STMA Class discipline - 10 Rules

 At STMA we train in a relaxed informal manner. It is a more enjoyable environment and more conducive to learning the the rigid "martial" style of traditional karate classes.

Students do not bow to me or call me "Sensei".
Some call me "Guv". This is encouraged, though not expected, though many Seniors will only call me Guv during class and will encourage juniors to do the same.

However, there are certain rules that must be adhered to.
Members are expected to learn and adhere to them to make the class work and Seniors are expected to help juniors learn them.

Gentle reminders are best, but I will push the rules vociferously if needs be or a greater level of control and discipline is needed at a certain time.

1. This IS a martial arts class and I AM the Sensei. You are the students.

2. I am the ONLY person who is there to teach. The rest of you are there to learn.

3. By all means, ask me questions, but don't try to tell me things. You are not there to tell me things you are there so I can tell you things.

4. This one is quite harsh so I only pull it out when I have to:
If I want your opinion - I'll give it to you!

5. This is a class not a discussion group. See Rule 4.

6. Forget what you think you know. Leave it at the door. Empty your cup.

7. I don't care what you've done at other classes. Leave it at the door. I don't care what you've been told at some other class or by some other teacher, here all that matters is what you are told by me.

8. Nobody came here to listen to you they all came to listen to me. They all paid money to listen to me. If you are speaking up in class you are wasting other people's time and money, which is rude to them. See Rule 5.

9. Don't talk over me and don't EVER talk back to me. If I give you a command in class the only response I want to hear is "Yes, Guv".

10. Don't try showing things to your fellow members. I am the only person who is there to teach. See Rule 2. When you are partnered with someone he will practice his techniques on you and let you practice your moves on him. You are not there to tell him how to do his moves. Recieve the move with good grace and keep your mouth shut while you do it. If you feel the urge to start "instructing" consider this - are you really trying to help your partner improve or are you trying to feed your own ego and look like some kind of expert? See Rule 8. Also consider this - as well as being rude to your fellow member you are being rude to me - who the hell are you to come into MY class and try to teach MY students? See Rule 6.

The only exception to these rules is if I ask a senior to guide a junior in a particular move or drill on a particular occassion. The Senior will still not be instructing, just guiding. The instruction will have already come from the instructor. Only the instructor can TEACH and move or drill to ANY student.

The Three Levels of Threat

 At STMA we deal with Threat Response. We find this a more positive term than "Self Defence".

When an enemy attacks you and you DEFEND yourself you REACT to his attack.

With our method you RESPOND to his THREAT.
You are choosing the appropriate method of Response. You are acting not reacting.

Action always beats reaction.

With this in mind we need to decide the level of threat before choosing our response.

There are three levels of threat:

SIMPLE
SERIOUS
LIFE THREATENING

With any threat, get your Fence up so you have your PE ready, as well as all your backup. At this point you must assess the situation to make sure you choose the appropriate level of response and stay within the Law as regards reasonable force.

SIMPLE threat:
A non physical common assault.
An aggresor who steps into your space making a verbal assault, but who does not physically attack you.
You may feel afraid for you safety, or are at the stage when you are about to become so.
A simple threat can, and often is, defused without the need for physical violence.

SERIOUS threat:
An aggressor becomes an attacker, makes a physical assault, intending to cause you injury and pain. The effects of his actions, in the eyes of the Law, would be classed as Actual Bodily Harm or Grevious Bodily Harm.
You are at risk of being hurt, cut, feeling pain, or having a bone broken. You have the right to defend yourself from this attack.
You have the right to use a PE.
If you miss the PE phase, as often happens, you have the right to use all your backup phases - kicks, HKE, chokes, trapping, throws, to end the encounter, to stop the attack, and minimise your physical suffering.
Your attacker has invited your violent response, so don't be afraid to use it.

LIFE THREATENING ATTACK:
This is the most serious level of attack.
Your life can be ended as a result of your attacker's actions.
This is almost always the case if a weapon is involved, especially a bladed weapon such as a knife, and always if there is a gun.
This does not just refer to a life ending attack, one that would end your life, but also a life changing attack, but one that would change the quality of your life.
You must do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to stop this attack and SAVE YOUR LIFE.

The Maths behind group training

 In a group of 10 people there are 45 possible ways to make a pairing of 2 people.

Each member will get the chance to pair up with up to 9 partners in a session.

Interestingly there are also 45 possible ways to create a group of 8. So when I take 2 students aside to work with me in a three, I can take into account the way the other members will be paired up for drilling.

This is a mathematical matrix I have been using to plan long term development in training groups such as STMA over the years.

