When teaching drills and sparring techniques I try to convey how to move well and how to excel. Making you a great fighter is hard work for both of us. It’s a long road but well worth travelling. Along the path it helps to have some sort of aim point. What does mastery look like?  Over the months I’ll post up some clips of people i think you should watch and emulate as much as possible. You’re unlikely to achieve their physical level but you need to know what it that level of mastery looks like. Lets start with boxing. This should be a core of your martial arts and JKD personal system. Your first step would be to watch Roberto Duran one of the best boxers of all time.  Here’s a clip of his highlights but the fight with Esteban de jesus is the best apart from the two with Sugar Ray Leonard. Check them out if you have time.  What else is there to  do but copy this master boxer. Not in your personal life but aim at copying his boxing. His skill is phenomenal and his close quarter boxing and evasion is wonderful.http://youtu.be/6zKtj1o41nQ

Next check out Ramon Dekker he’s a wonderful Thai boxer totally fearless and like the Micky Rourke character in ‘ The Wrestler’ he’s not bothered what happens to him. Check out his fights on: http://youtu.be/iPYil5rfO4A His fight with Fenachio is wonderful. Like beauty and the beast with Ramon the beast. Watch how he hunts in all his fights and his body inclination. He’s coming to get you.. I watched the Fenachio fight live in the company of Dan Inosanto and talked to Ramon afterwards. Cut around both eyes he was quite unconcerned and focusing on his next fight a month ahead. He’s got a wonderful front foot jab, teep, and good evasion whilst unloading. Finally on the grappling front there’s few as good as Marcello Garcia a king of the choke. Check him out. http://youtu.be/dlpjKabazSA . Note how all these masters are soft and fluid in their movement yet powerful too. Now you know where the level is you just need to put in the training. See you on the path.

We’ve had great problems booking a venue for the Breen Instructor Group seminar.  Dates have been on then off due to the Olympics.  Finally we have been able to book SPACe Sports centre for the dates of 7th and 8th October. Our apologies to anyone who’s booked fights or other travel for the 22nd and 23rd. The B.I.G. camp is one of the best instructor camps in the World. Come and join us and have fun whilst learning your art from the inside out.

The black belt grading at the weekend was a great affair,  a fabulous day whether watching or taking part. We had twelve candidates taking the grading and it was a full on day with the grading lasting over four hours. We would have probably gone on more but we were out of time. By the end everyone was tired, battered  and bruised. The grading is a real test and it’s my intention to have it as the gold standard for black belt gradings. Something to be proud of for the rest of your life and entry into an elite club where all have passed the same test. We regularly fail people even close friends. The standard is the standard  with no accommodation made for sex, injury or disability. We expect the candidates to show their knowledge of  JKD and Kali as part of the curriculum with all candidates expected to show great skill in boxing and kickboxing, JKD  and Jun fan trapping and kickboxing, Panantukan from Kali, some silat and a lot of thai boxing technique too. All in all they have to be a complete fighter. Not only do they have to know all this stuff in a technical sense they then have to show it in free play and in full contact sparring and last but not least the infamous two on one sparring. It’s here where they fight two of the seniors who’ve also been through this test for their black belt so they know how to test you. When you’ve got nothing left we want to see what you’ve got. What FIGHTING SPIRIT is left after everything else has gone. The twelve candidates: Husna Nessa, Barry Harte, Paul Clark, Julian gilmour, Benet brandreth, Richard Lee, John Lau,  Ben Mohammed, Jamie Hillman, Han ter park, Anil Waughray, and Graeme Mccormack were all outstanding though they all had their highs and their lows. Congratulations to all of you and many thanks to the thirteen senior who turned up to help with the assessment.

