True Combat

For information purposes only. Exercise and diet at your own risk


I have often been asked what lessons have I learnt from the martial arts after being involved in them for nearly three decades. I have of course seen and done much in that time and have learnt and experienced many lessons. One major thing that I can take from my training is that I have learnt that actual fighting techniques and combat/self defence moves are simplistic in their nature, and it an take some time to really be able to use them efficiently.

I will play devil's advocate here in this article because I have a love and passion for the martial arts that stems back to my first taste as a fourteen year old boy. But on the other side of the coin I can safely say martial arts has been responsible for peddling some absolute rubbish, myth and untruths where fighting is concerned.

Before some readers start reaching for the phone to voice their discontent, I will state hand on heart that I have in my time been responsible for peddling some of it. I am not guilt free but somewhere along my martial arts journey I had to swallow a couple of very bitter pills in my quest for truth and let me tell you it can be a hard thing to accept. Let's not forget that like any other business, martial arts must advertise itself to be appealing to the general public. Within the arts different systems will sell themselves as being the best, the ultimate, the true fighting art, just the same as any other product. One will try and out do the other with its claims and boasts.

Each decade, each year, each month there is a new fighting flavour to sample. It's like the advert for the best ever 'Blast' kitchen surface cleaner, which does what no other kitchen cleaner, can do! Everybody goes clambering for this amazing product and then 18 months down the line the same product is resold as 'New Improved Blast' kitchen surface cleaner! Now hold on a minute I thought it was the best ever before, does this mean it wasn't any good or not the best ever at all! You see it gets a bit confusing and martial arts are no different.

People coming into the martial arts now have an absolute cornucopia of styles to chose from and practice. Along with this the market is flooded with books, videos and CDs, all with every system under the sun and some from outer space! (By the way New Breed have the best!)

Every single one proclaims its fighting effectiveness and combat prowess. I will state again honestly most have little or nothing to do with real fighting! A bold statement I hear you say. Yes, it is, but it again is based on experience and not hypothesis. I have and always will be a hands on martial artist, so to speak, I have learnt my theories from hard physical practice. I have for all my experience always been open minded and willing to learn from any source and have done so on many occasions. I have never been one to be stuck in my ways unlike some so called Masters who have given themselves self imposed titles, grades and brightly coloured gi's.

The Asian martial arts have brought many good things to the western world, but are their methods and rigid structures effective for real world combat? When arts like karate and kung fu hit our shores everybody wanted some of it, we were all looking to be the next Bruce Lee. But in our eagerness for these colourful and exotic arts we neglected two of the most effective fighting systems on the planet, which were western creations. They are of course boxing and wrestling.

Because we wanted the flashy kicks, the unusual postures and all the ritual that went with them we were blinkered to the effectiveness of our own systems. Now many years on people are realizing if you want to learn 'good hands' and KO power you learn to box. If you want devastating takedowns, clinch work and floor grappling, wrestling is up there with the best.

Asian martial arts brought with their fighting techniques a cult like status. It was almost a religion and its staunch rules and regulations left very little room for self growth or personal development.

The way these arts were structured and taught are nothing like real fighting moves, no matter how much an instructor will try to convince you otherwise. In my 30 years of training, out on the streets I have not seen anybody fight in a ritualized Dojo fashion. Sure if you practice this type of art for reasons other than fighting applications then that's fine. I have many good friends who have dedicated a life time to the traditional arts and I admire them for it but if at came down to a street situation I don't think much of what they know would be of any help to them.

So are the martial arts useless in practical application? No, of course not, but I have adapted the techniques and pressure tested them under extreme conditions so I know what works and what don't.

For years I carried the heavy baggage of 1000's of techniques around with me, believing that by having all these moves I would be a better fighter. In later years I learnt that less is more! Refine what you need and dump the rest, you will be better for it when it comes to live action.

Fighting or combat is live, real movement, not rigid or static patterns. Real situations explode and change constantly. If you train for reality you must be working this way. I admire people that dedicate their time to learning and perfecting endless katas. It is truly a great skill but it doesn't resemble in any shape or form real fighting from any part of the globe. Never mind the 'hidden secret moves', it still doesn't translate to how a human being reacts and moves under the threat of violence or in a fit of aggression. If you doubt this, get somebody to put on a pair of boxing gloves and get them to pile in, no holds barred at you and see what you come up with. Blocks won't work, you won't get time to pin-point a pressure point, it will go extremely quickly to clinching and then to the floor.

If you don't practice line ups, the fence, action triggers and pre-emptive strikes for self protection's physical response it will usually go to ground. This is a honest and unbiased opinion with the rose-tinted glasses removed. Remember I've already told you I have had to learn these lessons myself, sometimes the hard way, but I had the courage to learn them and not bury my head in the sand. I changed and I feel a whole lot better because what I teach now is the truth, pure and simple. No falseness, no hiding behind technical jargon or rigid ceremony. I have had to crush the ego.

Some people though have built up huge associations and have a massive income from teaching unrealistic martial arts, it is a big decision to have to change your views. Obviously the martial arts can bring many other benefits, such as comradeship, sense of belonging, discipline, humbleness, respect and strength of mind and body. It can preserve certain traditions and fighting skills that would otherwise become obsolete and their origins would be lost forever.

I can understand all these things and they are worthy causes. But if they do not move with the times or adapt and keep growing they will be no different to the groups that meet up and reenact different battles from throughout history. Great spectacle, great entertainment but obviously no application in the real world.