When you consider the various training methods we employ including double stix, single stick, the various sparring, lox, chokes, and grappling, it takes a long time to do all the training with every possible partner.

This is why I will sometimes watch sparring sessions and take greater care in deciding who drills what with who.

White Tiger secret password...

 At one of my previous clubs we had the idea of setting up a secret password.

It's one of those things we do that's just a bit of fun.
(Though certain people do take it a bit seriously.)

In the movie The Shadow, the main character gives his agents a password:

You say "the sun is shining"
to which they will reply "but the ice is slippery"
This is how you identify yourselves to each other.

So our password is

******

to which you reply

*******

Very tiger, I'm sure you'll agree.

However, it does have some practical applications.

From time to time I do end up getting a bit "semi-famous", appearing in magazines and such, or when I've been working the door of a popular club for a while.

Inevitably you will meet people who claim to have trained with me. At which point you hit them with the password "the cage is open". If they don't reply with "but the beast is asleep" then you know they have never trained at STMA. This will also apply if you meet any alumni next year.

Anybody with access to the forum now knows the "password".

Another good application is when the doorbell rings as 8pm and one of you goes to see who it is. If they don't know the password, don't let them in.

When I see you in person I'll explain the meaning of the password. As with all things White Tiger, there is a hidden meaning.

Pot Roast Story

 A girl watches her mother making a pot roast, and notices she cuts the ends off the roast. She asks her mother why she does this: "why do you cut the ends off the pot roast?"

"Because my mother did it" she says.

So the girl goes to ask her grandmother:
"why do you cut the ends off the pot roast?"

Her grandmother answers:
"Because my mother did it"

Finally the girl goes to her great grandmother and asks:
"why do you cut the ends off the pot roast?"

and she replies:
"because the pan is too small".

It's always worth questioning any "traditions" that are passed on to see if they really do have any modern relevance.

Radio 13

 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 Gail did her usual female ejection technique (it involves some serious hair winding, rising skirts, and the unavoidable escapology of breasts from bras) and we got the fighting parties outside.

After we came back inside Gail 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!

(or as Naomi (Alumni) so delicately puts it: " a kick in the c**t is bad enough"!)

What's in a name? White Tiger - Shiro Tora

 As I'm sure you are now aware, Shiro Tora translates into English as White Tiger.

Budo is Martial Way, what we refer to as Martial Arts.

So Shiro Tora Budo is White Tiger Martial Arts.

Kai is the dojo, club, association, or even family.

So what we practice is White Tiger Martial Arts at the Shiro Tora Budo Kai.

We can refer to what we do as STMA or WTMA. STMA actually rolls off the tongue better.

Our core art is Shiro Tora Karate Do. I
am the Shihan of the Shiro Tora Karate Do.

Shiro Tora Budo is the other Martial arts that are part of our system.

STMA is not one style, it is a system of many styles.

Using no way as way, having no limitation as limitation.

The Ben Kick

 When my friend Ed, a Muay Thai instructor, was making an instructional video, he demonstrated the various kicks on his student Ben.

When demo-ing the dte to the inner knee - the vastus medialus, also known as the "teardrop" due to it's shape - the kick went in harder than intended and Ben stumbled off camera in agony.

When the vid was cut, Ben, being a good sport, agreed that the scene could remain intact.

This was a great example of a move that has so much effective power at the short, sharp range, that a slightly too hard application against a conditioned Thai fighter had a devastating effect. How much more effective would it be against an untrained and unconditioned attacker, applied by you with real power, wearing hard shoes - or even steel caps?

A few weeks later on the Door, I had an escalating situation that needed a violent solution.

Normally I use the trusty right cross KO once I've lined them up from the fence during the verbal stage. But from time to time I like to field test new moves. I've done this with the dte, powerslap, shuto, and toho amongst others.
It's how we know these moves work in real situations - they have been field tested.

On is occassion I opted to use Ed's inner thigh kick, planting my steel cap right on his vastus.

My opponent stumbled backwards and sat down on the pavement, all thoughts of how he was going to "knock out the bouncer" gone from his mind.

When reviewing the CCTV footage of the incident (as I always do) it was pretty much a carbon copy of the Ed-Ben kick in the dojo tape, with a slightly different angle.

I took the club tape to the dojo Monday to show Ed, Ben and the rest of our group this great example of a Traditional MA technique, in this case from Muay Thai, effective in the ring, and effective on the street.

This move is still done at STMA and is now known as The Ben Kick.

"In Steve We Trust"

 Some of you will have seen the T Shirt I sometimes wear with what looks like the Terminator's metal skull with the slogan "In Steve We Trust" across the top.

