8th IINTERNATIONAL COMBATIVES SEMINAR
by
Nick EngelenHolding the focus mitts I looked on feeling sorry for the participant because of what the instructor, Si Porter, put him through. Push ups, reverse crunches, bastards and a whole set of other exercises... this following an exhausting outdoor sprinting session led by Dave McCutcheon The participant’s face showed a mix of exhaustion and determination, and the worst had yet to come. Yep this year’s attendants of the international got a nice surprise waiting for them during the scenario drill concluding the seminar.
[Adam shows superb form doing "bastards" during the pre-fight beasting]The seminar was held in the Prescot Leisure centre in Prescot Merseyside on 4 and 5 September 2010. I had travelled to Liverpool the day before. As I was still recovering from a surgery for appendicitis I took my time moving with the luggage through the terminals towards the train station. After one changeover I arrived at Rainhill train station where after I entered the Chinese takeaway to ask if they could call a taxi for me. At the counter were two young girls. Their first response to my request was if I was having food. I replied no to which they told me about a taxi stand nearby. I inquired about where exactly the taxi stand was and suddenly one of the girls changed her mind and phoned a taxi for me. I am still grateful. Arriving at the hotel I paid the driver and decided to walk through the pub to see if anyone I knew was in. Seeing nobody I knew in the drinking area I moved on to the reception. After checking in and dropping my bags in my room I went back in to the pub to have a meal. Coming in through another door into the restaurant area I saw some familiar faces; Chris and Dave and a new face, one of their friends from London. Soon after that Ola from Sweden came in with a friend of his and a while later Slackbladder popped up. I had booked a table and Slacky and I had a nice conversation over a meal. After the meal and a nice ice-cream we joined the others in the bar to have some drinks where we were joined by Denis and Dave from Scotland. Lots of stories were shared and we had some fun together over a couple of drinks before going to bed.
Next morning after breakfast I joined the guys for a walk to a local shop for buying some lunch and water. I thought the shop was closer but if we had taken our training bags with us we would have been halfway. After returning to the hotel we travelled to the Prescot Leisure centre.
Inside the venue there was an air of excitement. I was happy to see a lot of familiar faces, friends I hadn’t seen for a long time and some new faces. One instructor, Shackleton, got my attention... he was wearing a strange kind of shoes making him look like a hobbit. A bit later Den and Simon Squires came in together with a friendly looking man who was introduced to me as Alf Hopkins. After saying hello to all my friends and catching up during chats the admin was done.
After everyone had paid, the course started.
Den started an introduction explaining that the first international was very much oriented towards the anaerobic training and the various strikes but as these days we all were training in this way the international of this year would be information based. As many of today’s opponents are into MMA and grappling there is a need for us to have a decent knowledge in this field.
JUDO
After this introduction Simon Squires introduced us to his judo instructor Alf.
[Sensei Alf Hopkins]Simon explained that Alf started judo in 1943 and got his dan grade in 1951 - the year Kimura fought Helio Gracie. He was trained by Alf Billings and has trained with Koizumi, Abe and Otani...
Fairbairn started studying Jiujutsu and judo after waking up in hospital and seeing an advert by a local bonesetter and jiujutsu instructor. It’s not sure how much Fairbairn was influenced by studying judo and jiujutsu when he developed his system. As the importance of grappling skills for the streets increases Simon invited Alf to fine-tune our grappling skills. After this introduction Simon took us through a warm-up.
With everyone a bit sweaty and breathing heavily, Alf introduced us to the concept of kuzushi or unbalancing.
[Kuzushi concept training Alf explained that posture is very important and that for throwing an opponent you must first break his posture. Alf showed us various ways of breaking our partners postures, first standing with wrist grabs, thereafter during groundwork using the same principles. He did this by positioning and using the entire body.