I spent many years in the traditional arts of kung fu, tae-kwondo and Aikido and being a young man they gave me a much needed self discipline and guidance, but fell short on giving me the necessary mental and physical skills in a self defense scenario. The moves didn't fit any real life scenarios that I was viewing or encountering in the town centre on a Saturday night, where most young people will go. It's not to say these arts haven't got techniques that work, they all have, it's just the way they are generally taught. The explosion of the UFC and other such tournaments blew the myths of martial arts out of the window, it sorted the wheat from the chaff. It was a big learning ground for those who thought they were invincible.

It soon exposed the nature of how most martial arts were being taught. The 'arts' that prevailed were the ones that were real in the training, practice and application. These people trained exactly as they fought. Brazilian ju jutsu, boxing, wrestling and Muay Thai were all strong because of their background. Their arts were not built on theory, assumption or hypothesis but on real life experience.

As the old saying goes if you want to learn how to fight you must fight or at least simulate those moves very closely. There is no other way. Do not listen to individuals that will tell you 'We practice like this but in a real fight we would change and do this.' Rubbish. It's like David Beckham saying, 'I practice my free kicks in training with an inflatable beach ball but in a real game \I would use a football and put it straight in the goal!' You react under pressure how you train.

If your training doesn't mirror real fighting or real scenarios it will not work, period. Painful lesson? Yes, but not as painful as a good kicking I don't profess to being a super fighter or Ninja turtle, but I train for real confrontation, so that I am as ready as I can be if it comes.

At 42 years of age I am not so likely to encounter violence (only at my Sunday morning class!) as maybe a young man in his 20's, but I still want to feel all my training has a purpose and that I am fit and trained to handle myself and also be able to pass real knowledge onto my younger students. If I get a person ring me up wanting instruction in self-protection or maybe MMA training to compete, I will give them this with practical instruction form the first day they walk into my gym.

They say 'a good man knows his limitations' and then he needs to start learning a bit more. When I first stepped into Vale Tudo and NHB competition I was armed with a wealth of ju jutsu knowledge but I found after my initial fights I needed more. It wasn't that the techniques wouldn't work but I had to adapt and refine them for that arena, plus I had to expand my all round knowledge of boxing, wrestling, Muay Thai and submission works, and also adapt ring strategies and game plans.

I went back to the drawing board so to speak and began to work on becoming a MMA athlete (a totally different ball game). All this at the age of 37. I knew I wasn't going to be able to conquer all the young and very talented fighters out there but I wanted a taste, to do my best and hold my own which I achieved, but make no mistake, it was hard.

In that arena there is no room for belts, reputations and egos. I lost some and I won some but it did make me a better and stronger fighter for those experiences. I don't regret a minute and think I earned the respect of my peers in that field.

There are some young men in the MMA/NNHB game that may only have been training for a handful of years but they are truly awesome and have 'real' skills. They can apply that takedown, armbar, leglock and choke. Why? Because they haven't learnt hypothetical skills - they fight how they train. Some people will argue MMA is not true martial arts and that it is just a brawl. Most who say this have no first hand knowledge of it or haven't stepped into the arena From personal experience I have found great sportsmanship, respect and comradeship within and that is admirable in such a hard sport. Sure you are going to get some exceptions but you will get that in traditional martial arts as well.

Too many martial arts systems are guilty of over complicating fighting moves. They spend far too much time analyzing and debating. Fighting is as old as man himself. It is a primeval instinct, a survival tool - not some inter-galactic mind boggling puzzle and it certainly isn't rocket science.

Yet in some arts it is being taught in this manner. Again we're back to the sales pitch and the sell to the public. Some modern system can fall foul of this with so many terms and so much vocabulary that you would be forgiven for thinking it wasn't a martial art at all. Sometimes you can bog yourself down in unnecessary jargon, just get out there and train! No politics, no bull. Even the 'art of no art' is getting bogged down with politics ands internal bickering, which makes a mockery of thew whole concept.

You have to get honest with yourself and ask what are you in martial arts for? If its for combative reasons, does your system stand up under pressure? Have you tested it? Are you 100% confident in it? Has it got all the answers or will,. You have to step outside of it t learn more? If so are you prepared to do so? Once you have tested it and got your answers you don't have to blast the hell out of it every session but you must keep the concept alive and progressive training along with the realistic drills and scenarios, then whatever art you are in you can grow.

I have been fortunate to associate with some great 'realists in the martial arts world and I have had to pack my black belt along with my ego away in a drawer to learn what these people had to offer. I didn't sit on my self-imposed pedestal and rubbish these guys. I went onto their mats and learnt first hand. That is me and that is in my way. No, its not always an easy thing but it can be done if you really want to discover yourself and the truth about real fighting and real combat.

Beware there are many fakers out there who can talk to talk and who have risen prominence on the back of this. The 'real deals' that I have met are men who are out on the mats or in the ring still testing themselves, still learning and looking at the martial arts in a simplistic, down to earth manner, not dressing it up as some mystical, super deadly and highly intricate doctrine.

I believe true fighting skills are learnt in the basic and constant repetition and refinement of those basics. It doesn't sound too different to the traditional beliefs, does it? The only difference is the manner, approach and mind set on how I approach my training. It has got to be alive and have constant progression and deal with what's happening today, not thousands of years ago.

I love history and whatever city I may visit, I will hunt down a museum to learn about things of a bygone age. However, I am also sharp enough to be keeping one eye on the future, because anything worth following will constantly keep changing and you will have to go with it.

My 28+ years in the martial arts have not been a stagnant time, it has been one of continual growth and re-invention. That's why you can go on learning and developing. I broke my bonds of a rigid and regimental regime a long time ago and I haven't looked back. Fighting systems are not a big mystery, anybody can become good within them if you don't lose sight of their goals.

If your goal is realistic combat go and train at a club that trains in applied and a live principles with simplicity as its core.

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