Suffice it to say that the weather was fabulous, no — perfect! I took the pictures below from the volleyball beach as we took a stroll along the shore after Octavia had been for a swim, and I had spent a couple of hours whirling sticks around my head… finally pausing for lunch and a pint of Guinness at the nearest Irish pub on the way home.

I have often sung the praises of Andre Martin, and it is always my privilege to spend time learning from him. Much like the rest of the population of England, Andre has had some ups and downs over the last year, but I’m happy to say that Andre’s only casualty was his website. The MCMAA itself is still going strong, and it is my privilege to train with him for a few hours each week.

Since I last trained at Andre’s MCMAA in June 2008, not only have I been lucky enough to train with some world class instructors in the Philippines and America, but I’ve been able to maintain some regular practice at Pekiti Tirsia Kali alongside my sporadic Tae Kwon-Do. The training at MCMAA is right up there with very best instruction I receive around the world, and I’m delighted to have a few months to train there until I set off on my travels again.

Things haven’t changed too much since last year, but as my first post on FMA training in quite some time, I’m following my usual format for reviews of new schools. Please do leave a comment if you’re interested in making contact with Andre about training, and I will pass on your contact details.

Training Times

Of the two classes held each week, I am attending only the 2 hour Monday session starting at 19:30, as the drive between where I’m living and the academy is an hour in each direction. Most of the students live in the Coventry area and also attend an additional 1 hour Thursday evening class too. Often, classes run somewhat past the alloted time, rather than skip over some of the material that Andre wants the class to see.

Lesson Structure

My first few years of lessons at the Coventry Jeet Kune Do Academy never failed to impress me – not only by the depth and breadth of Andre’s martial arts knowledge, but with the energetic and positive way he passed on his teaching. Back then, even though I enjoyed having my head full to bursting with new information and skills to internalize at the end of every lesson, this was long before I started keeping training notes for myself, so I certainly forgot much of what was taught. In those days, I attended just one class every 2 weeks, where every lesson covered bits of Jeet Kune Do, Jun Fan Gung Fu, Wing Chun and Western Boxing.

Nowadays, the former JKD Academy has long since become the Multi-Cultural Martial Arts Academy, where you can now learn and practice techniques from all of the above, plus Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Combat Submission Wrestling, Shooto, Savate, Ninjutsu, Kenpo, Muay Thai, Silat, Panantukan, Kali Escrima, Dekiti Tirsia Siradas, and my personal favourite system: Pekiti Tirsia Kali. I had worried that with all these systems to draw from, information overload would become a real problem. But, in practice, it certainly hasn’t. Since the days of the JKD Academy, Andre has refined his teaching style to take a theme for each session, based predominantly on one of the systems above, and then to expand on it as the lesson progresses. While he’ll pull examples from any and all systems, the emphasis is now very firmly on the theme of the day. Gone are the days of: 20 minutes Jeet Kune Do drills, 20 minutes of Jun Fan footwork, 20 minutes of Boxing drills, 20 minutes of “Boxing vs Wing Chun”, 20 minutes of hard exercise, 20 minutes of Wing Chun Forms…. overload!

The theme for last week’s lesson was “restriction training and Panantukan” (Filipino boxing). We first practiced some basic open hand strikes with focus mitts, and then moved through a series of progressively more complex drills adding in more strike angles and longer combinations, and working out how to deal with multiple attackers and/or under various restrictions: What is he’s armed but you’re not? What if he already punched you and knocked you to the ground before you realize you have a fight on your hands?… and so on. The lessons are all the more interesting for this, and the focus and progression makes it a lot easier to digest what is being taught.

Students and Instructor

In all the years I’ve trained with Andre, the class sizes have never been above a dozen students or so. Not because students are uncommitted, or because the school isn’t attracting them in sufficient numbers… on the contrary, Andre vets every student personally to ensure each has the right motivation and attitudes, and also deliberately limits places to keep the classes small enough that each student gets a significant amount of personal attention in every lesson. This means your skill levels ramp up, and fast! Plus, you know that will his years of experience as a doorman, this stuff really does work.

