My new book ‘SPARRING-STRATEGY TACTICS TECHNIQUE is out NOW! It’s had great reviews from lots of instructors who all seem to have read it at one sitting. I hope it goes some of the way to helping you improve your sparring. PHONE THE ACADEMY TO GET YOUR COPY. We’ll also be putting an online shop on this site within the next week for you to order that way.

When I started martial arts forty years ago it had an esoteric oriental feel that was totally different to all the other sporting or physical activities out there at the time. It had a romance about it, a spiritual feel. When I first saw my first instructor Tatsuo Suzuki practicing I thought he looked incredible and that he had a distinctiveness that set what he did apart. Through training hard under him and others I managed to get my black belt and later opened one of the first clubs in the uk operated and taught by a non Japanese. The aim here wasn’t to make a fortune but to train more and to teach others what I loved. It was about passion and fun and definitely not about profit as that first club was freezing all year round. The eighties changed lots of that and all of us who had full time academies had to address the subject of making a profit. We had businesses that had to be serviced and staff who needed to get paid. As one of my students Nelson Clarke said ‘ If I don’t pay you then you wont be here in a years time, and I’ll lose out”. However, the thing was the passion not the profit.

Martial arts has kept it’s special place in peoples minds because it couldn’t be bought it had to be earned. As my reputation grew I taught over the years many influential and wealthy people. The thing that intrigued them and continues to intrigue them is that it can’t be bought. You can pay for the training but to get good you still have to train and fight hard. It’s a challenge that has to be met by you and no-one else. One student took me to a famous restaurant where the stars go for lunch. Everyone was there but as we got up to leave one of them said ‘ excuse me are you bob breen?’ I was a celebrity in a room full of celebrities! What a privilege to do the thing you love, keep your self respect and become a celebrity in your own right.

Now there are many companies and people advocating huge profits from teaching martial arts. For those giving a great service this if fine. However, I see many people who seem to have lost the martial art from their business in search of the porsche 911 that they covet. Now the money is the focus whereas it should be the martial art and the money or profit in, I agree, an uneasy balance. I went on one course where the trainer advocated signing parents up to contracts where they were tied in for a number of years. His approach was very extreme and came down to ‘well I’ve got a new Jeep and my son’s just bought a new ford bronco and we don’t give a damn. Let the credit agency or the bailiffs chase them for the money I’ve got my cheque’.

I just can’t see how this works as a long-term business strategy, or how it helps the image of martial arts. Where’s the morality? If people think that owning a big car is going to win them respect and admiration then we’re in a sad place. At meetings with students who are millionaires and billionaires when I’ve professed to be a businessman no one has paid any attention to what I have to say, when they knew I was a respected martial artist the whole room listened to my every word.

Money is great and helps us to live well and help others but it’s not the end of things. Real respect is based on what you do and how you live your life. Then doors are opened everywhere for you, In restaurants you get the best table, you get spontaneous hugs in the street. For many senior instructors there is a great cache in being ‘Sifu’ or ‘ Sensei’ in their local communities where they are treated with respect that money can’t buy. I hear great thing of people like Rick Young, Terry Barnett, Geoff Thompson, Paul Whitrod and the many other unsung teachers who I don’t know so well. This is a special place to be.

To all new instructors I’d just say that they should be as businesslike as possible and get the best input when starting a club so that they are financially educated and responsible. Have a good knowledge of sales techniques, as they really work, but realise that people don’t buy so well when you’re repeating a script similar to the one they’ve heard in Dixons or Curry’s. Your reputation is your best long-term sales tool. Then you get the repeat or referred business. Obviously for a club to function it has to pay its way. For you to enjoy it most it helps if you earn a good living, but don’t sell your soul for the money. Keep your passion and a sense of what’s right. Treat others as you’d like to be treated. One night over thirty five years ago a senior Karate instructor came to my club and watched me teach and said ‘don’t you get bored?” I thought; how can you get bored? You’re helping people, learning as you go along and it’s ever changing. Even then that instructors focus was on the money. They’ve gone on to huge financial success in martial arts, but for thirty years I bet they’ve been bored. Surely, that’s a fate worse than death. For me it’s a buzz just being around solid people every day. It’s hard to keep a level head, but, to live long and prosper you need to help others prosper and benefit too. Train hard-train smart.

I had always had an idea in my mind of how a martial art should be but despite travelling the World never really found that model until I found Filipino martial arts. In a fantasy World I wanted an art that could in the best James bond or modesty blaise tradition despatch opponents with ease and at the same time be realistic whilst taking into account weaponry and multiple opponents. I always thought this was an idealised fantasy though I saw glimmers of it whilst training in Japan. I got the impression that the late Don Draeger was searching for this same synergy when I met him in ’74.

