Sensei Dave's Blog

Sad Times

2010-11-04T22:36:00.002Z

It's been a sad day.

On Monday 18th October 2010, the day our dojo relocated to the Goldsmid Hall, a man who inspired so many of us in Kyokushin, Sensei Norman King, lost his beloved wife Christine. I remember when Sensei Norman, during one of those 'after training chats' back in the nineties, told me that he was planning to retire from teaching. He recalled a time when Christine had been unwell, and how he'd felt obliged to still attend the dojo and teach, and how this had, rightly, troubled him. It was clear to anybody that knows Sensei Norman just how precious his family has always been to him. His daughter, Nicola, was just a little girl next to me in the line when Sensei graded me to brown belt in 1992, and in true Norman style he treated his little girl just the same as the rest of us (and Nicola worked as hard as all of us, too!). The last time I saw Christine was on Christmas Eve a few years ago, when Toyah and myself bumped into her and Norman on Gravesend Overcliffe, and stopped for a chat. I remember Christine as always being humorous and canny, and always seemd to have a fond tolerance of her husband's students, of which I'm proud to count myself as one.

Today, Sensei Norman laid his wife to rest in a very dignified fashion. The suddenness of Christine's passing has left family and friends in deep shock. Myself and a few colleagues from Kyokushin (Ray, Mick, Bali, Iqbal) were proud to have the opportunity stand alongside our friend and mentor and to do our best to support him. Rest in peace, Christine.

I had to laugh..

2010-05-15T23:19:00.015+01:00

It's been a whirlwind few months, more on that once I get my monthly rant out of the way!
In Gravesend town centre today, Toyah and I spied a fresh set of 'martial arts' silky pyjamas handing out leaflets (didn't offer us one, we obviously didn't fit the brief, still having a push chair!). Well-advertised on their pyjama jackets, I did my civic duty by visiting their website this evening. What a load of b*****ks. I'm quite happy to write that statement knowing that it makes me a 'bad' martial artist for having the audacity to criticise another 'school', as well as for using bad language to express my opinion. I won't name them, purely because I don't want to increase web traffic to their sad little website, that has more contradictions contained within it than our recent elections and resultant coalition government!

'Martial arts' evangelism is alive and well. I remember an advert in the 1980s for some Black & Decker drill that was supposed to be for a product of better quality than their usual tat, the advert proudly pronounced 'higher price!', which I always found a little odd, reverse-psychology perhaps. This crew are much of the same that we've seen time and again around here, but they've really taken things further this time, too far in my opinion. Part of their website offers to guide prospective students in a supposedly unbiased manner with regard to selecting a martial arts school, and then proceeds to warn people not to join clubs with a lot of champions or trophies (even though the main instructor there claims to be a 'world champion' himself!). The suggestion that competing in tournaments would be somehow corrupting for your students when you yourself have used tournament success to boost your own credibility in your advertising is laughable. If character-building is so high on the agenda, then learning to accept competitive success and defeat and to, to quote Rudyard Kipling, 'treat those two imposters just the same' is an invaluable lesson in life and self-knowledge. The real world has winners and losers, why pretend otherwise?

The offending passage suggests that an instructor that isn't running his 'academy' (what a bullshido term that is) as a professional business is somehow less committed than someone that is funding their lifestyle from teaching! All self-justifying and self-perpetuating nonsense. Oh and try as I may, I couldn't find any reference on the website to training costs, what a surprise! No doubt the first bunch of sessions will be free or under some guarantee, and then the talk will turn to which 'programme' you choose to go on and how much you will have to pay up front`for it.
Funnily enough, one of the warnings of the above website was this:
"If they charge for your Martial Arts on a ‘Per Session’ basis you’re in the wrong school. This can mean only one of two things, firstly they aren’t intending on being around for long or secondly this is just a ‘hobby’ for them."
At our last venue, a young man from a local Wing Chun group broke away and set up his own professional group just across the way from me. Ironically, it was he that wasn't around for long, hardly more than a year. While he was still open, one of his students was brought across to my club by his mother who had concerns that, while he was learning a lot of apparent 'life-skills', in her view he wasn't learning much martial arts. Whether he was or wasn't, isn't for me to judge, I have no idea having never set foot in there, but he is still with me and is one of my most promising students.

I'm all for live-and-let-live, and rarely criticise other groups (if I do I usually do so openly on here), but if you're willing to display such arrogance and bare-faced hypocrisy by publicly slating all volunteer martial arts instructors as 'unprofessional' or lacking committment, and additionally claiming that if they criticise you in return then they are breaking some martial arts 'code' or that we are all somehow 'jealous', all with a view to coaxing readers into your 'academy' and, I believe, eventually parting with large sums of money, then all bets are off as far as I'm concerned.

I wonder what they'd have made of our session on 4th May 2010 when we finally reopened our dojo, at the fantastic Tonbridge School Centre. The reopening was a very special night for me and for a few other people. Back in February when I was having problems at St. Stephen's School after the caretaker walked out and nobody else at the school cared enough to act as a keyholder in order that we could train in our usual slot, I was considering closing the club, and not for the first time. Then, out of nowhere, I had an email from Barry. I hadn't seen Barry in more than 25 years, he'd disappeared into the ether, or so it had seemed. Anyone that had trained at Tonbridge Karate Club in the early 1980s would instantly know which Barry I was referring to. Black belts are many, especially these days, but naturally-gifted instructors are few and far between. Senpai Barry Henniker was my original instructor back in 1982, and was one of those few that had the ability to really inspire. He was the main instructor at Tonbridge from around 1980 to 1986, when the committee that ran the club was dissolved and went their separate ways following some very difficult disagreements. Barry also opened a club at Sevenoaks for a short period, but withdrew from Karate completely (or so we thought) after some personal difficulties. Along with Sensei Norman King, Senpai Barry was a prescence that I had missed within the BKK, and I was shocked to hear from him after all these years after he had found the Tonbridge club site quite by chance. He was very encouraging about the club and about what we were trying to achieve, and gave me a much-needed boost in motivation. One thing led to another and we were privileged to have Senpai Barry join us as a guest on our re-launch on 4th May. In addition to this, his original instructor, Ray Pearson (aged 73!), joined me out the front and shared the teaching of the class with me. Ray has been teaching Kyokushinkai Karate in Tunbridge Wells since around 1974, and as far as I'm aware still charges a 'per session' fee, I guess if any of his old students have read the above website then they must be getting a bit nervous by now that he's only doing it as a hobby and is going to give it all up!