In addition to streamlining his lesson format over the years, Andre has earned such a broad array of experience in so many different styles and systems that he’s developed a knack of re-explaining things in whatever terminology is best for each student as he moves around the class to give everyone their personal attention. I was fumbling my way through the footwork for a Panantukan striking drill, until Andre came over and reframed everything in Wing Chun terms for me… and suddenly everything clicked and I was able to perform much better. The drill was the same, but I was able to apply the body mechanics more efficiently once Andre spotted that I was thinking about things from the wrong mindset.

Also, there is a good mix of abilities in each class from beginners to instructor level, so it’s not difficult to find a partner at your own level (or preferably a bit more experienced to ensure you’re pushing yourself that little bit harder all the time).

Considering the small classes, and the excellent quality of instruction, the cost (currently at £10 for a two hour plus lesson) is exceptionally good value.

Style and Techniques

I’ve already talked about Andre’s lineage through to Bruce Lee, and how that connects him to Guro Inosanto‘s system of Jeet Kune Do Concepts and blends from one style to another as ranges and circumstances change. Central to all of this, is the fact that Sijo Bruce always said that “you should take what works and discard what doesn’t work”. The more systems and styles you can expose yourself to, and the more techniques you can practice and drill with various partners, the sooner you will be able to collect a broad selection of techniques that suit you well, and from which you will be able to build your own personalised style — as expounded by the concepts of Jeet Kune Do, and more importantly encouraged by the Instructor and fellow students of MCMAA. You will not find so many styles and techniques taught and integrated under one roof as you will here at Coventry Multi-Cultural Martial Arts Academy. Do your mind, your training, and yourself a huge favour and secure yourself a coveted slot as one of Andre Martin’s students.

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4. Machete Injuries

As soon as Octavia and I moved out of our hotel in Pasay City last month, I began looking in earnest for a Pekiti-Tirsia Kali instructor. I was very lucky that a friend-of-a-friend used to be involved in the URCC (more or less the Filipino UFC), and that he very kindly introduced me to his old instructor.

Following a month of progressively harder training, and despite the fact that I had carefully taped my thumb and forefinger beforehand, after 300 full power strikes to a stack of tyres with a heavy baston, my hand is a mess of blisters :-)

Training Times

This isn’t a formal club, and training is at mutually convenient times in the instructor’s back yard. My hands can only hold up for a couple of hours at most, and my head is usually full to bursting with new information to process by then. I’m trying to make it twice a week, and leave enough time between visits to recover a little :-D

Lesson Structure

Even with the informal atmosphere, and the steep learning curve, each session builds carefully on the last. So far the two hours generally consists of an initial warm up, with many repetitions of basic strikes and footwork leading into a new technique or two for the day. After a short break, the middle part of the lesson works on variations of the day’s new techniques, first in the air, and then with a partner (either as a drill, or defending against multiple angles). The final part of the lesson works on conditioning and fitness, either sparring or striking a dummy or stack of tyres.

Students and Instructor

Often there are one or two other students already training when I arrive, or who turn up while I am training, and when that’s the case it’s always interesting to compare notes on our martial backgrounds. Just as often I’m lucky enough to have the entire two hours of one-on-one learning all to myself.

Because training is by invitation only, I feel extremely privileged to have the opportunity to train here; the structure reminds me very much of my Jeet Kune Do Sifu, Andre Martin, with his real world experience and no frills teaching style. After years of study with several Filipino Martial Arts, what he teaches can’t be pigeon-holed as a particular style or lineage… it is a combination of techniques and principles that he has successfully applied and refined in real combat.

Style and Techniques

As Andre had already begun to show me, FMA has techniques that can be applied with a variety of weapons, or even empty handed. Had I not known this when I started training here in Manila, I would likely have been a little perturbed when 30 minutes into my first lesson I had to swap my steel pipe for a machete (a blunt machete, but a real metal blade none-the-less) and execute the swings I had just been taught.

Pekiti-Tirsia Kali proper takes this idea to its logical conclusion, where the swings and angles are shown to work equally well, and be just as damaging to your opponent whether you’re armed with an Escrima baston, a pen knife, a chop stick or even just a cell phone.