Training in a lot of different arts from a traditional basis was good but I got the impression that you were training in a library or museum where there where lots of techniques to learn but a lack of resolve to functionalise it in a fluid way. Then In 1979 I saw a tour de force exhibition by Dan Inosanto and Jeff Imada at a seminar I hosted in London’s Ivanhoe hotel. All of us who were there that evening were blown away. We were treated to an exhibition of skills that flowed seamlessly from double sticks to single stick to knife to grappling to empty hands and from standing to the ground. It had no order, it wasn’t a drill that they were doing it was just flow from technique to technique. Not outright free sparring but as good as you can get without punching them in the nose. I’ve seen Dan demonstrate thousands of times since then and it’s always good but that evening we saw him letting go and just going with the flow. It was fabulous.

Filipino martial arts is all about it being all in, all the time. Though known for stick fighting anyone who doesn’t factor in the use of the free hand or the hand holding the stick to punch you is misunderstanding the art. Similarly, grappling and throwing are integral parts of the art. The reason one may practice only the stick in a training session is that it’s the hardest skill to get down if you are new to the art. Only once the stick skills are down can you then punch away and keep it real. Obviously safety has to be taken into account. Similarly with the empty hands skills of Kali the basic assumption is that he is armed with two knives and that he has four or five mates with him. I often joke on seminars that even if he’s naked and in the middle of the desert that he still has two knives and has his mates hidden in the sand!

Most of the Panantukan or Filipino boxing drills are in reality knife skills adapted to empty hands but with the realisation that any combat will flow between these two it may start as one and end as the other; from empty hands to weapons, or, from weapons to empty hands. This freedom of expectation is what makes it devastating.

When I’ve taught police SWAT personnel, Secret Service or other security people what I’ve often found is that though they are excellent in their procedures they sometimes have an inability to flow from one thing to the other. If fighting has taught me anything it’s that if it can go wrong it will, and you’ve got to be ahead of the guy mentally. Not just in doing techniques but in stealing the moment. The moment when things change and he’s reassessing and wondering which template to use you’ve filled that minute because you’ve trained that way. Is it easy and does it work all the time? Of course not but at least you’re thinking correctly. Who’s next. Where’s the knife, whats my escape route? Where’s the gap In his timing. These are the questions that need to be answered

Why bother dealing with knives and multiple opponents until you’ve got some handle on single opponents you might say, and to an extent they’d be right but there are huge strengths in training in an ‘integrated’ way. The training methods and routines in Filipino martial arts are scaleable and adaptable and go like fighting, from small scale techniques to large scale conflicts. As it says in the ‘Art of war’ by Sun Tsu “Fighting the many is like fighting the few”. However, the templates and techniques used in Filipino martial arts are transferable also between weapons of all sorts and empty hands so when you learn one thing you learn five.

Of course you still have to fight your single opponent and that’s always difficult no matter who you are. However street fighting is different from competition, often more burst like, spiralling and mobile at times incredibly intense then momentarily calm. The more aspects of this you can approach in training the better. Constantly changing scenarios are just one part of this. Getting used to positioning yourself so that you offset potential follow up attacks from other individuals, or from a hidden weapons, means that you leverage your knowledge and really get to know your stuff. Surprisingly it improves your leverage and body mechanics too. When I say to students ‘ you should move that leg to make this technique work better’ some change but some are lazy and don’t really make the connection. When you say ‘ better move that leg as he’s going to stab you in it’ everyone moves the leg. The ‘all knife-all the time’ ethos has always been there in the art though maybe not emphasized as much as it should be. In reality it’s ‘all everything-all the time’ Doing the training without having these other challenges would make it boring. Once you’ve embraced the idea that he can punch, kick, grapple, stab, slash and call on his mates to help, revitalises any training you’re doing.

Simply thinking about the next weapon or person makes you flow more with the technique you’re doing as you let your body take care of that whilst the ‘you’ in you concentrates on strategy concerns like; were do I move next, or what direction do I throw/dispose of him when I’ve hit him five times. You’ve just got to think out of the box. Then practicing has a different flavour every day. Add sparring to this mix and you’re zooming.

Good training.

There’s a lot of knife attacks happening on the street so it’s vital to be able to stop it before it starts. Knife fighting often starts from the point when the opponent draws his weapon. Some would say that it starts long before then and that you should either pre-empt your attacker or even better not be there.

