Recently Carl Greenidge and I did a small demonstration and talk along with my Jazz friend Stephen Keogh to some gang members on a north london ‘ sink ‘ estate. The estate looked great but obviously didn’t do what it intended as there was lots of drugs and gang violence there. Doing knife defence in front of people who probably stabbed someone in the last few months was interesting, maybe you’d get to test it.

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.

I’ve just been up for a great weekend teaching alongside my friends Rick Young and Terry Barnett In Edinburgh. Each of these great teachers has their own strength. With Rick it’s his constant quest to be the best he can be and where appropriate to check his progress through competition success. He’s a great champion and is just back from competing in L.A.  As usual when seeing Rick you think that you’re a lightweight and just not doing anything. He’s largely unbreakable,  whereas my own training history is littered with huge highs and corresponding lows when my body hasn’t wanted to go where my mind has decided to go. I’m sure this is the same for many people.

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.

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

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.

A math question first.

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.

Lots of us are now on facebook and twitter so check us out there. Plus we’ve started putting some clips on Youtube. We’re starting slow but will soon be up to speed. I hope you like it.  I know that I’m a bit of a luddite with this stuff but trying hard and it’s easier to let people know what’s happening on a daily basis and give you updates on seminars training and general news. Plus you can check out technique basics on Youtube.

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

A good few years ago I did a tour of Italy with a group of other top martial artists. The tour lasted ten days or so and we did demonstrations all over. It was great fun and we got to make friends with some great guys. On the first day all the performers were doing their thing. Most of them had a rehearsed demonstration. The capoeira team had a routine but there was an element of play in it whereas most of the other guys had their Kata or pair routines. My training partner Savash Mustafa and I didn’t have any of that. We just had a a few basic setups and a theme, everything else was improvised. Initially I was disappointed as we didn’t look as sharp as the other guys who were superb. However things changed as the days wore on. We started boxing with the capoeira guys before they went on as they liked the freeform way we trained. This was great fun against guys who could box and who were great athletes. One demonstration in Florence we were doing knife. We had a start point and a finish point of a disarm if I could find it, or if not we’d find something significant to finish on. Early on Savash got cut up near his eye and the blood started to run. It seemed a lot of blood in the heat and lights but it was just a nick. Together we entered a bubble where everything went slow, we could hear the audience but they seemed distant. I said to him ‘you’re cut’ which he acknowledged, I too had a nick on the hand. Slashing and stabbing we relaxed and went with the flow and had an unbelievable but bloody time. The audience loved it. After the finish a close friend who’s a very high degree in Karate spoke to me with tears in his eyes. He said your doing what I always wanted to do, what I wanted my Karate to be like. I’ve wasted 25 years!

I don’t think he’s right, but the huge knowledge base he had, also had little or no improvisation in it. You get better at improvising if you do it all the time. The trick is to have drills so you get to see common body shapes. Then build skills through repetition, but, repetition has an effectiveness curve to it. Too much repetition of the same thing and you lose the ability to flow. Therefore what you’ve got to do is do rigorous training in repeating skills but adapt those skills so that there’s always a different element like an entry or the energy is different. Disguised repetition like this keeps drilling interesting. Then you’ve got to do your technical sparring and try using the skills you’ve trained. If you don’t use it you don’t know it. As the saying goes no plan survives contact with the enemy. Training in all its forms is great and hugely rewarding but pulling techniques off in the moment, catching them on the wind is one of the best things that can happen to you. When you’re in what Tennis coach Timothy Galway calls the ‘inner game’ then you’re in that zone where you are an observer just watching your training unfold in response to the challenges of the moment. You often hear a hum which is the sound of your body working, then you know you’re there. Many people don’t like training like this, they like to know before hand the outcomes of anything they do. They don’t like to take risks. However, risks are what you have to take. The more you train and live this way, the more you realise that there are always opportunities as long as you relax and just follow the path that your body dictates. Have a concept that your are working on or an intent and go with the flow. Wayne Shorter a famous Jazz saxophonist was asked how he rehearsed. Broadly he said ‘How can I rehearse when i don’t know what’s going to happen’. The answer then is drill the basics hard, add variation, then spar and learn to relax and go with the flow. You’ll probably enjoy it. As to the tour were we the best? the answer, probably not. When we were good we were great but fixed demos look better to the untrained eye. Like a Jazz band or rock group you’ve got to catch them when they’re hot. We’re we the best at improvising? Probably because that’s what we were working. In the street and in Life there are no set ups, no form, you have to go with the flow. Enjoy!

We’ve had an incredibly strong start to the year. Last weekend David Onuma won the European Brazilian Jiu jitsu championships at brown belt and Steve Payne also won the white belt competition. David also got bronze in the open weight. So a huge congratulations to them.  At the club it’s the same thing, maybe it’s the increased spirit of optimism that’s swept the U.S which also seems to  be affecting us this year.  We’re doing really well, with the classes full all evening, even the late ones. This has been helped by adding even more great instructors to the mix. Gordon McAdam one of my old black belts and a veteran of Thai boxing and Silat is teaching on a Monday and doing privates plus Tony Thompson another veteran of Wrestling, mixed martial arts and kickboxing is also back in the fray. Owen and Glen are both back from five weeks Thai boxing training at Fairtex in Thailand where the coaches were all highly impressed. It’s good to know we’re doing good work and others can see the quality.

However, it’s not only these hard core people who are doing well. The whole training level throughout the club is back with the same sort of bite that we had in the eighties. There’s lots to be optimistic about and we look forwards to a great year. Best wishes to all, keep optimistic, keep training, keep strong.

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.