Nov 29 Dennis Jones – Fighting and Age

This interview was published in February 2006

Steve Rowe talks to doorman and Shi Kon martial artist Dennis Jones.

SR Dennis, I notice that you’re attracting the odd grey hair with the passage of years, what are your views regarding age in training and fighting?

DJ  An awkward question in some respects Steve, because when you’re young, (not that I am) you can’t really make a comment, because you don’t have the experience of age! 

When I was young I could do a thousand leg raises and sprint up the hill outside here, I couldn’t do anywhere near that now, yet I’ve trained all my life.  It wasn’t uncommon back then for me to finish a day’s training with 500 jodan mawashi-geri kicks.  In my late teens I can remember standing in kiba-dachi for 6 hours in one go!  Up to 23 years of age, I was using karate techniques to keep fit before finally realising there were more efficient methods.

Even as a black belt, the karate I was doing was amateur.  It had no deeper value.  The movements and applications were no more than moving your hands and legs in and out and were about as much use in a fight as doing the hokey-cokey!  I didn’t realise until I’d been involved in a number of fights how ineffective it was.  Through my twenties I was always looking for physical challenges, but when I hit 35, my training had to change.  I started doing a lot of walking with Jonathan (my brother) and he made me carry a Bergen (a type of rucksack) weighing between 40lb and 50lb, and he’d have one on his back as well! We’d walk anywhere between 30 and 40 miles in a day and with only 3 short breaks it was hard!

I did a lot of walking right up until my early forties.  I walked from Chatham in Kent to Tower Bridge once… I didn’t find it too hard, but most people find that sort of walking, carrying weight difficult – especially when you pass the 20 mile barrier.

SR Carrying 50lb on your back I reckon it would ‘do’ your head in!

DJ  I did it for charity and it helped give me strong legs!  However, I feel we must grow old gracefully and not struggle too much with exercises that we did easily in our youth.  We need to alter our training to suit the advancing years and to ensure that our fighting skills continue to work!  It is also VERY important is to ensure continued good health.

SR  Most certainly, when I was young, all I thought about and trained towards was my fighting skills – now health comes first in order of importance.

DJ  Self defence as opposed to fighting is important, I punch harder now than I’ve ever punched in my life, I couldn’t prance about in a ring; I just want to poleaxe someone in the most efficient way possible.  

A lot of martial arts practice is actually bad for your health, you don’t think its so important when you’re young, but it becomes far more important as you age.  Whatever you do in life has an accumulative effect, a fellow doorman and old friend (we worked together back in the early 80s) recently died. He was in his mid 40s but unfortunately had a drink habit and drunk too much over a long period. Bad exercise can also build up over the years and cause long term damage.

SR  Self defence or self protection also applies to protecting or defending your health.

DJ  That’s a very Chinese way of viewing it!  Certainly I feel that although I do a lot of CV work and fighting techniques I also practice my tai chi to gain a deeper health.  I think of it as a massage for the internal organs and opening and closing of the joints with coordinated body movements – excellent for the mind, which in turn is a pleasant way to reduce stress.

SR  I suppose in tai chi I am an expert in the sense that an ‘ex’ is an old has been and a ‘spurt’ is a drip put under pressure!  (laughter)

DJ Well, you have been doing it a lot longer than me! 

SR  I would say that in terms of self defence you have to defend your sanity, your health and from someone trying to rip your head off!

DJ  If I hadn’t worked on the doors and experienced the trouble I have, I’d probably not be so concerned with self defence.  If I’d had a good salary, a comfortable home in a nice area, my martial arts might be quite different.

SR  But there again Dennis, the more you have – the more you have to protect.  Look at wealthy people like George Harrison, he could have done with a few lessons from you!  The wealthier you are – the more you become a ‘target’ for villains!

DJ  And the tax man!…But going back to self defence as Funakoshi said: ‘intuition before mere technique’. He explained what he meant with the following story. ‘You have gone out for the night and later on when you return you see your house on fire. There is no point trying to put it out using buckets of water while you wait for the fire brigade to turn up. You should have checked and turned the gas fire off before you left the house!’

SR  The ‘bucket’ is the technique and ‘checking’ is the intuition….

DJ  Experience is the key and the older you get the more you don’t want trouble. But you’ve been there before, are more aware and you know when a problem really has to be ‘dealt’ with.

SR At my age it’s a blessing to still be able to train and study with my friends and students in the martial arts, to be able to teach courses and classes all over the world and retain that same interest and some of the vigour I had when I was young.  I simply adapt what I do to my age and physical ability, tai chi helps me to retain the ‘power’ and mindset.

I’ve seen too many of my friends give up or die young, so I value every day I can study.  I intend to live and train until I’m a hundred – or die in the process!  (laughter)

Young people ‘train’ expending all their excess energy, older people ‘study’ to get the best benefit from the energy expended..  I work to be as efficient as possible.

Don’t you find that you become more vulnerable on the door as you look older?

DJ  Good point Steve, I don’t even recognise myself in the pictures that go with these articles!  I look older than I feel or do I mean I look younger than I feel!

SR  (laughter)…They say you shave your dad in the mirror as you get older.

DJ  I do get people trying to take advantage of me because I look older – but I can often negotiate a ‘way out of an argument’ because of my ‘maturity’, so I guess it works both ways.

Many doormen shave their head and do bodybuilding because looks and size are a good deterrent.  A grey haired old man doesn’t present such a powerful picture.

SR  They do say that youth is wasted on the young…

DJ  You’re probably right there Steve, but as you age hopefully you get wiser but I can’t do the same number of sit-ups or push-ups that I could do when I was twenty-five and grappling back then was a lot easier. So it meant that if people were fighting it wasn’t too hard to half drag and carry out  a 14 stone idiot. I had lots of energy and could afford to waste a bit of it.

SR  And what do you think you’ve gained over the years?

DJ  As you mentioned, experience is the greatest gain. I’m not so gullible.  Looking at myself in my forties, I can hit a lot harder now than when I was 25.  I’m much better with body position and in a fight can usually get myself in the right position to do what I want.  In a conflict I can often predict what is going to happen next. I can talk about fighting to other people who have a lot of experience on their level.

SR You feel it’s important to discuss your experiences, do you think they are relevant to the martial artist?

DJ I’ll leave that for them to decide, but I’ll end with this thought.

I first read the poetry of Wilfred Owen in my early twenties and now in my forties his work is far more poignant. The poem ‘Strange Meeting’ has a strange story:

…”Strange friend,” I said, “here is no cause to mourn.”

    “None,” said that other, “save the undone years,”

    “I am the enemy you killed, my friend

     I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned.

     Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.

     I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.

     Let us sleep now….”

It means a lot to me and wrapped up in the verses is much wisdom and from such a young man.

SR  I think he saw and suffered too much in the Great War.  Thanks for that Dennis.

DJ  Thank you Steve.

Steve Rowe

Steve Rowe is a highly successful Martial Arts instructor - an International Neigong, Qigong and Tai Chi Teacher and an 8th Dan Karate with many other senior dan grades in other martial disciplines.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me: