hard as knocking someone out. Only the other night during training I commented to Dean that it seemed to be a very holistic process to learn Jiu Jitsu whereby it took a very long time even to recognise when one might be in an advantageous position during 'rolling' (BJJ's term for sparring) and that it took most of my concentration just to defend. He replied that this was the essence of the art and that he rarely plans or tries to place a 'move' on someone, they just happen.
What has also interested me is some of the parallels between Kyokushin and BJJ, not only in the arts themselves but between Sosai and the other pioneers. Dean has told me that there is an element of regret from Rickson about how BJJ will forever be associated with the UFC and MMA. It is ultimately the 'gentle art', and the perceived ugly violence of popular MMA apparently doesn't sit well with him. This is a little ironic as without it he would never have made his name as one of the most skillful, brutal and ruthless fighters to enter that arena. I often wonder how Sosai Oyama really felt about having spawned such a massive organisation and the phenomenally commercial success (in Japan at least) that we know as knockdown, as it clearly brought a whole world of trouble to his door along with the blessings. It's what Kyokushin is known for, but it isn't all that Kyokushin is, and it certainly wasn't what it began as.
As a bonus, all the guys at the club are great and very, very helpful. As with any martial art, you soon learn that you are better off fighting a higher grade. You learn a lot more and tend to get hurt a lot less, as they are inevitably more relaxed and controlled. The etiquette is relaxed compared to a traditional karate dojo but the atmosphere is serious. In addition to Dean there are some very skillful guys there like Alister, Simon, Richard, Roubel, and a very interesting bloke I know only as 'French Steve' (he lives in France and visits a couple of times a year!).
All in all, despite feeling that I don't have the resources to throw myself into another martial art even to a quarter of the level at which I have immersed myself in Kyokushin over the years, I'm still hooked! There are many arts I'd love to try and learn more about, but it's all about finding the right instructor and they are few and far between. In this case I've struck gold.
I couldn't post another entry without again mentioning my friend Mick Gooch. On 25th July I went down to Crawley to lend him my support as he was demonstrating his inimitable one-finger push-ups for a website called Titlebash. He was demonstrating them on a nail head (!), and the top of a beer bottle, and issuing a challenge to anyone to do just one on the floor the way that he does them. Mick is incredibly humble and gave a little speech before his demo' paying tribute to the athleticism of the Knockdown Squad training members whose session he had watched prior, and had been quite (understandably) nervous beforehand. He and I had a chat about the setting (Crawley dojo has an esteemed history and Mick himself had trained there many years before, albeit in the original building that was destroyed in the storms of 1989) and he took strength from the serious atmosphere, and later said that he had focused on the pictures of Hanshi & Sosai on the walls to help him focus. He did an incredible job and I think that I can safely say that we were all very proud and pleased to be there and witness this amazing guy do what he does like noone else!
What I hadn't banked on was, luckily, being in the right place at the right time. BJJ has exploded in the wake of the MMA craze. It seems like only yesterday that we read of Gerard Gordeau entering the UFC and losing to Royce Gracie and that the national press were talking about Milton Keynes being the only place in the UK that would licence commercial MMA events. It has since become massive and the uptake of MMA, especially BJJ, is comparable to the karate and kung fu boom in the 1970s after the first Bruce Lee films hit the UK cinemas. The difference then was that charlatan clubs were a rarity and there was a small number of martial arts clubs throughout the UK. Now every town seems to have several MMA clubs, cage fighting is a major arena event as well as featuring regularly on satellite and freeview, it's big business.
I'd known of Dean Taylor, my Jiu Jitsu instructor, as long as ten years ago. He's a local guy that went to school with Gravesend's own Senpai Malcolm Scott, and he used to train his Jiu Jitsu in the same hall that we trained Kyokushin at Gravesend. I always had a curiosity about it, but the demands of Kyokushin are so great in the transition from the later kyu grades to the Dan grades that it is difficult to focus on anything but Kyokushin.
Far from having mastered Kyokushin, some time after gaining my 3rd Dan I felt that it still presented more questions than answers. I remember one new year, Senpai Nigel Foden gave a speech (it was a tradition that all Senpais were required to present a speech to the lower grades on the first session of the year) on a particular type of Japanese archery where part of the required technique was to obscure the target from your view in order to hit it. I decided that this might provide some inspiration so I decided to get in touch and have a look at Dean Taylor's Jiu Jitsu, in the hope that it would inspire me further in Kyokushin.
