The seminar was held in the Prescot Leisure centre in Prescot Merseyside on the 30th and 31st of August 2008.
I had travelled to Liverpool on Friday the 29th. After a long trip I finally arrived in the hotel where I, after I had checked in, found John Brawn from Ireland, Anders from Sweden and Slackbladder round a table. A quick search around in the pub turned out that more of my friends like Dave and Den from Scotland were scattered around the pub. We soon organized ourselves together with some nice drinks.
SATURDAY PROGRAM
Next morning after breakfast we travelled to the Prescot Leisure centre. Inside the venue was an air of excitement. I hadn’t see most of these people since the last international and I was happy to see them again after such a long time. I was also pleased to see some new faces. Immediately after arriving and saying hello to each other people started to swap and share stuff like copies of books and DVD’s etc… It’s always nice to look at such a bunch of merry people having a great time.
After everyone had paid and the equipment was set-up the seminar started.
The seminar kicked off with an intro by Den.
This year it was the 6th international with people coming from all over Europe from countries like Ireland, Sweden, Italy, Scotland, and England of course and I came from Belgium.
Most of us turned out to be veterans of the international seminars with only two people that did all five and two that were there for the first time.
TRAINING THE MINDSET
Den proceeded with an audiovisual presentation about the practical aspects of training the mindset.
[Den during his Powerpoint presentation] For everything we do we need to get into the right frame of mind first. This also goes for being able to defend ourselves. Den explained Cooper’s colour-code and Boyd’s OODA loop and explained how it fits together.
Den told us that this information was going to be important and would come back in the scenario drill at the end of the course.
PHYSICAL TRAINING
After sitting for so long we went into the physical side of thing with a warm up by the Gutterfighters.
Now we were warmed up Tony Da Costa took us through the 360 degrees drill.
[Tony Da Costa introduces the 360 Drill]
[Denis McGee during the 360 drill]EMBUGGERANCE TRAINING
Next guest instructor was James Fatwing who presented several “Embuggerance drills”. We had to perform drills while being restricted in our walking, vision and breathing.
[James introduces some "embuggerance"] The drills had in mind to teach us to keep going no matter what restrictions we had like a busted ankle, sprained wrist, a bad cold or being sprayed with teargas.
[James during his "resi-drill"]After this interesting morning we had a short lunch break in which we could eat, rehydrate and cool down as the room’s temperature and humidity was high.
COMBATIVE CONDITIONING
Fed and rested we were ready for John Brawn’s module on Combative Conditioning and the use of equipment. John Brawn is Ireland’s leading self-protection instructor and is known for his physical conditioning with the use of kettle bells.
[John Brawn shows the roller] John explained a lot about how to improve flexibility with simple tools like a golf ball. He also explained various drills about how to improve strength with the use of elastic bands. In between the demonstrations he also showed us some very nice doorman tricks which we could practice. Some involved pressure points which were fun to do.
[John demonstrates pain compliance on Si]CLOSE-IN FIGHTING
This was followed up with a module by Phil W. on car crash combatives. Like a car crash a fight is most of the time unplanned, confusing and disorienting.
[Phil introduces his close-quarter module] We did several drills involving clinch work, knives, etc… The drills were very fun to do and a real eye-opener.
NEURAL BASED TRAINING
On 2005’s International we had the pleasure to meet and train with Marcus Wynne who is a leading person in the field of Neural based instruction. After that cracking seminar many people showed interest in Neural Based learning. To meet this interest Tony Da Costa and Iain Davies presented a very interesting module on NLP skills for combatives. The module went into accessing and anchoring an aggressive state involving a series of visualization exercises and drills on the pads. Den who overviewed the module as an onlooker said afterwards that he was very impressed by the results and told us that at the end the aggression went out of the roof.
[Giles whaling away during the Neural-based application]THROWS
This brought us into combat throws presented by Simon Squires who has a background in many martial arts including judo. Often people try to do a judo sweep or other throw on a person who is standing as strong as a rock. This of course will not work and also will throw you off balance yourself. He then showed us some throws and how to do them properly after bringing the opponent out of balance.
[Phil throws Si]After this hard day of training we stretched ourselves as we wanted to be able to train next day without walking around like 80 year old grandpas too much.
This concluded a very good first day’s training session.
POST TRAINING SCOFF
We followed tradition by going for an after training scoff at one of Den’s favourite Chinese restaurants. The food was good, the Chinese beer tasted great, the waitresses looked gorgeous and I had good conversations with a great bunch of people.
The way to and from the scoff was also great, never knew a conversation with a taxi driver could be so interesting.