The recent riots have shown that we’re right on track with our current  approach to training. Of course training isn’t only about fighting in the street. However, self protection is vital in troubled times. Self protection then self perfection could be the mantra. Whatever your approach there’s lots to be learnt from training in a multiple opponent and weaponry scenario. Firstly as the Chinese classic the Sun Tsu says ‘ fighting the many is like fighting the few’ . It then goes onto say it is division and counting which doesn’t quite fit on a more personal street level. It is though about positioning and division, blocking their attack with one of their friends whether downed or in some sort of clinch from you. Eight opponents around you with you in the centre is eight opponents. Break out of the circle and you’ve got two lines of four who invariably get in each others way. Also if you clinch one then you can block off one line and use him as a shield or with the correct choke and a wall at your back hold off lots of attackers. So obviously the clinch work we’ve been doing and the way we’ve been working on transitions is ideal training for this scenario.

On a deeper level what happens is that as you concentrate on the other opponent or your position relative to attacking groups you delegate some or all of the work of transitioning and feeling the state of the clinch to your arms and body and surprise surprise it does it really well and gets better the more it does of it. Your head is now doing what it should have been doing all along;  dealing in strategy and the grand scheme of things eg survival.  In my limited experience most people who are clinched in a group attack stay pretty passive. They’ve taken a few licks from you hopefully and now wait for their friends to finish the job or not. This attitude and the violent movement and chaos of a real fight mean that they’re not often set up either physically or mentally to carry the fight to you but they’re opportunistic if the tables turn so you’d better be doing well.

Weaponry is also a great leveller and also a great teacher. Angles and concepts that are hard to understand with empty hands can often become clear when using a weapon. Arrogance about power and your ability to take a good hit ‘just like your dad did’ disappear when the hand is holding a knife or a hammer. Similarly those who are reluctant to move start moving pretty fast when you have a knife in one or both hands. This is how it should be. The warriors of old trained everything so that their were no surprises and ‘everything’ teaches you ‘everything’. In that I mean that each art or part of the art teaches you something that you can bring back to inform the rest of your training. These insights are invaluable. Grappling changes your boxing, boxing changes your grappling, Kicking changes boxing and weapons change everything. As the riots have shown you don’t get to choose the rules or the weapons or the location. You do however have to adapt, and fast.  Above all in this sort of scenario you’ve got to get in the zone. Hear the hum that comes when you’re not concentrating on specifics but have that disembodied state where you can see everything and it’s moving slowly. Knowing that if you concentrate too much you’ll be back in real time and struggling. Training should give you opportunities to experience this feeling without getting broken in half. Double stick training is one of my favourites as you get there most easily as your brain becomes overwhelmed so you have to let go to flow with the pattern. Another is the tag fighting we’ve been doing recently which helps a lot here.

Therefore you need skills and strategies to one; slow things down. Hence the clinch and positioning stuff from earlier. Have done multiple opponent or weaponry work before so you’re better equipped with relevant experience and most importantly be well conditioned because if there’s one big fail point in fighting of any sort it’s lack of conditioning. We’ve been training really hard recently so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Hopefully you wont ever be in a riot or any violence but the lessons you can learn by keeping that as a motivator of your training are immense. Let’s look at some of them:

Cardiovascular conditioning will save your life not only in street fighting but in health. I’m the only man in my street of my age who hasn’t had a triple bypass.

A more strategic view where you don’t get bogged down in detail but see the greater game and look for your opportunities has to be good. The ability to go with the flow is immense. With multiple opponents, as in life, you can’t have a fixed position you can only have the best one at this moment .

Delegation: If you can delegate to your hands and legs in combat then you can delegate to other people in life in general. That’s huge leverage.

See that structure and form are more important than just working hard. If you’re getting hit from all sides then it’s time to break out of the circle and slow things down and line them all up and deal with them at more of your tempo. A good wall at your back helps be it physical or emotional.

Lastly find ways you can enter the void where things go slower and fear is not the driver but your disembodied self looks at things unfolding. That way you act purer with less reservation and quicker more natural timing.

Happy rioting.

