No thanks required. I’ll be happy if a few of your future students benefit from my candid description of the time I trained at Coventry JKDA I’m as happy that we haven’t lost touch as I am to have the chance to attend some of your fantastic lessons again.

Good friends are hard to come by, especially with the amount of travelling I do, so it really does mean a lot to me for you to count me among yours. Here’s to good times ahead

Cheers, Gary

My email address where I can be contacted through is martialartsmail@yahoo.co.uk

Many thanks for all your kind comments you are a true martial artist all all ways. It was great to have you as one of my students. You were coming on so well. I look forward in training with you again. And thanks with your help with all this. I regard you not just a good student but a good friend.

respects.

Andre

Maybe we’ve already met then? In any case, thanks for stopping by.

The new MCMAA is at the same building in Coventry as Andre’s old JKD Academy. I don’t know whether it is up and running quite yet, but I’ll pass your email address on to Andre so that he can give you the details.

Cheers, Gary

It interests me about the new academy that he has opened and I’ve been to the site and it looks good.

The site doesn’t however mention where the academy is located or how to contact Andre so I was wondering if anyone knew any details about the academy that the website doesn’t mention such as location and contact information etc.

Good post by the way and thanks in advance…

Thanks for stopping by

All good points, and well made on your part. I should think that living in Kidderminster, a good fighting spirit is a requirement, eh? Not that I can talk, since it seems likely I’ll just down the road in Bewdley when we get back.

For everyone else’s benefit, I want mention that one of the very many things I enjoyed about training with Andre was how I always found myself just outside my own comfort zone, and this is without a doubt the most effective way to learn. At the same time, I was always confident that everything was under control, and I’ll reiterate that there was just the right balance between learning to be an effective fighter, and understanding the philosophies and body mechanics that led Bruce Lee (and other JKD luminaries) to the techniques and concepts we were all getting to grips with. At no time was anyone forced to push their boundaries any further than they wanted to.

Another thing I neglected to cover in the main post is that none of the classes have more than 20 students, and often there are 2 or even 3 instructors (and assistant instructors) present, so each student is given plenty of personal attention. No standing at the back of a room with 200 people of all grades trying to learn by copying the person in front because the instructor can’t see you himself.

I was delighted that yesterday, despite being half way across the world, Andre took the time to call me and thank me for posting this article, before we got caught up in talking martial arts for 40 minutes or so.

And, yes, I would be over the moon to cross palms with you again at the Academy after these last few quiet years

Did you notice the easter egg I left for you in this article by the way? (click around a little if you didn’t spot it yet)

TTFN & TTYL, Gaz

nice post, there’s things about the club that I was never aware of – like the association with Rhee Ki Ha. I’d also like to point out an error in your post – you did not badger me into the massive round trip involved to the club as I recall, I was more than willing after two unpleasant encounters with aggressive drunken people! Let me explain.

I’d trained in a few martial arts in my teens and early twenties, and whilst I understand the benefits of martial arts – confidence, discipline, increased fitness and coordination – many martial arts do not prepare a student for a ‘real’ fight scenario; often, members spar with each other in the style that they train in. There is nothing wrong with this of course, it adds to a persons abilities for when a real fight does occur. However, unlike the dojo/gym, fights in the street have little or no rules.

After a few threatening encounters where I was placed in the position of fearing for my life, I decided at the start of 2003 that I wanted to take up martial arts again. However, I was decidedly against joining any martial arts club – after the threatening encounters I’d experienced I explicitly wanted an art in which I would learn, indiscriminately and quickly, to defend myself and those around me effectively and in complete control. When Gary told to me that Andre’s club focussed on the more pragmatic elements of self-defence, I was immediately interested.

At the club I was warmly welcomed and the atmosphere was one in which everyone was treated with the same regard. Many of the students there (apart from myself) already did martial arts – ju jitsu, eskrima, tae kwon do, karate – among others. Many people were advanced at their level, but everyone left their belts and their pride at the door.

Andre’s teaching technique is effective, focuses on what works, and at all times individual exploration in different techniques was encouraged with exercises from many, many effective martial arts. Of course, with good deal of door work at night clubs and pubs under his belt, Andre stood out from any other instructor that I’d ever trained with. All the other martial arts I’d ever done had never coped for what really happens in fights where the only rule is to try and come out uninjured, and Andre’s academy targeted this as one of its foci for progression.

It was a shame that the club went quite for a while – and I’m really glad that it’s started back up. Martial arts is about your own commitment and you get back what you put in, the better the instructor, the more you got. I got so much in the two years I trained there. You’ll get a lot too from the academy if you’re willing to leave your belt, your pride and all of your martial beliefs at the door, and I look forward to going again soon and doing just that.

I’m glad you’re going to be in the UK longer Gary, let’s meet up and train again. It’s been a few years!