What I’m learning isn’t just PTK though, as all the flamboyant moves have been discarded, and the emphasis is placed very strictly on effectiveness in combat. Though I hadn’t thought so previously, I’m coming around to the idea that even though you can strike your opponent extremely hard with a wooden stick, if you don’t hit a vulnerable spot then it’s very unlikely to end a fight. Especially if your attacker is pumped on adrenaline at the time. The antidote to this is to develop a hugely powerful swing, and the accuracy to repeatedly hit those vulnerable points with it.

And that, in turn, is why I seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time killing tyres at the moment!

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At the end of yesterday’s exciting installment, you will recall that I had collapsed exhausted just after 4:30pm after almost 30 hours without sleep…

Just 90 minutes later my alarm sounded to remind me that I needed to be in Coventry for my MCMAA class. Ordinarily, I might have given in to the temptation to shut off the alarm, roll over, and go back to sleep, but feeling surprisingly refreshed didn’t want to miss 2 hours with David Hastings (3rd Dan Hapkido) learning about the use of a cane (aka walking stick) for self defence.

The first thing I noticed was how much easier it is to whirl a cane around than an escrima rattan stick, simply by virtue of being able to hold it in the crook and spin it like a tonfa. That said, most of the lesson revolved around using the other end of the stick for various take-downs and restraints. Many variations were covered: wrapping up the attacker from a wrist grab, with variations for same side and cross body grabs; and defending against a single punch. A lot of emphasis was given to dragging the “blade” of the cane along one’s opponent’s forearm, progressing into a wrist lock or takedown, which meant that by about half way through my forearms were very red and a little swollen, the bruising will probably take a week to come out :-(

I had to demonstrate some basic knife defence skills for my Tae Kwon-Do 3rd Dan, and were I to pursue Tae Kwon-Do any further, more advanced techniques would have been required to pass my 4th. Even before I became interested in FMA, I always thought it wasteful to learn how to demonstrate several heavily practiced defences against knife attacks from various angles for my Tae Kwon-Do gradings. The techniques I practiced were not integrated with anything else in the style, and I would certainly never have dared to use them against a live blade except perhaps during the last few weeks before a grading when they were well-rehearsed. By contrast, Mr. Hastings demonstrated how the various drills we practiced with the cane worked equally well empty handed, similar to one of the features of FMA that I’m especially fond of. Like FMA, the weapon is treated as an extension of the users body, so that the body mechanics and muscle memory learned when working to defend against an attack from some angle with a weapon, can be applied equally well without the weapon. After a few years of training like this, I think I would be able to build enough confidence to defend against a live blade… with or without the aid of a rattan stick!

Having spent the bulk of the lesson drilling cane techniques that could be applied equally well with an escrima stick, we spent a little time exploring how the crook could be used to attack, trip and hook an opponent, culminating in a spectacular pile-driver that I certainly wouldn’t like to be on the receiving end of!

With my background in Tae Kwon-Do, I’ve always had some latent interest in Hapkido. I had previously thought it was Korean Aikido, and imagined that I might gravitate towards Hapkido as a gentler style that would be kinder to my body as I get too old to perform Tae Kwon-Do’s acrobatic kicks, without leaving behind the Korean roots of my teaching. Mr. Hastings was kind enough to spend another half-hour after the end of the lesson informally answering questions and chatting with us. I also took the opportunity to quiz one of his senior students during the lesson itself; I was surprised to discover how complete and rounded Hapkido actually is! In addition to teaching striking, throwing, grappling and all that entails, as well as softer Aikido-influenced force redirection — several weapons are taught too. Overall, the cane is a very interesting weapon that provides endless opportunities for attacks and defences that are not possible with a straight stick, and I hope to enjoy tapping into more of Mr. Hastings extensive knowledge someday soon.

After neglecting my training for the better part of a year, on Monday evening I went to my first training session anticipating pain due to my lack of fitness… thankfully, this was a technical lesson. No doubt that fitness session will come around before too long though!

Training Times

The class kicked-off a little after the scheduled 19:30 start time, and lasted a little over 2 hours. In addition to this Monday class, the 16:00 to 18:00 Sunday afternoon sessions I had a love/hate relationship with throughout 2002 and 2003 will be starting again on October 7th.

