I have always been fascinated by the martial arts, way before I even thought about donning a Gi and entering my first dojo as a Karateka. At about 7 years old I used to tell friends I had started Karate and that I was going to be taking my first belt ‘real soon’. It wasn’t until they said to me “show us you Kata then?” I thought, “Damn! Now I’ve got to find a way out of this”.
My first ‘martial art’ was Shotokan Karate. I joined the best club in the area because a friend asked me to go along with him one Friday night. This friend was such a laid back kid but even at the age of 10 had an amazing physique and could parry, block and trap anything you threw at him in the school playground, this ability and his muscles [he attested] were down to Karate practice.
From the first session I took I was hooked, I remember sweating my nuts off for about an hour and a half and wanting more at the end. The club was a dojo affiliated to the Karate Union of Great Britain, which is the oldest, biggest and best Shotokan Karate association in the UK (probably Europe). It’s instructors are so dedicated and so true to their art you would be hard pushed to find a more professionally run body. Our dojo had some notoriety in the region, we always trained hard and the instructor, plainly put, was very, very good.
To cut a long story short I continued to train in Shotokan Karate, trained as many times as I could, I was the first to arrive for class and the last to leave. I would bike the 5 or so miles to train in the summer and stand in the snow in a cold sweaty Gi to be collected by my Dad in the winter. I travelled all over the UK, Europe and America to compete and train under some of the worlds best Karateka and in the process spending vast amounts of money on something I have grown to love. The kid that started me off in Karate stopped training a couple of years after I started and I progressed through all the grades with ease and so here I am with an academy of my own and a very strong bunch of dedicated training partners.
It was when I hit 3rd Kyu (brown belt) that things started to change for me. I started to think more. More about my own learning, what I wanted from my training and where I wanted my training to take me. I had always been keen on other arts but especially those that involved grappling. I had a very keen interest in Judo, especially after watching the summer Olympics and the likes of Neil Adams MBE, Ray Stevens, Karen Briggs, and old footage of Brian Jacks, Dave Starbrook to name just a handful of British Judoka. Just watching these Judoka literally throwing their Uke all over the place like they were rag dolls took me back to what first got me hooked on Karate. The athleticism, the grace and marvelling at the practitioner’s ability to make it seem easy. All this made me wonder. Why don’t we do any throws or locks in Karate?
What we have to remember is that Karate once had all the throws, pins and submissions of Judo. Tode Jitsu as it was once called encompassed all things that worked just like today’s Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and paradoxically so Judo once had all aspects combined (including Atemi waza or striking techniques) under the name Ju Jitsu. But the revolution of what is sport had taken these extremely effective martial arts and had moulded them into something unrecognisable and or a new phenomenon with new sets of guidelines and rules as they moved from ‘Jitsu’ to ’Do’.
It was around this time that I had purchased a couple of issues the now legendary magazine: ‘Terry O’Neill’s Fighting Arts International’ and in one particular issue it had a write up of an event called the Ultimate Fighting Championships. It was 1993 and Tony Blauer, a renowned US martial artist and self-defence expert had written a synopsis of the very first event and had small interviews and pieces on all the main players: Patrick Smith, Frank Shamrock and one Royce Gracie (I still have the magazine). Reading this interview set the seed even more inside me to eventually start a grappling art.
I never did start Judo as a 3rd Kyu my Karate simply took first place over everything. Even when I started my studies at DeMontfort University, in Bedford I never joined the best Judo dojo in the area – Bedford Judo club, I just never found time to get down there and retrospectively am kicking myself now for not doing so, since then I have fallen in love with Judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and I only wish I’d seen the light and practiced in earnest back then.
My Karate continued and as a result I met some fantastically skilled Karateka: Sensei’s Andy Sherry, Terry O’Neill, Bob Poynton, Billy Higgins, Bob Rhodes, Frank Brennan, Ronnie Christopher, Sean Roberts, Randolph Williams, Dave Hazard, Dave Hooper, Enoeda Sensei, Kanazawa Shihan, Minakami Shihan, Murakami Sensei, Sugimoto Sensei, Isaka Sensei, Ueki Sensei, Tabata Sensei, Ohta Sensei and I made some seriously good friends.
