Ninjutsu Uncovered

What do you feel like when the theme tune to Rocky is played….I can see you throwing punches out into the air and skipping on your toes, everyone’s mood changes when you hear rocky!  I sometimes sense when the kickboxing class is dropping and feeling tired I will put the rocky theme on and hey presto the class lights up and finishes the session on a high with no signs of stopping; that’s the power of music. Ever since I started training I have used music to help me along; in my solo training as a kid growing up in the 70’s and 80’s I used whatever songs that inspired me. I used to tape things off the TV or radio (top 40, Sunday nights, trying to cut it off before anyone spoke) and if I could find a soundtrack in Woolworths or HMV I would pick songs and so a tape to tape copy (I was a posh kid that had a double cassette, one that would play and the other play and record). My mega mix would then be taken outside and plugged into an extension cable from my shed so that I could put my ...

Come and fight in my back garden for my home made world championship belt! Bring your friends and charge them £30 per ticket! Every e-mail I open and every text I get sent wants fighters to fill a card up!! There are more shows than Fighters; is it a fight show Gold rush, the chance to make it big because there is gold in them there hills? Every weekend there is a fight show or 2 or 7 in one weekend either MMA, K1 kickboxing or Boxing. (Unlicensed ….then you have to licence them before you fight or they take it out of your purse or handbag). Lads you know that can’t fight and have done little or no training apart from hitting the bag at the YMCA as hard as they can while their friends’ video it for 20secs and then upload it on Face book as if it was a UFC production. Promoters are coming out of the woodwork to get people with little or no training to have a fight and bring their clan with them to support their warrior so they can make a pot full of money! Ego is feeding this fire. Ever...

Captains log from the sofa.........Day 5 Sitting with my leg on a cushion unable to bend, black and blue stiff and gutted! Life was not always this way..... Wed the 6 th of March I was having a great day teaching classes as normal, many of which used my left leg as a target to practise timing, distance and power kicks (ouch!) The life of a martial arts coach is at most times painful, letting people practise the fighting moves on your body like a cheap whore; only joking! Sometimes people go out of their way to kick you as hard as they can to prove to you they are tough and today was no exception (another day at the office). After teaching 5 classes in a row I quickly changed and made my way to Eldon Square recreation centre to help the smooth running of the Eddie Bravo seminar! The AFC Scrap pack set up the mats and made sure everyone was ok while Chris Mason and I went to find Eddie. The attendance was about 60 people, 27 of them from the AFC - so proud that they all came to learn fr...

The UFC was once again coming to Manchester, England, great fights on GMT so a UFC night was on the plans for the Atkin household, but more importantly the UFC coming means Eddie Bravo was in the country! And he was holding a course before the show! Game on……. 10 th Planet Jiu-jitsu was really taking off all over the world; Bushido MMA was the place to be at 11am on Saturday 14 th of November, come hell or high water, I would make it there. After sorting out instructors to cover classes I had arranged to meet Neil Foggin and Paul Holmes in Byker the text said ‘the AFC to meet at the KFC at 7am to see the Twister!’ (Eddie’s nickname taken from one of his many great moves) 7am: BYKER KFC Paul and Neil got there on time and off we went, anyone that has been on a course can tell you the buzz you get from going on them, as Neil put it we were like kids - all excited, laughing and joking. We made good time down the A1 then across onto the M18 then onto the M1; the day was bright and the sky...

Have you ever stood to watch a technique and saw the “ instructor” describe in detail how to do it in the real world and you thought to yourself, this is b**l s**t! Unfortunately I have attended many of these so-called self –defence courses when they have been nothing more than an ego boosting fantasy trip for the instructor. Who gives any person that wears a black belt the right to lie to the public about saving their lives? It would be like sending someone that has just played Call of Duty into a real war zone and making them believe they can fight! Over the years that I have trained I have been lucky enough to have been beaten up (in a good way) by the likes of Geoff Thompson, Keith Porter and John Dawson among others; all real fighters that teach real self-defence; like the dog brothers say: “higher conscious through harder contact,“ and take it from me - they did! Lol. There has been many a time I have woken up after a little nap due to this style of training. Some people would ...

Here we are in January, the month were you start again with the diet and the fitness and the healthy lifestyle. But as I sit here writing this I have an eye infection (that accounts for my bad spelling as I can’t see, lol) my back is sore from the classes I have done all week and I am tired but still need to do my blog - don’t you just love homework at 42! Everyone and their dog has been ill before Christmas, during Christmas or in the New Year so the body has spent most of the time battling infection or the flu or the norovirus  that has been turning young and old into the little possessed girl out of the exorcist; not the swearing just the vomiting!  After a few days of this your body is weak as a kitten and you feel less likely to overindulge in the festive spirit or food mountain. By the time you get yourself pulled around you are back at work as if you have never left and the feeling of Groundhog Day once again starts to play with your mind. It could be that for months t...

Before you get so drunk that you can’t read this I have some words of wisdom for you merry people regarding going out in and around the festive time of year. Everyone likes to go out over the Christmas and New Year but sometimes it is the most dangerous time of the year! OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY This is when like the boots advert hordes (I did say hordes) of women and the odd bloke (very odd ) get glammed up with their best sparkly  top and 7 inch heels and try and walk while drunk around the city centre of Newcastle (the same up and down this country) some of them have not been out since lasts years do (for good reason) because these lovely  women turn into scary creatures of the night draped in tinsel and party hat with feather boa of the swinging  forties  and now that they are the same age they become sex pests.  There is no waiter safe from the hands of one of these creatures and one dropped fork would result in a quick, but unseen to the naked eye, fondle mu...