We were also joined by students that have been involved in Kyokushin for periods ranging from 5 to 40 years (including the inspirational Mick Gooch). Obviously, the crap that's written on commercial franchise 'martial arts' websites shouldn't be taken too seriously, these people have bills to pay and a remortgage to pay-off after all, but it's very reassuring to look at the history we have within our own dojos and to 'struggle the struggle' that many of us do out of loyalty to our students as well as our instructors. After 23 years away from Kyokushin, Senpai Barry (over a customary Indian meal) told us that he'd never really forgotten about it or 'left', and it 's very reassuring to me when I see faces from years ago humbly bringing their kids along to today's tournaments, that most people never really leave Kyokushin, even when they think they have.

All-in-all it's been a fantastic few months. Good luck to 'blah blah franchise martial arts', I have little doubt that they will need it. We'll stick to teaching the hard way, it's what we're good at.

Trials & Tribulations

2010-03-21T09:40:00.002Z

One thing I have learned over the years is that the success of so much of what we do relies upon relationships and personalities.

When I first moved our dojo to St. Stephen's School, the Head Teacher was very much an open, forward-thinking 'maverick', who had recently been featured on BBC news having painted the school purple. They were very enthusiastic about hosting our club. The caretaker at that time was a mature gentleman called Jim. He was fantastic, he lived very close by and nothing was ever too much trouble for him, he and his wife would walk up together on the late summer evenings to lock-up and always engage in some friendly chat. Inevitably Jim retired, and a new caretaker started shortly after, named Nick. Nick was quite different being a middle-aged family man, originally from Merseyside, he held down another job as a cabbie. There were a few minor issues in the early stages of Nick taking over where he was a little late opening up during half-terms, but we got to know eachother better and ultimately I always had the sense that he was on our side.

Back in September of 2009 I received a phone call whilst going about my day-job, in a very busy and noisy corporate kitchen. Damien Jordan, the 'purple-thinking' Head of St. Stephen's, had moved on and the new Head was on the end of the phone. I experienced the tone of the call as quite confrontational, with an air of 'things are going to change around here'. There seemed to be an issue over us having access to the building during holidays and half-terms, something we had insisted upon when we started there and had been agreed. Predictably, the issue seemed to come down to money and whether or not somebody would be paid for working during these periods. Not being one to flinch, I was quite robust in my response, if they were going to change their conditions then we would most likely move the club. The lady's tone softened and there was even talk of us being invited to perform an assembly demonstration at the school. Predictably again, the invitation never materialised.

Ultimately, our friend Nick the caretaker quit. It was clear from our conversations that he felt that he and the new Head didn't get on and that he felt that he was now being asked to do too much. He apparently bought a carpet cleaning business, a going concern. Good luck to him!

The ripple-effect for the club was three consecutive training sessions cancelled by the school, who didn't seem to give a damn about the disruption that they were causing our dedicated students, all of whom had been working extremely hard in prepaation for gradings and a kata tournament. Unapologetic, they eventually offered some unacceptable alternatives to our usual times. They also had to call on the help of a neighbouring school's caretakers in order to offer this, and these were the same people that had locked the main gates on several occasions previously whilst my junior club had been in session, forcing one parent to vault the gate in order to come up and inform me!

Needless to say, the situation was untenable. I sent a final cheque in for the £800 rent outstanding that they'd suddenly remembered to invoice me for (having spent around £4000 there over the last three years), with a letter addressed to Sandra D'Warte (the new Head) explaining that we were no longer going to use the facilities as the recent and continuing events had been unacceptable. The cheque was promptly cashed, but Ms D'Warte has yet to grace me with a reply, or an apology.

Many people, including parents of my students and vendors of other venues, have expressed surprise and disappointment that a local school could be so unsupportive of a non-profit club that contributes so positively to the local community. What can I say? I can only share in the disappointment and sadness that one individual can seem to make such a difference to our fate.

This left us with the dilemma of finding a new venue for the club. The club cannot recommence until May 4th, when the prestigious Tonbridge School has kindly offered us use of their main sports hall. I can only hope that my small junior section hang in there until then. Annoying as it is, it's just a problem that will be overcome with trademark Kyokushin perseverance.

Beware the Magician

2009-12-09T21:56:00.004Z

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.

Time...

2009-11-29T20:50:00.006Z

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.

New(ish) Beginnings

2009-08-06T23:01:00.011+01:00

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!

Pass the wood filler...

2009-07-03T23:10:00.007+01:00

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.

A Face in the Crowd

2009-06-17T23:22:00.005+01:00

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!

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!

'Discipline is not the enemy of enthusiasm!' - 'Crazy' Joe Clark

2009-05-13T22:20:00.015+01:00

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.

Pleasantly Surprised..

2009-04-26T22:58:00.011+01:00

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!

Circles

2009-03-08T22:16:00.004Z

It's been a while since my last blog entry, a lot has happened!

I became a dad at 1102 on Sunday 1st March 2009, our beautiful daughter Nieve was born 5 weeks early, but in pretty good shape considering. It's one of those moments in life when everything anyone has ever said about it suddenly rings true. We were so lucky to live so close to the hospital. At that particular moment I was supposed to be in Coalville in the Midlands running a Clicker Squad training session, as fate would have it Toyah thought something wasn't quite right on the Friday night so we went up to the hospital on the Saturday morning half expecting to be sent home with a pack of antibiotics. I wasn't completely surprised when the midwife informed us that Toyah was having contractions and hadn't realised, at that moment I was glad that we'd brought the hospital bag!

What followed was a mammoth twenty-five hour labour that Toyah handled incredibly. All fathers will relate to my feelings of helplessness and the sense of being pretty useless, although giving support is crucial it doesn't make you feel any more useful! I won't go into the details but it was a reasonably normal birth. Nieve was whisked away by a paediatrician to Special Care where she spent four nights to get a little help with her breathing for the first day and general observation, and it wasn't until the following Saturday night that we finally 'escaped' after a little bout of jaundice and photo-therapy.

All the normal stuff has followed, long sleepless nights (especially for Toyah), lots of fun times with nappies and all the goey smelly stuff that babies do.