But one afternoon I had the distinct pleasure of meeting a guy named Miguel Camacho. Meeting Miggy seriously changed my outlook on training and what I wanted to accomplish from my training. Miggy was a Purple belt at an Ishin Ryu Ju Jitsu club in Borehamwood and was very good friends with the Head Coach, Kevin Pell Soke. Miggy suggested I come along and train Ju Jitsu as it might bring another angle to my Karate training. I duly agreed and trained a few sessions but nothing too serious, seeing I was not getting much from the sessions Miggy suggested I go train at the London Shootfighters in Kilburn. WOW!
That was it; from my first session at London Shoot I had again found something I loved. Although at this stage there was no striking for me this training was on another planet, wrestling and no-Gi Jiu Jitsu every Monday night and Wednesday lunchtime. At this time London Shoot was the UK’s only undefeated gym and was at the cutting edge of British MMA (they still are) fighters such as Lee Murray, John Thorpe, Suley Mahmood, James Zikic, Michael Johnson and Mostapha Al Turk would be on the mats along with instructors Alexis, Paul and Marios for anyone that wanted humbling or was left on the mats after the warm up.
So here was me, a Karateka that was becoming a little uninterested with adhering to a set syllabus that was slightly one-dimensional and now someone back on with it. With a new avenue to explore and something to add to my Karate – another range. I’d have a look at the London Shoot website to find that all the instructors had already been there and done it all, training the world over with the likes of Mark Kerr, Royce Gracie, Marco Ruas it was like everything clicked into place.
Immediately and with every given opportunity I immersed myself in courses, seminars, books, DVD’s. I’d skip university to go train on a Judo course somewhere, I’d cancel my Karate class to train somewhere else or I’d drag my girlfriend all over London to look at the BJJ classes that were springing up everywhere and eventually I’d come to closing all of my dojo that took years of hard grasp to achieve so I could study and understand mixed martial arts.
I’d still see people that I used to train with, training partners from Karate and I’d sometimes turn up to a Karate class in shorts and a t-shirt just to spar and try out some techniques on people that liked to fight. Soon came the quips: “So, you not training anymore then? What you doing then Dave?” said one, “Mixing things around? Does that mean Monday: Judo, Tuesday: Thai boxing, Wednesday: wrestling… (Laughs)” [In fact that is what it meant] one guy even called me a “Jack of all trades, master of none?” - I didn’t mind, just smiled, as it gave me more motivation to ‘high-crotch’ him on his head the next time we sparred!
Yeah that’s right ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’. Blinkered, narrow minded, ignorant, bitter. Just some of the words I’d use to describe the response to my new found passion. As the months went by I’d still attend the odd Karate sessions just to spar but by now my skills had far surpassed the criticism I would once encounter and I could apply a style that covered all genres of combat, every range I could win at even the range they felt so at home fighting in.
Around this time I was training with a top Japanese master in Karate. I remember not seeing him and or the training group for about 3 years then once when I heard he was heading back to the UK for his annual tour I decided to go along a train. What was the response like? I was ignored and ostracised, not made to feel welcome and was asked: “What are you doing here? Didn’t think you did this stuff anymore?” What did the class consist of? The same drills, techniques, philosophies, and demonstrations that I had witnessed 3 years prior – stale…
My old training partners are either no longer training (in anything) or are still doing the same old stuff they have always done and will always do. Stagnant, blurred, stale and are still ignorant to a whole different concept of fighting, a whole arena of sports and arts that they do not and will not understand because they refuse to. Most if not all prefer the ‘safety’ of the ‘ivory tower’ they have created, preferring to keep the company and comfort of likeminded martial artists rather than trying something that may benefit their art or style 100%
For sure, I expect they sit and watch contests such as the Ultimate Fighting Championships. Secretly jealous that they could be doing MMA like BJ Penn, George St. Pierre, Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida and in their heads kidding themselves that they do actually train in the same manner - that they too could be a ‘Jack of all trades, master of none!’
