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In 1978, I was messing about with Roger Grundy at the
Ippon Judo Club in Scarborough, in an informal play fight. Anyhow, Roger
shot across the matt from about ten feet away and without loosing momentum
secured a clinch taking me straight down to the floor with the aid of
an outer leg hook, and landed on top knocking the wind right out of me.
In a moment of stunned disorientation, he came up to a high mount, threw
a couple of punches, which turned me over where he sunk in the rear choke.
I soon started to see the black spots before my eyes and had to submit
or be choked right out. Afterwards when I evaluated what had happened
to me (and it took me a couple of days to recognize it), I realised that
I had discovered an efficient method for defeating an opponent in one
on one combat. This concept seemed both natural and comfortable, and fitted
in with my attitude towards fighting and it seemed innate for me. From
that day on, I researched, trained and conditioned myself for this type
of strategy, and have never looked back since. I must thank Roger for
that experience, which ultimately changed my outlook on fighting and training,
with consequential changes to my life.
After that occasion, I pestered him continually (I even used to go round to his house unannounced) trying to gain more knowledge and technical ability for what I saw as street grappling, which Roger obliged with, usually by sparring, to get the point across, as his teaching method. These play fights usually started with a bit of tussling, punching and kicking, but soon ended in the usual rough and tumble free for all anything goes scraps. These rough ups took place anywhere including on the street, usually at closing time, after we had sunk a few beers, as Roger was keen to demonstrate a point we had been talking about in the pub. We had a lot of fun I seem to remember, and it was good training as well. Roger was a big strong guy and usually came out on top, literally. When we were training at the Ippon club, we would often take off our
jackets and belts, and proceed to spar, kicking, punching, pulling hair,
gouging, slapping, grappling and ground fighting, often rolling off
the matt into horrified spectators sat at the side. This anything goes
rough and tumble approach did not go down well with a lot of the guys
in the club. The Ippon also boasted an Aikido and Karate section who
came to look on us as undisciplined, uncultured thugs, which we were
really if we were honest. When I think back to those days we were in reality 'cross training'
in a big way. The in thing with martial arts today is 'cross training',
but it is nothing new. Norman Grundy (National coach Judo, AJA) thought what we were doing was the dogs bollocks, and used to tell us that this was the best way to train, to be a complete street fighter, and Norman should know, he had a few altercations in his time. Norman let slip in conversation one time that his fighting strategy for one on one fighting was to get them down and work them over or choke them out on the floor. A method, which he said, was also utilised by Kenshiro Abe (Normans coach), Professor Jack Robinson (Normans coach) and his sons Doug and Joe Robinson (top Judo / Jiu Jitsu men in the 50's and 60's, from South Africa) evidently Roger had received this type of training from his father. In another conversation with Norman and Roger, Norman explained that the martial art of 'Kyu Shin Do', as developed by Kenshiro Abe, was not just the individual arts of Judo, Aikido, Karate, Kempo or weapons etc, which most people thought, but was in fact an amalgamation and expression of all his Bubo experiences and skills. Norman said that this approach apparently did not go down well with the practitioners of the day, who were all looking to master Judo, Karate and Aikido etc. and maintain definite lines of demarcation. Abe's all-inclusive art was far to sophisticated for the majority of blinkered narrow-minded instructors of the day, which was a real ignominy for them and hard luck for any of their guys wishing to fight for real. In about 1981, Roger retired from training due to domestic circumstances,
and I was left to go my own way. I really tried to promote this rough
and tumble method of combat In 1983, I was sent overseas to Belize, Central America, with the government
service, and soon established a gym (this was part of an old Nissan
hut).
This period saw my own fighting ability move on a fast track, manly because there was so much real action, both in the messes on camp and in the bars and clubs of Belize City. I also worked out with Sergeant Kevin Cowling (9 Para) a very good friend of mine, who actually went out in pursuit of trying out our strategies and fighting methods, and we would evaluate the results together (Kev has had more than 200 successful fights and altercations, with a great number being in our time together in Belize). The roughhouse training method which I advocated went down well here, and also saw the further development of contact knife / counter knife and stick fighting, which were also starting to have an all out anything goes appearance. We also started to work out with a bastardisation of different weapons, carbine / bayonet vs unarmed, or stick or knife, baseball bat, hammers, screwdrivers, bike chains, razors and anything else we could think of. We jumbled anything and everything up to find out what techniques and strategies would work in a real encounter. During this period of experimentation, due to the intensity of training, we saw a number of injuries (some a little bit close to the grim reaper?) but boy! did we learn from it? In 1985, I found myself posted in Nigeria. At this time a former government
minister; Umaru Dikko had been kidnapped in London, by a couple of former
Israeli commandos, who were being paid to return him for summary execution.
This plot was foiled by MI5 who intercepted them. Dikko was found drugged,
tied up and gagged in a packing case at Gatwick, about to board a cargo
flight back to Lagos. In reprisals, the Nigerians arrested and imprisoned
a number of British Engineers; diplomatic relations were strained to
say the least. My work found me frequently in down town Lagos, up country
and in bush regions. Due to the political climate there, I looked down
the barrels of more firearms than I care to remember.