It truly is the best gift in life that any person can have!

Karate has continued to challenge and interest throughout. The club has taken on a couple of new juniors, the seniors has also levelled out nicely for the time being. In addition we were very privileged to have a couple of visits from Senpais Pearson senior and junior from Tunbridge Wells. To put this into context, Senpai Ray snr. may hold the rank of Nidan but he has, at one time or another, graded every single member of my immediate family, as well as having taught every single one of my own instructors (including Norman King, Dave Allen, Barry Henniker, Ray Bond, Paul Gibby) at one time or another. At 72 years of age he continues to train regularly at Crawley under Shihan David Pickthall as well as teaching at Tunbridge Wells so it was a great honour to have him and his son Ray jnr. (and his grandson!) come along and train at the dojo and one that I hope will be repeated in the future.

Blowing Out the Cobwebs

2009-02-07T23:04:00.008Z

February 1st saw the first major BKK event of the year, the annual Instructors' and Child Protection Course. It's always great to catch up with friends and get stuck into the new year's training. It's always a physically challenging session as many of us are still carrying the odd extra pound post-Christmas, but the purpose of the course is to update and consolidate teaching methods.

Hanshi Arneil always brings bags of enthusiasm and energy that belie his 74 years. How I always manage to be directly in front of him when he wishes to demonstrate Toho I still haven't figured out! The ongoing theme of sensible stretching and plyometric exercises was taken a little further. It's always great to see an eighteen year old demonstrating to the rest of us how things should be done, I'm sure I wasn't the only one that had images of the BBC's Last of the Summer Wine in my mind as I envisaged the hall full of instructors, most on the wrong side of 35, attempting to replicate what the youthful Senpai had shown us! Luckily we all survived unscathed.

A theme that has been pertinent within dojos and camps and courses for several years now is speed. I am of the opinion that many katas and basics are often performed far too fast. In my own dojo a student will end up doing forfeits if they persistently jump the count, as I believe that without the lock-in and zanshin that should occur between techniques then it is degraded to nothing more than a mild aerobic exercise. Unfortunately many students, even black belts, often get to the point where training becomes little more than a distraction from everyday life, a 'stressbuster'. I have no interest in teaching students that simply wish to perform vague athletic movements and that just wish to 'get through' everything. Ironically, what I did like on the course, which we have done before, was performing high grade katas very fast. It is a real challenge taking katas like Scienchin and Sushiho and eliminating the slow movements. Once again Hanshi made reference to Taikiken and Sensei Sawai, and reminded us that we had all been practicing Taiki for many years without necessarily realising it, within our own katas. The challenge of performing those slow parts at maximum speed is similar to seeing the application of the usually tranquil Tai Chi Chuan converted to a devastating fighting form. It takes awareness of what we are doing to a more realistic level, just as slowing down a kata that's usually done fast can be difficult, it challenges us as to how well we really know the kata.

The annual Child Protection Seminar was once again expertly run by Senpai Bryn Hughes from Oldham, who works in the Probation Service. It is always an uncomfortable and difficult course, and is often heated as many of us question whether there is any common sense left in the world, but it is an undeniably important issue that must be taken seriously. Child protection isn't always about the sinister stories we read in the papers, it can be as simple as dealing with a minor injury safely and sensibly. Having Bryn onboard is hopefully helping the BKK stay ahead of the game as far as requirements in future for teaching children are concerned.

Jiu Jitsu training continues to be a great and interesting challenge, and I can feel myself slowly getting hooked as I have been with Karate for the last 30 years. One of the greatest challenges is learning to relax and to just feel and become sensitive to weight. Many of us in Karate can, incorrectly actually, get into the habit of holding unnecessary tension in our bodies without realising it. One of the many things we teach is that a student never completely relaxes during training, until they are given permission with the command 'yasume'. This is important if you wish to fight effectively, it teaches us to stay alert and aware, and to look poised and less vulnerable. However, there is a difference between keeping strong and being tense, and a karate person should always be strong and alert, but not tense. The result of this excess tension, in my own case, is exacerbation of injuries and impedance of performance and potential. Many of us seek out therapists, osteopaths, chiropractors, exercise programmes and yoga to alleviate symptoms like, in my case, sciatica and a very tight sternum and intercostal joint resulting from an old knockdown injury. Unfortunately, if we are holding tension and using our bodies incorrectly then the therapists' results are quickly undone and exercises only reinforce our bad habits. Learning to relax and let our bodies perform as they were designed can have far more positive long term results, and can allow greater results from our training. Of all the things I've tried, the Alexander Technique is the method I've had the best results with to alleviate my aches and pains, as once you've learnt more about yourself and how to use the body, the more control you have over what happens to it, especially in training and day-to-day trials like hours behind a desk or the wheel of a car or van. Now I have never been to an Alexander teacher, but what I've learnt from downloaded programs has helped a lot, and I'm in control. The parallels and links between this, Jiu Jitsu and Karate seem obvious once you know them, like anything!

Fighting The Rhetoric

2009-01-17T17:53:00.003Z

If I look at any modern martial arts school, whether it's an 'academy' or a 'centre' or whatever, at those that offer a variety of arts what is usually conspicuous by it's absence is karate, at least in name. A dirty word? Not quite, but there does seem to have been a distancing of the mainstream martial arts community from this once most popular art, and definitely a decrease in popularity and demand. I was just today reading an elongated post from a forum that had been pasted to another forum as an example of someones opinion as to 'Why Traditional Karate Is Not Effective For Self-Defense'. A lot of what the author had written was true, undeniably. What concerned me was the pigeon-holing of arts and refusal to acknowledge the shades of grey that exist between arts, whether traditional, sport or 'reality' based. His assessment of traditional karate was simply not accurate in my opinion.

However, we that have practised karate, in whatever style, must bear some of the responsibility for this misconception. Kyokushin has often been spared from a lot of the criticism aimed at karate, due to the knockdown system that it is known for. Whilst it is not a perfect street defence method, experience in knockdown certainly prepares the student for scrappy, painful, exhausting confrontation. Whilst the manifestation of knockdown fighting is physical, the purpose it serves in preparation for real confrontation is as much mental, the adrenaline and fear, the acceptance that absorbing some level of damage is inevitable. The fact that we have been afforded respect that others haven't, shouldn't have allowed us to sit on our laurels.

