THIS MONTH IN COMBAT |
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JAKE OGDEN - I'm Here To Help! |
 Jake Ogden has become one of the fore most figures in the martial arts world and martial arts delivery. He heads one of the most prolific organizations in the country in terms of participation, retention, achievement and growth. Jake is one of a kind and his excellence and pedigree is second to none as he has represented his country at multiple different sports and holds black belts in 4 different systems. He graduated from university in sports science and management and is a certified lecturer in sport. What makes Jake more than just a martial arts expert is his passion for good practice, indomitable spirit and his dedication to his students. In just 4 years of opening up his own art form to the public, Jake has accumulated more than 4,000 students nation wide, all of whom practice Jake's personal fighting system Jado Kuin Do. Martial arts have helped Jake immensely throughout his life, as he was a victim of bullying as a small child. Through martial arts Jake turned his life around and is now a mentor, lecturer and role model to many young and older people across sports education establishments and martial arts institutes around the UK, Europe and the United States of America.
Jake Ogden was born in Northampton, England. At the age of eight Jake took up Martial Arts in the form of traditional Kung Fu (Lee Chuan Fa) under Sifu Paul Carter after being bullied at school and being inspired by Bruce Lee's famous 'Enter the Dragon' film. Jake also began to learn Judo under Steph Carter along side playing rugby.
By the age of sixteen, Jake was studying martial arts 7 days a week along side playing rugby for Northampton Saints U19s, where he was selected for the England U16s rugby Union team (4 x caps). He then signed a professional rugby contract with Super League high flyers Salford Reds, at this point Jake moved to Manchester as a professional rugby league player. Jake kept up his martial arts training which helped him stay flexible, coordinated, disciplined and fit which complimented his rugby immensely. Whilst in Manchester Jake trained at the famous Phoenix Boxing Gym which has produced boxers such as Ricky Hatton, Carl Thompson and Ainsley Bingham.
After 4 yrs of living in Manchester Jake's rugby bought him back to Northampton where he signed a contract for Northampton Saints RUFC in '96. In '97 Jake retired from playing rugby through injury and concentrated on his martial arts full-time. He turned to Kickboxing this time and was coached by Morris Young. He also went to train under Mic Fowles and Jim Bacon for a short while and was then coached by the Legendary Master Ronnie Green in kick/thai boxing.
Jake also holds Black Belts in Kickboxing, Karate, Thai boxing and Taekwondo Do. Jake has studied Lau Gar Kung Fu, Shotokan Karate, Jujitsu, Wado-Ryu Karate, Aikido, Taekwondo, Wing Chun Kung Fu and Tang Soo Do.
From Jake's extensive martial arts background he has formulated his very own unique self-defence and fighting system, based on his own scientific concepts. This was the birth of the JADO KUIN DO art form...
Read more in Combat magazine available from WH Smith and all good newsagents and don't forget to look out for the Digital Edition
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STAY SAFE - An Englishman's Home is his Castle... Or Is It??? |
 There has always been a lot of controversy about what homeowners are allowed and not allowed to do when it comes to defending their home. I regularly meet and talk with people who are under the impression that if you use force against a burglar for example, the police are likely to charge you.
These simmering ambers of fear have been fanned into full-blown fires by cases like the Tony Martin case. You may remember that Tony Martin was the Norfolk farmer who in1999 shot and killed Fred Barras and wounded Brendan Fearon whilst defending his property. The general public's perception and response to that case was that he shouldn't have been convicted as he should have every right to defend his property and burglars, such as Barras and Fearon deserved what they got.
Now that is all good and well on one level, but if we allowed people to use whatever force they wished the State would soon devolve into a state of anarchy with vigilantes operating without remorse or recourse to the law, and that should never be allowed.
However, the Tony Martin case did highlight one thing and raised the question about what homeowner's rights are, and, more importantly a better understanding of what reasonable force is.