What I couldn't have imagined was what a superb club that I was about to enter. I did some research and found that the club was affiliated to Rickson Gracie's international organisation, and on further research I found that Rickson was arguably the most revered of the Gracie family. However, it was only after spending some time at the club that I found out that Dean had been a student of Rickson's for many years, and that his club had been one of, if not the, first BJJ clubs in the UK. His dojo is little more than a room in an industrial unit in Northfleet, but once the club is gathered there to train it has all the atmosphere of a Kyokushin dojo of old. Let's not be silly about it, this club has all of the same problems as any other I've ever attended, with differences in opinion and frictions that are inevitable, despite how subtle and well-hidden the participants may think they are, but as you get older and learn more about the world and realise that everyone is human and fallible, you tend not to experience disillusionment or disappointment in people quite so much.
What is unmistakable about this club is the depth of knowledge and passion of Dean with regard to his Jiu Jitsu. I was recently discussing my training with my mate and top UK knockdown fighter Wai Cheung who has trained in some groundfighting, and he asked me if I'd developed any favourite techniques. I had to be honest and say that in a year I hadn't really got that far, that I was still trying to learn the subtleties and principles of the art. Sure I know how an arm-bar or collar choke goes on, but applying it when in the mix with an experienced adversary is as hard as knocking someone out. Only the other night during training I commented to Dean that it seemed to be a very holistic process to learn Jiu Jitsu whereby it took a very long time even to recognise when one might be in an advantageous position during 'rolling' (BJJ's term for sparring) and that it took most of my concentration just to defend. He replied that this was the essence of the art and that he rarely plans or tries to place a 'move' on someone, they just happen.
What has also interested me is some of the parallels between Kyokushin and BJJ, not only in the arts themselves but between Sosai and the other pioneers. Dean has told me that there is an element of regret from Rickson about how BJJ will forever be associated with the UFC and MMA. It is ultimately the 'gentle art', and the perceived ugly violence of popular MMA apparently doesn't sit well with him. This is a little ironic as without it he would never have made his name as one of the most skillful, brutal and ruthless fighters to enter that arena. I often wonder how Sosai Oyama really felt about having spawned such a massive organisation and the phenomenally commercial success (in Japan at least) that we know as knockdown, as it clearly brought a whole world of trouble to his door along with the blessings. It's what Kyokushin is known for, but it isn't all that Kyokushin is, and it certainly wasn't what it began as.
As a bonus, all the guys at the club are great and very, very helpful. As with any martial art, you soon learn that you are better off fighting a higher grade. You learn a lot more and tend to get hurt a lot less, as they are inevitably more relaxed and controlled. The etiquette is relaxed compared to a traditional karate dojo but the atmosphere is serious. In addition to Dean there are some very skillful guys there like Alister, Simon, Richard, Roubel, and a very interesting bloke I know only as 'French Steve' (he lives in France and visits a couple of times a year!).
All in all, despite feeling that I don't have the resources to throw myself into another martial art even to a quarter of the level at which I have immersed myself in Kyokushin over the years, I'm still hooked! There are many arts I'd love to try and learn more about, but it's all about finding the right instructor and they are few and far between. In this case I've struck gold.
I couldn't post another entry without again mentioning my friend Mick Gooch. On 25th July I went down to Crawley to lend him my support as he was demonstrating his inimitable one-finger push-ups for a website called Titlebash. He was demonstrating them on a nail head (!), and the top of a beer bottle, and issuing a challenge to anyone to do just one on the floor the way that he does them. Mick is incredibly humble and gave a little speech before his demo' paying tribute to the athleticism of the Knockdown Squad training members whose session he had watched prior, and had been quite (understandably) nervous beforehand. He and I had a chat about the setting (Crawley dojo has an esteemed history and Mick himself had trained there many years before, albeit in the original building that was destroyed in the storms of 1989) and he took strength from the serious atmosphere, and later said that he had focused on the pictures of Hanshi & Sosai on the walls to help him focus. He did an incredible job and I think that I can safely say that we were all very proud and pleased to be there and witness this amazing guy do what he does like noone else!
Friday, 3 July 2009
Pass the wood filler...