Unfortunately it is success itself, in my opinion, that has damaged the image of karate of all styles. In this case I refer to success in terms of popularity. For every good club, there are probably ten that are of questionable quality. Belt factories, 'Mcdojos', whatever you want to call them, were inevitable. Some bright spark will always think to themselves 'well I love my karate/kung fu/tae kwon do, wouldn't it be great if this could be my job too?'. The moment that your students become your customers that you rely upon to pay your mortgage, in my opinion the Sensei/kohai relationship is compromised.

Commercialisation of martial arts isn't the only weakening factor, a lot of what has happened to karate in particular is out of the hands of its current students or instructors. The classification in Japan and Okinawa of karate as an art to be taught to school children in the early twentieth century led to a watering down of its most brutal methods and applications. Open hands were substituted with closed fists, katas were changed to make them appear more palatable, as were explanations of their applications. In his book Bunkai Jutsu, Ian Abernethey discourages us from seeing this as negative, as had these changes not been made then karate may not have been accepted into Japan's mainstream martial arts and could have disappeared forever.

Thankfully, karate has found some strong allies in recent years. For every nightclub doorman that will write about how disillusioned they were with their time in karate, there will be another that still trains and advocates the art. Learning karate and all martial arts is an ongoing process, and many of us are still learning how to learn it. The fact that it wasn't right for some people at that time is just one of those things. Many of us have come unstuck in street situations where we have learnt that our training hadn't prepared as as well as we thought it had, but that isn't the fault of karate, it's our own fault, we hadn't trained as we should have, and learnt the hard way as a result. Yes we can blame our instructors if that makes us feel better, I'm now in the firing line too as far as that's concerned, but we have to blame ourselves too, even as students.

The person that wrote the particular piece I was referring to was subsequently dismissed by many as someone wishing to promote their own 'reality' combat system. This is a sad state of affairs that only goes to show what people have done to the martial arts, in the West particularly. I'm not expecting a great revival of karate anytime soon, the low numbers in our dojos reflect that, but the situation may eventually be to the advantage of the art itself, as thinning numbers may separate the wheat from the chaff, good riddance to those off in search of this week's favourite, hopefully karate can rebuild itself. Thanks to instructors from other styles like Geoff Thompson, Gavin Mulholland and Ian Abernethy showing the way, as well as the phenomenal Kyokushin karate-ka within the BKK, this decline in popularity can be an opportunity to reinvigorate karate. Those of us that were always considered as 'fringe' or 'maverick' karate due to the perception of 'brutality' may now become part of a new mainstream of the art.

Aside, although not totally unrelated, man of the year so far for me has to be Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger III, the pilot that glided an Airbus 320 to a safe landing on the Hudson river in New York this week, a manoeuvre most experts say would be almost impossible. We can only begin to imagine the stress he was under during those minutes, and how there would have been no real way to practice this procedure. He was, however, one of the most experienced pilots flying today, and apparently had taken the time to study the psychology of flying in emergency situations, proof that training for the unexpected can pay off even if it's not always deemed as 'real'. Top bloke.

Opening thoughts of 2009

2009-01-02T12:45:00.005Z

As last year was drawing to a close last week, I was driving back from central London on Monday morning listening to LBC (essential listening to avoid traffic jams) and that same subject that had been knocking all year long was in the news again; knife crime. This hot potato is now a political football as the figures are massaged one way and then back another way. I was thinking to myself as I headed out of London on the Old Kent Road that most of us are fortunate enough to be able to avoid problems with knives as most of us aren't members of teenage gangs. So it came as a bit of a shock and a coincidence when I had been home about ten minutes when I had a phone call to tell me that one of my colleagues had been robbed of his mobile phone at knife point in Brick Lane, East London, at 8.30am that morning. Inevitably, as a martial artist, the chatter begins about 'what Dave would have done had it been him' (and it could easily have been me if the jobs for the day had been shared out differently) and this filtered back to me about how people were speculating at what I might have done had a couple of low-lives jumped out of nowhere threatening to stab me if I didn't hand over my phone. Well there is no need for speculation on my other colleagues' part, I would have handed it over just as my sensible friend did, and without an ounce of shame. Only a complete idiot would risk their life (and the risk against someone with a knife is immense, no matter how good a martial artist you are) for the sake of a phone that can be replaced and rendered useless within seconds by way of a phone call to the service provider. I have been threatened with knives in the past, and what is unmistakable is that if someone has got to the point that they are going to pull a knife, they are almost certainly going to use it, especially if attacked. They are usually pumped full of adrenaline, and there is a very good chance your average knife mugger will be high or at least wanting to be high as drugs are invariably linked with this type of crime. On this occasion my unfortunate workmate was confronted by more than one person (anyone that thinks that these hyenas would risk stepping out of the shadows unless the odds were already stacked in their favour can think again), and if you have a family at home waiting for you then any fantasy of meting out a punishment to this pond life should stay exactly that, dead heroes are no good to your children. We've all seen demonstrations where an instructor adeptly dispatches with three or four attackers, and we should all now realise that these are just demonstrations. In real life your attackers don't take a twenty foot run-up kiaing like banzai billy, and they don't wait until you've beaten up their friend before attacking you! Hanshi Arneil has said that he can fight one person at a time and no more, and this is true for everybody.

Thankfully my friend was unhurt, and his phone was disabled within the hour. Some fool will probably buy it for a tenner from the scum that stole it before finding out that it can't be unlocked, I hope it really ruins their day! As a club with more middle-aged plus members than young people, we have certainly been working more towards this type of defence training rather than tournament training of late. We often use fake knives in many varied scenarios, the only problem with a fake knife is that it doesn't have the same effect on your physiology as a real one. Any kind of confrontation is frightening, a knife is terrifying. The only sensible defence is to run. The drills we train in the club are as a last resort, when you can't run or when perhaps you are already in an altercation and a knife is pulled.

Once again knives were in the news this morning, as the new Met Commissioner will be under pressure to reduce knife crime in London. Like most people, I would like to see much tougher sentences for even carrying a knife. No-one needs to carry a knife unless they intend to hurt someone with it. So much doom and gloom as the year begins, another brave soldier killed in Afghanistan on New Year's Day, ongoing troubles in Gaza, the looming recession, it seems hard to find things to be positive about. Well in reality there is always an awful lot to feel positive about. Being able to train, being in good health, having a job, and in my own case an imminent new addition to the family, are all things I'm truly grateful for.

