Martial arts should aim at developing all types of bravery but sometimes is used as an armour to hide who you really are. The aim is to make you strong so that you can open yourself and not be in protection mode. Holding your body defensively but free in movement and in spirit. In California they’d call it self realisation. Whatever it’s called it’s about pushing your envelope even if it’s only to know where you’re boundaries are. Renowned Yoga teacher Eric Shiffman talks about doing the corpse pose (savasana) as if you are the corpse of a cow in the desert. The aim is to open yourself and let go of protection, letting the buzzards come and pick at you. The mental quest Shiffman says is to realise you can let go, open yourself until there’s nothing there but gold. Abandoning protection mechanisms lets our body flow, strangely controls fear by embracing it and is often a huge emotional release.

A similar but simpler step is used in JKD and other arts where you have to go with the flow. Not knowing the outcome but trusting or believing that it will all be ok. It’s going with the flow. Being brave but not even seeing it that way just an abandonment of expectation of good or bad but just accepting what is. For my own part I realise I’m quite brave in certain aspects of my life yet not so strong in others. So like most people I have yet more work to do. Art, Yoga, Music, Fighting. Performance and creativity in all of these areas is first about doing your work, your basics but the great people are truly brave. Prepared to look stupid, prepared to lose, going with the flow and being creative. When we look at other people who aren’t fighters we should have the humility to realise that maybe these people aren’t physically brave but they may be braver than us in every other aspect of their life. The physical is one place to start. How great that no matter where you are there’s always more to do/be or let go of. Enjoy the trip and embrace the force.

First, we covered just sparring the jab with the emphasis on being non telegraphic. If you do this with the arm moving first then the body it’s very hard for your opponent to see. We added doubles with penetration and footwork, then added the cross. What I got everyone to do with the cross was to think of only having five so you don’t waste them. All the fighters were advised not to chase after fleeing targets but to wait and use the punch either in attack or in defence when you were sure to score. . Setting this cross up with a non telegraphic jab or double jab makes it much easier. As you can see, it’s a linear approach. If you don’t get the first bit right you’ve got more work later. So application of the basics and true understanding of them is the place to start, and to come back to, over and over.

We then added front kick and fighters used the front of the box for punching then retreated to the back of their stance/ box to stop kick. Adjustments were made with the drag step we’d covered in the first class of the night. Keeping him at the ideal distance for you to hit is a crucial part of the art. Everyone was fighting really well by now.

We then added the simple trapping that we covered on Tuesday. Why learn it if you’re not going to use it? As in the jab it’s a case of the hand going first if Pak sau is your trap. This worked really well for lots of people and killed the non telegraphic jab that the opponent was using. A couple of people did classic lop sau grabs and landed wonderful cross punches. The theme of the night though was ‘ Using It.’ Whatever you learn it has to go into the mix. I only cover things that you can work in sparring. If you understand this approach each tool or technique can offset or counter another attack so you need to have some technique depth. But in essence it’s a simple game. All in all this was one of the best sparring sessions in ages. Generally in the classes we’re doing a technique, then putting it into some game or flow so it’s less defined and you learn how to see it in flow, then we’re sparring it. This has been very successful. Once you’ve got something to work like this it’s yours. Do it successfully a few times over a number of weeks and it starts to go into your fight DNA. Bruce, as always, said it first. “To know and not to apply is not to know. “ Congratulations to all who trained as it was a great night, those who went to the pub on what was a lovely evening missed a special session.

Now that eighties zeal is definitely back. It’s like the old days again, everything tested and slimmed down for action. The aim of our training is for you to understand both the technique and the concept plus the soft skills like timing and distance. It’s about less is more. Then once you’ve got the core stuff down and can use it the other stuff just slides in easily. Of course you have to train that stuff hard too so we squeeze as much into a session as we can. Instructor Neil Mcleod one of the Academy’s seniors often says. ‘ self protection then self perfection’ so that’s the path.

People often ask if I teach the complete Inosanto-lacoste system and I”d have to say not exactly. I’ve studied that system for thirty years and love it but what i teach is my own blend based around what I’ve learnt in forty plus years of training plus what works and also what I like doing. Being crippled for all of the nineties forged me and what i do. When you’re like that there’s no way you can do everything. You start to analyse and look at how to simplify and make functional. You look at ways to leverage your body to the maximum. As a result what I teach is a unique blend. With new titanium hips I’m a lover of movement and evasion but the close quarter stuff I learnt in that fifteen years is hard wired. I Love to pass this on to others. Whilst I didn’t like the constant pain I learnt lots about both myself and about technique and position. When you’ve got less you use it more wisely. At the moment I teach a blend based around Filipino martial arts but it’s got hints of Karate (the discipline, work ethic and perfectionism ) its got the flow and realness of Filipino styles, some of the structure of Lee’s Jun fan gung fu, the grit, grind and subtlety of boxing and Thai boxing. In many ways it’s true JKD,  the original MMA. Not sport based but where sport, reality and art meet.

Is it the best? As my friend Andy Norman of KFM would say ‘it is what it is’. It’s been my pleasure over the years to have played a formative part in the development of many of the leading instructors in the U.K and  throughout Europe. Did I teach them everything? Of course not. Hopefully what I did teach them is how to think and look and to train hard and cleverly. This is what I continue to try to do now. I try to keep the bar high so that people excel. Our grading system is organised so by the time you’re black belt you have an INTEGRATED knowledge of all areas. I often get called the grandfather of JKD or Kali but these terms were originated by others. Basically I just did my work. The Tao Te ching the chinese classic says’ to do your work and make no ado.’  So that’s what we’re trying to do . Our work should be our greatest promotional tool.

