Tenth International Combatives Seminar AAR

I was standing on the train from Stafford to Liverpool Lime street. The second class carriage was full and to the other side was first class. I had been reasoning that there would come some space when the train would pull in the next station and some people would get off. However it started to look like the train would drive in one go to Liverpool. I looked at the ticket the lady printed out for me in Birmingham. It showed that the ride would be about an hour. I felt very tired and a mild motion sickness came up. I didn’t have that for years, I guess it was a result of being exhausted form the grading earlier that day. It was Saturday 1 September 2012 around 19.00 and the first day of the 10th International Combatives seminar in Liverpool. Organised for the first time in 2002 it’s a yearly event during which Dennis Martin leads a team of guest instructors through a program of hard, but enjoyable, self-protection training. I missed that day’s training as it was on the same day as the grading on Geoff’s black belt course.
I had arrived the day before at Birmingham airport from where I went to Coventry. The grading took place at the AT 7 sport centre that morning. [Details of the grading event here

This brings us back to me standing on the train. I checked my cell phone to see the time and saw Den replied my message in which I told him the result of the grading. I texted Den that I would arrive at 20.25. Standing there waiting for the train to pull in a station so I could take a seat; the feeling of being nauseous became stronger. I thought to myself fuck it I have paid 35GBP so I will sit down. I moved into first class and moved on to see if there was another 2nd class carriage. The next carriage was first class again so I just sat down. I stayed there till we approached Liverpool then moved back towards the front of the train.

As I was quite tired and the luggage was heavy I decided to take a taxi to the Chinese restaurant; the New China which is opposite the Shangai Gate. A nice couple pointed out to me where the taxistand was and I walked up there. Five minutes later the taxi dropped me off in front of the restaurant. I felt excited as I looked forward to see my friends. At the same time a bit embarrassed as many knew I had tried the grading and I would have to tell them I failed. I walked up the stairs and scanned the room walking towards the big group of people. A head went up and I recognised Slacky. I dumped my bag into a corner and said hello to the guys while the waiter gave me a chair and a cup of tea. I planned to get up and walk to Den but Den was already with me. Soon Si also came to say hello and he said he would have a look at what we could do about my grappling to help me succeed next time.
The meal was good, the tea was great the only thing I was missing were waitresses as the staff was all male…



Slacky and I discussed the o-o-d-a loop and I gave him a print out of my communication with Chet Richards, one of Boyd’s acolytes.





After the meal I hopped in the car with Shackleton, Den, Jim C and Slacky. Arriving at the hotel they went all to bed. Feeling still dehydrated I asked about the closing time of the bar during check in. I went to my room which was a fair walk considering I was knackered and had a heavy luggage. I dropped of my bags and went downstairs to the bar. I saw no familiar faces inside and all the people present seemed to know each other. I ordered a sparkling water to rehydrate from the hard day. I was in my bed around 24.00. My socks showed bloodstains as my feet had been skinned and the pressure and friction of the shoes kept it bleeding. That night I slept like a baby.

Next morning stepping out of bed my leg hurt like hell when putting weight on it. I started to wonder how on earth I had been able to get from Coventry to Liverpool. I washed up and went downstairs where I met up at first with Jim C for breakfast and was soon joined by Alan Becket, Slackbladder and later Dave, Chris and Adam from London.
After breakfast I packed my bag and moved downstairs to reception to be met by Jim and a bit later Slacky who drove Jim, Denis McGee me and Alan to the venue. The ride took only five minutes. Upstairs I was greeted by Sue the owner of the place. She recognized me after a year which surprised me and she asked how the grading went. I explained that I had to redo it. Inside the venue was an air of excitement. I saw many familiar faces and also one or two new faces. I was the only foreigner but after 10 years of attending the courses I think most of the Brits see me as one of theirs. After paying and saying hello to everyone Den took me and Si aside for a picture of the three of us as we are the only people who attended all 10 internationals. For the occasion Si had made a nice wall poster for Den. People showed stuff like Jim brought some knives and I brought some books. Jim quickly briefed me on the tactical medical stuff as I would have to use it later on.