Why love/hate? Well, I loved how fast my knowledge and fitness improved at every single session, and yet hated the fact that being able to do that required having to spend 2 hours a week right at the very edge of my comfort zone. Having said that, while working to my push my limits may have hurt physically and psychologically at the time, I would always finish on a triumphant high. I’m looking forward to getting back in the saddle again.

Lesson Structure

With so many martial arts to draw upon, I imagine that there will be an enormous variety of material to learn from and incorporate into my personal fighting style, and I have no doubt that each student will take away something different. This particular lesson involved some basic Kali Escrima drills with a single rattan stick, and thanks largely to Andre’s boundless enthusiasm and careful attention to each of us, what looked like a frighteningly difficult drill at the start of the class was becoming second nature by the end. This lesson was built around 5 angles of attack to practice with a single stick, alone and with a partner, trying several variations and punctuated with demonstrations of how the very same principles applied to using a dagger, or machete, or sword or even empty hands.

As a long time student of martial arts, I was delighted that as each demonstration of a variant was given, we were also told how it all fitted into the culture and history of (in this case) the Philippines — which is particularly relevant to me, since I’ll be living there for 3 months when we leave England again at the end of November.

Students and Instructor

Andre Martin needs no introduction, beyond what I’ve written already; Except to say that I’m certain that anyone who has the chance to train with him will gain a whole new outlook on the role of martial arts in their life. I know that he likes to keep class sizes down to 20 or fewer, this being no exception with about 15 of us present. It’s testament to Andre’s ability as an instructor that even this small class contained a mixture of all ages (no children however), abilities and cultures — although Octavia was the only woman present. The atmosphere was informal, with students working alone or with a partner and free to talk or ask questions as we pleased.

With such a good student to instructor ratio, and the phenomenal amount of information packed into that two hours it worked really well… unlike certain other schools I have attended, where this format has given the lazier students opportunity to goof off and become distracted.

Despite the small class size, and the excellent instruction, the cost of a lesson is exceptionally low compared to just about everywhere else I’ve trained.

Style and Techniques

The lineage of the MCMAA comes from Guro Inosanto‘s Jeet Kune Do Concepts (which he in turn learned directly from Bruce Lee), incorporating teachings from many disparate styles of fighting, with the idea that every martial artist will find techniques that work well for them, and others which do not. The techniques that work should be perfected, and after appropriate disection the techniques which do not work should be discarded. Naturally, each martial artist will perfect and discard different techniques. Eventually, armed with a selection of techniques that work at different ranges, most likely taken from disparate martial arts, one is able to progress to blends: moving swiftly and cleanly between that martial artist’s perfected techniques. For example closing range from a Savate toe-kick, through a Muay Thai knee strike, and then from a Silat nerve point attack to an arm into a Jiu Jitsu lock and then choke.

There is no favouritism between techniques of any style, and of course there is much to learn for many years before reaching this level of expertise. The concept at the core of a system like this is to always be learning, and to be critical about the techniques being used. When I was studying Jeet Kune Do with Andre previously, the techniques were drawn from fencing, western boxing, Wing Chun and Jun Fan Gung Fu. The MCMAA adds Jiu Jitsu, Savate, Muay Thai, Kali Escrima, Ninjutsu, Aikido, Panantukan, Silat, Kenpo and Pekiti Tirsia Kali, currently experiencing a surge in popularity due to it’s use by Matt Damon in the Bourne Identity movies!

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Not content with Tae Kwon-Do on Wednesday and Sunday nights, plus Shotokan Karate on Tuesday night and Sunday Morning, I was also fighting competitively on the Tae Kwon-Do Open circuit organised by the GTI, but struggling to make much of an impression… usually eliminated in the 1st or 2nd round.

Since Tae Kwon-Do is similar in many ways to Shotokan Karate, I decided that the best way to improve my competition performance was to study another entirely different martial art to give me an edge over my competitors: Preferably something with an emphasis on hands rather than legs, especially given that being at the lowest threshold of the Heavy Weight category, most of my opponents were several inches taller than me, and in some cases 100lb heavier! I eventually discovered a marvelous school in Coventry, teaching Bruce Lee’s traditional Jun Fan Gung-Fu as a foundation for Guro Inosanto’s Jeet Kune Do mixed in with a little western boxing. I was already hooked, and then I learned that the chief instructor had lived with Rhee Ki Ha (the man who brought Tae Kwon-Do to England) and was acquainted with local hero Geoff Thompson.