In my previous post I was talking about a long overdue chance meeting with my friend and British Kyokushin legend Mick Gooch. During our long conversation in the street (while his mum shopped in Iceland!) Mick enthused about his new love of Facebook and the many friends he had made, including one who is a successful (in business terms) martials arts school franchise owner who was apparently friends with the now late Michael Jackson. I quipped that that might be a good reason to steer clear of him.
Following the remarkably unsurprising demise of Jackson (he'd clearly been travelling south on the self-destruction express for some time) it's fairly predictable that people will come out of the woodwork with all kinds of claims. So there on Sky News was aforementoned martial arts franchise owner and 'former UK bodyguard' to Jackson, claiming all sorts of claims after the fact. I won't go into the sordid details. I've found the whole Jackson circus pretty unsavoury since the original allegations were made in the early nineties, in every part including the starstruck and greedy parents that were prepared to leave their kids unsupervised overnight at the home of a single man in his thirties with a fairground in his garden, and then accept cash against their claims of abuse to drop the case. All I know is that a) I would never have left my kids there and b) if I believed he or anyone had done anything like that to my kids then no-one on earth would be able to protect him from the consequences, and the offer of money would have only made their fate worse.
For the sake of this karate blog, I'm more interested in this bodyguard's claims than any other part of this sad story. People that call themselves bodyguards or bouncers to me claim to be something extraordinary. To me these are people that are prepared to step forward when 99.9% of people would step back. This particular 'bodyguard' claimed to have attempted to save his client from himself and his apparent drug addiction, but had apparently been overpowered by some pasty physicians armed only with stethoscopes and prescription pads. Impressive. I don't recall him going public with these claims on Sky News when his friend was still alive, when they may have made a difference, if only to his conscience. It reminded me of the creepily titled 'Neverland' ranch staff that came out during the original abuse allegations claiming to have witnessed innappropriate behaviour, strange that they didn't act on it at the time. I'm not saying any claim is true or untrue, I'm just amazed at the brazeness to come out and claim you knew something and did nothing and then think it's ok to jump on the proverbial bandwagon claiming that you had had it all sussed all along.
Contrast this with the emerging story of Alberto Alvarez, the real bodyguard whose voice is heard calmly and politely calling for help on the 911 tapes, who doesn't once betray his employer's confidence by mentioning his name during the call and whose neighbours didn't even know that he worked for the star. I know who I'd rather have watching my back.
Rest in Peace Mrs Slocombe.
Following the remarkably unsurprising demise of Jackson (he'd clearly been travelling south on the self-destruction express for some time) it's fairly predictable that people will come out of the woodwork with all kinds of claims. So there on Sky News was aforementoned martial arts franchise owner and 'former UK bodyguard' to Jackson, claiming all sorts of claims after the fact. I won't go into the sordid details. I've found the whole Jackson circus pretty unsavoury since the original allegations were made in the early nineties, in every part including the starstruck and greedy parents that were prepared to leave their kids unsupervised overnight at the home of a single man in his thirties with a fairground in his garden, and then accept cash against their claims of abuse to drop the case. All I know is that a) I would never have left my kids there and b) if I believed he or anyone had done anything like that to my kids then no-one on earth would be able to protect him from the consequences, and the offer of money would have only made their fate worse.
For the sake of this karate blog, I'm more interested in this bodyguard's claims than any other part of this sad story. People that call themselves bodyguards or bouncers to me claim to be something extraordinary. To me these are people that are prepared to step forward when 99.9% of people would step back. This particular 'bodyguard' claimed to have attempted to save his client from himself and his apparent drug addiction, but had apparently been overpowered by some pasty physicians armed only with stethoscopes and prescription pads. Impressive. I don't recall him going public with these claims on Sky News when his friend was still alive, when they may have made a difference, if only to his conscience. It reminded me of the creepily titled 'Neverland' ranch staff that came out during the original abuse allegations claiming to have witnessed innappropriate behaviour, strange that they didn't act on it at the time. I'm not saying any claim is true or untrue, I'm just amazed at the brazeness to come out and claim you knew something and did nothing and then think it's ok to jump on the proverbial bandwagon claiming that you had had it all sussed all along.
Contrast this with the emerging story of Alberto Alvarez, the real bodyguard whose voice is heard calmly and politely calling for help on the 911 tapes, who doesn't once betray his employer's confidence by mentioning his name during the call and whose neighbours didn't even know that he worked for the star. I know who I'd rather have watching my back.