As for new year resolutions, well all the usual stuff applies. Drink a little less, train a little more, eat a bit more fruit and a bit less fat, try and be a bit nicer and a bit less like the grumpy old men on the television! I'm hoping to get to BKK Summer Camp this year but I'm not sure if I'll be able to with a new baby in the house, it would be a shame to miss it having been to the last six. I didn't enjoy last year's as much as previous camps, but I think that is a factor of ageing. Personally I'd like Hanshi's kata seminars brought into the main sessions rather than tacked onto the end of the day when everybody's too exhausted to concentrate, not because I'm lazy (I can hit pads and do circuits until the cows come home) but because it is a precious opportunity to spend the required time with the master and really get to the bottom of his view of the higher level katas, as well as having the chance to practice applications at length.

Well another year has begun and the club reforms next Tuesday the 6th January, and I can't wait to see what the year will bring for the club.

Osu!

Onwards..

2008-12-27T15:33:00.007Z

One last post for 2008. It's been such an eventful year in which I personally have learnt so much.

Anyone who knows me will know that I have recently taken up training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in addition to my Kyokushin training, and on 21st December we had a final training session of the year. It's inevitable for all martial artists to express interests in other arts eventually. Far from undermining or contradicting what Kyokushin Karate has already taught us, exploring a different aspect of the arts, to an experienced karate-ka, underpins and reinforces what we already know. The man that has been my Kyokushin instructor at Gravesend for over ten years, Shihan Ray Bond, is a professional Shiatsu practitioner, and this experience has given him great knowledge on what are popularly known as pressure points, which can be used for fighting as well as healing, and he has taught us some great sessions on these over the years. My aforementioned friend Sensei Stuart took up Iaido some years ago, Senpai Ian Hamilton of Crawley has been pursuing Judo for over two years now, Senpai Malcolm Scott has crossed over into Thai Boxing training along with a number of the other regular knockdown combatants, my own father Mick who is a 64 year old Shodan in Kyokushin has also recently started exploring Tai Chi at a club in Tonbridge. What all of these people have in common is their extensive experience in Kyokushin. Had I attempted to 'crosstrain' (not a term that I am fond of) much earlier I'm not sure that it would have been as beneficial. It's tempting to think to oneself 'oh I wish I'd learnt this earlier, I've missed out on all of this knowledge', but I'm a great believer in not having knowledge until one is ready for it. Hence the way the learning format is laid out in traditional karate. If you visit many of the martial arts forums on the Internet then you would be forgiven for being dismayed at reading how many martial arts are slated as being ineffective and virtually useless, from Aikido to Tae Kwon Do. What it's worth remembering is that most of these posts are often written by 16 year old kids with little real experience on the street or in the martial arts, that may have just started training and watch Cage fighting on television. Whether or not a martial art is effective depends on the teaching and the application. All martial arts can be proven to be effective in a controlled environment, whether that crosses over to a real situation depends on the situation and the application and approach of the combatant. Armed forces are taught very basic unarmed combat techniques, but I bet that they are invariably effective when put to use. Why? Well I imagine it's because of the mindset applying it. Soldiers have a life or death mindset and discipline driven into everything that they do, mistakes cost life. Hobby martial artists do not walk around with this mindset generally speaking. Keep the mindset and take away the martial and military discipline then society has a problem. That is why traditional martial arts teach discipline and courtesy before technique. That is why as an instructor it's frustrating that all new students expect to learn 'something useful' within their first hour of learning. It's all useful. Often I will read crushing testimonials about clubs that 'spent an hour punching and kicking the air!'. People that write these things shouldn't bother in my opinion. To truly judge a club you would have to spend alot of time there. Kihon training in the air is perfectly legitimate and useful, it's not sufficient on its own as it only teaches part of how to punch or kick, just the reflex, but it's a crucial step in 'The Route to Power' as laid out in the Kyokushin syllabus, position being the first step.

Karate is often incorrectly referred to as a 'striking art' or a 'stand up' discipline. It is primarily taught as such for the simple reason that punching and kicking are initially much easier to learn than complex grappling and for a novice they may prove to be far more effective with relatively little training. Karate kata contain many disengaging and grappling techniques that are not always obvious when watching kata practice. The 1980 publication 'Power Karate' by former Kyokushin practitioner David Cook states that at Nidan and Sandan level a karate-ka should be exploring the grappling and throwing techniques of karate. As many karate-ka do and should become instructors at this level, it has to be our responsibility to research and learn these deeper levels of karate training, even if it means researching other arts and using them as a reference and comparison point. Unfortunately we've all seen people come and go from the dojos looking for the next new thing, that move onto something else, then something else, the next always 'better' than the last. Some people may get to a relatively high grade in their chosen art and become disillusioned that they haven't yet learnt what they had anticipated learning, and abandon their art or organisation. Often they miss the point, they may find more knowledge once they have moved on but fail to realise that this was simply a progression of learning, the knowledge was always in front of them but they hadn't been ready to see it, they didn't always need to 'jump ship' in order to progress. What is noticeable about all the people I mentioned at the start of this post and myself is that when they have embarked on a different type of training in martial arts, they have done so seriously and fully, and used the experience to draw more from their original art, in our case karate.

At the Rickson Gracie Jiu Jitsu club where I train, it's no great surprise to me to learn that at least three of my training friends there also have Dan grades in other arts. In shiatsu, Shihan Bond soon came across Sensei Tatsuo Nakamura, formerly resident Japanese Instructor to the BKK and a 4th Dan black belt, and now a pioneer of Seitai (an ancient Japanese healing method) in this country. All of Sensei Stuart's colleagues in Iaido are also black belts in various martial arts.

