How a White Tiger Martial Arts class works

The core class is our Unarmed Combat-Self Protection - Threat Response - Street Fighting system.

This is a set of drills students practice with each other.

There is no punching and kicking the air, though we do incorporate shadow boxing.

There is no hard oriental "discipline", we train in a relaxed and friendly manner.

There is no bowing, we prefer a smile and a handshake.

There is no half hour "warm up", just some basic stretching.
This is not an aerobics class or a yoga class, it is a Martial Arts skills class. You spend your time building skills.

This is real time Close quarter combat training taken from the Applied Fighting Arts of Karate, Jujutsu, Wing Chun, Muay Thai and Kali

There is karate style sparring and chi sao sparring for those who want to do it.
Nobody is forced to spar until ready, but those who want to can "get stuck in" on their first night if they wish.

There is no special uniform or gi, just wear what you feel comfortable in.

The class then bifurcates into Kickboxing and Kobudo (weapons) for those who want to learn these skills.

For Kickboxing you need your own protective gear for partner drills and sparring.
You can bring your own or buy from us at a reasonable rate.
There is impact work on focus pads, Thai pads, and shields. Again, to get maximum benefit students are encouraged to buy their own pads, though there will be some provided.

For Kobudo students need to buy their own weapons depending on what they want to get involved with:

A pair of sticks and a knife.
A pair of tonfa.
A set of nunchaku, both foam safety and wood/chain.
Bokken, shinai, jo and bo.

There is basic weapon sparring with sticks, nunchaku, sword and staff.

We soon going to be acquiring armour for adding full contact weapons sparring to our curriculum.

White Tiger Martial Arts

White Tiger Martial Arts

Combat Karate
Practical applied karate from Japanese Shotokan, Shotokai and Kyukushinkai, Okinawan Goju and American Kenpo.
Learn how to apply karate from a 6th degree black belt who has real street experience.
Traditional katas available for those who want to learn them.
Karate Kumite to test your skills in sparring.

Combat Jujutsu
The perfect compliment to Combat Karate. As well as strikes and counters, we practice locks, pressure points, takedowns and ground finishes.
Syllabus based on Kempo JuJutsu, Goshin Jutsu, Kyushindo, Taijutsu, and also some Judo Newaza for those who like their groundwork.
OK you can roll and fight on mats? What about on the wooden floor? What about on concrete? What about a flight of stairs? Come to us and make your grappling functional for the real world.

Combat Kung Fu (Feng Wei)
Syllabus distilled from the Chinese arts we practice and teach - Traditional and Modified Wing Chun, Jun Fan, Mantis, Ba Gua, Shaolin, and some Tai Chi (yes it does have some combat applications).
Classes include NRG (energy) drills, HIA (Trapping) and locking, Close Quarter Combat, and Chi Sao sparring.
Traditional Wing Chun forms available for those who want to learn them.

Kickboxing
Functional drills for tool development, and defence and counter, building to a comprehensive sparring program to test and develop your skills to the max.
Impact work on pads to develop the important attributes of speed, power, coordination, distance and timing.
Sparring forms include points karate, semi contact, full contact Kickboxing, and Thai boxing.
Syllabus taken from karate, freestyle, semi contact, full contact, Tae Kwon Do (WTF), Kung Fu, Muay Thai, and Savate.
Mat, ring, and street tested methods.

Kobudo - weapons
Filipino Kali and Eskrima stick and knife,
Okinawan Nunchaku and Tonfa,
Japanese bokken, shinai, bo and jo - sword, spear and staff.

Grappling
Throws, takedowns and groundfighting. Methods taken from Judo and Jujutsu and the western Wrestling systems of Freestyle, Greco-Roman and Russian Sombo.

Vale Tudo
Vale Tudo is the Portuguese for "anything goes". The original Mixed Martial Art in Brazil.
In our club we combine the elements of Kickboxing and Grappling so you spar and fight at all ranges. Functional drills and sparring to make you a fully competant fighter.

White Tiger Phrases

At the Shiro Tora we have adopted a number of handy catchphrases which are both inspirational and informative:

Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative.