The knife stuff I’ve seen first hand seems to break into two groups. Firstly, those who want to stab you whilst you’re fighting someone else. These are the infamous ‘backstabbers’ and are in some ways the most dangerous as you’ve got your hands full and they’re out on the periphery just waiting for a chance to stick you and then brag to their mates afterwards about how they ‘did’ you. The other group is where you’ve got a guy fronting you with a weapon and who’s either going to use it or just wants to scare you with it. It’s hard to tell these two apart so the best thing is either to use your tongue to get you out of trouble or to bash both types and let god sort them out. Think of it as avoid, talk or bash and you’ve got the picture.

Avoidance is best done early. If you leave too late they can sometimes get a ‘bee in their bonnet’ that they must stab you and running won’t necessarily get you out of it, as they can be persistent. I lost one friend this way so realise that it happens often enough. You’ve got to be really fast if you’re running as adrenalin can really tie you up and whatever speed you’ve got might not be there. Despite being hundred yards champion at school I’ve both chased and been chased and not found the same speed there when the adrenalins pumping. Maybe it’s god’s way of levelling the playing field. A gentle walk out of the trouble area is best done early and with little fanfare. If they’re drunk they may not notice.

Conventional Knife defence wisdom says you shouldn’t kick against a knife attack and there’s some truth in that, in that if you do get stuck in the leg you could lose your mobility and not then be able to run, and they may have reinforcements coming. However, it’s often about where on the time line you do it. Do it early and drop them with a front kick as they are going for their weapon and then either follow up to finish them, then run, or just drop them and run, You have to choose in the moment. Don’t tarry too long. Leave any danger area quickly. Front kicks, and shin kicks are the ones to do against the knife. Round kicks don’t stop forwards movement and can be entered on. Then you’ve got a knife or screwdriver sticking out of your chest. Keep him at bay with front kicks if he’s trying to stab you and you need distance.

If you can’t hit them early then sometimes draw counters like we have in Filipino martial arts can be helpful. Think of these techniques as pausing him so you can bash him without him having the knife in play. Most knife guys have their belief in the weapon. Psychologically that’s where there courage is based. Denying them that weapon means that you’ve got more chance. I’ve outlined a few in the photos so you can see the concept.

There’s lots of rubbish taught about knife defence. In most of it you are being reactive. You are replying to their questions. If you’re ‘tongue tied’ talking to the police, taxman or bank manager think what that’s like and multiply it a hundred times. Whilst reactive knife tapping is great to practice, under pressure it’s hard to do. It’s role is to give you an idea of the game and to give you attachment skills for the time when you haven’t got any options left. It’s part of the strategy not all of it. It’s teaching you knife defence from an easy semi attached starting point.

Think of the process as firstly avoid or secondly talk if it’s too late to run and judge if that’s all you need. I’ve got out of two knife situations using verbal skills. If it looks like it’s going down then escalate first, trust your instincts here. Tapping and gripping is for later in the game. Before that you’ve got to be pro-active which means doing them first, or on their preparation. This is your third option. Use direct attacks then you get to stop hitting and draw counters. These may play a vitally important part in your survival. Only then are you into being reactive and in trying to funnel them into an area where you can best deal with it, without getting hurt too much.

Conversely, the place to start is with the tapping drills as the other stuff is harder to teach and is developed once you know these passive/ reactive drills. Then you can break in and out, stop hit and even just run!

Of course the best counter for most of this is to change your life situation if you are strong enough to. If you are working the doors every night then your chances of being stabbed have to go up. Change the type of people that you hang around with and your odds improve. Classy people don’t generally stab people as often. Focus on your martial arts as a way of life and you’ll not only change your environment but have better instincts of preservation. Predators who are out there will be able to see that you are not going to be easy prey. In addition you’ll have more control over your emotions, and not have your ego fixated on ritualistic nonsense and posturing that could get you killed. As the saying goes you make your own luck.

Good training and stay safe.

A close friend who’s also a black belt Karate instructor texted me the other day. He was at the Karate national championships and was letting me know how he was doing. A team had asked him to join them so I advised him to be a ‘team whore’ and fight for whoever would have him. It’s all about getting the experience. He’s been training with me about a year and is a fairly experienced fighter in a JKD/ Crosstraining format. He said that he was doing well but finding the limited toolbox of the Karate fighters meant that speed and timing were their strengths. I think Karate or any one-point fighting is superb for learning about timing and distance and definitely something to have gone through on your path to wherever you’re aiming.

