A Philosophy of the Fist The Making of “Cross Training in the Martial Arts 2: The Anatomy of Hand Strikes”
By Jamie Clubb
Smashed windows, upturned metal barrels and an icy cold wind provided the miserable atmosphere of urban decay that surrounded the huddled circle of men. Seven of the UK’s most unorthodox martial arts instructors and their intrepid interviewer, me, stood surveying the wreckage. The carnage around them, situated behind the newly renovated Bridgewater Bushi Karate Dojo, could easily have been featured in any Guy Ritchie gangster movie and the instructors’ collective experience was enough to argue the case for a British version of the Seven Samurai.
“Right, we’ll have Iain jumping through that window into a dive roll” boomed the voice of Core Combatives founder Mick Coup. A burst of laughter emanated from the other six instructors, their interviewer and the Summersdale Productions crew. The shoot, of course, was not going to be for a violent action thriller, but form the opening titles for the next instalment of my Cross Training in the Martial Arts series. Things had been exciting before. This time, however, it really was a case where the old cliché “history in the making” could be aptly applied.
Under the guidance of the entrepreneurial director of Summersdale Productions, Nick Atkinson, a low-key seminar had been arranged for seven of the UK’s most experienced and respected martial arts instructors to teach and provide the main footage for “Cross Training in the Martial Arts 2: The Anatomy of Hand Strikes”. Only a few years back most people in the martial arts industry would have considered such a meeting to be nigh on impossible unless serious money was being laid on the table. Bob Sykes had told me that once the martial arts journalist and now regular Hong Kong movie correspondent Bey Logan had attempted to do it, but the politically and chauvinistically charged atmosphere of the time had made the whole idea become such a headache that it was eventually abandoned. However, now events had conspired to help both Nick and I to make this implausible idea a reality. Through our selected group of instructors we found a history of how the famously closed doors of martial arts gyms had been flung open and how a relentless spirit of individuality had cut through the politics.
The martial arts world had changed dramatically since then and in only a few years more gyms had begun opening their doors to instructors from other styles. Students were exposed to more material than ever before. Some empowered themselves by refusing to be shackled by the cultish behaviour of some instructors who forbade them to train in other systems. Geoff Thompson and Peter Consterdine, a well-respected traditional Karateka, had given the world of “white suits” a real shock in the 1990s and prompted my generation of martial artists – a generation known for its scepticism – to challenge the corporate martial arts industry’s attitude to self-defence.