A few lessons here. (i) Our friend was disappointed that under pressure he opted to punch the guy rather than something more sophisticated, he’s learned a good few third party protection techniques over the years with us; this disappointment being accentuated by the intense pain he felt in his knuckles after he’d smacked the guy. Thing is, under pressure many of us will revert to chucking punches at someone which is why we teach people how to punch properly.

(ii) Punches can be pretty useful weapons, our friend’s knuckles were sore for a little while but the yobbo was in a much worse state. You won’t feel the pain in your knuckles until afterwards but it will be very sore so try to avoid punching to the head more than once with the same fist – 2 hits at the very maximum.

(iii) Get out of there as soon as possible. Our friend did a good job in general but shouldn’t have hung about – the guy could have had a mate, started to fight again, maybe with a weapon. He also got a chance to know our friend’s face – not good if he plans on some kind of revenge. If this sort of thing does happen at a place you regularly visit, such as a railway station, best to avoid the guy getting too good a look at you – get in and out very quickly and assume the worst by varying your journey patterns for a month or so afterwards if possible.

Anyway, Happy New Year to you, stay safe and warm in 2010.

Stewart

Interesting, and worrying, thing about nearly all the confrontations that I hear about about is that it takes the good guys a while to get the necessary aggression going to survive the situation. I guess that the fact they do is a testament to the them and the training but I’m still concerned that the bad guys have an advantage because they enter situations in an aggressive frame of mind from the outset. You can’t graft gonads onto a giraffe, as my old karate teacher used to say, and it is tough to turn nice people into sociopaths -albeit temporarily – but we’ll work a lot in 2010 on how to turn on the aggression quickly.

Stewart

With a traditional martial arts background in Kung Fu, I had little experience and practical knowledge of ground fighting. I also found that a lot of the techniques within my armoury were ineffective against more powerful opponents. UKM has helped me to be more direct, cut the fancy stuff and use techniques that focus on dealing with an attacker in the fastest, most effective way. This Martial Art does not rely on physical strength, but rather on technique and speed.

I would highly recommend the UKM instructors course to all experienced Martial Artists looking to consolidate their knowledge with a combination of proven effective techniques. The course is really physically and mentally challenging! Anyone looking for an easy ride are in for a shock… Prepare to shed blood, sweat and tears.

Stewart and Leo are world class instructors and the experience of training with them was invaluable. Their high expectations and attention to detail truely motivates you to raise your game!!! In addition, both guys have a great sense of humour and made each day of training really enjoyable. The 5 days flew by quickly… and I can safely speak for everyone when I say we will be back for future courses

AJ Abella
The Urban Krav Maga course was excellent covering all stand-up ranges and on the floor. Armed and unarmed, its the whole package. In the street you can call on these practical skills to get you, friends or family out of any situation.

Stewart Mc Gill is and excellent teacher with his own way of teaching; he breaks down techniques, so you as a student can pick it up real easy, and at your own pace. Leo Negao is another positive factor in the Urban Krav Maga organisation. He really knows his stuff, and can adapt his ground game to the street. As guys who know real fighting will tell you , the ground is not a great place to be; but if you you are there Leo will show you how to make the best of a bad situation and get up quickly and safely.

I would recommend it to anyone,

Jimmy Kelly

http://www.kravmma.com/?page_id=3

And our instructor in Edinburgh, Peter Bilitsch is doing a seminar up in Central Edinburgh next weekend, see the below for information:

Urban Krav Maga Self Defence Seminar in Edinburgh (limited places available)

12 – 4pm (with breaks), Sat 14 Nov 09 at Edinburgh Martial Arts College

Learn as quickly as possible to defend yourself against the 10 most common street attacks.  The core syllabus also contains a range of techniques especially applicable to female self-defence, grappling (stand-up and on the ground), fighting/sparring techniques and weapons defences.Participants will be taught how to read a situation and react/respond accordingly, even if they’ve not experienced the exact same thing in training. Improvisation is an important element of the training.

What is Urban Krav Maga?

Krav Maga is a generic Hebrew term meaning “contact combat”. Urban Krav Maga was founded by a group of instructors experienced across various styles of Krav Maga and other fighting systems and is based on defences against the 10 most common street attacks in the UK.  UKM is the only Krav Maga style that has been asked to provide a British Combat Association Masterclass, as well as the only style to feature a stand at the Seni Martial Arts Show in London next May.  We produced a highly acclaimed 6-DVD set recognised as one of the best Self-Defence products on the market.