I badgered my good friend Richard Meeking to car pool with me for the 100 mile round trip to Coventry once a fortnight, and devoted the remaining 4 hours of my non-competition Sundays to training at the JKD Academy. And there it was that I first met the phenomenal Andre Martin, whom I have mentioned before. I always learned more from Andre in those 2 hours than from the other 14 hours of martial arts I pursued between visits to Coventry. Despite the crazy schedule, it was always worth the effort. Every second Sunday I would get up at 9am to give my breakfast time to go down before Karate in Stourport from 10.30 until 12.00, I then had time for lunch and a shower before driving to Kidderminster at 3.00 for the commute to Coventry for 2 hours of JKD between 4.00 and 6.00, which gave me just barely enough time to tear back to Worcester to teach an hour of Tae Kwon Do at 7.00, followed by a final hour of TKD training at 8.00. Sunday evenings usually finished with a shower at the sports centre, a pint of Guinness with the other black belts, and then home by 10.00 to collapse into a deep sleep before work the following morning!

I would have loved to have spent more time learning JKD from Andre, a rare instructor who combines a love of the history and philosophy of martial arts with practical experience of effective techniques tempered while working as a doorman around Coventry. He has a friendly energetic teaching style, and really knows how to get people to push themselves. During the sporadic 2 years that I spent at Coventry JKD Academy I went from an also-ran cannon fodder Tae Kwon-Do competitor who rarely got through the second round of eliminations to Silver Medalist at the English Tae Kwon-Do Open, due in no small part to the experience and wise words of Andre. In common with a very few other outstanding martial arts instructors I’ve had the pleasure of training with, Andre introduced me to his philosophy of learning from all martial arts, no matter what their style. Since then my whole outlook on martial arts has changed dramatically, indeed I am often surprised at how narrow-minded many otherwise respectable instructors get about how their style is better than everyone else’s, and equipped with that style they have no need of anything else.

I hadn’t realised how much I had taken those sessions for granted until the Academy closed it’s doors for the last time around 2003. Most especially when I started to search for somewhere else to train after moving away from Worcester, and consistently came up short.

A couple of days ago Richard excitedly emailed me to let me know that, after gaining some more qualifications in the last few years, Andre has opened his new Multicultural Martial Arts Academy, incorporating the Jun Fan Gung-Fu, Jeet Kune Do and Western Boxing teachings I’ve missed so much, as well as a handful of other styles including Kali/Escrima — something I’ve been itching to try out as soon as we get to the Philippines.

Whether you are an experienced martial artist, or someone looking for the chance to begin training with an excellent instructor, you would be missing a golden opportunity if you didn’t pay a visit to Andre’s new Academy. Before I relocate to the Philippines and start to build my knowledge of Escrima, I’ll certainly be lengthening my stay in England by a month or two just to take advantage of the chance to learn from Andre. Maybe I’ll see you there?

So, gentle reader, is this something you would like to buy from me? And if so, what styles and for what grades would you most like to see such a thing?

Letting yourself stay inside this comfort zone for too long is what leads to that “stuck in a rut” feeling, or becoming bored. And not necessarily just with your job; the same applies to your relationships, hobbies and your whole life. The problem is that getting outside this comfort zone is inherently “uncomfortable” by its very nature.

Before I reached my teens, I was a stereotypical geek: Bottle-bottom NHS black rimmed glasses, shy and much preferring to program in Z80 machine code in my room that play outside like the other kids. And worse, my family moved house every year or two, so I was always the “new kid”, which is no fun at the best of times. Like many martial artists of my age, the turning point came when I first saw The Karate Kid and wanted to be just like Daniel-san. My folks found a local Karate club and signed me up, delighted to see me engage in something a little more extroverted than reading, programming and playing Dungeons & Dragons. I felt pretty awkward even just shouting ki-ai (kiyap in Korean) at first, but this was the first time I had gone outside my comfort zone with all the discomfort that brings. I looked up the line at all coloured-belt students and determined to have a belt of my own soon, stuck with it, and sure enough within a month or so my comfort zone had grown a little to include shouting my ki-ai, and I had developed my personality a little.