Around 11.00 the day started with a presentation by Slacky. It was about Boyd’s O-O-D-A loop. He explained that most of his presentation came from Boyd’s article ‘destruction and creation’.



Although I have been looking into Boyd’s concepts for about some time myself it was great to see someone else’s take on things which gave me new insights. The presentation was great as Slacky can transfer his enthusiasm to his audience. During a break Si took me apart and told me that the lecture room would be free after Slacky’s presentation so we could have a grappling session in there to help me with my regrading.



After the break Slacky’s presentation continued and ended much faster than Boyd’s on notorious briefings.
[More on Slacky's OODA Loop presentation here]

This led us into a session with Shackleton who had done a session on tactical medicine the day before and was doing a follow-on today. We played out a scenario of a road accident in a rural area. My role was to call the ambulance and ensuring an airway for the victim. Having missed the previous day’s training brought its own interesting problems as it made implicit communication impossible.



After my group went through the scenario Si and I went into the backroom for some judo. Here he showed me some tricks and tips which I wish I had known the day before. His knowledge about the subject is very deep and I recommend everyone with interest in grappling to seek him out.
Coming back into the main room the guys were having a break.

The training resumed with Slacky reviewing and continuing the Dynamic Intervention module from the day before. I was surprised it wasn’t pain compliance based as I had a mental image of JiuJitsu joint locks.


The background of the techniques shown seemed to be Greco-Roman wrestling. Again Slacky presented a superb module and managed to affect everyone with his enthusiasm.



Time was running short, so Den binned his planned presentation, and instead showed a Rapid Takedown, based on the Chinjab, which he had picked up when teaching in Scandinavia.



This led into a module on Combat Judo presented by Si, it was great to see some of the concepts he taught me in the lecture room coming back. This allowed me to practice, apply and gain a deeper understanding of the material now.



I thought I was doing well considering having done the grading fighting 16 grappling bouts the day before. A gentle tap of my training partner on the inside of my leg did hurt like hell.





After Si explained the scenario against the suit Si showed one more drill, a sumo like match only difference was we started from the knees. There were circles on the mat and we had to push the other guy out. On a certain moment I was pushed over and bulldozered over with my partner’s knee right on top of my already tender ankle. I got up to continue when I was saved by the bell and my partner was called to fight in another circle. This last match concluded the teaching part of the seminar.





All what was left was the cherry on the cake in the form of the fight against the suit. Assuming we were waiting outside I took my coat and shoes but then we waited upstairs. I knew I had to go second as Si wanted me while he was fresh. Shackleton started to warm up. Soon he went in, a lot of noise then it went silent. I was the next one to go in. Shackleton looked at me and said: ‘Get focused, get that smile from your face and get focused.’ He took me to edge of the circle where Si was waiting.


[Si did the first few fights, then handed over to Steve]

Shackleton told me that he would walk me to the padman where I would touch heads with the padman would touch head. Once the padman initiated the fight was on and I was going to destroy him. After making sure I had understood we walked to the padman who whacked me in the head as soon as I was in range. From that moment on everything turned into a blur until Steve and Shackleton ended the exercise. I scanned around me for more threats and asked Shackleton what was coming next. He smiled and said the exercise was over. I hugged Si where after he started to undo the suit to get Steve in. Watching all the others going through the scenario and seeing them change the scenario and keeping the surprise and initiative was nice. Usually I am one of the last people to go in. Adam showed me my fight which he had filmed. I was quite satisfied to have a win this weekend.