Absorb What Is Useful, Discard What is Useless, Add What is specifically your own.

Using no way as Way, Having no limitation as limitation.

If you see it taught, you see it fought.

Higher Consciousness through harder contact.

The moment of truth is in the fight.

Step don't stretch

Don't be afraid to get some dirt on your shirt

Hit Hard - Hit Fast - Hit First!

Train Hard - Fight easy

Fights are won in Training

The harder you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle

Don't mistake kindness for weakness

Adopt, Adapt, Improve

If he leaves 'em swinging, set 'em ringing

Leave your ego at the door

It's better to fight like a tiger than live like a pussy.

"Your answer is always violence."
"If you didn't want the answer, you shouldn't have asked the question."

If it's me or him, it ain't gonna be me!

The first rule of Self Defence - Learn to Hit f**king Hard!

One fist of iron, one fist of steel. If the right one don't get you, the left one will.

Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6

Never start a fight, but always finish it

It doesn't matter what the colour of the cat is, as long as it catches mice

If you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much room

These are some great slogans from No Fear T Shirts:
remember them?)

There are many things to be learnt from competition - but fear is not one of them

Does not play well with others
(it appears "others" have a problem with losing)

At 200mph you have no friends

STMA kit

We now have a more comprehensive price list for STMA kit:

Essential list

Gloves for sparring
Bag gloves for impact and light sparring £15
Boxing gloves for FC £20
Gumshield £1.50

Stix £15
A pair of stix for krabi, sinawalli and serrada.

Judo gi £30


Recomended list:

Groin guard £10
for guys

Headguard
SC foam head £15
FC full face £30

Shinguards £10
For kb

Clothing
Kung fu pants or gi pants £10
Boxing boots £25

Weapons
Bokken £10
Shinai £20

rattan nuncha £10
rattan jo £13
rattan bo £15

Tonfa
Tonfa oak pair £20
Foam practice pair £10

Nunchaku
Foam/cord £5 each - pair £10 - practice and spar
Foam/chain £7.50 each - pair £15 - intermediate
Wood/chain £7.50 each - pair £15 - kata and "pro" practice


Optional extra:

MMA gloves
Basic training Firepower gloves £20
Pro Star gloves £25
Bad Breed £30

Hand inner glove £5
Boxing Vest £10
Boxing shorts £10
Thai shorts £10
MMA Shorts £20
Blitz T shirts £10

Female Maxi Guard £20

Thai pads £50 a pair
Boxing rope £10
Knife £5

The "Radio 13" incident

This is an amusing anecdote.

As you know, in kali, we use 12 angles of attack and defence.

Angle 13 refers to any backward upwards strike that doesn't involve turning - a heel kick, groin slap, upward elbow to chin - all done to an attacker from behind.

When grabbed from behind I always do a 13 groin slap before turning to deal with the attacker - it puts him on the defensive so I am turning to make my attack. It's a combat concept.

When you work the door inevitably your radio earpiece gets torn out and destroyed from time to time. When this happens on a Friday night you end up carrying your radio in your hand on the Saturday night shift as you can't get to the shop to by a new one til Monday.

With this in mind I adapted combat techniques to incorporate the radio, including strikes, especially punyo strikes, kyusho points, and even some clever lock adaptations.

Obviously when grabbed from behind my groin slap 13 now became a strike with the radio punyo. Extra effective and nasty for the attacker (but serves them right!)

On one particular night we had a kick off and I went, radio in hand, to deal with the situation. At one point I was grabbed from behind and did my automatic 13, with the radio butt. Rather than the usual "male" scream you get when you apply a "himself", I heard a high pitch girl scream. The attacker was a girl (it turned out later I was removing her boyfriend from the fight he was in and she was "defending" him).

Anyway, my door girl Kelly did her usual female ejection technique (it involves some serious hair winding, rising skirts, and the unavoidable escapology of boobs from bras) and we got the fighting parties outside.

After we came back inside Kelly and one of her friends, a customer that night, were crying with laughter. I asked them what was so funny.

It turns out the girl in question has an "intimate" piercing and my radio 13 had landed "right on the button" as it were. No wonder she howled so much!

