"Yesterday's Truism's are Today's Falsehoods"

By Tony Terranova

Written for Goeff Thompson's Website: www.geoffthompson.com
And for MAI (Martial Arts Illustrated): www.martialartsltd.com

I have been reading the articles & messages on the forum section of Geoff's web page for a while & I am impressed & inspired by the quality & sincerity of the content. This has led me to write this article which Geoff kindly offered to illustrate on his web page. Please bear with me in reading this as questions are presented in the latter part of the article.

My training in Shotokan Karate began in Coventry in 1983 under the direction of John Johnston. I also occasionally trained at Mick Jackson's & Jeff Stansfield's clubs. All these clubs were associated with the K.U.G.B (which was affiliated to the J.K.A.) It was during this time that I met & trained with Geoff. For reasons related to work & having to move to another area I stopped MA training in 1992. I travel the world as an engineer designing components for power stations, refineries chemical & gas plants. In 2002 (at the age of 45) I decided to go back to MA training after receiving encouragement from Geoff & my wife Jenny. After a few weeks of training & my beginning to research/update myself on the current MA trends I realised "Yesterday's Truism's are Today's Falsehoods".

Going back to MA (martial arts) is one of the best things I have ever done. However some hard lessons were learned. Firstly after a 10-year break I found that many aspects of MA had changed. Many of the concepts that were ingrained in my early years "Truisms" are now considered to be today's "Falsehoods".

Secondly, I had been mentally conditioned to train "with 100% total effort" as the training at the time I started learning Karate/MA was the school of hard knocks. These factors contributed to considerable problems for me in the first few months of my returning to MA. In fact I was plagued with so many injuries that I nearly had to give it all up. I was a regular captain marvel "I was joints out of place man" with a resident seat at the physiotherapists & osteopaths clinics. People used to think I was the receptionist.

I then took a step back & did what I do when I have an engineering problem I ponder & contemplate all possible solutions. "To an engineer "The solution to the problem lies in the problem itself". "Additionally there is always more than one solution to the problem". An engineer is taught to find solutions by looking for the information & then to apply the findings & experiment.

My research led me to find out that even though I was fit that this does not equate to combat fitness. Also at 45 years of age the body changes, as does a steam turbine after 20 years of operation. In my early days (younger days) of MA training isometric stretching (which is very different to passive stretching, e.g. Yoga) was a pillar of the training principles & you simply trained hard it was practically full contact & you accepted the associated risks. Therefore upon my return to MA training I once again followed these principles and found that they now did me more harm than good. After researching I have found that dynamic stretching is more beneficial.

Dynamic stretching prepares & programmes the nervous system for MA type movements. Additionally specific strength exercises such as Hindu squats, Hindu push ups combined with intelligent weight training & floor exercises for developing the hip flexors all serve to prepare the body for combat training. I also found that isometric exercises should only be used to cool down (especially so the older you get).

After following a simple (daily) programme of specific dynamic stretches & a sensible weekly routine for the other exercises mentioned above I have no more injuries & currently train in Karate, Ju-Jutsu and heavy bag work with boxing drills.

The other problem I encountered was that training is now different, once again "Yesterday's Truism's are Today's Falsehoods". To me making a return to MA, there seemed to be a lot of mixed messages to the untrained participant.

It has to be said that Geoff along with individuals like Peter Constardine have revolutionised MA & what is now accepted as realistic combat skills, all credit is to be given to them for doing this (& a reality check was needed). However on the other end of the scale the sport karate/MA and "politically correct philosophies/club insurance requirements & politics" seemed to have taken the traditional Karate/MA further away from what they were in their original form (with the exception of possibly the MMA-UFC and Muay Thai - kick boxing). This has led to a "traditional versus realistic" set of choices for the untrained participant to select from.

I realise that my statement is a generalisation & that Geoff & Peter's contribution to MA is invaluable & necessary. The problem I have found is that common sense is not so common anymore. What Geoff & Peter teach is common sense & practical realistic combat.

However the old traditional Karate / MA was also based on attack first & hard training principles & strong spirit that ensured participates could hit with devastating effect. The politically correct/current day sport philosophies have their place but they are a long way away from the traditional MA which have been getting bad press of late depicted as "Today's Falsehoods". Iain Abernethy's kata bunkai & Russell Stutely's pressure point work are brilliant illustrations of the old arts in their true form & how they can work in real combat so that "Yesterday's Truism's still remain".

I acknowledge that I am not an expert MA & I would never be so arrogant as to think I have any of the answers to questions. However the reason for this article is to ask questions an engineer often asks when there is a problem, "what choices do I have to fix the problem" And "will solving the problem create another problem". I travel the world & visit many unfriendly & unsafe places, & often ask myself "if an ugly situation occurred how do I decide if solving the problem by fighting creates another problem" e.g. someone gets killed or injured in the process because of a tactic I/others chose to use. I decided to use this analogy after recently reading on the message board forum the sad story of the young guy who had just started training & was killed in a fight (my heart goes out to his family). I also say it because I know Geoff's & Peter's principles do work & even more so if you combine them with the traditional MA true fighting spirit ingrained into your psyche, as the most powerful tool in your arsenal is your "Mind".

Therefore maybe Yesterday's Truism's are Not Today's Falsehoods if interpreted by the schooled and trained.

Thank you for taking the time to read my article & I welcome any comments, critique & guidance from everybody as I am no expert just an enthusiastic martial artist with an engineer's philosophy on life.

Close Window

© 2006-2010, Fighting Fit Martial Arts
All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing on this site are the property of their respective owners.