BAMMA 3 – MMA show at the NEC

Last weekend I attended BAMMA 3 at the NEC with some friends. I’ve only been to a few MMA live events and have generally enjoyed them and this was no exception. At BAMMA 3 though there was a certain amount of controversy concerning the main event and a bit of a media circus too.

Tom ‘Kong’ Watson was supposed to fight Alex Reid for the Middleweight belt but Reid pulled out with a knee injury. The controversy concerned Reid’s preparation for the fight, which centred on a TV program where he went to different countries trying out a variety of Martial Arts. I’ve only seen the clip of Reid rolling with Roger Gracie, and he didn’t look too good, overawed and out of his depth is probably the correct description.

Watson, on the other hand took the fight more seriously training with the GSP camp. Incidentally, GSP was present to show support for Watson in his fight with Matt Horwich.

Reid turned up to watch the event with his wife Jordan/Katie Price. It’s fair to say they took some stick! It was quite entertaining at times, particularly the two blokes dressed as Price and Reid who posed for camera’s and got the crowd going.

It needed something as the undercard was not always the best. The first fight we saw involved pink shorts and really only got going in the final round with the Norweigan Thoresen getting the decision over John Maguire. Then there was a break for 15 minutes.

It took that time for the projectionist to get one of the big screens properly operational again, after it had slipped. Not exactly UFC! The first fight after the break was for the Featherweight belt with the wrestler Mark Adams beating self-taught Alan Omer by decision. This was a much better fight. Omer looked lively but couldn’t cope with the wrestling.

Then followed three fights decided in the first round. Americans War Machine and Seth Petruzelli (Kimbo killer) both submitted opponents after barely a minute. Petruzelli seemed to be a step too far for Ryan White who did trouble him with a counter to a head kick and flurry of punches from guard, but forgot about defending his arms, an arm bar being the result.

For the Lightweight belt Rob Sinclair took out German Daniel Weichel by ground and pound TKO. He was well on top but the fight did seem to be stopped early. I was expecting more from Wiechel, although I have read that he suffered an unseen low blow which he didn’t recover from, all academic now.

The main event needed to go longer than the first round and it went the distance, although Watson only just managed to make it to the second. In the lead up to the fight, a la UFC, they show recorded interviews. The interview with Horwich was bizarre; he mentioned quantum physics and spirituality while being only just coherent. He came out bashing a bible against his chest and bumbled around the cage waiting for Watson. He did not look good, in fact he looked unprepared. I was concerned for his safety, he just didn’t look right! I needn’t have been as he gave a very good account of himself.

The fight was an old school MMA clash of styles, the boxer/kickboxer verses the wrestler. Watson dominating the stand-up until Horwich took him down, which he managed easily. Watson nearly lost to Rear Naked Choke in the first and almost again in the second or third. As the fight went on Watson was better able to resist the takedown attempts and was always much better standing. I think he deservedly sneaked it with the judges.

It was only the third BAMMA event and I did enjoy it, although it was a good job the Americans came over to fight, they significantly raised the standard of the fights. The stick that Reid and Jordan received, really helped the entertainment level but was a bit distracting from the fights. GSP turning up to support Watson was a nice touch. The interviewer was awful though, lame attempt. It would be good to have someone who knew a little about MMA doing the interviews, Reid maybe? The announcer was excellent though, Michael Buffer stylee!

We got the tickets for a last minute concessionary tenner which helped, I might not have enjoyed it as much for £25 but I will probably go again if it comes back to Brum. If this report has made you desperate to watch the rerun is on Bravo tomorrow night.

Bat attack, justice?

Some time ago I wrote a post concerning a vicious attack a friend of mine suffered. His ankle was broken and he received several blows to the head from a baseball bat in the attack. Originally, I said he was walking home drunk from the pub, when in fact he was not drunk and had merely left the pub after a single drink. He and his mate had been to band practice and were in good spirits as they’d just got news of a recording contract.

The ankle was in plaster for a long time, but he has full use restored and is finishing physio soon, hopefully to be able to play footy again after further strengthening.

The trial had to be postponed due to a technicality so in the end he and his mate have had to give evidence twice. The defendant with the bat pleaded guilty while the other pleaded not guilty, hence the need for the trip to court.

This second defendant was acquitted of all charges. It seems that the CPS charged him with too serious an offence for the actual crime, meaning that they had to prove he intended to cause serious damage to my mate. This was not possible as although he broke my mates ankle it’s hard to show that was his intent.

So that seems to be that. My mate is still suffering the after effects of the attack, one attacker is free while the other is awaiting sentence. My mate did get £5000 compensation which is better than nothing, but there are emotional scars.

Clearly, the CPS were at fault here. Surely the bloke who got off would’ve been convicted if charged with a lesser offence! He did, after all make an unprovoked attack on a complete stranger walking home with a friend. Hopefully, the ‘batter’ will get a commensurate sentence.