Learning Jiu Jitsu has been a tremendous challenge that has only just begun. Wearing a white belt again is strangely liberating. All the new terms like cross-side, mount, open guard etc etc, give me real empathy with my own students, especially beginners. Learning about the history of the art, and the experiences of people at the club, has been very interesting too. Rickson Gracie is probably one of the few figures that can be compared to Sosai Oyama, although he is still relatively young and the world he inhabits is far different to the one that Sosai lived in. I'm lucky enough to train with Dean Taylor who is a direct student of Rickson. Dean has a tremendous humility about him, despite his obvious prowess as an accomplished martial artist, and his depth of technical knowledge of the art he teaches is breathtaking. Unfortunately the downside of this is some of the late nights I've had after chatting outside the club for much longer than anticipated about all things martial arts (something I've done for many years previous with Karate friends and instructors too)! The camaraderie at the club is very helpful too, the attitude towards learning there is serious, and I'm grateful to all the guys (especially Al, Richard and Simon) who have patiently pointed me in the right direction and helped me to learn, and will continue to in the coming year I hope.

For Tonbridge Kyokushin Karate Club we shall continue to train hard and honestly. We hope to be building bridges with other local BKK clubs by way of a small tournament that will start the ball rolling for the future. The first major event of 2009 will be the BKK instructor's course in early February, where I'm sure we'll feel every mince pie and every glass of wine!

Thanks to everyone that has supported us in 2008. Happy New Year to all!

Osu!

To grade or not to grade?

2008-12-19T16:46:00.006Z

The final Tonbridge training session of 2008 on Tuesday 16th December brought a rare opportunity to bring juniors and seniors together in a joint training session. There are many benefits in doing this. As with all 'marker' training sessions (sessions that mark the beginning or end of a period of time, or era), this was representative of the traditional spirit of Kyokushinkai Karate. Those of us that trained within the BKK during the 1970s and 1980s will have fond but harrowing memories of thousands upon thousands of techniques, gruelling exercises, people vomiting, full blown fights starting in the dojo (actually something to be ashamed of) as contact inevitably got out of hand. Most of these things I witnessed and experienced as a junior. My first experience of training in a Kyokushinkai dojo would have been around 1978, at St. Dunstan's Catholic Church Hall in Southborough, Tunbridge Wells, although I didn't begin training seriously until 1982 at Tonbridge. The memories of Tuesday and Friday nights training under Senpai Barry Henniker, when most of my school mates would have been sat in front of 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet' or tucked up in bed, have stayed with me. My limbs feeling like lead weights as the count went on, and on, and on, knowing the kicks are going to go higher on the next count once this hundred are finished, it's completely ingrained.

So on Tuesday, the two juniors that were brave enough to turn up for what I had promised as an important session, had their first taste of this type of training. Relatively light, largely due to time constraints, but we had a strong basics warm up of around 1000 hand techniques and 250 kicks, with full kiai ('life shout') on every technique, rooted in sanchin dachi, and myself and the front line counting ten. We all did them. Towards the end that familiar burn creeps into the muscles, as the mind starts to long for just the slightest change so different muscles can work for the merest relief. I studied the faces of our two brave youngsters and saw the grit and determination starting to show, the development of the 'don't give up muscle' (a phrase aptly coined by Goju Ryu instructor and author Gavin Mulholland). This is what sums up a Kyokushin Karate-ka as much as anything else, the dangerous (to an opponent) tendency to just keep on going no matter what, this was taken from more traditional styles like Shotokan and Goju Ryu, and formed into a Kyokushinkai ethic, where, like in Shotokan especially, the stress of holding taxing positions like Kokutsu Dachi (back leaning stance) and Kiba Dachi (straddle stance) for long periods of time do as much to develop character as they do to develop strength. Look into the sport branch of Kyokushin karate at the knockdown tournaments and you will still see that the esteemed prize for 'Most Spirited Fighter' is one that every spectator, competitor and official will have an opinion on, the underdog that, like a dog with a bone, just would not and could not let go, often in spite of terrible injury. Delve further still into the history of kumite tests within the BKK and we see this go to yet another level. Sensei Trevor Marriott's 50 man kumite in 1993 at Ipswich was brutal, disturbing, but inspiring. He faced the best fighters of the day, Michael Thompson, Nick Da Costa, David Pickthall, Jeff Whybrow and many many more that attacked with merciless ferocity. He would not give up. The ones that haven't made it over the years have usually had the attempt stopped by Hanshi as they became unable to effectively defend themselves, they did not give up.

So we have gently introduced a new generation to the 'don't give up' ethic of Kyokushinkai. It also gave the juniors an opportunity to see black belts practice kata, and to practice their own katas alongside the Senpai. They also witnessed the Senpai practicing Yakusoku ('I promise') with each other, something I consider to be of crucial importance to developing self-defence skills, and witnessed them making mistakes, and then trying again, a brief hint that the black belt will not be the end of the road if and when they eventually achieve it.

Which brings me to the title of the entry. We will have a grading at the club in March, which the two lads were told to work towards diligently if they wished to be considered. I do not grade every three months religiously, I grade when I think that the students are ready. If students or parents pester about gradings, it generally tells me they are not ready. On the occasions when someone that has pestered about a grading has been allowed to attempt it, it invariably ends in failure, largely because the student's focus was on the destination (i.e. wrapping a new coloured obi around their waste and strutting around in it) rather than the journey (i.e. genuinely trying hard to develop their basic skills). The issue of gradings is highly contentious in all martial arts, organisations can rise and fall upon how many gold bars someone has or can or can't get on their black belt. I've unfortunately over the years witnessed some of the most embarrassing grovelling, posturing, manoeuvring and back-stabbing all in the quest for the perceived status of that next stripe. In reality, of course, all this energy is wasted if all you want is status, notoriety and 'to be respected'. My good friend and summer camp co-habitant, Sensei Stuart Wright, said to me once that if your peers don't recognise your grade then it isn't worth having, no matter where you stand in the line-up or what people have to call you. Focusing on a grade for the sake of having it is pointless. The rank of 3rd Dan in Kyokushinkai is a major milestone, it affords the title of Sensei. This rank and the pursuit of it has brought much pain and controversy over the years. Some feel it is too easy to attain now, however there are no more people ascending to this level than there were ten years ago within the BKK at least, roughly two or three per year (although it could be argued that there are proportionately more of us given the drop in membership over that period). My particular grading for this grade was one of the longest days of my life, I had virtually no sleep the night before, the terrors of what was to come kept me awake the whole night. At around 4am I was ready to pack my bag and sneak away, never to return to training again, only a text and phone call home, and the engaging of that 'don't give up muscle' kept me there to face the arduous task ahead. Walking into breakfast looking pale and drawn, I took some relief in seeing that my fellow candidates looked no better than I felt! Of course we pulled ourselves through it, hours and hours of meticulous scrutiny of technique, interpretation, severe bollockings, and then pain throughout the stamina test and the hard sparring. It wasn't over though. One of the toughest tests was to come. At 7pm we were summoned back to the hall (all Sandan candidates) and 'locked in' with Shihan Liam Keaveney, the BKK chairman, who had been in the grading along with Hanshi Arneil and Shihan Noddy Warden. There was nothing this man didn't want to know. Our aspirations, intentions, thoughts and feelings on Kyokushin and the BKK, how we intended to contribute if we were to become Senseis. In addition we had to explain our newly crafted personal katas in detail, and be questioned on them by our fellow candidates and Shihan. We were 'let out' at about 10.30pm, exhausted.