I know it’s not fashionable now to do this sort of fighting and that grappling and Vale Tudo are the rage but I have to admit to pangs of regret that I wasn’t there competing. I asked half joking if they had age range groups and was told no it’s all ages all sizes. By this time my mouth was sort of watering. I remember, probably with rose tinted glasses, the days I spent waiting to fight at crystal palace and other venues. On a whim I searched the house for my old Tokaido karate suits that I’d brought back from Japan thirty years ago only to find that I’d finally chucked them out in my most recent purge of clothing. However, in addition to all the Kickboxing/ boxing and grappling that we normally do I’ve decided to make sure that I do some of this type of limited strikes fighting at my club.

As to this type of combat not being as hard or macho as Thai boxing or Vale Tudo as some people think that’s what many Karate people thought of Judo back in the 60’s and 70’s and how wrong they were. I just think it’s a different type of combat that’s all. In terms of teeth knocked out, noses broken and groins mashed etc I’ve seen many more serious injuries in Karate competitions than in anything else. Watching teeth flying through the air used to be part of the fun of old style competitions when it was just bare knuckle and I bet it’s basically not that different now except they cheat and keep their teeth in with a gumshield.

Each format has it’s own type of pain and it’s own risks. The pain element in stickfighting is much different to the overall trauma of boxing. One is sharp and stinging and the other disorientating and painful in a blunter but deeper way maybe due to the gloves. None of it’s pleasurable but of course the aims to not get hit and make sure you hit the other person. It’s just fun, albeit with a hint of danger. This makes it more enjoyable if you escape unscathed. Each type of combat teaches you something about you and about your knowledge and control of fear, timing, distance, balance and all the other core things about fighting in general. The thing is to keep plugging away whatever the format and to take on new challenges that fit your life at that moment.

I talked to some of my senior students about doing this type of competition again as its just fighting and just to take part you don’t need too much specific training in preparation. Though of course if you want to do well the more you’ve got the better it is. JKD instructor Terry Barnett and I talked about it at length between chuckles and came to the idea that maybe all of us old guys could go and compete anonymously and wear masks. I can just hear kids in the audience saying ‘dad who are those guys in the masks?’ He could also add ‘and why are they so much better than everyone else’ or maybe more realistically ‘ Dad, why are they always losing?’ Because the truth of it is, if it’s not the area that you’re specialising in, you have a much higher chance of getting your arse kicked. Additionally, however good you were thirty years ago at that type of fighting you’re probably nowhere near as fast as a twenty year old. Mind you the idea of an ‘old git’ team comprising old friends like Peter consterdine and Geoff Britton who’s now back in the UK teaching and a few other wrinklies definitely had me interested.

The next time you’re at a Karate or semi contact competition and you see five bald guys wearing masks take it easy it could be us. Just as long as we don’t meet Terry O’Neill in the eliminations we may have a chance.

Fear is a huge component in martial arts training yet one that very few people talk about. This can take many forms: fear of being hit, fear of looking bad, fear of knowing that you’re not that talented, and just wide ranging non-specific fear. Geoff Thompson has written about fear in his excellent books on the subject but in day to day classes it’s a subject that’s rarely mentioned. It seems that even to talk about fear is to show that you are scared or fearful and generally that’s not a cool thing.

I know from my own teaching and training that I get students who are excessively fearful, who want to control every situation. I tell them it’s not possible to control life but you have to do what you can and then have direction and go with the flow. I often try to explain the realities of fighting to them but can see that often they aren’t listening seemingly locked in an inward looking bubble, and it’s easy as an instructor to have less patience with them, but we’ve all been there, locked in fear. These students often look for a technical answer to fear and I find them excessively focused this way. They often have little idea of going with the flow and working with the force so to speak. It’s as if at their core they are scared or distrust their body’s innate abilities to protect itself.

This of course isn’t the only way in which fear exerts an influence on our lives. The late Danny Connors always used to say to me that we practiced martial arts because we felt inadequate or fearful and I’m sure there’s a hidden truth in that, at least when you start training. For some it remains an abiding force and for others it joins other drives that make us want to become masters of ourselves, and the arts that we practice.

Fear is a huge hindrance to achieving the optimum results from your training. If you have to mentally check everything before acting then you’re going to be slower. Acting in the moment with a purity of speed is movement based on intent. Fear means that you are looking back at yourself to see if you are ok, when you should be looking forwards thinking attack. The more you simplify your thought process and give it a direction and intent then you start focusing on your opponent not yourself. You have to let the ‘you’ in you, go.

