I’m sixty today which is quite cool. Pleased to have got this far and looking forwards to many more years. I went training this morning at the Masters academy in Loughton to Stick fight with my friend Matt Chapman. I do this every week and I like to train on my birthday especially, however got talked into just going for breakfast.
What have I learned in sixty years? Control the centre line…ha ha. but mainly that active mistakes are better than passive ones. That we all get stuck sometimes and that we should embrace change early. Similarly a philosopher on a drive time programme said ‘the biggest thing you can waste is your life’ Enough said. Go do it! Do it now! and go with the flow. Your more likely to be angry about things you didn’t do. Be cheerful, nicer things happen to cheerful joyous people. Above all keep it simple, less is definitely more. Enjoy the trip

For the last three weeks we’ve been working on changing leads and on understanding the southpaw or unmatched lead where you are in the right stance and your opponent in the left. Bruce Lee’s JKD was in many respects just a southpaw style. As I remember too well, most of the fighters back then were Karate and Taekwondo fighters so favoured hard hits from the rear leg or hand.

Being in a southpaw lead you’ve go all the advantages of the closer tool set, and as Bruce put it your strongest tool to the front and his strongest far away on the other side of his body. Bruce of course added to this advantage with hard training a quick mind and devastating timing. Plus he was playing out of the box, not conforming like the others he fought. It was great being there and fighting in that time as you understand the mindset of fighters at that time. Of course if he’s also in a southpaw lead then you’re back to matched leads.

So far we’ve studied how to counter this JKD setup and also methods to change stance. Many of the traditional styles like karate and silat and kung fu work both stances both for the wholeness of combat and also as its good for the body. However all the Filipino masters I trained with who did lots of fighting didn’t seem to change stance. It’s an 80/20 thing you’re never going to be equally good in both leads. Have your main stance and then a restricted game in the other side. In real combat you’ll have to fight opponents coming form all sides so it pays to have some game on both leads.

There are a number of ways to change lead. Firstly we change at distance just like the circling the pad drill we do for beginners. You retreat a little and then circle the other way hiding behind your jab. This is highly effective. Second is to kick and step through or just step through much like Oi-tsuki in Karate. I remember seeing Oishi do this in the 69 all Japan championships and he smashed everyone. In Kali you can crash through with a stance change hiding behind your elbow or by manipulating his head off line or just extend your cross by stepping through. As you’re hitting or crashing it’s very hard for them to counter. My friend Andy Norman has utilized this Kali concept a lot in his Keysi style. Once your in unmatched leads there’s a limited amount of options but there are certain rules. Keep your foot outside his if possible and keep your hand higher than his. Then you’ve got leverage advantages and dominate his hand. Simple beats on the lead hand or jerks (jut sao) give you a host of options from hook kicks to simple hand traps. Kicks and punches from the rear are easily countered and this is a great place to throw if you attempts to round kick you. We’ll be working on this for a further three weeks then rotate onto something else and come back to it later. The thing is to mix and match training methods from all the arts and pick the best. You just have to understand the conceptual framework. Good training.

Just back from a week in Shanghai. Mainly to study on a Jazz seminar but also to look into Martial arts there and also equipment design and manufacture. The first thing that struck us was of course the traffic which has to be seen to be believed. Bikes, cars and buses seem to have equal weight in traffic and whomever gets to the gap first seems to have right of way. Intention seems all powerful: if you decide you’re going to cut across this stream of traffic on your pushbike because you want to turn right then go ahead.

Suprisingly it all seems to work. The guy flying his kite out of the back of his car whilst stopped in the middle lane of the motorway was one of the more extreme things we saw. However, things do get done there despite the JKD traffic. Motorways being built everywhere and things just getting done with much less fuss than in the UK. Everyone seemed very relaxed. We didn’t hear a single police alarm or see any CCTV cameras except on banks the whole time we were there. Every third person may be a secret policeman but that wasn’t the impression you got. All in all a much easier place, a more relaxed place than Britain nowadays.

As to martial arts; friends who live there said the best stuff is Thai boxing and BJJ with a few smatterings of chinese stuff. Though as always good teachers are rare. I’m sure there must be good groups there but on a flying visit none in evidence.

I went with an empty suitcase hoping to buy lots of cheap goods there and suprisingly found the prices there as high as London or even higher. Great to be back but the jet lag is a killer.

We’ve had lots of people wanting to join recently but we’ve had to put them off as I’ve been in China and we also wanted to bed in the training at the new venue for the existing students. Beginners should now attend on Tuesdays at 7.30 and Thursdays at 6.30 as we’ll have time to take care of you then. As soon as possible we’ll get you doing parts of the main class with the aim of integration with others at your level as soon as possible. Fee’s for beginners are the same as the standard membership at £60 per month. Remember to bring trainers and loose fitting trousers or short preferably black. Club t-shirts can be bought when joining. See you there

The recent B.I.G. BREEN INSTRUCTOR GROUP seminar was a huge success. Many of the instructors who came said it was one of the best seminars they’d ever attended. As usual we had a wide variety of people from all over Europe. Florian Castellano whose currently World Pancrase champion said he learnt more in two days than in the last five years or even more. Ben Richardson who is on the England KUGB karate team said he thought it was the best seminar he’d ever been on. Above all it was great fun with fabulous people who are all great martial artists but also nice to be with. We’ve achieved a close family feel without trying to create a tribe or cult and it works. Come and join us on the next one. See the calendar for dates.

We’ve started at the new venue and it’s going great. If you’ve not been already we’re now based at Space Sports and performance centre in Falkirk st N.1.which is just a couple of hundred yards from the old academy. Some of you wanted earlier classes and we said we’d try to satisfy that need. Already we’ve been able to negotiate an earlier slot on a Thursday so classes on that day will start from 6.30. This will be a sweat/ conditioning/ fundamentals type class in JKD. Then it’s knife defence then Kali empty hands the last class. In addition as I’m there before the classes start I’ll be doing some ad hoc training around sensitivity drills and locks and clinch work in the warm up area before the classes start. Just join in. This will be very informal but in that way I can get my hands on you as most of this stuff has to be taught one on one to get the feel. So this is a perfect opportunity. In addition to this when more times become available earlier we’ll snap them up. The training is great. See you there.