This is a good reason why female dojo members should get female groin guards - especially those who have intimate piercings!

Godai in Combat

Although we have used the Godai analogy to describe the 4 AFA that makes up STMA, it is also true that each Art can manifest the 4 elements.

Each element is a manifestation of your inner feeling:

Earth - confidence
Water - fear
Fire - Anger
Wind - compassion

The physical postures, called kamae, and movements are manifestations of these feelings in combat.

It is a MISTAKE to believe you can select to be one element and fight that way as you need to adapt and respond as the need arises. The only element you should try to be is Ku - The Void.

Let's look at an example of a specific AFA using the 4 elements.

Eskrima - though we classed Kobudo as the wind element of STMA, fighting with a weapon can use any of the 4 elements.

In a weapon attack the opponent comes in with a #1 strike, the caveman strike, the natural strike of the Human animal.
Let's see how you respond:

Water - you defend. You roll back into largo, removing yourself from the path of attack and strike at his hand to make him drop his weapon. You can then respond with a counter to his head once he has been "defanged".

Fire - you attack. You crash the line with a roof block, burning through his attack and taking his head off with a powerful strike of your own.

Earth - you intercept. As he steps in with his stick in caveman chamber you step forward to meet his intention and deliver your strike on the half beat. You neither attack or defend, you just use the appropriate move with proper distance and timing. This is based on the confidence that you were never in any real danger.

Wind - you evade. Moving with triangle footwork you sidestep and attack his hand. Unlike Water, you are not retreating and being defensive, you simply move sideways and he strikes empty air. Then your own strike hits like lightning.

Real world analogy

Here is a real world analogy - a doorman on duty at a nightclub.

The technique we use here is the right hand KO punch, but in four different examples, each a manifestation of an element of the Godai.

Each scenario presented here is a real situation I have faced in my career.
There is NO THEORY here - each example is 100% REAL!


Earth
Standing on the door you are Earth, the mountain, the oak tree, immovable. You tell a customer he can't come in. You are strong and confident. Nobody is getting past you. You ARE the Door!

The customer gets angry and steps up to attack. From The Fence you land your KO punch to his jaw and knock him out. You have no need to be afraid or angry, you have no need to attack or defend. You simply apply the correct response for the situation at hand.


Fire
The alarm goes and you rush inside to see a full blown fight has erupted on the dance floor.

You move straight in and knock out each man who is fighting. If they are not trying to get away they are trying to get stuck in, so you neutralise them. One, two, three, you crack your KO punch to their jaw and they drop to the floor. You are Fire, an unstoppable force of nature.

Water
One of the other doormen goes to deal with a customer, to ask him to leave. Suddenly CRACK! The doorman goes down. This is no ordinary customer but a dangerous, trained, experienced fighter. As you move in he squares up to you. You are now in a fight with a skilled opponent.

You react, you defend and you counter. You nullify his attacking blows and set up your opportunity to land your KO, taking him out of the game.


Wind
A drunk customer is being rowdy and it is time to ask him to leave. You can't allow him to hurt another customer, yourself, or a member of your team, but you can't allow him to hurt himself either. Nor is it appropriate to go in with maximum force, maybe breaking his jaw or arm.

You do your best to avoid a violent solution. The drunk swings at you. You parry his first swing, and maybe his second. But when he swings a third time you use the Captain's Log to parry down his attack and then land your KO. You gave him every chance.

To take this analogy further, rather than the punch, from the Log use ikkyo to take him to the floor and restrain him. Then call another doorman to take his other arm and walk him out together so nobody needs to get hurt.

So you see the KO punch, which theoretically is a Fire technique, can be used as a technique by any of the four elements you are manifesting, as the situation demands.

DO NOT restrict yourself to any element, art, or technique or you are destined to fail.

Sometimes it is appropraite to be Fire.

Sometimes you need to be Wind or Water.

Most times you just need to be Earth.

The Godai

The Godai is read from the ground up:

Void
Wind
Fire
Water
Earth

these are the elements

However another version of the elements:

Metal
Wood
Fire
Water
Earth

this version can be seen in the Gotonpo of Ninjutsu - the elements of escape.

