Jan 02 Dennis Jones – Terminology on the Door

This interview was published in March 2007

SR Hi Den last month we were talking about using kicks and you mentioned that you opened fire doors by kicking ‘panic bars’ with your foot!  A number of readers found that rather interesting to say the least and certainly brings to mind ‘cross training’…Do you prefer to use the left or right foot?

DJ (laughs) mainly the right foot Steve and that’s because I like to use my left arm, bone side cutting into the opponent’s neck.  Now this must have a name for it, say a Ju Jitsu or English name, perhaps something they use in MMA.  But anyway I always liked to get some pain in; it made ‘nasty thugs’ more compliant but obliviously I wasn’t trying to maim or kill anyone.  So when I had hold of someone, trying to run them out of the club, I’d generally call it an ‘in-between’ fight.

SR that’s interesting…

DJ …Anyway working the doors one of the things I noticed was the language that bouncers used.  They hardly had any really descriptive nouns for fighting techniques.  And generally there was no need for them to have any.  Yet that didn’t mean that all bouncers couldn’t fight, obviously some really can, but we weren’t into teaching loads of white belts so we didn’t have to communicate like that.   So when they described what had occurred in a fight they mainly used simple language like I punched him in the head or nose or jaw;  I gave him a few digs in the ribs; I kicked him in the nuts; I nutted him; I grabbed him round the throat; I choked him;  I had him in a headlock; We were wrestling; I bent his wrist; I twisted his arm; I locked him up; I sat on him or sat on his legs; I had his nuts;  I grabbed his hair and there’s a few more that I won’t mention! 

SR That would make an interesting grading syllabus!

DJ (laughs) as everyone knows bouncers can only be one of two grades-appearance grade or performance grade!  Mind you Steve when it came to describing ‘balls’ and the ‘mind games’ that thugs play their language was far more comprehensive!

Looking back, some bouncers I’ve worked with had great fighting skills.  One guy had a brilliant headlock; he knew how to do it and how to get it on.  Experience was his teacher but he couldn’t explain it nor teach it very well!  However, he once showed me or more exactly he demonstrated on me – and I can still feel it now!  It’s a strange feeling slowly choking so you can’t breathe and also feeling the blood having trouble squeezing through the tight gap.  But it hurts a lot more when your neck is twisted and cranked to one side.  And I felt like he ‘did it all’ to my neck and throat!  I reckon I’ve seen him choke unconscious maybe a dozen or more blokes and one was over twenty stone and about 6ft 4.  It’s a strange sight seeing a 5ft 9 bouncer holding up a large unconscious guy, arm around his neck with the bloke’s chin resting on it!

Going back to my comment ‘in-between fight’ just means that.  My mate that did the brilliant headlock, even when angry, never killed anybody by choking them to death.  Now I would like to point out that ‘bouncing’ in night clubs ain’t all about fighting.   When you turn someone away sometimes you’ll get nervous – like when you’re not letting a nasty person or a group of nasty thugs in, but most times turning people away ain’t much of a problem. 

Occasionally someone decent gets mouthy with us.  That’s something that all bouncers learn to put up with.  It might be that we’ve ruined their evening over a pair of fashionable Timberland boots because of the club’s ‘No Boots Allowed’ rule.  It’s understandable but the rules are not there just to hassle decent people.  I understood why some people were upset with me, so I use to put up with the abuse.  But I agreed with the rule and used it to stop the odd drunks with horrible attitudes, muddy boots and dirty jeans getting into the night club.  After they’ve been turned away they would then hang around by the doors to see if you let someone in wearing boots.  And if you did break the ‘Dress Code’ letting someone decent in, straight away the thugs would be on you dishing out a load of abuse!  Steel toe caps boots worn by nice people ain’t a problem but it becomes one when someone’s getting the mothers kicked out of them by a couple of thugs.  Communication, being able to talk to someone and not let them in, as well as, not getting them wound up, even if they are aggressive, is a very important skill. 

Very few fights are ‘life and death’ events because if they were we would be looking here in UK, at thousands of killings per year.  Virtually everyone in a civilised society behaves within boundaries and the very few that don’t, will spend there time plotting and tricking victims not fighting them!  The un-written rules in our make-up mean that when we get upset it’s not usual that we start plotting to murder the person that’s upset us!  So often when I was working there was no need for me when grabbing hold or even hitting someone to believe that I was involved in a life and death situation and my emotions told me that.  There are different levels of response and these levels are ‘intuitive survival strategies’ that are with us all of our lives.  These are based on our upbringing, our culture, our history and the fact we are human.

SR in the last article you had mentioned this when you said and I quote:

‘I know a number of doormen that have worked the doors longer than me and they couldn’t 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!  Throughout our upbringing we devise methods and strategies for survival, sometimes it’s just agreeing with a would-be attacker or diverting their attention, either way it’s a strategy for survival that can work without having to use martial arts.’

DJ Yes that’s what I mean but just to expand a little, last month I also said: ‘…it would be no good getting a gentle character and teaching him techniques and strategies that he wouldn’t be prepared to do.  We have to learn to go beyond just a standard technical response…’

We martial artists talk a lot about mindset and spend a lot of time looking into that area.  But we must be careful because it ain’t all about that because if it is, then forget the training and use a weapon instead it’s far more effective!  You know it is easy, the first thing you do is sear your conscience and…

SR Now I’m sure a few readers are confused so are you saying ‘don’t train just use a weapon’.

DJ No I’m not saying that, what I am saying is this.  Let’s for the moment forget about ‘systems’ that might or might not be effective.  If as a martial artist you spend all your time, shaping your mind to be aggressive and brainwashing yourself to have only one response to all levels of aggression aimed at you, I feel you would be going against your inner-self.  It’s not natural.  We all might have murderous thoughts but for most of us that’s where they remain.  Now I remember over 30 years ago reading Master Shigeru Egami’s book ‘The Way of Karate-Beyond Technique.’  On page 15 and I quote: “There is no offense in karate’ are words that I heard Master Funakoshi speak more than forty years ago…He also use to say that  “ you should never raise your hand against your opponent first.  Only when it becomes absolutely necessary should you raise your hand.  And even then, your intention should not be to kill or injure your opponent but only to block his attack.  If he continues, then you should take a stance that will clearly show that it would be best for him to stop.”’

What does that mean?  Well at the time I thought it was all about Funakoshi’s religion and Buddhist compassion but after decades on the door I think it’s more pragmatic than that. And I think it is as simple as this:

Survival strategy is based on cooperation and often people look to the animal world for examples of aggression and many animals settle conflicts without a fight and many people make it through life without fighting.

SR ‘Karate Ni Sentenashi’ in a different light..

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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