[Alf shows an Armbar on Si]It was great to see a master like Alf at work, how comfortable he is on the floor even when on his back where most fighters hate to be and the feeling and timing he showed during his entire game would motivate everyone to pick up judo again and train hard in this system. Some of the techniques that Sensei showed had resemblance with aikido techniques. I was quite happy as this showed my traditional training was also useful in this arena.
INTENSITY
Next Dave McCutcheon and Denis McGee from Scotland took us through various drills involving hitting the pads to practice the various strikes and combinations. The theme was rapid combinations, and intensity.
[Denis and Dave explain a drill]
[
Adam on pads with Chris]After this tiring workout Den discussed kit, showing a couple of items that were new since last year. We then got handed over to Shackleton, well known on this forum for his very detailed posts, and Paddy Phillips, who is an Osteopath, specializing in sports injuries. Shackleton spoke about barefoot running and how it forces us to run correctly sparing our joints. Now I knew what the hobbit feet or ‘Vibram fivefingers classic’ shoes are for. I as well as some others I spoke to afterwards decided to give it a go.
[Shackleton demonstrates one of the Critical ten exercises]
[Paddy Phillips]FUNCTIONAL TRAINING
After this Paddy and Shackleton did a module on correct physiology. Shackleton explained that the point of fitness training is to get everything working the way it’s supposed to. He said we should practise what we want to be good at, this also means we want to be good at doing things the correct way and making sure everything functions correctly.
[Dave working on a position]To illustrate this Paddy asked a volunteer to stack two empty coke cans. I walked up there and after a look I saw the cans were bent, making it impossible to stack them so I first corrected them. Seems although I did the right thing they didn’t expect me to first correct the cans. So the point Paddy wanted to bring across was that we should first correct the dysfunction. To do this 10 exercises were developed named the “critical ten”. Shackleton took us through all these exercises, some easy to do, others quite hard.
[Shackleton demonstrates the "Blackburns"] This module finished our first day and after a quick change at the hotel we went to Chinatown for a meal. The food was delicious the conversations informative and funny, we had a great time where after we went back to the hotel. Shackleton was so kind to drive us back to the hotel. One of us had to go into the boot and my merciless training partners decided it had to be me despite me still recovering from my surgery. After one more beer in the hotel pub while watching a boxing match on the TV we all went to bed.
Next day after a good English breakfast we moved to Prescott Leisure centre for day two.
DAY TWO
This day kicked off with a presentation by Den about the essential concepts and principles of CQB. Den explained that during a physical confrontation we had to utilize Speed, Aggression and Surprise. After explaining these concepts in the CQB context we had a look at Fairbairn’s concepts and the CQB concepts.
[Den]
LESSONS FROM THE SUIT
After this we got an outstanding presentation by Simon Squires about how he started the padded assailant stuff and how it developed over the years. We were shown many pictures and video clips in which we could recognise some of us.
[Si in the latest evolution of the suit]COMBATIVE NUTRITION
Next came a very informative presentation by Iain Davies who teaches Nutrition in the University. The presentation was about specific nutrition for combatives. During this presentation Iain explained topics like metabolism, power, hydration and intuitive eating as well as how and what we should eat for an event like the international. I hope the English breakfast is still ok.
[Ian practicing what he preaches; plenty of hydration]After these presentations it was time to get physical again and we were taken through a warm-up by Steve Callaghan, an instructor who trains with Si and Den
THROWING THE SWITCH
From here Tony Da Costa from the Gutterfighters took us through various drills starting with a simple fend drill and ending with a drill facing multiple opponents.
[Tony demontrates with Steve]
[A group working on the crowd drill]GET OFF THE ‘X’
Coincidently this connected very well with the next module, ‘Getting of the X’ by Denis and Dave from Scotland. Denis explained that when an opponent attacks moving of the X means that the opponent has to re-orientate. This action broke his OODA loop and bought you some time.