Rest in Peace Mrs Slocombe.
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
A Face in the Crowd
Back in the late 1970s my Dad first took me training at St. Dunstan's Catholic Church Hall in Tunbridge Wells. I was allowed to join in for some of the session, and then the instructor would make us juniors rest to the back. I have no idea what time the sessions would continue until, but it was mesmerising watching the kata and fighting, and to me it was very late, surely later than any of my school friends would be out until!
If you know anything about the history of Kyokushin in Great Britain then you'll have guessed that the man I'm referring to is Senpai Mick Gooch. He broke the world record that day and he went on to appear on national television many times, including Blue Peter, That's Amazing and The Big Breakfast. Many years later Mick and I became friends when myself, Senpai Malcolm Scott and Sensei Ray Bond did a Kyokushin demo to warm up the crowd for a comeback push-up world record attempt, at which he was successful. This was in 2000 at Chatham South School and Mick was raising money for Cystic Fybrosis in typical selfless style. Mick went on to continue raising money for several years.
My dad was a yellow belt, so were both of my brothers. They had always been yellow belts as far as I could remember, I had a vague recollection of blue belts, late night celebrations and my mum dyeing belts (a long forgotten tradition!) in the washing machine the following morning, but they had certainly been yellow belts for what seemed like a long time.
One night a rare thing happened at the dojo. A black belt came to train. There were probably fewer than 30 black belts in the BKK at this time, and alot of students, virtually the opposite of the situation today. I watched this black belt throughout the session at the points I was rested out, and it was obvious this was no ordinary black belt, even to me that was clear. His fighting was a complete cut above everybody elses', at one point a big blue belt with a heavily tattooed chest (later to become Senpai Jake Worsell?) grabbed this Senpai's leg, he hopped along for a moment and then popped the other leg up and kicked him off, landing on the same foot.
A few years later, 1982 to be precise, I sat in the crowd at Wembley Arena watching the European Knockdown Tournament with my dad and my brother Allan (who was bemused with his leg in plaster, can't remember how he did it) and out walks that black belt (from that night back at Tunbridge Wells) into the arena, apparently about to attempt a Guinness World Record, for one finger push-ups!
If you know anything about the history of Kyokushin in Great Britain then you'll have guessed that the man I'm referring to is Senpai Mick Gooch. He broke the world record that day and he went on to appear on national television many times, including Blue Peter, That's Amazing and The Big Breakfast. Many years later Mick and I became friends when myself, Senpai Malcolm Scott and Sensei Ray Bond did a Kyokushin demo to warm up the crowd for a comeback push-up world record attempt, at which he was successful. This was in 2000 at Chatham South School and Mick was raising money for Cystic Fybrosis in typical selfless style. Mick went on to continue raising money for several years.Well the other day myself and my wife Toyah were pushing Nieve along in the buggy on a fairly routine trip into Gravesend for a spot of lunch. Almost into town and glancing around I momentarily caught a glimpse of a wiry guy looking my way. Typically guarded, I just noted and heightened my awareness slightly wondering what this guy might be up to. It was at this moment when the figure bellowed out the word 'Dave!!!!!!!'. Of course on another look I realised it was Mick, what a tremendous surprise!
Mick is absolutely infectious, totally enthused and consumed by his latest challenges, a youthful and spritely 52, he's still performing one finger push ups (on a nail head!). Mick's love of martial arts has never left him, and his loyalty to Kyokushin is unwavering. Over an hour passed as we chatted about all things, and Toyah and myself continued our day all the more invigorated and positive.
Excellent!
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
'Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm!' - 'Crazy' Joe Clark
If you're not familiar with the story of Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, it was lamented in the film Lean On Me. 'Crazy' Joe Clark changed Eastside High School from a drug and crime infested dump into a reasonably well-performing school, based on a zero-tolerance policy towards drugs and general rule-breaking, as well reinforcing core values. Clark's critics suggest that he didn't educate as well as his supporters had claimed, but in reality they were getting no education before Clark's appointment as the Principal.