Change – deciding to change

I was a bit stuck with my martial arts training but was enjoying sessions with various instructors I’d come across from the United Goju Forum and subsequent United Goju Seminars. I was traveling around the country to train or bringing instructors to Birmingham and making improvements as a result. I was sick of only making minuscule advances and for want of a better phrase, needed input. My eyes had been opened and I wanted more. It seemed that an awful lot of the ‘training roads’ were pointing towards Steve Morris.

On the back of the aborted Karate Underground Seminar I arranged a session with Morris in Birmingham, which followed the one at Shikon early 2007. I invited everyone in the association I was involved in, expecting people to be as enthused as I was, but no. I only received one reply, saying he was unable to come, although he’d like to. To be fair it’s quite a journey from Weymouth to Birmingham.

I had been reading Morris for a while and learning from the dvds I’d bought, but that first session introduced a lot while promising much more. I was surprised though that no-one had been interested enough to attend. Okay you would probably have to put up with hearing that the karate method was crap, but here was a chance of a way into substantial improvement. You only have to see one dvd, or read one article from Morris or receive one recommendation about him to see that here was a chance to improve significantly. But having your martial world completely rocked is probably not the top of the list for many happy with the status quo.

At the time one of the attendees, with a karate background, said “there’s no going back”, and of course he was right. I am from a scientific background, and the scientific process involves change, if it did not we would still be basing medical treatment on the four humours! I am asked how I reconcile the Morris Method approach with Karate. For me it’s easy, I treat it like science.  The scientific process embraces change, science replaces the obsolete with cutting edge, as one theory or model passes the next rules until it is usurped by a better option. This often isn’t the case in martial arts.

So for us line up kihon is long gone, because this and associated practise has very limited validity, now I use what we do at Primal or similar that I or others in the club devise. Often Kihon is referred to as basics, which is what it is, whereas we practise the fundamentals, this in itself is a step forward and is one small change for the better. If we embrace the status quo that’s all we can ever get…….

Baseball Bat Attack

I hope this post isn’t taken as bad taste, it certainly isn’t intended to take advantage of a terrible event, it’s simply an account of what happened to the best of my knowledge at this time, which has some implications in terms of martial arts training.

I’ve just got back from visiting my brother and his family in London to find an unwelcome message on Facebook. A very close friend has been attacked by thugs, outside his home. The thugs were, actually neighbours from three doors down. Initially there was an altercation, my mate squared up to them, was exchanging blows with one while the other grabbed the baseball bat, from his house and proceeded to beat my friend.

In the melee my friend received a badly broken ankle (two bones and torn ligament). So he was unable to get away, the thugs continued to beat him round the head and clearly could’ve killed him. They were locked up for the weekend and went to court this morning. The Police want bail refused due to the seriousness of the crime, hopefully it will be.

My mate will be operated on tonight or tomorrow and will have pins, screws and allsorts inserted, and then he’ll be in plaster for eight weeks. A further op to remove the screws will precede a long slow rehab. Probably six months to recovery. He was lucky that the he survived without suffering serious head injury or even death, the hospital staff literally glued his head back together.

Apparently, he is in reasonable spirits and hopes to be out of hospital next week. Apart from being a bit of a shocker, to say the least, it highlights a couple of things in terms of self-protection.

1. Fate – if he had arrived one minute earlier, he would’ve had his key in the door and not bumped into the Chavs. A clear, wrong place wrong time scenario.
2. Drunkenness – he was very drunk and cannot remember much about the beating, possibly also due to the stress. He has done martial arts training but not for a while, he is fit, plays a lot of footy, but he wasn’t capable of protecting himself due to the alcohol.
3. Mistakes – he made the error of squaring up to his attackers. Easy to say in retrospect, but it flies in the face of self-protection advice. If he was going to fight them he really needed to pre-empt, take the one out, etc.,etc. But possibly a result of too much sparring, where protocol is different to that on the street, he squared up rather than hitting first.

Self-protection theory is all very easy to write but in the heat of the moment, drunk and with luck certainly against you mistakes can happen; the reality can be so far removed from theory.

Bouncers bouncing……punters sulking

bouncer

I had a conversation with an old friend the other day. He’s been a doorman for a long time but recently left to further his business interests. Due to the recession he’s returned to ‘door work’ to supplement his income.

He’s working in a club in a town centre in North Birmingham and has not been enjoying it too much. It’s not an easy job, and he’s been kept busy! It seems to be a meeting place for people from different areas and as such drink-fuelled arguments and trouble can ensue.

He was telling me of an incident during last weekend which resulted in him having to spend two hours in the police station making a statement, which was not to his liking. One particular punter, a big bugger of about 6ft 5 was playing up. His friend had intruded into an area that was closed and when the manageress told him to leave he refused and threw a drink over her. Then the big bugger turned up and said his mate was going nowhere. So my mate had to tell him otherwise.