10 Most Common Street Attacks in the UK (in order of frequency)

1.    A push, hands to chest, normally followed by attacker striking first to the head.     (DEFEND WITH 4 PRE-EMPTIVE MOVES AGAINST ATTACKER)

2.    A swinging punch to the head.

3.    A front clothing grab, one handed, followed by punch to the head,

4.    A front clothing grab, two hands, followed by a head butt.

5.    A front clothing grab, two hands, followed by a knee to the groin.

6.    A bottle, glass, or ashtray to the head.

7.    A lashing kick to groin/lower legs.

8.    A broken bottle/glass jabbed to face.

9.    A slash with knife (most commonly a 3 to 4″ lock blade knife / kitchen knife).

10. A grappling style head lock.

Peter Bilitsch, Urban Krav Maga Instructor

peter_bilitsch@yahoo.com

http://www.urbankravmaga.com/

http://kravmaga-centrallondon.co.uk/

Details – Urban Krav Maga Self Defence Seminar

When:            12 – 4pm (with breaks), Sat 14 Nov 09

Where:            Edinburgh Martial Arts College, Unit 1 Abbeylane, Edinburgh EH8 8HL

Cost:              £30 (pre booking essential with Edinburgh Martial Arts College or via PayPalpeter_bilitsch@yahoo.com

We’ve produced a DVD set with Leo covering groundwork, defending threats and attacks from knives and close protection. See here for the promotional clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g04hM2jjFE

The DVD set will be available in early October, I’ll keep you posted.

We’ve been asked to do a seminar for British Combat Association (BCA) Instructors in September. This is a highly prestigious event hosted by an internationally renowned organization; this is the first time that any Krav Maga organization has been asked to give one of their masterclasses. Leo Negao, former Brazilian Jiu Jutsu world champion, will be doing the seminar with us; he will focus on the self defence applications of BJJ and Mixed Martial Arts techniques.

This is a sure indicator of the growing stature of Urban Krav Maga in the martial arts world. The seminar will be held at Telford, Shropshire at:

Kyushinkai Dojo – Court Works Industrial Estate, Bridgnorth

Road, Madeley, Telford, Shropshire TF7 4JB.

If you’re interested in attending the seminar in September call Stewart on 0791 261 6361.

To find an Urban Krav Maga instructor see: http://www.urbankravmaga.com/classes

Urban Krav Maga DVD Set

The DVD set is now now available on Amazon at a competitive price and continues to get excellent reviews; see some of these below:

“This is a really first rate product presented by people who know what they’re doing and for anyone who has an interest in Self Defence, these 6 DVDs should have some space on your shelves.”

Peter Consterdine / Chairman of The British Combat Association

“Urban Krav Maga is a no-nonsense martial art that works!”

Bob Sykes / Editor / Martial Arts Illustrated magazine

“There are a number of things that make this DVD set a fantastic purchase. The quality of the picture and production are of a professional quality and as good as any you’ll see. Whereas previous Self Defence/Martial Arts DVD’s I’ve seen have used boom microphones, giving an echoey feeling to the sound, the sound on these DVD’s is clear and the camera work is also steady and clear.

The techniques demonstrated in this set are, I would say, the most effective you’ll find in dealing with ‘Real’ confrontations. Basically speaking, this stuff WILL work! The techniques are shown in at full speed and then brilliantly broken down to explain the moves piece by piece. Again, the camera work and the positioning of the Instructors ensures this is done in the most effective way. These techniques really are the ones that will serve you if you find yourself in any number of unavoidable confrontational situations.
I will add that Stewart McGill is one of the friendliest, most genuine approachable guys you will ever come across. This is a big reason to invest, and it is an investment, in this DVD set. He is interested in any comments and questions you have and welcomes input and feedback. If you only invest in one Self Defence/Martial Arts DVD set, make it this one.”

AJ Dennis, Amazon Reviewer

“What an awesome set! As per previous reviews I have viewed and studied many different martial arts, both traditional and more modern ‘reality’ based systems and this DVD set is easily up there with the best – (This includes productions from Moni Aizik and Avi Nardia the gurus of CKM and Kapap respectively). Well produced, paced and informative, this gave you the opportunity to really learn techniques that aren’t complicated and will work. I ordered the DVDs as a 3 DVD set in error so contacted Stewart McGill who put this series together and within 24 hours had the 6 DVD set in the post and on my doorstep in a couple of days. What superb customer service too, Stewart was extremely helpful!! Cannot recommend the DVD content or the customer service any higher. BUY IT!!”