A phrase that I have often heard used as an apologist's excuse for a less than competent martial arts instructor is 'but he's ever so good with the kids!'. This statement often leads me to question what people want from a martial arts instructor. My Karate class is not a playgroup, and that is something I remind children and parents of time and time again, my sole function is to teach karate, nothing more or less. I have told the kids in my class that I don't care about their school marks. Of course that doesn't mean that I am indifferent their fate, it just means that all I'm concerned with during that 75 minutes is to educate them in karate, after all that's what they are there for isn't it? Well you'd be surprised these days. I also tell my class that if it is confidence and assertivenes that they wish to learn, then they should attend confidence and assertiveness classes, as I only teach Karate. Many of the most dangerous and competent fighters that I know are some of the least confident or assertive people in day-to-day conversation, and often are very humble (as traditional martial arts values dictate that they should be). As a result of westernisation, we are now often presented with a sanitised, mystical view of the martial artist. This view is exploited to appeal to parents, and in my experience often leads to disillusionment and disappointment. Legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi would appear to have been an extremely unpleasant individual, it's unlikely that he would have survived or created the fearsome reputation that he did without being so.
Anyone that has read my club's site will know that I am scornful of modern approaches of some clubs that seem to concern themselves with everything but the actual martial art that they purport to teach. The idea that a tearaway's life can be turned around due solely to taking up of a martial art is drivel. Challenging kids will change if they really like the martial art and want to keep training in it, if they hate it then they will tolerate it as long as they have to and eventually leave when they feel they can finally drum up the courage to tell their parents that they hate the thing that their mum and dad so want them to do. You'll only ever read the 'good' testmonials on websites, the silent majority that slipped away quietly because they didn't like your class will rarely (if ever) write and tell you. If someone in my class shows little or no interest in karate and makes no effort to improve of a period of time (or worse, clearly hates the arduous process of learning Karate once the novelty has worn off) I gently encourage them to ask their parents not to bring them anymore. I do not try to provide incentives in my class for the disinterested, give me two genuiniely interested students and I'll happily teach them at a financial loss, much sooner than running a glorified creche for barely awake offspring while their parents shop at Sainsburys, even if it does pay the rent to do so.
It would seem that after almost three years running Tonbridge dojo, I'm pleased to note that we now have four junior students that, at this time at least, really want to learn. Many have come and gone, it's been hard work and many lessons have been learned. By relaxing discipline and standards I could have had many, many more, the sort of class where everyone wins a prize, no-one's ever criticised and, worst of all, no-one actually learns or improves. Thankfully that is not the case.
A phrase that I have often heard used as an apologist's excuse for a less than competent martial arts instructor is 'but he's ever so good with the kids!'. This statement often leads me to question what people want from a martial arts instructor. My Karate class is not a playgroup, and that is something I remind children and parents of time and time again, my sole function is to teach karate, nothing more or less. I have told the kids in my class that I don't care about their school marks. Of course that doesn't mean that I am indifferent their fate, it just means that all I'm concerned with during that 75 minutes is to educate them in karate, after all that's what they are there for isn't it? Well you'd be surprised these days. I also tell my class that if it is confidence and assertivenes that they wish to learn, then they should attend confidence and assertiveness classes, as I only teach Karate. Many of the most dangerous and competent fighters that I know are some of the least confident or assertive people in day-to-day conversation, and often are very humble (as traditional martial arts values dictate that they should be). As a result of westernisation, we are now often presented with a sanitised, mystical view of the martial artist. This view is exploited to appeal to parents, and in my experience often leads to disillusionment and disappointment. Legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi would appear to have been an extremely unpleasant individual, it's unlikely that he would have survived or created the fearsome reputation that he did without being so.
Anyone that has read my club's site will know that I am scornful of modern approaches of some clubs that seem to concern themselves with everything but the actual martial art that they purport to teach. The idea that a tearaway's life can be turned around due solely to taking up of a martial art is drivel. Challenging kids will change if they really like the martial art and want to keep training in it, if they hate it then they will tolerate it as long as they have to and eventually leave when they feel they can finally drum up the courage to tell their parents that they hate the thing that their mum and dad so want them to do. You'll only ever read the 'good' testmonials on websites, the silent majority that slipped away quietly because they didn't like your class will rarely (if ever) write and tell you. If someone in my class shows little or no interest in karate and makes no effort to improve of a period of time (or worse, clearly hates the arduous process of learning Karate once the novelty has worn off) I gently encourage them to ask their parents not to bring them anymore. I do not try to provide incentives in my class for the disinterested, give me two genuiniely interested students and I'll happily teach them at a financial loss, much sooner than running a glorified creche for barely awake offspring while their parents shop at Sainsburys, even if it does pay the rent to do so.