What was clear to me from this experience was that whilst we can look at a grading requirement on paper and think that it doesn't look like too much, with Sandan especially the mental requirement is a massive step from the preceding grade, but this can be attributed to all grades, there is more to all grades than what appears. One of the values of the grading system that dissenters often miss is the fact that it does test the candidate, it tests their character as well as examining their technique. Without availing themselves of these procedures karate-ka and other martial artists would miss out on what some psychologists refer to as 'AFGOs' (Another F****** Growth Opportunity). Finding the balance between having a healthy aspiration to improve and ascend the grades and being overly obsessed with grade and 'status' is something we as instructors need to do our best to help our students to understand.

So the final session of 2008 was a success, and myself and a few of the Senpai headed off for a trip to Pizza Express to finish the evening. 2009 promises to be an exciting and challenging year as my wife and junior instructor in the club, Senpai Toyah, appoaches full term in April with our first child, the challenges of coaching the England Clicker team continue, and we aim to build the club to a stronger and deeper level.

Merry Christmas!

Osu!

Tonbridge Training 9th December 2008

2008-12-10T20:05:00.002Z

I always know when we're into the Christmas season as I have to swerve more on the way home from the dojo to avoid the drunks in the road. What this particular man's intention was I'll never know, but his action of standing in the road randomly pointing at cars as they hurtle towards him isn't particularly unusual at this time of year.

There's nothing more rewardng as an instructor than when certain things start to click into place. When the juniors arrived at the dojo tonight, Senpai was amazed to witness the highest grade (a 9th kyu), responsibly coaching the lower grades through a warm-up before the class was called to begin. This can be considered a eureka moment. My belief has always been that the discipline actually needs to be more strict when teaching juniors than seniors. When I say strict I don't necessarily mean in the obvious sense, but there has to be strong consistency, kids can spot fakes a mile off. That's why we have never ever turned a blind-eye to breaches of etiquette and procedure, they are consistently challenged when they occur. It's not an easy option, sometimes it's extremely difficult, but it's at moments like these that it pays off, when you know something significant has lodged. Instilling a training ethic is as important when teaching juniors as it is with seniors, encouraging the student to share the responsibility of their learning. There's nothing worse than a lethargic class of kids, an essential part of martial strategy is being able to cultivate an energetic appearance and vitality, even if you feel exhausted, but it takes work to develop this approach in a class.

It never ceases to amaze me that, even though I don't plan training sessions for the seniors, I normally have a framework in my mind, and invariably a tangent is taken early in the session that completely diverts the session, and before I know it the time has gone! I was marvelling at some of the basic principles that are included in our Ren-Raku, that tie in very well with what I am beginning to understand as the Kyokushin framework for the comprehensive fighting system that it is.

One more training session of 2008 to come.

Tonbridge Training 2 December 2008

2008-12-07T16:32:00.010Z

The Tonbridge dojo is now a very different animal to what it was at the beginning, and very different to what I had originally intended or envisaged it to become. Holding onto students has been extremely difficult, although in truth that has been largely because the people through our doors haven't necessarily been the most suitable. It's true that there is no such thing as a bad student, but it seems that fewer and fewer adults that walk through our doors have the commitment to progress even past the lowest grades in karate. I have lost students because they did not want to pay the modest £26 BKK licence fee, which is essential for our insurance, I have lost others simply because they could not commit to give up one night per week, and as a result I assume became disillusioned with their lack of progress and went off in search of something easier. Many struggle with the traditional discipline and expect to become their instructor's friend, and whilst over time this is possible as students eventually become instructors themselves, correct boundaries must be maintained, and this would be true even without the strict etiquette of Japanese martial arts. This is not only true of Kyokushin training, the Rickson Gracie UK club where I train have only kept hold of one student in the last four years. The junior club is a different matter, if parents are supportive of the process, they will bring their children week-in week-out, and children tend to actually make less excuses than adults in order to avoid training and often tend to 'get it' much more easily than adults do.

My view of the club when I opened it was that the training would be as physically hard as possible, that we would attract young men and women, hopefully in their early twenties or late teens, to train to become strong and hard fighters, to make the club like many of the great Kyokushin clubs of the 1970s and 1980s, Crawley and Gravesend to mention a couple. Times have changed greatly, and at the moment I have four regular senior students, all black belts and all over 45 (and all registered at different BKK clubs). This is the best thing that could have happened, as far as development of our karate in the dojo is concerned. Can you smash pads week after week, drill kihon up and down over and over interspersed with new rhythms and systems with these type of students? Of course. Will they or you benefit greatly? I'm not sure. Being faced with a core of students that I hadn't anticipated has challenged me to learn more deeply about the karate that I'm teaching, and has taken me further than I had ever anticipated into trying to find out exactly what Sosai had intended Kyokushin Karate to be in terms of a fighting system, as opposed to the tournament fighting and tournament kata that we so often focus on. When I was far less experienced I used to play down the traditional karate roots of Kyokushin if I was asked about, I almost apologised for wearing a gi and performing basics and kata, describing us as much more akin to Thai Boxing. How wrong and foolish I was, karate is one of the most complete fighting systems, and Kyokushin takes from Shotokan, Goju Ryu, Wing Chun , Jiu Jitsu, Tai Chi (and let's not forget Hanshi's recent phenomenal revelations regarding his time training with Kenichi Sawai Sensei in Taikiken) and more. So I now challenge myself and my students (especially if all black belts and high grades) to delve deeper into the art.