So, by stepping a little outside your comfort zone for a while, you can improve your own personal development, and pursuing a martial art is an excellent way to be constantly pushed. The trick is not to push too hard, or the stress will make you retract and give you a bigger barrier to get through next time.

I kept at Karate until I left for University 4 years later, to discover the University Karate Club didn’t care too much for the safety of its students. In my first few weeks, one of the senior grades broke a new student’s collar bone with an axe kick in line work… bad enough in itself, but the instructor mistook it for a dislocated shoulder and in trying to pop it back in pushed the broken bone through the skin before calling for an ambulance. Looking for another club, I discovered Tae Kwon-Do which was far less formal than Karate, with students encouraged to help each other rather than compete against one another. I also liked the idea of wearing safety pads and engaging in semi-contact sparring. Once I got to University I’d decided to start wearing contact lenses instead of glasses, so I wouldn’t have to excuse myself from sparring. Over the following year I came to enjoy sparring sessions in the club, and when a local tournament came up I decided to enter. Although I was only a middle grade, I’d been practicing martial arts for a few years more than the other students of my grade, so my instructor entered me in the Mens Heavyweight Red Belt category (one below black belt in Tae Kwon-Do). By now I already knew that I needed to move outside my comfort zone to grow, so I took the sick feeling in my stomach as a good sign that I was pushing myself. Needless to say, I lost in the first round. Badly. I had only sparred with friends until now, and was taken back by how hard my opponent was hitting. I didn’t enter another competition for almost 10 years after that experience. A great pity, because once I did start competing seriously I eventually peaked at 2nd Place in the English Tae Kwon-Do Open Championships 2002. The fights at this competition involved much heavier contact and far more experienced fighters, but having expanded my comfort zone since that first unfortunate loss in 1990, it wasn’t so big a stretch to enter a National level event now as it had been to enter a local competition back then.

Nowadays I use my level of discomfort with new ventures as a sort of radar. If I’m feeling a bit uncomfortable about something, and making bad excuses to myself about why I shouldn’t bother, it is a good indication that I’m moving in the right direction to develop in some way, which spurs me on to stay motivated. If I need to make half a dozen trips to the bathroom and feel a little sick, then I’m pushing too hard and need to expand my comfort zone some more before I set myself back by pushing too hard.

Since then I’ve read Iain Abernethy’s excellent book Mental Strength, which goes into great depth about the comfort zone. If you’ve enjoyed this article, you’ll certainly find a lot of good advice in Iain’s book.

And the winner is (drumroll please): White Dragon Tai Chi. Kidding. I found the instructor and students of Cheltenham Wing Chun Kuen to be closest to my wavelength, and what’s more, I already have some small experience with Jeet Kune Do which has its roots in Wing Chun, so I won’t be starting from absolute first principles. Actually, I almost went with Muay Thai and that would certainly have moved me outside my comfort zone (an important thing to practice in order to keep growing), but in the end one of my criteria for this exercise is to become involved in something that isn’t going to leave me with bruised limbs every week. With luck, my old Tae Kwon Do club will still be running fortnightly Fight Club if I feel the need to let off steam…

So, last night I arrived at Wing Chun for 2 hours of realising how very little I do know about the style. The next few months promise to be very challenging and exciting, and better yet the school organises visits to train with Ip Chun (eldest son of Bruce Lee’s Wing Chun teacher) in Hong Kong, which is only a 2 hour flight from Manila when we move again in the Autumn.

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I’ve broken my own rules slightly for this one, because they have moved from GL1 to the nearby Christchurch Hall on Montpellier, and because I had only planned to spend a week looking. But, it’s okay that I broke the rules, because the whole experience was destined to be rather bizarre from beginning to end…

The rest of this post constitutes an open letter to the White Dragon Society. If you are a student or instructor with one of these schools, please leave your comments.