It would seem that after almost three years running Tonbridge dojo, I'm pleased to note that we now have four junior students that, at this time at least, really want to learn. Many have come and gone, it's been hard work and many lessons have been learned. By relaxing discipline and standards I could have had many, many more, the sort of class where everyone wins a prize, no-one's ever criticised and, worst of all, no-one actually learns or improves. Thankfully that is not the case.
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Pleasantly Surprised..
Politics is a scary word within any martial arts organisation. It conjures up images of petty squabbling and carts being put before horses, financial impropriety and all manner of unpleasant carrying on. In reality, for any large organisation, a degree of politics is essential to ensure safe, lawful and secure running of it, without politics there wouldn't be proper democratic process within the organisation. There is an ambivilance in that dojos are generally run autocratically in keeping with traditional karate values, but organisations must be run democratically. It's probably fair to say that Kyokushin's political problems have been as bad or worse than most other martial arts organisations. The fall-out after the sad death of Sosai Oyama in 1994 was particularly turbulent. Kyokushin karate-ka are nothing if not passionate. Ironically the BKK benefitted strangely by having resigned from the IKO in 1991, in that whilst 1991 was a very difficult time with the splitting of the BKK and formation of the IKO (GB), ultimately it spared us in the BKK from being involved directly in the difficulties following Sosai's death. The formation and growth of the IFK was a welcome distraction.
In time, things have changed very much. Much of this is due to the internet, it's difficult to remain ignorant with so much information available. Old boundaries seem to no longer exist, rigid beliefs and 'rules' are less relevant. Today I found myself at a knockdown tournament supporting several of my BKK friends that had decided, by mutual arrangement, to enter a tournament held by another Kyokushin organisation in Folkestone, Kent, not far from me. Old arguments about validity of different organisations are futile now. Questioning the validity of the instructors' qualifications is also a dead duck, the truth is lost in the mists of time and to refer to one of my earlier blog entries, it is up to the individual to decide whether or not they feel comfortable with the obi they wear. The idea that there could be one 'real' Kyokushin was always flawed. For example, Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura may have dropped the name 'Kyokushin' when he left the IKO in 1977 and created Seido Juku but who could ever say that he did not embody the spirit of true Kyokushin? He remains a true Kyokushin legend to this day.
What struck me about today's tournament was the openess and humility of the organisers. It was easy for us to be very critical of the refereeing and judging (some of which was undoubtedly not up to standard for much of the event) but they were very open about the fact that this was their first attempt at such a tournament and that this was a learning experience for them. They were also very welcoming and fair. The BKK were brilliantly represented by superb fighting which served as a showcase for us and our current coaches, Shihan David Pickthall and Shihan Terry Prescott. The BKK took all first place trophies and fastest knockout, but this was a time for quiet pride and satisfaction, not gloating. It was a brave gesture by the organisers to open up what had previously been a friendly, local inter-club tournament to a bigger and broader entry. This will inevitably have a positive impact on their training and approach, which can only benefit Kyokushin as a whole. I was pleasantly surprised to be stopped by one of the organisers as we were leaving and asked whether we'd enjoyed the tournament and asked on how they could improve it. It was impossible not to comment respectfully that the roles of the corner judges was questionable throughout the tournament, but it's not easy to be a corner judge! It takes confidence to award a wazari when no other flags have moved, even when you're sure about what you've seen! Additionally the organisers were still using a criteria for decisions based on their own novice refereeing system whereby one corner flag raised at hantei will automatically dictate a win for the recipient, this caused some confusion as we were unaware of it, and such a system has no place in an open tournament. The absence of an arbitrator and some genuine safety concerns caused by slow reaction of the judges and a couple of near misses between competitors' heads and the concrete floor off of the mats is something the organisers would do well to pay attention to before their next tournament. A match referee will be held accountable in court if they are found to have been in any way negligent in their duty of care to the fighters. We in the BKK take for granted the forty four years of development we've had under arguably the world's greatest living Kyokushin karate-ka, Hanshi Steve Arneil, as well as the uncompromising standards of the IFK Chief Referee Shihan Alex Kerrigan.
