Dec 01 Dennis Jones – Prepare for Violence

This interview was published in January 2007

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

SR  Hi Den, for the last two months we’ve talked about violence in Medway.

DJ  That’s right Steve, I notice you toned it down a bit before publication as well!

SR  (laughs)  Can you blame me!  The question that naturally arises from those articles is how do normal people, living in Medway, prepare themselves to deal with violence of that sort?

DJ  It’s not just Medway, there’s trouble and hassle everywhere (unless you stay in) and it’s all over the country now.  There are a lot of martial arts clubs around doing all sorts of different things but people owe it to themselves to make the best choice, and that choice has to be based around the question ‘why do I want to do martial arts?’  

It seems that these days in adverts the martial arts instructor or their teacher ‘worked the doors’ and…blah, blah and blah!  I suppose that must mean their martial art ‘works’.  Working on the door is one thing but it’s what you did that counts.  There are two types of doorman, those that earn ‘performance money’ and those who get ‘appearance money’.  I know doorman that have worked the doors longer than me and they wouldn’t even run for a bus, let alone train!  Yet they’ve survived for 30 years on the door.  Perhaps they should teach martial artists how to survive on the door without any training!  And I ain’t joking when I say that!  Throughout our lives we devise methods and ways to look after ourselves.  For a lot of people, self-defence is no more complicated than just agreeing with a would-be attacker or diverting their attention so they focus on someone else, either way it usually works for them.  Now a good teacher should look at the personality of an individual as well as his physical attributes and then devise a training programme that would benefit them as a person, and I’m not talking about abusing their minds!

It would be no good getting a gentle character and teaching him techniques and a mind set that is anathema to his whole being.  Simply, his personality is his business, showing him how to physically use his body to get the best out of himself is the teacher’s business but if he’s a right ****, maybe he shouldn’t be taught martial arts!  We have to learn to go beyond just a standard technical response.  On the Shikon forum (www.shikon.com/forum) I was asked what indicators I looked for to see if a fight was going to go ‘off’, what the writer was looking for was for me to provide him with a list of indicators.  I digress here a little but many years ago I can remember reading a karate magazine in which Count Dante (of karate fame) said that before someone attempted to kill someone else they (the attacker) would always ‘blink twice’ (laughter) – don’t laugh Steve, I can remember reading that when I was seventeen….

SR  Looking for the ‘double blink’!

DJ  Yeah…  I believed him!  Anyway I went around looking for that double blink as an indicator of trouble-mind you if it were true, that would have been a problem for me!  Whether he wrote that tongue in cheek I don’t know, but the point is that we have similar ‘urban legends’ in the martial arts today.  Although he said a lot of good stuff I think generally he was just taking the mickey.  However, a lot of martial artists today don’t know any better and if they do, they ain’t telling anyone.  The writer wanted me to give this list of indicators but I actually answered with this:

“Have no imagination”

And of course I believe that comment is lost on most martial artists.

SR  I’m sure it is!

DJ  Many martial arts clubs do more harm to students than good because they’re teaching techniques that the student wouldn’t or couldn’t use, and this makes them feel even more incompetent and inferior.

SR  When you said that a good instructor would look at a person and train them as an individual, I think that is crucial.  This is an important part of both modern and ancient coaching methods and got lost with the ‘big class’ and ‘money making’ ethos of modern martial arts.  Treating people as individuals is essential, it’s important to get around to each person in class, fulfilling their needs technically, physically and mentally.

DJ  That’s right, you must look at their mental and physical abilities, and cater for that.

SR  That is the mark of a good teacher.  Too many instructors are busy trying to create clones of themselves.

DJ  Not so good for the students…

SR  That is a problem in Medway.  We have so many unqualified ‘instructors’ who are teaching a very basic, non functional training syllabus and who are ‘pressure selling’ out in the street or door to door – and once they’ve got the students into their club, selling them highly priced, expensive ‘upgrades’ and equipment packs.  There is no focus on the student’s abilities or learning.  Once they’ve sold them a 3-year contract with upgrades and equipment, they want them to leave so they can more ‘punters’ in.  Those that stay are taught rubbish and walk around thinking that they have some self-defence skills.

DJ  It is a problem; when I look at their adverts, the claims that they are making, and often, even the age and experience of the instructors tells me a lot. ‘World Champion’?  Of what?  They also state that they can make children well behaved and pass their exams.  What type of children are these?  And what statistics have they got to support that THEY can do this? 

SR  They’re just churning out what the promotional companies tell them to put on the adverts because that’s what brings the ‘punters’ in.  Martial arts training and skill learning takes a back seat.  If you want to find a good instructor or leave your child in safe hands, the last thing you do is to sign up to a door to door salesman or someone who approaches you in the street, and you NEVER go for high joining fees, ‘upgrades’ ‘equipment packs’ or long, expensive 3 year contracts.

DJ  Many of them are no more than children themselves…I’ve read some right b****** over the last few years, like 20-30 years olds developing their own style and then opening a martial arts club.  What’s that about?  Between the age of 20 and 30 all I was interested in was developing the ability to (in self defence) flatten one or two thugs quickly!  Now it seems that every martial arts instructor advertises that he was a bouncer and teaches ‘real fighting’ that really works on the street.

That’s one of the problems with the Martial Arts nationwide at the present time.  Teachers should be honest to themselves and to their students, if they’re in it solely for the money, they should admit it.

SR  Like that’s going to happen! 

DJ  (laughs)  I guess not but it’s down to the prospective student to find out.  I’d like to add that there’s nothing wrong in earning a living from martial arts but only if it’s good martial arts that’s being taught…Steve even if you just teach children it is important that you do it right.  Look I’ve been in a few things that have made me very nervous but being frightened is relative.  Even if you’re only 14 a street fight can be as scary for them as it has been for me.  Ashley my partner told me of a fight she had when she was about 14 years old.  After challenging another girl to a fight, she spent the rest of the day psyching herself up, preparing for the fight after school.

‘Up until this fight I’d had won all the rest because nobody wanted to fight back.  I thought I was invincible and believed the hype that people were saying about me.  When I confronted her I expected her to back off but she didn’t.  I wasn’t prepared for that, to feel the same force coming back at me.  It was a shock to my system because I thought I was going to beat her easily.  Anyway we had the fight and in the end, after a fierce struggle, I managed to beat her by dragging her to the floor and beating her.  To end the story a couple of weeks later her and a friend returned the favour.  They gave Ashley a good beating while her friends stood by and watched it happen!  Her friends were terrified and were paralysed with fear so she was on her own.  She believed her own hype.  It all changes when you’re overwhelmed or evenly matched.  She never forgot that lesson.’

And as I said Steve irrespective of whether you teach children or not, whatever you teach must be effective for them as an individual taking all factors into consideration.

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.

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