This is a timeline for the training I did that includes the Arts that have sparring, and the competitions I did while at those Clubs
As I said, competing was fun, it was a way of sparring with people who were not Members of my own Dojo, and there was that competitive element that you do not get with your Dojo training partners
Some of this is relevant to our current training, especially the KB Phase
It is the Sport/Sparring side of the SAS program
Sport/Sparring - ART - Self Defence/Street Fighting
I refer to it sometimes in training, and probably will more as we tighten up the Sparring and drilling section, so seems a good time to post
KARATE
Kyokushin - the first Karate style I studied, the "hardest style", and my first Black Belt, and where I did my Karate Competitions
- The training in Shotokan, Goju and Kempo came later, was a lot deeper, and while involves Dojo sparring Kumite, I never competed and saw no reason to
Competition- the knockdown contact contests - this was a much harder style of training and fighting back in those days, and we did a lot of Tameshiwari breaking of boards back then
I competed as a Black Belt Heavyweight and won some trophies including some First Place, became a KARATE Champion
JUDO
I studied Judo earlier and separately from the JUJUTSU I qualified in - though I later kept up the practice of Judo Randori, sparring and grappling, my competitions were in the early years at this Contest orientated Club
For each belt grading we had to do SHIAI, which is a step up from the RANDORI sparring done at the Dojo sessions - you needed to show you could apply the throws in a real fight, as well as the Newaza, win with a pin, and to be able to apply a Submission choke or lock - going into competitions is a way to take the contest/Sport side of Judo to the next stage
I competed as a Black belt Heavyweight fighting against other Clubs
While my throwing style was always powerful, and I scored a lot from throws, my forte was the Ground where I would sometimes pin and usually submit my opponents - I was known for going straight for the submissions and was generally considered impossible to choke, and almost impossible to lock
- Though we later trained the KOSEN format at the JUJUTSU Dojo, and later took on the GRACIE Combatives were everyone was grappling this style, I never took either into any Competition format
At this point
I had trained in KARATE, gained my Black Belt, and competed at Heavyweight, and became a Champion
I had trained in JUDO, gained my Black Belt, and competed at Heavyweight
So it was a good time to get into Boxing properly
BOXING
I joined and trained at a Boxing Gym, where they arranged matches for fighters against fighters from other gyms
I had 7 "official" boxing matches during this period
I was training at the Boxing Gym, qualifying to Coach, and teaching a KB session there
A lot of Instructors who were Self Defence Orientated in the 90s used this cross training format - primarily Karate based, everyone separately studied Judo for Grappling at the Judo Club, and Boxing at a proper Gym - sessions back at our own Dojo, and sometimes each others, were the first were we had "mixed" cross training sessions - and the aim was for Street Reality, nobody was too bothered about Competitions
Most Instructors were Doormen and were training Doormen, and this was the focus
FULL CONTACT KARATE and KICKBOXING
This is where we get the first overlap
FC was about adding Boxing gloves so we could fight Full Contact for real - FULL CONTACT KARATE matches in the ring
KB was when we properly added Boxing to Karate - that was the time we started seeing Boxers who had "added kicks" by attending Karate sessions - proper KICKBOXING matches in the ring
Already a Karate Champion, trying out the FC format, I was still training in Boxing when I had my first KB matches - the boxing and KB matches overlapped for a period
The MUAY THAI and Savate training I did was added to some of the formats I was competing in, though I never separately fought opponents under those styles or formats
Semi Contact - though we view this as earlier in the training progression we didn't do contests for this until later - this was going back to the earlier points style of Karate contests - it was when we faced other styles such as Lau Gar and TKD - back on the mat with more armour and modified rules
- my continued study and qualifications in THAI and SAVATE came later
VALE TUDO
Having put the Karate and Boxing together to create and compete Kickboxing, now we add in the JUDO Grappling to create the VALE TUDO format
This was early on with VT and NHB, the mid 90s when UFC craze was starting, well before "MMA" contests with the heavier rules came about
I was actually fighting from a separate JUJUTSU Club I was training at where the Sensei, primarily a SD orientated teacher, was heavily into hard sparring sessions with Seniors, Boxing, Kumite, and Grappling - this was an opportunity to put a team together and get involved in Club matches under No Rules formats, and I got to fight as Heavyweight
Some of these were in Wrestling and Boxing rings, some on mats, and some in early versions of the cages that were properly developed later
- my later progression into KEMPO JUJUTSU from the TRAD KYUSHINDO came from his period - the SAS development where the STREET and SPORT sides are opposite ends but still similar in a lot of the training and application
- the NINJUTSU training overlaid all this, and sometimes I would use "NINJA tricks" in a match such as Koshi Kudaki or Kamae
This all ended around the Millenium
My deeper understanding of the ARTs, and my higher DAN qualifications, came over the next Decade, having gone past the SPORT competitions of the 90s, and pretty much left STREET fighting behind in he early few years of the 21st Century, I was able to properly learn, understand, apply, and then teach, the higher levels of KARATE, JUJUTSU and NINJUTSU
Training periods and development
1974 to 1982
1983 to 1992
1993 to 1996 - my first formal class
1996/7 to 2003 - the two Dojo and Boxing Gym phase ( as videoed)
2003 to 2009
2009 to now Shiro Tora Dojo