So what I am doing now, well I have my own academy with lots of very dedicated training partners (I prefer this term to students). I train classes in Kali, Judo, Reality-based Self-protection, no-Gi submission wrestling and I am back teaching Shotokan Karate. The Karate I teach is not what it used to be. It is completely different, the Karate of old (that was for show) that moved me to boredom, has gone. It now has purpose, has a difference – a respect for other things, a respect for other arts, styles and sports. It has knowledge of different ranges and a belief that Karate cannot exist without all the other arts and sports that come entwined with it.
I once said that I did not like Karate. For what it was and what it made of people, I have been reminded of this on several occasions. What those that remind me don’t understand is that I didn’t like the Karate and didn’t believe in the Karate I was being taught…
In almost a full-circle I have eradicated much of the training that I do not need, I now have an understanding that Karate is everything, just in the same way that Judo, BJJ, wrestling and all the other fighting styles are everything. Karate, Judo, BJJ, etc. are simple names given to varying means of accomplishment. I know have a visualisation that you must train at all ranges like a combat athlete to fully appreciate the bigger picture and no one style or methodology has all the answers.
The advice that I bestowed to myself and constantly remind myself with and that I pass on to the juniors that train with me is “Ignore the idiots, if you don’t agree with something don’t do it, if something doesn’t fit with your development don’t do it, don’t follow people for old times sake and nostalgic reasoning, understand when you have outgrown certain teachers and rituals. Look for the flaws in set syllabi and prescribed methods and understand when you are conforming to something to move and look a certain way rather than training in an effective manner more akin to your frame and mindset. Above all else know yourself, become your own coach and follow those that know their trade as those with wisdom will have no reservations about demonstrating their knowledge.”
“Let your training focus become an ever-evolving organic framework of concepts and philosophies, set achievable goals, apply basic principles of training. Steer clear of negative people; leave no stone unturned in your pursuit of knowledge and snatch opportunities wholeheartedly.”
My first ‘martial art’ was Shotokan Karate. I joined the best club in the area because a friend asked me to go along with him one Friday night. This friend was such a laid back kid but even at the age of 10 had an amazing physique and could parry, block and trap anything you threw at him in the school playground, this ability and his muscles [he attested] were down to Karate practice.
From the first session I took I was hooked, I remember sweating my nuts off for about an hour and a half and wanting more at the end. The club was a dojo affiliated to the Karate Union of Great Britain, which is the oldest, biggest and best Shotokan Karate association in the UK (probably Europe). It’s instructors are so dedicated and so true to their art you would be hard pushed to find a more professionally run body. Our dojo had some notoriety in the region, we always trained hard and the instructor, plainly put, was very, very good.
To cut a long story short I continued to train in Shotokan Karate, trained as many times as I could, I was the first to arrive for class and the last to leave. I would bike the 5 or so miles to train in the summer and stand in the snow in a cold sweaty Gi to be collected by my Dad in the winter. I travelled all over the UK, Europe and America to compete and train under some of the worlds best Karateka and in the process spending vast amounts of money on something I have grown to love. The kid that started me off in Karate stopped training a couple of years after I started and I progressed through all the grades with ease and so here I am with an academy of my own and a very strong bunch of dedicated training partners.
It was when I hit 3rd Kyu (brown belt) that things started to change for me. I started to think more. More about my own learning, what I wanted from my training and where I wanted my training to take me. I had always been keen on other arts but especially those that involved grappling. I had a very keen interest in Judo, especially after watching the summer Olympics and the likes of Neil Adams MBE, Ray Stevens, Karen Briggs, and old footage of Brian Jacks, Dave Starbrook to name just a handful of British Judoka. Just watching these Judoka literally throwing their Uke all over the place like they were rag dolls took me back to what first got me hooked on Karate. The athleticism, the grace and marvelling at the practitioner’s ability to make it seem easy. All this made me wonder. Why don’t we do any throws or locks in Karate?