Training Times

I was especially keen to try Tai Chi, so even though I was disappointed to find the school had gone when I turned up to meet them at GL1 last Tuesday, it took only a little detective work to find The White Dragon Chinese Martial Arts website with class times and locations. There is a one hour Tai Chi lesson at 7pm every Monday at the new location, juxtaposed directly with the White Dragon Kung Fu lesson for the following hour. There are additional nights at other locations, though the nearest is Cheltenham and the others would involve a longer commute for additional one hour lessons further afield.

Lesson Structure

Having looked at the website, and read the Join Us page, I was expecting to be invited to join in for the advertised taster lesson, or perhaps to sit and watch if the subject matter for the lesson was aimed at advanced students only. My only experience with Chinese martial arts involved one year of learning the fundamentals of the relatively hard-style of Zhuan Shu Kuen Gung Fu as a student at University over 15 years ago, after which I took over the club as instructor for the following year and then handed over in turn to another black belt when I left. In the decades before and since, I have devoted my study mainly to the Japanese and Korean arts. Of course, much of my attraction to Tai Chi is that it is a total departure from the many hard styles I have studied until now, and that I’m keen to keep learning from as many different perspectives as possible.

Imagine my surprise then, when I was turned away!

Students and Instructor

I arrived ten minutes early after a brisk twenty minute walk across Gloucester, and talked with two other students who were also in plenty of time. They were quite friendly and interested in my previous experience, how I had learned of their school and such. At the stroke of 7pm, a lady with the key to the hall let herself and the three of us in, whereupon she challenged me with a curt: Can I help you?. I explained, exactly as I had to the other instructors I’ve spoken with this last week or so, that I had recently moved here, and was looking for a martial art in the area to study for health and fitness until I leave in the Autumn to spend the winter in the Philippines. She apologetically retorted that Oh, he won’t be interested in that!.

I was then treated to a handful of platitudes from the aging, unkempt, overweight presumed class instructor that “he wouldn’t waste his time teaching me if I wasn’t committed to 52 weeks training per year” (hmm, for just one hour per week? Hardly a commitment considering most martial arts I’ve been involved in over the years require four hours per week, and I routinely devote twice that amount of time); “we teach in a very traditional Chinese manner” (that implies forming family like bonds, no?); “this isn’t just a club, we are a society that has been around for over 300 years” (What!? With secret handshakes or something you mean?); “we don’t accept new students without an appointment, you should have booked through our website”. Well, I’ve since looked carefully through the website and it plainly invites potential students to turn up at one of the classes for a taster lesson. Very odd. What were they trying to hide I wonder? I can only imagine that the quality of instruction would be so suspect that the prospect of an experienced martial artist in the class was worrisome somehow…

By now, I already had no interest in trying to learn from someone so rude and close-minded, but I continue to be interested in Tai Chi none the less, so I asked, “Would it be alright for me to stay and watch the class?”.

“Why?“

“I’ve just walked all the way across Gloucester to meet you, I’m interested in Tai Chi, and hoped to at least watch a class before I leave.”

“No. We don’t allow anyone to watch the class.“

“Oh, that’s unusual. I really would like to watch…”

“Look, I’ve been doing this for 38 years, and you can’t stay!“

Curious then, that there are plainly two people (one with a video camera) obviously just watching in this photo from the White Dragon Pictures page…

I learned long ago that any martial artist who pulls rank by telling you how many years they have been training is really saying: “I’m better than you. Do as I say”. An attitude I have no time for. It is exactly this kind of parochialism that led to the divisive my kung fu is better than your kung fu arguments in the 70′s. Luckily most of us now live in a more enlightened age with a spirit of sharing knowledge for the benefit and development of all. I left quickly at that point, safe in the knowledge I had nothing to learn from this particular teacher, and that he was carefully protecting his existing students from coming into contact with the likes of me.

Style and Techniques

I can only point you at the White Dragon website, and hope that if you still wish to participate you might find the other classes to be less objectionable than the Gloucester class I hunted down. In all my years of training, this is the worst reception I’ve ever witnessed from any martial artist…

For any prospective future student of the martial arts, please don’t be put off if you are unlucky enough to start your journey with an encounter like this. In my experience the vast majority of instructors are thrilled at the opportunity to teach and learn from another keen martial artist, indeed I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to train with a Grand Master on the other side of the world, and been shown nothing but hospitality and humility irrespective of my rank and experience.

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