This is actually a WWF shirt, for Stone Cold Steve Austin, which I picked up in America about 10 years ago.

However it makes what looks like a cool club T shirt, with appropriate slogan: "In Steve We Trust".

For a magazine shoot one time I passed the shirt round those who were posing for different pics so it looked like about 5 or 6 students were all wearing a copy of the shirt.

A month later the mag came out.

A week after that I got a call from the editor saying people had been calling the mag asking where they can get a copy of the shirt.

So we took the joke to the next level.

If you look at the back of the shirt the print says "Austin 3:16". This is of course, a reference to Stone Cold. 3:16 is a Bible reference (John 3:16 - look it up if you want).

So we put round the story that I was in Austin, Texas on March 16th the previous year for a UFC style tournament and this shirt was made by the promotions company, limited edition, and only people who were there got a copy. The students wearing the shirt, naturally, were there for the event.

I wasn't too long before people started claiming they'd been there for the fight themselves, and had even seen it on video! One person claimed to have seen the fight on TV!

Apparently there was a UK fighter in the UFC at that time. As he didn't make much of a splash nobody remembers his name, but a lot of people think it was me. It wasn't. I trained in the US on many occasion, but I never competed there, and certainly not in the UFC.

So if you meet anyone who talks about Psycho Steve's UFC match in Austin, Texas, you can smile as you know the real story.

Or you might want to have a little fun yourself and tell them you were there - and you have the T Shirt to prove it!

Achilles

 Another name I picked up during my Vale Tudo days at the turn of the Century was "Achilles".

I like to tell people this was after the Brad Pitt character in the movie Troy. However it is a reference to my use of the Achilles lock in groundgrappling.

Most people with my background in Judo and Wrestling, with upper body strength, were expected to go for the pins and look for armbars and chokes. If caught in The Guard we were expected to pass and go for the top position, a strategy which put us in danger of being caught in a sangaku or juji.

Though I did usually go for a quick mount at the start of a fight, if faced with a more skillfull opponent who rolled to his back and attempted to pull me into the guard, rather than falling for the trap, I would roll away, holding his leg, and go for the achilles lock for the tapout.

(Ken Shamrock defeated Pat Smith in UFC 1 with an achilles move into an ankle lock.)

This "stepping back" to go for a long range technique, rather than closing and doing the obvious, was a strategy consistent with my use of long range spinning kicks in my SC days - something few heavyweight fighters employed, and which perplexed fighters who weren't used to it or expecting it.

A good example of tactic being more important than technique.

NB: As for the Troy Achilles - is some of my stick fights, employing my Psycho Steve persona, I wasn't too far removed from Achille's solo fights in the film.

The first fight he rushes straight at a huge opponent with no fear and executes a kradot 6 to the subclavian. The giant drops down dead. Achilles stands in front of the entire army and offers them out "Is there no one else?!" Unsurprisingly there are no takers.

In his fight with Hector he is the personification of the concepts of power and pressure. He defeats Hector in much the same way as Tyson eliminated his early opponents.

And as for the scene where he leads the Myrmadens to take the beach at Troy - that is a great comparison with the way a Captain should lead his competition team.

I have made a post about why we will call our VT style Achilles Vale Tudo:

Astronomy Analogy

 Being Star Trek/Star Wars geeks we naturally have developed a good Astometrics analogy for how STMA works.

The astronomy model is a star which has planets orbitting it.
A planet can have moons orbitting it.

A star is formed when a planetary body becomes so massive it collapse and ignites.

We use this model to describe an MA system. With ST Karate, after many years, it got so massive it "ignited" and became a system in its own right.

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. Jupiter was almost massive enough to become a star in it's own right, although it did not. As it is, Jupiter has several moons about the same size as Earth, Venus and Mars, a little sub solar system. Had Jupiter ignited, these moons would now form a planetary system.

We can see binary star systems in our own galaxy - a smaller star orbitting a larger star. This is what potential could have happened in our system with Jupiter.

In STMA, our Jujutsu system did achieve critical mass and ignited becoming a star in it's own right, a seperate system.

ST Karate is our core star with ST JJ orbitting, forming a binary star system.

The other arts that make up STMA are planets that orbit our stars. The subsystems are the moons.

ST Kobudo is a planet orbitting ST Karate, a system made up of the weapons of karate. The moons are the individual weapons themselves.
If you wanted to specialise in Nunchaku Do, you would land on the nunchaku moon orbitting the kobudo planet. There you would spend time learning the kihon, kata and kumite of the nunchaku.