What we have to remember is that Karate once had all the throws, pins and submissions of Judo. Tode Jitsu as it was once called encompassed all things that worked just like today’s Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and paradoxically so Judo once had all aspects combined (including Atemi waza or striking techniques) under the name Ju Jitsu. But the revolution of what is sport had taken these extremely effective martial arts and had moulded them into something unrecognisable and or a new phenomenon with new sets of guidelines and rules as they moved from ‘Jitsu’ to ’Do’.
It was around this time that I had purchased a couple of issues the now legendary magazine: ‘Terry O’Neill’s Fighting Arts International’ and in one particular issue it had a write up of an event called the Ultimate Fighting Championships. It was 1993 and Tony Blauer, a renowned US martial artist and self-defence expert had written a synopsis of the very first event and had small interviews and pieces on all the main players: Patrick Smith, Frank Shamrock and one Royce Gracie (I still have the magazine). Reading this interview set the seed even more inside me to eventually start a grappling art.I never did start Judo as a 3rd Kyu my Karate simply took first place over everything. Even when I started my studies at DeMontfort University, in Bedford I never joined the best Judo dojo in the area – Bedford Judo club, I just never found time to get down there and retrospectively am kicking myself now for not doing so, since then I have fallen in love with Judo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and I only wish I’d seen the light and practiced in earnest back then.
My Karate continued and as a result I met some fantastically skilled Karateka: Sensei’s Andy Sherry, Terry O’Neill, Bob Poynton, Billy Higgins, Bob Rhodes, Frank Brennan, Ronnie Christopher, Sean Roberts, Randolph Williams, Dave Hazard, Dave Hooper, Enoeda Sensei, Kanazawa Shihan, Minakami Shihan, Murakami Sensei, Sugimoto Sensei, Isaka Sensei, Ueki Sensei, Tabata Sensei, Ohta Sensei and I made some seriously good friends.
But one afternoon I had the distinct pleasure of meeting a guy named Miguel Camacho. Meeting Miggy seriously changed my outlook on training and what I wanted to accomplish from my training. Miggy was a Purple belt at an Ishin Ryu Ju Jitsu club in Borehamwood and was very good friends with the Head Coach, Kevin Pell Soke. Miggy suggested I come along and train Ju Jitsu as it might bring another angle to my Karate training. I duly agreed and trained a few sessions but nothing too serious, seeing I was not getting much from the sessions Miggy suggested I go train at the London Shootfighters in Kilburn. WOW!
That was it; from my first session at London Shoot I had again found something I loved. Although at this stage there was no striking for me this training was on another planet, wrestling and no-Gi Jiu Jitsu every Monday night and Wednesday lunchtime. At this time London Shoot was the UK’s only undefeated gym and was at the cutting edge of British MMA (they still are) fighters such as Lee Murray, John Thorpe, Suley Mahmood, James Zikic, Michael Johnson and Mostapha Al Turk would be on the mats along with instructors Alexis, Paul and Marios for anyone that wanted humbling or was left on the mats after the warm up.
So here was me, a Karateka that was becoming a little uninterested with adhering to a set syllabus that was slightly one-dimensional and now someone back on with it. With a new avenue to explore and something to add to my Karate – another range. I’d have a look at the London Shoot website to find that all the instructors had already been there and done it all, training the world over with the likes of Mark Kerr, Royce Gracie, Marco Ruas it was like everything clicked into place.
Immediately and with every given opportunity I immersed myself in courses, seminars, books, DVD’s. I’d skip university to go train on a Judo course somewhere, I’d cancel my Karate class to train somewhere else or I’d drag my girlfriend all over London to look at the BJJ classes that were springing up everywhere and eventually I’d come to closing all of my dojo that took years of hard grasp to achieve so I could study and understand mixed martial arts.