That concluded the seminar for most of us. After getting our stuff together and in the car we all took off to the Chung Ku restaurant on the River. Here they had waitresses which made me smile all evening. The food was great and the tea was delicious. Great food and drinks and a great company to share it with. The bill came and the girl at the desk came to collect the payment. The first thing I asked Den after she went off was if it was a Chinese takeaway restaurant. Den said no. I wasn’t referring to the food here.

Slacky and Den dropped me off at the hotel where I said bye to Slacky who was driving back to Coventry that night and Den.

The bar was as good as closed so I walked up to my room where I phoned home to inform my family how it went. After that I went to bed.

Next morning I went for breakfast were I had nice chats with Jim C and the London lads. They gave advice on how to prepare for the regrading.

After breakfast I walked upstairs with the guys where we said goodbye. In my room I packed everything, went downstairs and checked out. I took a taxi and after a good ride and a nice chat with the driver I was standing at Liverpool Lime street station to meet up with Den for a coffee. The first thing I did was getting a train ticket to the airport and some information about the fares. Thereafter I went into the bookshop where I saw the book ‘How to teach physics to your dog’, which reminded me of Slacky’s lecture. I smiled and looked through the other books and magazines.
I walked out of the shop and went for a coffee. I took a normal coffee and walked outside to sit at a table which gave a good overview of the station. A bit later I looked in the direction Den was usually coming from, looked back at my coffee looked back up again to see Den standing in front of me. After Den quickly visited Boots we had a chat while I finished my coffee and then moved off to Waterstones bookshop where we had a coffee. From there we walked to a place where Tom Mac met us. The weather was beautiful and warm in contrast to the cold from the day I arrived in Birmingham. After a quick chat we walked back to the station where Den helped me to find my train to Manchester. Without his help I would probably still be standing there trying to make sense out of the chaos or entropy on the screens. After saying bye I went to the platform where there was a train waiting to leave for Manchester airport. I took this earlier one.
Arriving at the airport and not knowing which terminal I had to go to I went into the nearby Radisson hotel. I walked into the restaurant to be greeted by a nice and good-looking dark-haired tall lady. While she showed me a place to sit; I asked if she was French, she smiled and said: ‘No why?’ I replied that she sounded French a bit, she said she was from Spain. I said that was close to France to which she smiled. Sitting there another, Eastern European looking lady took my order. I ordered a pizza and a coffee. Running out of time I paid, walked off and tried to find my flight on the screen at reception. One of the receptionist called me over and they helped me to find out what terminal KLM was flying from. It was terminal 3. I thanked them and walked on, on my way out I saw that an Asian lady was working at the reception at the other end from where I was standing. I walked over to terminal 3 and checked in. When checking in the bag it appeared they changed some procedures in Manchester airport, not for the better… As my bag was a soft bag I needed to hand it over to Baggage inspection… as it might get damaged… From there I went to security which also was a long queue. Soon after going through security it was time to board and I went to the appropriate gate. About an hour later we landed in Amsterdam.. I went through passport control and checked the screens to see where my luggage would be. I walked to the appropriate conveyer belt and waited. I saw a lady in a long dress pass by and go to the train ticket machine. I walked around to have a better look. While standing there waiting for my luggage I noticed that the lady came standing next to me. I started talking to her, she said she was from Dublin and waiting for her luggage while the screen said all baggage was on the conveyer belt. I pointed out to her that there was a service desk but she said would wait. I started to wonder where my bag was so I walked up to the desk to ask. There they told me to wait for 15 minutes then come back and they would fill a report. I was like why not fill the report now and destroy it if it turns up. A bit later the luggage still didn’t turn up and I was getting worried about not having a train if this was taking too long. The 15 minutes were over I looked at the service desk and saw a long queue as the Dublin passengers were waiting there now. I joined the cue and as soon as I had filled the form I raced off towards the station to get a ticket and travel info. .

The train took me to Eindhoven and about half an hour later I was finally home…

This concluded a great trip and a great weekend with fantastic instructors, fantastic training and a wonderful group of people to share it with.

The End

By

Nick Engelen