Kobudo and eskrima are a binary planet system, much like Pluto and Charon are now understood to be.

Eskrima's moons consist of largo, serrada, sinawalli, kadena, etc.

JJ, being a star, has Judo and Aikido as planets. Though I am only a 1st dan in Judo and never graded in aikido, what I teach is ST JJ, and the planets are my interpretation of what those arts manifest as.

ST kobudo may one day become a star.

We also have an analogy based on Quantum Mechanics - but that is far too complicated to post here!)

The Captain

 This was a name I was "awarded" during my time leading a competition team.

I was, of course, Captain of the team and often got called "Captain", or "Skipper".

It occured to me that this was a good thing. Rather than being a General or Manager who sat back and gave orders I was a Captain who led from the front.

In the dojo, then and today, I am not someone who gives orders and stands back, but who works out as a member of the class. From the student's points of view, you know this training is authentic, because it is MY training. You do it with me - or I do it with you, depending how you see it.

So rather than being some distant "Sensei" I am the Captain, just a member of the team.

It's the same as being the big brother of a family - not of a higher, older generation like a Father or Uncle, just someone who's been around a bit longer and has more experience.

And of course, being Sci Fi geeks who like The Matrix analogies - each of their ships had a Captain. As did the ships in Star Trek, such as The Enterprise.
Same thing.

Member not a student

 

I'm sure you will have noticed I refer to everyone as "members" of Shiro Tora" rather than "students".
(Or even worse, as "my students"!)

I view members of Shiro Tora as just that - members of a family.

Although I have a 7th degree black belt these days, and have been awarded the separate titles of Sensei (Teacher), Shihan (Master) and Kyoshi (Professor) I have avoided the trap of seeing myself as a teacher and a Father Figure.

I am a student of martial arts - a student who also teaches.

In our family I am not the "Father", I am the big brother. I have been around longer and have more experience.

In "My dojo" I have members who train WITH me, not students who train under me.

In our team I am The Captain - just a member of the team, the most important member obviously, but just a member like anyone else.

In military terms I am not an Officer who you all salute, call "Sir" and take orders from. I am the sergeant - just a soldier like you, who has risen through the ranks and earnt his stripes one by one (which is all belts in MA are).

A Black Belt should not be viewed as an Officer, but as a sergeant.

Sure you respect your sergeant and obey his orders - he has more experience than you and can kick your ass! But what you do is follow his lead and learn from him. Call him something casual like "Sarge" not "Sir".

In a REAL pub, a London pub, the landlord is called The Guvnor. He works behind the bar, serves customers, changes barrels, gets stuck in and gets his hand dirty.

Sure he's the boss, he hired you, he can fire you, but he's still just a barman, even if he owns the pub.

A "manager", in one of those new franchise places, is appointed by the brewery after going on a course, wears a different shirt, a tie, carries keys, and never gets his hand dirty.

In London boxing gyms the coach is an ex fighter, and is also called Guv.

So in STMA dojo, I am simply The Guv'nor or The Captain, and you are all members not students.

Open to anyone

 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.

STMA Summer Camp 2022

 

Caterham Outdoor venue

Kempo Jujutsu
Newaza Ground series, grappling on grass, the original environment
Aiki Jutsu projections

Koryu and Ninjutsu systems
Koto Ryu
Gyokko Ryu
Dakentaijutsu and Jutaijutsu of Shinden Fudo Ryu
Kukkishinden Ryu
Takagi Yoshin Ryu

From Togakure Ryu NINJA School we will look at the “Four Treasures” including the use of Shuriken, Metsubushi, and Shuko

Unarmed Systems:

Kempo Form 5 – Striking Self Defence sets with Takedowns and finishes
Kempo Form 6 – Weapons defences – Stick and club, knife, gun
Aiki Jutsu – immobilisations and projections
Ninpo Taijutsu – sets from the different Ryuha, and Mutodori Sword Defence
Jiu Jitsu – Shoot and Clinch standing series, then Newaza Ground Fighting

Weapons to be covered:

Knife – both single and double
Kali sticks – single and double
Largo stick
Hanbo of the Kukkishin Ryu
Bo staff and Tonfa
Bokken sword and Jo staff

This Camp is open to all current members of STMA – we will also be inviting former members from the Caterham, Shirley and Sanderstead Dojos – Everyone will be welcome and everyone will have the chance to train in both old and new techniques and drill, with both old and new friends

As always our 3 objectives are the same:

Get a good workout
Learn something
Have fun!

For more information, to get in touch, or for directions (new members) email us at

enquiries@ShiroTora.co.uk