This Tuesday was another one of these sessions. Down to three it's still possible to have a great session, sometimes you can actually achieve a great deal more with only a few students. We're still working hard at tidying up basics and kata, bringing the use of our core into movements as so aptly driven home by Shihan Keaveney time and again, as well as retraining ourselves as high grades to get out of the habits that we use to teach low grades in terms of 'step then punch' etc, as pointed out by Shihan Kerrigan at this year's instructors' course. This is essential in all martial arts, if the core isn't engaged then we are weak.

Christmas is drawing nearer and we've achieved a great deal this year as a small club. No big tournament or party this year but we will have a special session bringing seniors and juniors together in a couple of weeks.

National Clicker Tournament 29 November 2008

2008-12-06T16:15:00.002Z

This is always a curious event to me. For anyone unfamiliar with 'clicker' fighting, it is an innovation of semi-contact fighting that is continuous, so for a period of two minutes or one and a half minutes the referee and mirror referee record the scores on clickers, the bout is only stopped to award warnings or double point scores achieved either by a kick to the head, a score to the back or by sweeping and following up with a controlled punch. What I find curious about it is that among hardened Kyokushin fighters this tournament is referred to as 'a bit of fun'. However, having refereed at this event for several years I am constantly amazed at the level of controversy this event manages to stimulate amongst its participants.

Refereeing at this event is always a privilege but at the same time is a thankless task. As a ref', as in football, you are guaranteed to become less popular as a result of being one. Without breaking ranks I'll try and illustrate this. I have found myself, like many others, becoming increasingly concerned at some of the erosion of etiquette and discipline at this and other events. Some competitors come onto the mat seemingly unaware that it is customary in Japanese martial arts to bow to their opponent. The football referee analogy is an apt one, as I occasionally found myself feeling as though I could refereeing a kids' football match at various points throughout the day. One particular incident was when I had had to threaten disqualification after a clear attempt by a team to subvert one of the cardinal rules. Strangely, the coach decided that rather than to rebuke the team under their guidance it would be better to head off to another part of the hall and release a string of expletives in reference to said referee, which was inevitably overheard by one of my Senpais and relayed to me later on. All in a day's work for a conscientious ref' of course. The interesting part which lends itself to kids' football is that the coaches and parents seem to be far more upset when this happens than the kids do themselves. In this particular incident, the team took it on the chin and realised they had been rumbled and even had a mischievous and roguish smirk when it was clear that their plan had failed and could have cost them, unfortunately the coach wasn't so gracious. Let's remember that this was just a warning, no actual penalty was given (I've noticed a new-breed of whinger over the last few years, 'sore winners', they often complain about the refereeing after they have won their bout, or even the tournament!). I'm not really having a pop back at the coach for calling me names, I have been and will be called worse in the future I'm sure, I'm just concerned about the overall implication. This seems to me to be an overspill of what has become our 'can't tell me or my kids what to do' culture which, even as martial artists, we are not immune to.

On the positive side, the level of skill continues to grow year on year. One of the greatest pleasures is seeing students of people that I know beginning to emulate the style and skill of their instructors, to the point where it is sometimes possible to tell which dojo they are from. In fairness, the great majority of competitors are very well turned-out and disciplined, and many display exemplary attitude and etiquette. For juniors this is perhaps the most important event of the year, the only real chance to test their skills against their peers on a broad scale and a chance for their families and friends to come out and support them. Whilst competition is not the goal of Tonbridge Dojo, it is hoped that perhaps next year we will have a few of our own juniors joining the line-up.

There are minor concerns in my mind about the way that we referees and judges are bred. Currently it is a grading requirement for second and third Dans to have judging qualifications. Whilst I can see and agree with the thinking behind this, the result seems to be that at every tournament there is a large influx of novice officials hoping to gain a qualification (of which I was one once I know). This takes a great deal of organisation ensuring that the correct balance of novice and experienced judges and referees are on the mat at any given time, as well as ensuring the safety of everyone involved in the competition. This is fine if the novices intend to regularly help in the future, as the investment of time and training into them will be worthwhile. If they are qualifying just to achieve their next stripe and will not be seen in a blazer again it's a little bit pointless. A well-respected Shihan did intimate to me that they felt that the qualifications would be better taken out of the grading syllabus as it would remove controversy regarding career fighters achieving higher grades without gaining qualifications and would actually improve the quality of our judging as everyone qualifying would do so because they wanted to. I'm inclined to agree, although there will be no perfect answer. Let's keep this in perspective and remember that our refereeing is arguably the best and most professional in the world, those of us that have attended and competed in other organisations' tournaments can testify to this. Most of us that volunteer to referee do so under constant scrutiny and there is always pressure to improve, which is a good thing in my opinion.

So by 5pm the fighting was all over and the remaining officials steeled ourselves for the marathon trophy ceremony that lasted the best part of an hour! Our hands numb from clapping, we headed off into the night back to our homes, exhausted but proud to have done our bit and sure that we'd done our best.

Background

2008-12-06T15:49:00.005Z

I've created this blog to attach to our club's website at http://www.tonbridge-karate.co.uk/ . I got the idea of a blog from a couple of friends, one being Sensei Stuart Wright of Chelmsford BKK dojo who has added a very interesting blog to the Chelmsford site, and Alister Fulton from Rickson Gracie UK whose 'Chasing the Blue' blog, documenting his trek to achieve a blue belt in Jiu Jitsu, is a very thought-provoking read.

The club has been running since October 2006, and is part of the British Karate Kyokushinkai. Invariably there are always encounters and issues that are not always simple to discuss directly, and running a martial arts club is full of challenges and is fraught with various difficulties. I intend the blog to serve just about any purpose I see fit, but will largely act as a narrative to the events and developments throughout the year(s) and will illustrate my take and perspective on them as the Sensei of the dojo. Martial arts are an onward journey no matter what level we find ourselves at, so I hope to illustrate the ongoing journey for what it is to me for the benefit of anyone inside or outside of our own dojo that may think that purely getting the black belt is the ultimate goal in training.

The views I portray here are my personal views and are not necessarily shared by my peers or by the BKK. There is no intention to be controversial on my part, but I will be tentatively and respectfully including my own opinions and analysis on situations that may arise from time to time. This is my blog and anyone who cares to read it is welcome to and to have their own opinion on it. If you want to leave a comment please do, if you disagree that's fine but please do so respectfully. Thanks for reading.