The Black belt grading will be held on September 11th from 10.30 until 3.00 in the great hall at Bancroft’s School Sports Centre, Woodford Green, Essex, IG8 0RF. The nearest tube is probably Woodford or Buckhurst hill. The guys have all been training hard so it will be interesting to see how they do on the day. To check eligibility talk to me in the classes. Our other gradings have been spectacular so we hope this one will be too. We always take everyone to the edge so that they are truly tested. It should be a fun day. Old seniors will be on the panel to adjudicate with me as usual.

We’ve been downloading stuff from the video camera and computer and putting it on youtube. There’s a number of clips on there at the moment. On youtube check out bob breen academy and you should be able to see everything that we’ve done. We’ll also be taking some film in the classes as everyone is looking good at the moment and generally doing more video clips to help your .  Here’s a clip to get you started.  Simple knife play
simple knife play http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj9NWUTKTLI

Enjoy!

It’s been interesting lately sparring around with lots of the seniors at our black belt training in Chingford. It’s simple mistakes that let people down. Often people do too much in the belief that being busy is important. To a certain extent that’s true. If you’re throwing punches or kicks  its much harder for him to get started on hitting you. However, variety is important, if you only attack then you’re easy to beat because the defender knows you’re coming and knows your timing. Similarly, don’t try to be too complex with cuban uppercuts or overhead hammers. Get the basic stuff down and hitting them regularly then once you’ve got that down then add in the funky stuff.

Most importantly don’t end up open after a cross. Here it’s important that you close your body by doing a hook or rotate behind your jab or bob and weave to the right and move off line. Faking to draw the opponents attack is vital. You don’t want to both go into a tussle together at an agreed point. As it says in the Chinese classic the sun tsu. ‘The great warrior summons others but is not summonsed by them.’ Bruce lee put it another way with his attack by drawing concept. Alternatively fake them so much that they turn off mentally then go in and attack early. In short keep it simple but be unfathomable.

Do the high percentage stuff well first then add the rest. Use the five ways of attack. Simple single strikes that hit are the starting point. When you can do that reasonably well then add combinations. Draw their attack so they hit air and you hit them!

Lastly if you’re having trouble getting in and can’t do it by timing and Jedi mind tricks then trap your way in.

Footwork has to underly all that you do. Move away from his big right hand strike and keep a good guard up. Too many people did both and were easy to tag (polite way of warning you’ll get knocked out if going hard ) For all fighters it’s important to know yourself.  Being one dimensional even if that is being strong and hard will still get you beaten though it’s a good attribute to have.  A great black belt knows himself first and has more than one game.  Aim for three approaches to start. A strategic view is important.

Luton was the centre of the martial arts world last week at least from an Academy viewpoint. Foyzur Rahman was fighting in a Thai boxing match there, Carl Jackson was fighting in the national stickfighting squad training under grandmaster John Harvey (one of the academy’s first black belts) and Bob was teaching at the Filipino martial arts festival. The star of the show was definitely Foyzur who won in an amazing 58 seconds.  Not even enough to break a sweat. Academy coach Winston Fraser said he was amazingly composed despite all the bluster of his opponent. Bosh, bosh, job done.

Meanwhile Bob was teaching at the Filipino festival for the first time assisted by senior Carl Greenidge. Many of the leading teachers there were students of his or academy black belts so it was great fun catching up. Despite having to lecture his group on the right attitude and etiquette for martial arts in addition to technique it was a fun day. Carl meanwhile was getting himself ready for the forthcoming World championships.  A strange day. Luton! the centre of the universe.

We are starting a beginners course on Tuesday 21st of June at 6.30. This class will be taken by instructor Paul Clark and is open to beginners only. If you want to get started then come along and do your first free class. If you are already a member then just come along and jump in the class. For a second class dealing in fundamentals come along to the Thursday 6.30 class too. This class will be open to all grades but will concentrate on hard basics and conditioning. The path to Black Belt and beyond starts here.

As a special promo we are giving away a limited number of special autographed gloves to those who introduce a friend or friends.