‘Losing your bottle’ as the term is sometimes called happens to lots of people. It’s a private battle that you can’t see, so you imagine that you are the only one. However, it’s prevalent everywhere. It’s how you deal with it firstly on the surface that’s important and then deal with the internal part.

I believe that everything follows action. Internally you can think positive thoughts and have mantras and affirmations that you chant secretly in your brain and these help a lot but action is the key. Most of the problems are in your brain. Think of your brain as a possible double agent and one not to be totally trusted. Rather deal first with its brother the body and influence the brain that way. There’s a feedback loop between the body and the brain and some people say that we’re one body-brain organism and that there isn’t really a divide except in a purely anatomical sense. Similarly if you have a forward’s direction of your head in sparring (and in life) there’s a subtle feedback loop happening within your body. The captain (your head) knows where it’s going so the crew (your body ) relaxes and follows.

I remember becoming permanently scared ‘losing my bottle’ on my return from training in Japan and for two years or so I fought an internal battle where I forced myself to go training and enter competitions. In truth I was petrified all the time. Yet surprisingly fought some of the best competitions that I ever fought. Almost sick at every competition or sparring session I endured but didn’t gain control until I started boxing on a serious scale. Here I did lots of ‘out of distance’ sparring and then lots of fairly easy sparring just learning to move and be hit without being over reactive. I was fortunate in having a great trainer. The key I now see was the doing. Starting slow and building up your confidence whilst building your strength and conditioning to support it.

Confidence is everything. One of my senior students who is about twice my size used to flinch every time I hit him even when we were going light. He had an expectation of pain so that’s what he got. To counter this we played a game over a month or so of ‘ who’s the guv’nor?’ this was to show him that he should only deal with the real, with what really happened, and that he should take charge of the fighting space. If he moved back I would punish him and if he stood his ground then we’d go light. Similarly when he flinched as I hit him I’d say ‘how hard did I really hit you just now?’ when he answered that it wasn’t hard then I’d say ‘then don’t flinch’. Who’s in charge here you or me ‘Who’s the guv’nor? Within a short time he was pushing me around the dojo using his size to good effect. He also realised that standing his ground he got hurt less than if he moved backwards. Use this thought process throughout his life. In a meeting or unfamiliar situation where there is a subtle conflict or control issue why not say to yourself ‘who’s the guv’nor?’ only react to what’s real. Being mildly affirmative and having a forwards intent is subtle but it works.

Imagination is often your worst enemy when it comes to fear and the answer is to deal only with the real. The most frightening fights I’ve ever had are those in which I haven’t been hit or when blows have missed. One fight in particular was scary. He was a top fighter and we were both throwing full power blows without gloves and trying to hit each other which would have done lots of damage. Fortunately, I survived unscathed but the ‘what if’ scenario roamed round my brain for ages.

Getting hit can reduce your anxiety greatly, or at least let you know how painful it is. When I started forty years ago I’d hear pro boxers I worked with saying to each other ‘oh he hasn’t got much of a punch’ at the time I thought ‘but your getting hit!’ this was seeing it from an over perfected Karate viewpoint where to be touched was a loss. What I learnt was that there’s hits and hits. Sometimes it helps you relax if you take a light hit when you haven’t taken any in a long time.

Realise that you’re fighting and accept what happens, whilst also keeping a forwards intent, and surprisingly, luck often helps you. Getting in tune with the force is important. It’s about getting the fundamentals of YOU right. Technique and conditioning help an incredible lot, but there’s luck to deal with. Relax and go with the flow and you’re working with the grain not against it.

Training and sparring when you’re scared means that you’re brave and your proving that, so relax and be less judgemental with yourself. Remember that Hollywood super heroes are not real so don’t compare yourself to them. Just keep turning up, take action and compare yourself to those around you if you must, but look both up and down and realise that you’re just human and that fear is a driver and makes us excel. Use it to get better but don’t be it’s slave.

If you feel scared rebuild your confidence with body-strengthening drills and cardio work like running or cycling, where you push yourself past what you think are your limits, then get back into easy sparring as soon as possible. Above all take part in life don’t avoid circumstances where you can be seen to fail. You only get to be great by firstly being the worst player in the band. When you’re the best it’s time to move.

Am I done with fear now? No of course not, it asserts itself everyday in myriad forms but I know the secret; ’confront your fears and the end of fear is nigh’. Deep inside you’ll always be the scared little boy or girl you were as a child but coping methods and life experience mean that you gain some control, and sparring and competition of any form is a great place to practice your method and learn to believe in the most important person, yourself.

Have fun and good training.