The 5 elements appears in the Western mysticism as well - the 5 elements are a big part of pagan and wiccan symbolism.

Ths is similar to how the number 3 pops up - the torite kihon sanpo, how we have 3 ranges in serrada, and 3 drills, each with 3 moves.

And in wiccan, the 3 aspects of The Goddess which relate to the 3 phases of the moon. In Christianity the Holy Trinity Father Son and Ghost.

Again, none of these symoblic metaphors are too be taken too literally, they are to help build a model of consciousness for understanding of technique and tactics.

More on The 4 elements

This comparison with the Godai is only a metaphor and not to be taken too literally. It is a model of consciousness, a way to understand the program.

Like the gears of a car, you need to change between the elements as the need arises.

It is a mistake to think "I'll be fire and beat everyone that way". Every karate "master" who was taken to the mat and choked out by a Gracie found out the folly of this approach. You need to have all 4 elements.

But the final goal is to be a White Tiger not a representative of WTMA.

A Tatsujin - a Human Being, not a Human Doing. I've been writing about this a lot recently.

The goal is to be Void - the neutral gear. Eventually you will be like an Automatic - the gear changes will hapen beneath the surface without any conscious effort from you.

THIS is where you want to be.

DO NOT pick a single element and try to be just that or you will be destined to fail. You will have limited yourself to a structure. The Truth is liberation from all structure.

Having no way as way, having no limitation as limitation.

In combat there is balance between the elements.

Compare a contest between fire and water.

If there is enough fire it will boil the water out of existance.
If there is enough water it will put the fire out.

Of course by adapting you can also overcome.

Water cannot dilute water.

Again, these are metephors, not to be taken too literally.

Weapons progression training

We are picking up the pace in our weapons based sessions - concentrating on the use of weapons and weapons defence.

So bring whatever weapons you have to these classes. Obviously stix, so we can do double and single drills. But also bring tonfa and nunchaku, to look at the close range weapons, as well as longer weapons including bokken, Jo and Bo.

We'll look at drilling different weapons against each other.

We'll look at defending weapons unarmed - including knife defence, and defence against attacker armed with a stick or club.

We'll look at traditional koryo mutadori - unarmed defence against a swordman.

We'll look deeper into locks with stix and tonfa, and locking with the longer sticks.

Martial Arts Croydon

We now have a wikizine for Martial Arts Croydon :

http://www.zimbio.com/Martial+Arts+Croydon

Martial Arts Caterham Zimbio Wikizine

We have a zimbio wikizine for Martial Arts Caterham:

Martial Arts Caterham Zimbio Wikizine

http://www.zimbio.com/Martial+Arts+Caterham

White Tiger Martial Arts Caterham Surrey Croydon

White Tiger Martial Arts

Shiro Tora Budo Kai

Practical, Realistic and Effective Street Self Defence

Close quarter combat training taken from the Applied Fighting Arts of
Karate, Jujutsu, Wing Chun, Muay Thai and Kali

Impact training and sparring from
Freestyle Karate, Boxing, Kickboxing and Thai Boxing

Weapons defence and combat training from Kobudo, Kali and Eskrima
Grappling and matwork from Judo, Jujutsu and Wrestling

All forms of Defence Combat taught

Strikes, Kicks, Punches and Counterattacks
Headbutts, Knees, Elbows (HKE)
Trapping (HIA), Energy Drills and Chi Sao
Chokes and Strangles – Locks and Controls
Throws and Takedowns – Ground and Pound
Grappling – Groundfighting - Vale Tudo – MMA
Stick and Knife – Sword and Staff – Nunchaku and Tonfa
Gun Defence and Knife Defence training
Threat Awareness – Threat Avoidance – Threat Response
Self Protection – Street Fighting – Unarmed Combat

Learn from a 6th degree Black Belt with over 30 years training and
10 years real world experience on the doors of Britain’s pubs and clubs

Training sessions held in Caterham (Over 18s)

Caterham Methodist Church, Coulsdon Road, Caterham-on-the-Hill


Wednesday 7.30 – 9.30 pm
Thursday 7.30 – 9.30 pm
Monthly Membership £35 or £5 a session pay as you go

email: ShiroToraTiger@yahoo.co.uk
website: ShiroToraTiger.blogspot.com


Beginners Welcome
Private lessons available

S.P.A.R.K.S

S.P.A.R.K.S or S.P.A.R.C.S stands for Scientific Progressive Aggressive Response Combat Systems.