I’d still see people that I used to train with, training partners from Karate and I’d sometimes turn up to a Karate class in shorts and a t-shirt just to spar and try out some techniques on people that liked to fight. Soon came the quips: “So, you not training anymore then? What you doing then Dave?” said one, “Mixing things around? Does that mean Monday: Judo, Tuesday: Thai boxing, Wednesday: wrestling… (Laughs)” [In fact that is what it meant] one guy even called me a “Jack of all trades, master of none?” - I didn’t mind, just smiled, as it gave me more motivation to ‘high-crotch’ him on his head the next time we sparred!
Yeah that’s right ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’. Blinkered, narrow minded, ignorant, bitter. Just some of the words I’d use to describe the response to my new found passion. As the months went by I’d still attend the odd Karate sessions just to spar but by now my skills had far surpassed the criticism I would once encounter and I could apply a style that covered all genres of combat, every range I could win at even the range they felt so at home fighting in.
Around this time I was training with a top Japanese master in Karate. I remember not seeing him and or the training group for about 3 years then once when I heard he was heading back to the UK for his annual tour I decided to go along a train. What was the response like? I was ignored and ostracised, not made to feel welcome and was asked: “What are you doing here? Didn’t think you did this stuff anymore?” What did the class consist of? The same drills, techniques, philosophies, and demonstrations that I had witnessed 3 years prior – stale…
My old training partners are either no longer training (in anything) or are still doing the same old stuff they have always done and will always do. Stagnant, blurred, stale and are still ignorant to a whole different concept of fighting, a whole arena of sports and arts that they do not and will not understand because they refuse to. Most if not all prefer the ‘safety’ of the ‘ivory tower’ they have created, preferring to keep the company and comfort of likeminded martial artists rather than trying something that may benefit their art or style 100%
For sure, I expect they sit and watch contests such as the Ultimate Fighting Championships. Secretly jealous that they could be doing MMA like BJ Penn, George St. Pierre, Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida and in their heads kidding themselves that they do actually train in the same manner - that they too could be a ‘Jack of all trades, master of none!’
So what I am doing now, well I have my own academy with lots of very dedicated training partners (I prefer this term to students). I train classes in Kali, Judo, Reality-based Self-protection, no-Gi submission wrestling and I am back teaching Shotokan Karate. The Karate I teach is not what it used to be. It is completely different, the Karate of old (that was for show) that moved me to boredom, has gone. It now has purpose, has a difference – a respect for other things, a respect for other arts, styles and sports. It has knowledge of different ranges and a belief that Karate cannot exist without all the other arts and sports that come entwined with it.
I once said that I did not like Karate. For what it was and what it made of people, I have been reminded of this on several occasions. What those that remind me don’t understand is that I didn’t like the Karate and didn’t believe in the Karate I was being taught…
In almost a full-circle I have eradicated much of the training that I do not need, I now have an understanding that Karate is everything, just in the same way that Judo, BJJ, wrestling and all the other fighting styles are everything. Karate, Judo, BJJ, etc. are simple names given to varying means of accomplishment. I know have a visualisation that you must train at all ranges like a combat athlete to fully appreciate the bigger picture and no one style or methodology has all the answers.
The advice that I bestowed to myself and constantly remind myself with and that I pass on to the juniors that train with me is “Ignore the idiots, if you don’t agree with something don’t do it, if something doesn’t fit with your development don’t do it, don’t follow people for old times sake and nostalgic reasoning, understand when you have outgrown certain teachers and rituals. Look for the flaws in set syllabi and prescribed methods and understand when you are conforming to something to move and look a certain way rather than training in an effective manner more akin to your frame and mindset. Above all else know yourself, become your own coach and follow those that know their trade as those with wisdom will have no reservations about demonstrating their knowledge.”
“Let your training focus become an ever-evolving organic framework of concepts and philosophies, set achievable goals, apply basic principles of training. Steer clear of negative people; leave no stone unturned in your pursuit of knowledge and snatch opportunities wholeheartedly.”
Whether you set your goals on becoming next Ultimate Fighting Champion or just want to be extremely good at every range remove your blinkers and train like a combat athlete considering not just martial principles but sports scientific physiology, psychology, nutrition, mental preparation and conditioning and it will take you from being a ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ to a ‘Master of all trades because all is one’.
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