The May Seminar with Chief Instructor Steve Rowe will be held on Sunday 20th May 2012 11am – 2pm at the Shi Kon Martial Arts Centre, Chatham Hill,  Chatham Kent ME5 7BB.  Costs are  £20 for Dojo members £30 for everyone else.  Casual sportswear to be worn and training is barefoot.  The Seminar is suitable for any adult, any grade and any martial art.

The seminar will cover how the ‘health’ Shi Kon Principles are subtly applied in Martial Arts meditation, neigong and qigong training and how they are ‘layered’ in the Shi Kon training system and highly effective for mindset, mental and physical health and psychic self defence.  

The Seminar is open to anyone from any art, style and any grade.

“If you want to learn how to fight, don’t study kata.  The only way to learn how to fight is to engage in the ‘real’ thing.”  

This opinion is often expressed by those who hold Karate in low regard.  Their opinion is often formed from movies, online videos, or some out of context training. The statement is as naïve as thinking that a boxer goes into a ring to fight with his skipping rope.

You could say that a martial artist is not a ‘fighter’ as ‘fight’ intimates a struggle between two people, a martial artist is a ‘peacekeeper’.  His function is to re-establish a peaceful environment through long and arduous training.

Peace is earned, if your mind and emotions are weak, you are more likely to cause violence or respond negatively to it.  People that have to respond to violence on a regular basis such as police officers and security personnel are taught to remain calm and to deal with a situation ‘appropriately’ to re-establish and keep the ‘Queens Peace’ and a martial artist’s response should be the same.

The problem with people that constantly create ‘aggressive and violent situations’ in which to train is that they are still not ‘real’ – you know it’s your mate acting, and if anything engenders fear of the ‘real’ thing, and makes people neurotic by focusing solely on ‘reality based’ training.

This interview was published in July 2006

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

SR  Hi Dennis, I see you’ve been causing a lot of controversy over the past few months, letters from people both supporting your views and complaining about them flooding into the magazine.  How do you feel about this?

DJ  It’s never been my desire to hurt anyone’s feelings, that’s not what the articles were about.  I think it’s important that I’m able to put my personal fighting experience before the readers.

SR  I think you’ve certainly managed that!  I think it’s also important for the readers to think about your views because they have been borne out of direct experience.

DJ  People will train the best way that they see fit, and to be honest that’s no concern of mine, what is my concern is the instructors that advertise themselves as the ‘best self defence’ or sell their club through ‘self defence consultants’ and are unable to substantiate their claims.

SR  But they’ll carry on doing so anyway and continue with the same old arguments…

DJ  Martial artists are always arguing, look at the theories on the most effective way to punch, the first two knuckles or the bottom three, horizontal or vertical fist, it goes on and on.

SR  What are your views?

DJ  I’ve always seen it quite simply, follow the principles of human mechanics, train hitting a punch bag, do fight drills that mimic human behaviour and then apply it!  I realise that most people don’t want to fight in a mixed martial arts bout, and they certainly don’t want a street fight.  Now that doesn’t mean that they’re cowards, just sensible! What is important is that the fighting drills must be realistic but without real pain and serious injury. That will help to prepare decent people for self defence, giving them the appropriate skills.  In my case, because of the work I was doing, I was able to not only analyse the effects of techniques but also the way that people behave when they’re under pressure and suffering from pain and exhaustion (both mental and physical).  I’d like to add that I’m not the only one, there are plenty of others around with my kind of experience…

SR  Not that many Dennis..