Whilst in Nigeria we thought it pertinent to develop functional counter firearm strategies and methods, and from those experiences, I wrote my first magazine article (Survival and Weaponry Year Book, published in 1987). What I can tell you from our results is that when you train contact counter firearm strategies or it happens for real, grappling and ground fighting happens with alarming regularity, so 'roughhouse' methods prevailed yet again. 1989 saw me out in Saudi Arabia. I had secured a position instructing Saudi military personnel on the Air Base in Dhahran. I set a gym up at the back of my villa, heavy bags speed balls, focus gloves a few mats etc, and had a couple of guys train with me, however we came a poor second to the local Tae Kwon Do club, which was on the same compound. Their membership was high for obvious reasons, which I don't have to explain to real fighting practitioners. They had a couple of high grade Korean instructors one of which I met in our compound bar one night, nice guy but wouldn't entertain the idea of working out together, I wonder why? I always find it amusing that practical no nonsense fighters will train and work out with anyone from any fighting method, but traditional martial artists are reluctant to train with anyone outside there own network? Whilst in Saudi I started to perfect the harmonisation of grappling, kicking, clinch work and street boxing. 'Street Tough' was starting to really take shape now. I had a couple of death threats made against me during my period in Saudi (Fatwas's). These death threats aren't a joke they really mean it so you have to be tough and ruthless with these people. The usual death threat line goes something like, ' I will kill you, as long as my mothers husbands sisters father is alive… I WILL KILL YOU'! The last threat of gratuitous violence happened in one of my lectures. I leapt on the offender, secured a good grip by the scruff of his neck, and proceeded to drag him out of the classroom along the corridor floor; he was screaming his head off like a raging Banshee. The commotion brought the rest of the wing out of their classrooms to see what was going on. When we got outside I built up momentum and spun him round by his collar and let him go, sending him flying along the floor in the sand. I followed up quickly, and secured a dominant position, and proceeded to bang his head up and down on the ground until he was well stunned and pleading for mercy. When I got up off the floor to compound this obliteration, one of my opo's accidental on purpose, stood on his fingers (well stamped really) with the heel of his boot, there was such a scrunching sound, it was like music to my ears. I had stamped my authority with this cadre (pardon the pun) and had no further threats while serving on the base. 'Roughhouse' rules! One other altercation was out in the desert while I was running, and had an argument with an Arab guy who had deliberately tried to run me down, for no apparent reason; I give him the usual Blighty V's and verbal accompaniment. The idiot only reversed back to confront me; well, you can imagine what happened, 'Roughhouse rules OK', Good-bye Abdul! While he was eating sand, I removed his ignition keys and threw them out into the bondu. The car was still there a week later! In the early nineties, I set up my backyard gym in Teddington. Shortly afterwards the grappling revolution happened. Since then, we have all copied and vastly improved our own fighting methods including wrestlers who were looking to enhance their methods, anyone who says different is lying. One of the guys from the Society regularly goes out and has rough-ups with his mates, which I encourage. These semi friendly scraps are great practice for him and he is free to try out his methods on Joe Public who is non compliant. This is a great learning curve and gives him feed back with which to analyse and evaluate his development. One thing, which always comes out, which he has discovered and recognised for himself, is that all the scraps end in grappling and subsequent ground fighting. This all fights go to grappling is not a modern concept.
Hans Talhoffer the 15th century German combat instructor also new
that real fighting ends in grappling (armed or unarmed) and utilised
roughhouse grappling as a main fighting strategy to overcome an enemy.
Talhoffer documented and wrote probably the only surviving book of
the period, on the subject of total combat. The fighting methods employed
in Germany at this time would have been the same as found either in
France or in England. It appears from research papers that copying
successful fighting methods and tactics was common practice (plagiarism).
The plate below shows two combatants using pole axes who have become
locked in ground fighting. Talhoffer's book is full of illustrations
of grappling and ground fighting, which only goes to prove the regularity
with which this facet of fighting occurred.
Many British fighting exponents of modern systems of combat and self-defence are perturbed in their failure to compare their methods, strategies and abilities with traditional Asian contemporaries (one thing I can tell you from my experience, is we are just as good if not better in our fighting methods as them). Chances to work out with them in friendly training and sparing are rare however. Differences in techniques, training methods, formality, and internal hierarchal structure make such opportunities uncommon (as was with the Korean expert I met in Saudi). For many traditional martial arts practitioners, avoiding offers of working out together, cross training or friendly sparing has become an art in itself. One of the main reasons for refusal is large egos and insecurity, with resulting fear and embarrassment of being found lacking in some area, instead of viewing the experience as mutual self-discovery with subsequent personal growth, and creating good friends. The example of avoidance I have described above can more often be attributed to formal rank; a pecking order always develops which in turn impedes progress. Unfortunately, we live in a shallow society, which expects certificates and qualifications for social acceptance. Use your rank formally by all means, but don't use it as an every day currency. Through this article, I have presented a personal insight into my growth and subsequent development of what I now call 'Street tough'. I have described altercations both of mine and my friends to support my essay and entertain you. I do not claim to be the greatest fighter or grappler, far from it, I still have lots to learn and perfect, which is why I constantly train and research. I do not advocate you go out purposely to look for street fights, as Kev did in Belize (the environment we were in was totally different to life here in the UK). However if that is your desire whether morally right or wrong (and who are we to judge?) you will learn fast track through your experiences. Alternatively, if you get a chance to have a rough up with your mates or brothers etc, experiment and try out some of your methods, but ensure you have a sound fighting strategy to work. We don't know when our next fight will be, so we have to train and spar constantly for the moment, there is no off-season for us. Back then in those dark days in Scarborough, I learnt an important fighting concept, and gained enough experience to have been functional in all subsequent altercations, which I encountered. I was also astute enough to pass on, enhance and perfect those methods with others, and develop myself within the cauldron of combat; in effect, I have now come Full Circle. If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised
in this article contact me via Fighting Chance Magazine…. come
on guys get your pen to paper. Please note my new book: That's all for this issue, by the way, as if you'd forgotten, if in doubt…
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