My thanks to my good friends David O, Carl and Gordon and Winston who share the load with me and to all our old friends out there flying the flag even though not currently training. In particular Pat O’Malley who unlike me seems to relish forums.

It started with teaching the youths who attended about drumming in particular Samba drumming which is huge fun.  Then Carl and I did our demo integrating from sticks to kickboxing and grappling and ending with knife. The more serious older gang members didn’t come in but stood near the door looking in. We had a great time and maybe showed the guys there a different way, other possibilities for their life. Most interesting was at the end when two young guys got up and duplicated almost everything we did. They didn’t get it all right but it was hugely impressive. Something that takes weeks in a class to teach and months or years to perfect these two young men gave a very close copy of after just looking at it once. They added  a little Bruce lee type screeching and threw in a bit of hip hop and beatboxing too. It was fantastic, disrespectful in the right way and fun.  Afterwards we were told that the guys were the leaders of the local gang. What a waste! All that talent. They’d be in the British team in no time whatever avenue they wanted to go; MMA, Stickfighting, Kickboxing. Whether we made an impact or not has yet to be seen. We came away with a deep respect for these young smart guys. An interesting night.

What you’ve got to do is know the difference between being a lightweight, sitting in watching the television, and knowing when you’re body or mind has had enough training and needs rest or a change. Only then can you start working on who you are. What are your strengths, what are your aims and do your aims and your capabilities match. Of course aim high but reflect on your experience along the way. You’ve got to work out what your particular strengths are. Each of us is unique and has something to bring to the mix. Not all of us can be champions and in truth many of us aren’t that bothered. I can remember turning up for competitions and just wanting to fight and fight well. I was never driven to be the champion it was more a struggle with myself. Others are built differently.

Our resident Thai coach Gordon Mcadam and I were talking about this and likened it to a platoon. Someone who’s big and strong carries the machine gun, someone else with good eyes and ears is the scout. Someone else who has a cool head under pressure is on communications. Similarly I can remember in team competions that there would be those of us who fought first or last because we handled pressure well. Others were our trouble shooters, hard hitters who could sort people out if they were getting naughty. One of my closest friend was the motivator another the strategist. We all fought well but some fought better under different conditions. Whomever you are, don’t beat yourself up because you’re not as good as a renowned champion. Find out what you can do well and concentrate on that to the point where others look to you in that area. Chasing others be it Rick Young, Roger Gracie or Dan Inosanto is the way to madness. Use these great martial artists as beacons or aim points but the clever person charts their own path. What was apparent in Edinburgh was that all three of us Terry, Rick and I had distinct teaching styles, content and emphasis. The students could take what they wanted for themselves from this mix and make it their own. You’re unique in the universe, enjoy the path laid out for you.

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.

An idiot (with a bad back) trains in a dojo at a rate of 25 Jujigatame (Standing to lying armbar) per hour for three hours.

Q: how much pain is the idiot in at the end?

Q: What is the speed of the other train?

Q: how many oranges are left?

This week we concentrated on studying Juji-gatame / straight arm bar from standing to lying with all the details so that it makes it very difficult for your opponent to counter at any point. Of course in real combat it’s not as easy as that but if you train right then your chances are much higher. As most of you know Juji is used as a finishing move in many submission tournaments but it’s also quite useful done from a standing position. This is the old jiu-jitsu and Judo method that used to be taught. That’s what we covered this week. The move is also common in Kali too. It’s important to grab the groin as you go down as it prevents them from hitchhiking their way out to escape. They escape in the direction of the thumb and you break the arm the opposite way. If you’re going to escape then you have to go early and get the leg from on top of your head but it’s not impossible to do.

The best example I ever saw of this wasn’t a flying arm bar as I’ve often seen done but one of my young Blackbelt candidates doing it in his exam. Anthony Shackell was fourteen at the time. We’ve never graded at this age but in this one black belt we did. Anthony had been at the club for a long time and always trained with the adults. Even attending a legendary hard camp in the Isle of Wight. No-one get any special treatment in the black belt tests it’s the same for everyone. Everyone gets bashed and tested to break point. His opponent in his Black belt sparring was Ken Fergus a giant of a man. Ken had a twenty three inch upper arm and a big scar down his face from a childhood accident. He looked and was fearsome as a fighter. Twice the size of Anthony there was no chance for the youngster who evaded and moved so as not to get hit. Then in a surprise move  Anthony simply ankle swept Ken stepped over his head as he fell and arm barred him on the ground. David against Goliath. The Black belt panel that day (Terry Barnett, Ralph Jones and I ) turned around and looked at each other and all thought. ‘Well there’s a black belt! ‘

On another occasion my friend Willy Mohan a long time policeman (who we didn’t pass at black belt even though he was a legendary fighter ) used the same lock after a sweep to arrest a guy in Camden passage islington then calmly radioed in his position and call for assistance whilst keeping the guy in the lock. So it pays to study the detail well but in the end it’s down to you to find the timing and the opportunity to use it. You know it works. Good luck.

Roger Barnes wife Susan is now on Facebook too so send your support her way I’m sure it will be appreciated. B.I.G instructor Steve Fan is now out of hospital after his tumour operation and i’m sure he’ll like the support too. Anyway, back to the future!

ps Youtube check out bobbreenacademy. Twitter check out bob_breen