[Superb sequence of Dave showing a kneestrike application on Si] I think it was in way of the dragon that Bruce lee said that the art of self-defence is about not being where the attack is. After this introduction Dave took us through various drills against multiple opponents ending in the by Sykes devised drill known as the SOE drill. This module reminded me of training at the BCA’s residential course where I was training with a guy who had been a boxer. Every time I attacked he moved forward with his cover. This forced me to correct and made attacking effectively very hard forcing me on the back foot.
[The lads go through the SOE Drill]STREET REALITY
After this Simon Squires took us through a module about some tactics and strategies for prevailing against the suit. Various techniques were shown about defeating the guillotine and defence from the floor as well as what to do when the opponent was on the floor and defending himself with his feet.
[Steve C and Dave during ground fighting training drills]SCENARIO DRILL
This all led into the final scenario drill.
[
Slacky goes through the pre-fight phys]
[The adrenaline builds up]
[A surprise fall to break his OODA Loop]
[The ground fight is on] As I couldn’t do it I volunteered for helping out as a pad-man. Seeing the set up of the scenario I was glad that I wasn’t doing the drill. Soon the first “victim” came in, to experience a beasting under the relentless Si Porter I felt sorry especially as I knew what was going to come. One by one they came in and I saw some great performances of the guys. Instructors, assailants and attendants did a very good job.
"
Commando crawls.....because I love 'em!"]
[Ola on the ground]
[Ola has fought to his feet, and is finishing the fight]After all attendants went through the drill we all formed a circle to do some positive self talk under guidance of Den. This concluded the 8th International, some of us had to leave saying goodbye to us while the rest went for a Chinese meal in the Chinese restaurant Chung Ku in town. The food was delicious, the tea was great and the waitresses looked gorgeous.
Next morning I went to the restaurant and enjoyed a chat over breakfast with the Norwegians Ola and his friend, Dave, Chris and their friend from London and Slacky. After packing and checking out Slacky and I made our way to the train station for catching a train to Liverpool city centre to meet Den for a coffee. At the station Slacky and I had some nice chat about the seminar and various other subjects like his adventures during his first travels to Liverpool. When Den arrived we went into a second hand bookshop where they had lots of true gems. I ever saw a book titled ‘the barefoot soldier’ which reminded me of Shackleton. After Slacky and Den bought we moved to a local shopping centre to meet Tommy McNally. There we drank coffee while Tommy and Den told us stories about wrestlers and boxers over some coffee till it was time for me to catch a train to the airport.
Jealous of Slacky’s travel adventures I managed to miss the train and having to take a later one I arrived quite late at the airport. On the way in two days before I had to rest every 200 metres because of the heavy luggage, now I had to race trough the various terminals and connecting skywalks to terminal 3. Getting there completely out of breath the checking desk was closed and the Brussels airlines desk was nobody there. I waited there for a while as maybe they went to the toilet but after asking I was told to walk over to the British airways desk. Arriving there I was told to go back as there was someone there now. So I walked while carrying my luggage that was becoming heavy by now all the way back. Arriving there I saw a young good looking lady sitting behind the desk. Out of breath I explained to her what had happened and she checked for another flight. It turned out I would have to wait till next day for the next flight. She checked for the cheapest one and gave me a good price. Not being as adventurous as Slacky the thought of spending a night in an airport terminal didn’t seem very appealing and I wasn’t sure about how the Tom Hanks character in the movie ‘Terminal managed’ so I inquired about hotels. She kindly helped me out with advice about hotels. In between I contacted my family who were going to collect me at the airport and informed them about what happened. After that I walked to the hotel in which I hoped most of the stewardesses were staying. Turned out I picked the wrong hotel for that but the food and beer were great. Next morning I made sure I was early at the airport and after going through security I nipped into the bookshop. While looking through the nonfiction sections I came across Den’s book. After that I had a nice breakfast and a coffee where after I went on my flight home.
The End
By
Nick Engelen
----------------
Photos by
Ian Davies
Dennis Martin
Steve Callaghan
Si Squires
Subject: 8th International Combatives Seminr: AAR 
Sat 04 Sep 2010, 17:14