Back at the hotel we had a couple of drinks before retreating for the night.
This was a very nice way to conclude day one of a great weekend.
SUNDAY PROGRAM
KNIFE FIGHTING
On Sunday morning the seminar started with a presentation about Combative Knife work by our Italian friend and guest instructor Carlo.
[Carlo demonstrates on Denis Mc]After a very interesting audiovisual presentation Carlo took us through some drills to get familiarized with the angles where after we practiced some sequences on how to use the blade on a not cooperating opponent.
PREVENTING INJURY
Next presentation was by Paddy Philips, an osteopath and physiotherapist who has treated lots of professional athletes [including Terry O’Neill] for their sports injuries. Paddy explained about how a problem in the lower back can cause more problems elsewhere in the body as you try to relieve the pain. Paddy explained that being well balanced costs the least energy while having a little imbalance causes the body to compensate, straining certain muscle groups which cause pain as a result.
[Paddy explains how to prevent/remedy injuries on Si]In between explanations and demonstrations Paddy took us trough a range of exercises to stretch calf muscles as well as shoulders.
[The class try an exercise under the supervision of Paddy]Paddy also took us through an NLP exercise called the circle of excellence in which we anchored a desired state. For me it was aggression as I knew it would be handy at the end of the day.
One of the final exercises that Paddy showed us was a core strengthening exercise. This connected well with the next module about core stability by Dennis Martin himself. In this module Den showed us various exercises like “the plank” and “Extended push ups” which was very hard to perform.
Then it was time for the more physical side of things and Den took us through a warm-up exercise called the “Foreign Legion drill” which was inspired by a documentary movie.
[Ben during the Foreign Legion drill] The drill consists out of doing various exercises like push-ups, tumbles, running and jumping on the spot while at the same time striking the pads when they were presented.
COMBATIVE STRENGTH TRAINING
This took us into a module on Combative conditioning with equipment by Larry. Larry demonstrated various drills with medicine balls and sandbags. This lead into a drill we had to thank Alan Becket for.
[Larry discusses medicine ball training]DIRTY JUDO
Now we were sweating and having our heart rates up we got a cracking module on grappling presented by Dave and Denis from Scotland.
[Denis demonstrates on Dave] The room was hot already and wearing a gi top was making it even more uncomfortable. The drills were about escaping headlocks, pins and strangleholds.
[Dave shows dirty fighting on Denis]HIGH-STRESS SCENARIO
[Si briefing the group]All this cumulated into the last drill which was as always the cherry on the ice cake. While waiting on the corridor, preparing ourselves mentally, Tony Da Costa and Iain Davies came to help us getting into the right state.
[A superb example of forward drive from Wolfie] Waiting in the corridor for my turn to come seemed like hours. I was relieved when it was my turn. I stepped into the room and scanned around while I ran to the DS who put me trough a series of anaerobic exercises till the man in the F.I.S.T. suit attacked me. A couple of head strikes brought him to his knees where after I followed it up with a kick to the head which finished him. The Samurai used to have a saying that you should fasten your helmet straps after the battle… In Africa they say that it’s the dead lion that gets up and eats you. I was in for a surprise as well which I dealt with… When the second fight was over the sign was given that meant that this exercise was over. After getting my breath back and receiving congratulations and feedback, I enjoyed watching the last few people going trough similar scenarios as I did.
[Karen fights on the ground]This concluded a second great day.
After the training we went for a Chinese meal. The conversations were interesting and about all kinds of subjects.
Five of us were staying in Liverpool for the night. Back at the hotel we had another drink at the hotel bar and talked until the barmaid kicked us out.
Next morning at breakfast we had another couple of hours to talk about various subjects, mainly books and movies.
After packing and checking out we said our goodbyes where after Slacky and I went to Liverpool city centre for a coffee with Den. Not long after we finally found the cavern coffee bar, which I recommend to everyone who visits Liverpool, Den arrived together with Tommy McNally. It was a nice conversation about the seminar and there were many stories about Terry O’Neil and Garry Spiers. After finishing our coffee Slack, Den and I walked trough the city visiting bookshops and drinking coffee talking about various subjects until it was time for me to go back to the airport.
[Slacky and Nick with one of the SuperLambananas] At the train station we said our goodbyes. On my way back to the airport and at the airport I could practice my observation skills at some female travellers.
It was a cracking weekend with good instructors, very interesting subjects covered, fantastic drills, interesting conversations, delicious food and a bunch of great people to share all with.
Thanks to everyone for a great weekend.
Subject: 6th International Combatives Seminar 2008 
Sun 31 Aug 2008, 22:28