J Fox, Amazon Reviewer

To buy the DVD, please use this link:

UrbankravDVD

This is a unique seminar combining the fighting and self defence techniques of Urban Krav Maga with the pyschological confidence boosting techniques of Simon Jordan, the UK’s number 1 Confidence Coach. It will be held on Saturday 9 May in East Sussex; check out the website here to book up:

urbanconfidence.co.uk

Fighting on the Buses 2

We’re going to do this very popular seminar again, Sunday 5 April at Plumstead Bus Garage. 10:30am -2:30pm. Price £30 payable in advance please. Contact me if interested.

Instructor Training/General Seminar

Next gig: 13-15 March at the London Fight Factory. See here for website:

www.urbankravmaga.com/instructor-intensive-courses

At this weekend the guys from Scotland will be coming down to complete their instructor training so this will be a very good opportunity to cover the syllabus. Ignore the other dates on the website link above: they will need to be changed – will advise on this tomorrow.

Good thing about the seminar was the emphasis he put on MMA rather than jiu jutsu groundwork, i.e. in MMA you can get smacked about the face so you need to be aware of this when trying out your pure grappling moves. Salutary reminder for self defence teaching as well: the pure grappling work on the ground can be very satisfying but can all be rendered academic by a good punch, elbow, gouge or butt so we need to make sure that the training reflects this reality.   

You need to train for this sort of situation as much as you do your basic blocks, strikes, bridging, positioning from the closed guard etc.  We worked on defending (i) knife threats if trapped by the window seat (ii) knife threats and strangle holds from someone seated behind you, (iii) someone punching, hitting and stabbing you from a standing position (iv) fighting/defensive techniques if attacked when standing in a corridor.  (v) using the environment of the bus e.g. back of seats, support bars, to help you in all of these situations.    

Obviously there are some general skills that can be applied in most of these situations but all the students on Sunday realised that there are skills/techniques specific to this and similar environments that make it a different fight game. I hope to make this a regular part of our training, please call me to let me know if you’re up for it.   

Stewart

Interesting that a lot of the gentlemen there had done some Chinese Martial Arts over in Hong Kong and that, despite the facts that (i) they were getting on a little bit and (ii) we were doing some Jiu Jutsu based stuff quite different from the Kung Fu they had trained in, most of them picked it up quite quickly and enjoyed the effect it had on an attacker.

It made me think about the unity and diversity within martial arts:

The unity lies primarily in  the movement: footwork in boxing, tae sabaki in Japanese based systems. The most successful fighters and martial artists know the importance of using your feet to move the body in an appropriate direction at the appropriate speed. This might seem elementary but I’ve trained a lot of people and believe me it’s not something that comes naturally nor easily to everybody.

An example of the importance of footwork. A great boxer, George Foreman is thought of primarily as a big puncher – true but Foreman’s footwork was great, he cut the ring off against Joe Frazier brilliantly and knocked Joe out 6 times in 2 rounds in what older readers will remember as a huge boxing shock at the time. (early 1970s – like my Chinese friends I’m getting on a bit myself). In the famous “Thriller in Manila,” Muhammed Ali didn’t employ the rope-a-dope tactics out of choice: he had nowhere to go, Foreman didn’t let him move.

If you appreciate the value of tae sabaki and work on it you can adjust to different systems without too much strain. That’s what helped the Chinese gentlemen on Saturday. Most of them had done some form of Wing Chun: interesting that Wing Chun is sometimes criticised for lack of decent  footwork but obviously not an issue when those guys trained back in the 1960s and 1970s.

Re the diversity:

My Chinese friends had learnt styles that were heavily dependent on hand speed (many were still pretty quick despite their years) and striking power in general. These tend to be not quite so useful up against a bigger and stronger opponent and you have to adapt. Some of the guys and ladies there were well into their 70s and weighed about 7-8 stone: if up against a 15 stone scumbag they needed some other strategies. This was one of the more difficult things to get over on Saturday but I think we got there.  Always interesting to me how different styles confront similar problems. We try to make our solutions as little dependent on power as possible but at the same time, if you have the power – use it. Just don’t depend on it being so effective when you’re 75 and/or up against a drugged-up bodybuilder.

In conclusion, I guess what I’m saying is an old message but very worth remembering: train your footwork every day and train widely so you don’t have to fight the other guy at his game.     

Stewart