When looking for a name for our system, as well as considering what the Japanese do, we also looked at what the Americans do. They tend to use acronyms for their systems. Paul Vunak calls his Progressive Fighting Systems (PFS) and Chris Kent calls his Combat Arts International (CAI) to name just two.

Although it's just a name (don't fuss over it) we tried out a few acronyms that might suit us and came up with SPARKS.

Scientific - because everything is scientifically tested, no guess work or assumption.
Progressive - because the training we do is progressive, through the ranges, disciplines, drilling and sparring.
Aggressive - because we are dealing with an aggressive attacker, and we are using aggressive, positive responses, not passive "self defence" moves.
Response - we are responding to a threat rather than reacting to an attack.
Kombat or Combat, depending on how we want to fit the acronym. Kombat is the harded German spelling,and of course is a nod to the game Mortal Kombat. We prefer the word Combat to Fighting.
System - which we prefer to Method or Art, or even Do (Way in Japanese).

So if you want to, you can tell people you do SPARKS!

Tatsujin - the meaning of White Tiger

Meijin means a master of the martial arts.

Tatsujin means a "completed human being".

It is very difficult to become a complete human being.

To live as a human being means you are not obsessed with who is weak or who is strong. An animal has to be strong to survive in nature. Humans can live regardless of their outward strength.

This is the most important realisation of the Human Fighting Arts.

To work to be a meijin is to miss the point.

In STMA, we are not trying to be masters of the individual fighting arts, we are working towards being tatsujin, complete human beings.

Be a White Tiger, not just a person "doing" White Tiger Martial Arts.

The 4 elements of STMA

The 4 elements of STMA are:

Feng Wei
Kickboxing
Grappling
Weapons

Those familiar with the Godai concept of 5 elements in Oriental philosophy will know how they relate to the chakra system of consciousness.

Some of you will have read my previous work on this subject and how they relate to the psychological and physical aspects of combat.

We are now able to relate each of the 4 elements of STMA to the 4 elements of earth, water, fire and wind.


EARTH - GRAPPLING

The Earth element stands for strength and stability. It is the mountain that does not move, the tree standing firm. In the body it stands for the bones and muscles, the physical structure of the body.

In STMA, earth is the grappling element. You stand firm, pull your enemy in and pull him to the ground. You keep him there, even after you walk away. You feel confident. There is no need to run away from the enemy or even "defend" as such. You invite him in and take him down.


WATER - FENG WEI

The Water element stands for adaptability. It is the rivers moving over the land, running to the ocean, the rain that falls from the sky.

Water cannot be broken, snapped or grabbed.

In STMA, water is the Feng Wei element. Based on Wing Chun, Jun Fan, and a large part of Kali, it is adaptive, defensive, evasive, yet powerful when it crashes in.

Water can arode a mountain and a flood can clear a village or knock down the strongest tree.

"Be like water" Bruce Lee advised his students.

In the body water refers to the blood and the liquids that make life possible.


FIRE - KICKBOXING

The Fire element stands for Power, energy, attack. Fire is all consuming, it burns up everything in it's path.

In STMA Fire is the Kickboxing element. It is the forward driving power of the boxer or Thai boxer. The powerful punches on the focus pads, the mighty kicks, knees and elbows on the Thai pads. It is the power of karate as it breaks through wood boards.

The opponent has no option to retreat into the corner. If he tries to hit back we cover, evade, take his bows on our gloves or shins, and hit him back even harder.

In the body Fire refers to metabolism, the use of energy.


WIND - WEAPONS

The wind element in STMA is weapons.

Just as the wind moves over the land, moving objects with it's unseen power, so you move across the floor with your footwork, wielding your stick in your hand.