I had decided to go to the tournament with an open mind and have to say that I had a very enjoyable day and can only congratulate the organisers. It's impossible to ignore that not everyone in the BKK was happy about us having fighters entered into this tournament, but I can't help but think that had the minority that were unhappy about it (with perfectly understandable reasons) attended then they may have left with a different view. I decided to go with an open mind and came away pleased. I did find myself commenting during the fighting that I was witnessing things of the likes I hadn't seen before (and not in a good way) but it wasn't all like that. It wasn't a perfect tournament by any means but it was a very good effort and the atmosphere was excellent, and we contributed to that in no small way. The courage and effort of their fighters was unquestionable, several of them stepped onto the mat to face massively more experienced fighters and are undoubtedly better fighters as a result.
I'll look forward to supporting our fighters at next year's!
In time, things have changed very much. Much of this is due to the internet, it's difficult to remain ignorant with so much information available. Old boundaries seem to no longer exist, rigid beliefs and 'rules' are less relevant. Today I found myself at a knockdown tournament supporting several of my BKK friends that had decided, by mutual arrangement, to enter a tournament held by another Kyokushin organisation in Folkestone, Kent, not far from me. Old arguments about validity of different organisations are futile now. Questioning the validity of the instructors' qualifications is also a dead duck, the truth is lost in the mists of time and to refer to one of my earlier blog entries, it is up to the individual to decide whether or not they feel comfortable with the obi they wear. The idea that there could be one 'real' Kyokushin was always flawed. For example, Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura may have dropped the name 'Kyokushin' when he left the IKO in 1977 and created Seido Juku but who could ever say that he did not embody the spirit of true Kyokushin? He remains a true Kyokushin legend to this day.
What struck me about today's tournament was the openess and humility of the organisers. It was easy for us to be very critical of the refereeing and judging (some of which was undoubtedly not up to standard for much of the event) but they were very open about the fact that this was their first attempt at such a tournament and that this was a learning experience for them. They were also very welcoming and fair. The BKK were brilliantly represented by superb fighting which served as a showcase for us and our current coaches, Shihan David Pickthall and Shihan Terry Prescott. The BKK took all first place trophies and fastest knockout, but this was a time for quiet pride and satisfaction, not gloating. It was a brave gesture by the organisers to open up what had previously been a friendly, local inter-club tournament to a bigger and broader entry. This will inevitably have a positive impact on their training and approach, which can only benefit Kyokushin as a whole. I was pleasantly surprised to be stopped by one of the organisers as we were leaving and asked whether we'd enjoyed the tournament and asked on how they could improve it. It was impossible not to comment respectfully that the roles of the corner judges was questionable throughout the tournament, but it's not easy to be a corner judge! It takes confidence to award a wazari when no other flags have moved, even when you're sure about what you've seen! Additionally the organisers were still using a criteria for decisions based on their own novice refereeing system whereby one corner flag raised at hantei will automatically dictate a win for the recipient, this caused some confusion as we were unaware of it, and such a system has no place in an open tournament. The absence of an arbitrator and some genuine safety concerns caused by slow reaction of the judges and a couple of near misses between competitors' heads and the concrete floor off of the mats is something the organisers would do well to pay attention to before their next tournament. A match referee will be held accountable in court if they are found to have been in any way negligent in their duty of care to the fighters. We in the BKK take for granted the forty four years of development we've had under arguably the world's greatest living Kyokushin karate-ka, Hanshi Steve Arneil, as well as the uncompromising standards of the IFK Chief Referee Shihan Alex Kerrigan.
I had decided to go to the tournament with an open mind and have to say that I had a very enjoyable day and can only congratulate the organisers. It's impossible to ignore that not everyone in the BKK was happy about us having fighters entered into this tournament, but I can't help but think that had the minority that were unhappy about it (with perfectly understandable reasons) attended then they may have left with a different view. I decided to go with an open mind and came away pleased. I did find myself commenting during the fighting that I was witnessing things of the likes I hadn't seen before (and not in a good way) but it wasn't all like that. It wasn't a perfect tournament by any means but it was a very good effort and the atmosphere was excellent, and we contributed to that in no small way. The courage and effort of their fighters was unquestionable, several of them stepped onto the mat to face massively more experienced fighters and are undoubtedly better fighters as a result.
I'll look forward to supporting our fighters at next year's!
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