The big bugger loaded up to swing a big ‘un at my mate, who clocked him, grabbed him by the throat and started pushing him out. A colleague arrived and smashed the big buggers head with a radio a few times in the struggle. Unfortunately, the head was split open and gushing. The big bugger also accidentally hit the wall a few times on the way out but was removed successfully.

The police came but the bad guy was gone, the doormen explained what happened and everything seemed to have blown over. My mate and his colleagues were laughing, saying that he must’ve gone home to his mum. Before they could leave, word got to the coppers that the big bugger’s mum was on the phone to the coppers saying she was on her way down there with big bugger to make a complaint. It ended up with my mate and his colleagues making statements which took about two hours to finish, resulting in a late night.

I only refer to this conversation as it seems symptomatic of the ‘blame’ society we live in, where parents vent at teachers that their cherubs would never do such a thing. One “it’s not my fault, mum” and this type of parent is marching down to the school, or police station in this case. The bad bloke in this instance was/is 6ft 5 and 26 years old. Thankfully, the police told him to ‘do one’ but insisted on statements all round.

In this world of ‘no win, no fee’ accidents or injuries, the blame culture is rife. When I was young my dad used to make me ‘face the music’, I hated it at the time but I was left in no uncertain terms that actions had consequences. This seems lacking today.

In my kids classes I try to instill a ‘face the music’ atmosphere. I have ‘star jump corner’, an upgrade from warnings, where miscreants do increasing numbers of star jumps (burpees with a star jump). Worse misbehaviour/disruption/silliness receives a yellow card and a five minute sin bin session. Last week I let the kids in the class vote for yellow card or star jump corner for one lad who was repeatedly messing around. They sent him to the sin bin and he cried, then sulked. He was much better behaved five minutes later and better again tonight. Hopefully, he’s realised that actions have consequences and is beginning to understand that he has to take responsibility for his actions. It’s a pity something similar couldn’t be aimed at the big bugger whose childish sulky behaviour caused my mate a minor inconvenience. It could be a lot worse for someone less able than my mate, should big bugger repeat behaviour similar to that leading to the sulking.

A Morris preamble…..

Instructing

Steve Morris

Morris Method Introductory Course

April 2007

Kings Heath

Birmingham

Five women and thirteen men from as far as London and Preston, with between 1 and 25 years martial arts experience came to Bishop Challenor Sports Centre  for an introduction session to the “Morris Method”. First off Steve gave a little background to what he’s about; he doesn’t have a defined system as such as he is continually evolving meaning there are no absolutes just progression.

In effect, Steve provides a methodology to teach yourself – watch and analyze the fight, then use the methodologies he presents to work on what you take from your fight observations. Simple……

Steve assisted by Rob, began by explaining some fundamentals such as stance, movement, angles, power generation, whole body striking and more. These were practised alone and with a partner and then implemented into partner drills. It was hot and sweaty but breaks were taken as required, which didn’t affect the rhythm of the training. The content was excellent and delivered in a logical fashion, moving from principle to specifics. While there was a lot of explanation, Steve used many methods of explanation to ensure a point was understood. His use of imagination and everyday analogies aided understanding, I think we all had a favourite, I like the ‘let’s twist again’ analogy used in the ‘whole body’ kicking.

We got through a lot of heavy contact work, but this was delivered in a very safe manner, protective equipment was used and emphasis was placed on the partner relationship, i.e. trust. As Steve said it’s no good knocking each others teeth out, you get through too many partners that way!

'goading' drill

I particularly enjoyed a drill, which involved covering/avoiding a repeated prescribed attack from your partner. As the defender you were in control of the ‘volume’ button. That is, you ‘goad’ your partner into turning up the heat. The idea is NOT to be a victim, so if the attacks were getting too much, you told your partner to tone it down. This enabled you to experience more vociferous strikes as your confidence grew, more fun than it sounds. In fact,  it was more enjoyable being the receiver than the giver!

Then there were the conditional drills, where each person is given a ‘mission’ to accomplish. These can be included for all ranges of fighting. For example, one person is on the ground and is Chuck Liddell the other on top is Randy Couture. Chuck’s mission is to get back on his feet, Randy’s is to get Chuck to the ‘fence’. You have 30 seconds to go flat out to achieve you ‘mission, it was hard work, but with the emphasis on being completely committed to the mission and giving your all to achieve it!

Mission explained

After training we went for a meal in town and had a great time, with plenty of amazing stories interspersed with pearls of wisdom and a ‘Delboy-esque’ DVD sale outside the restaurant. All in all a great day.

I wrote this not long after the event and was supposed to go up on my website, but at least it’s made it here. This was when I first realised that there was no going back……..

Thanks to Jon Gee for the excellent photography, more of his work here