The sticks cut the air like wind, the crack of wood on wood is like thunder, the stick moves fast as lightning and when it strikes the enemy it lights up his nervous system with a flash of pain.

In the body the Wind refers to the breath.


The VOID

The 5th element in the Godai system is the Void.

Void is nothingness - the space that must exist for the other elements to manifest in.

It is the space between the stars, the space between the atoms.

In the body, it is thought, the creativity that is the manifestation of all action.

If the other 4 elements are the gears of the car, Void is the neutral position, the space you shift through that makes gear changes possible.

In STMA, the Void state is when you are no longer manifesting one art, and are liberated from all structure, moving freely. It is what Bruce Lee called "Jeet Kune Do". The state of Mushin or Wu Wei. The place we all want to be.

Thursday 5th November

Well we certainly had some fireworks last night!

With a good turnout, we split the group into 3 sections:

green belts doing stix and chi sao
Kickboxers doing focus pad drills
Chick and Duck doing Muay Thai drills at the pads

I was able to stop the class at relevant points, to give everyone a break from their workout, and to demonstrate some of the advanced concepts that are starting to appear in Eskrima and Muay Thai, and how the concept of range is common to both unarmed combat and weapons combat.

We looked at the importance of close range guarding which allows you to crash and keep the corto range and demoed and drilled this for Thai, boxing and in serrada, with the roof block drill.

And there was sparring for all during the freeplay session.

The freeplay session in the last 20 minutes was the most diverse yet with some members choosing to carry on pad drill and some moving onto weapons including swords.

Members will be able to drill Thai and also spar Thai - if they have the proper protective gear.

A headguard is a must for proper boxing and Thai sparring - that much is now clear - at least at these earlier stages as sparring gets more advanced.

For the advanced students we will advance the sinawalli and introduce concepts for the basic drills such as 2 and 4. We will add the more tricky 5, 7 and 9 drills and also the offside concepts it applies to odd numbered counts.

Now we have the 3 ranges of serrada covered it is a matter of regular drilling - flight time.

There are some other serrada drills we will add soon - one thing at a time.

Shiro Tora Budo kai

Give it a fair go!

Don't just come to one class and decide you didn't like it.

Each class is different and the training is progressive. Try a few classes, 3 or maybe 4, before you decide.

We accept that some people will leave, just as new people will come along. Also not everybody will make every class.

But keep in mind we can tailor your training to what YOU want to learn and accomplish. It's not a rule that everybody practices then same. At a session we can have a couple of people kickboxing, a couple practicing locks, a couple working weapons.

Let me know what YOU want to see more or less of. Talk to me at class or send me an email. At Shiro Tora you have more latitude than at a "Traditional" class, so let us know what YOU want to gain from your time with us.

White Tiger Martial Arts

Open to anyone
Whether you are a complete beginner or seasoned black belt, a competition fighter, or just somebody interested in Self Protection, we have something for you.

Everyone will be able to work at their own pace, so this is an ideal class for beginners and ladies, but also for students who want to go a bit faster and harder and learn a bit quicker.

One of our mottos is:
"Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative".
This means we take what you are good at and help you polish and improve it, help you get even better. We then take what you are not so good at and bring you up to speed. Our aim is to make you a fully functional Martial Artist at all ranges, fill in the blanks, and make what you do fully functional for the real world.

Another of our mottos is:
"Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, add what is specifically your own"
(quoted from the late, great Bruce Lee, the original cross-trainer)
which does exactly what it says. You take what is useful to you (including what you learn here), discard what is useless (including what you learn here), and add what is your own, to develop your own unique style of fighting that works for you.

Wednesday 4 November

Another good session.

Everyone got to try hubud, both stick and empty hand, and some locks.

Seniors (green belts) got to practice sinawalli and work on chi sao.

We did a HIA trapping session for the whole class, and you all now know how those moves in Enter The Dragon really work.

Green belts will soon be able to apply trapping skills in chi sao and most members find they eventually come out in boxing as well.

The usual sparring session at the end.

Little J did really well beating everybody up with her pink gloves.

And it was nice to see James return for another session.