NECESSARY AND PROPORTIONALITY
In the Tony Martin case I think any reasonable person would agree that it would become necessary for any homeowner to have the right to use force. However, force cannot just be justified by merely becoming necessary. The amount of force used must be proportionate to the harm or wrongdoing that which you are defending against or trying to put right. What the Tony Martin case illustrates for us however, it that although an intrusion may be regarded as something that may be necessary for someone to address, the response or the use of force option, has to be proportionate and discharging a gun to kill someone who is running away was proved in Court to be a disproportionate response to defending his property.
Further to that, it was proved in Court that Mr. Martin was motivated by revenge and if any force is used for revenge or retribution, or for teaching people a lesson then you have no defence to any charges brought against you...
Read more in Combat magazine available from WH Smith and all good newsagents and don't forget to look out for the Digital Edition
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MIKE FINN'S BUNBU SERIES - Real Life Encounters - Part 10 |
 In this series I will be writing about the use of martial arts technique and strategy in some of the many violent encounters I had as a young police officer in the 1960s and 1970s. Pictures have been created to capture the feeling of the situations, but they should not be relied on to represent the actual events. Looking back at my youth I can say that police arrest is considerably harder to accomplish than the violence used by thugs. The aggressor can use any means they like, but the officer has to effect an arrest using reasonable force.
Martial Arts training is very different to the unpredictability of actual encounters, although I have said this before, it can not be overemphasised. When I first went to Japan in the 1960s, it was not uncommon for students to be seriously injured or die during training. Attending a dojo in Japan during that period took on a very different meaning, it changed your perception, intent, self preservations instincts and resolve. I am sure this fact will be agreed by those who were there during that era. Today the fear of litigation, politically correct attitudes, and our environmental genre, do not allow for that condition to exist. However, in actual encounters, if you decide to adopt a positive role in a confrontation, that is exactly the risk you take.
As a police officer, plain clothes added a new dimension to some of my encounters. For example, a police uniform in those days had a controlling effect on situations, but in plain clothes you looked the same as everyone else. Well that's not quite true, I remember one occasion when I was disguised as a vagrant. To be convincing in plain clothes, you not only have to look the part, but also believe in the role you are playing.
There was a noted underground line in London that had a particularly bad reputation for late night violence. When uniformed officers went down to the platform the violence ceased as long as they were there, then began as soon as they left. The cry of "watch out, old bill" echoed like an early warning system and there were few arrests. To answer this problem, the group I was with were sent in under cover. I drew the short straw and was disguised as a vagrant.
A little dust in my hair, dirty hands and face, tatty unkempt clothing, and a cigarette butt hanging from my mouth made a convincing case. When I sat on the platform seats, people got up and moved away quickly, and when I asked for a light with slightly slurred speech, I knew my role was persuasive. In just a few weeks of constant arrests, the thugs on the platforms did not know who was who, they would point to nuns and pensioners, whispering, "watch it, I recon their coppers". The uncertainty of who were police kept those platforms violence free for quite a long time after out unit left...
Read more in Combat magazine available from WH Smith and all good newsagents and don't forget to look out for the Digital Edition
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TRAIN2GAIN WITH PHILIP MALIN - Weight Training |
The Truth, The Whole Truth & Nothing but... The Truth!
 Since I started writing for Combat magazine my intention was to try and help budding martial artists avoid the many pitfalls associated with training with weights. I make no claims about being an expert, I'm not a martial artist and I'm not particularly well conditioned. The thing I have done is change from a very skinny, very weak kid to a much larger, stronger and older man! It took ages to get to this (slightly above average) level and there are many things I can and would change if I had my time again. I started training my friend Gavin for judo and he has made huge leaps in strength and size in a reasonably short period of time. Gavin has told me that his ability to perform his martial art has improved due to this improvement in strength - his options as a fighter have increased. He can now add another string to his metaphoric bow of skill and speed - that string is strength. If you are a rank novice then some strength improvements would be useful and if you are a seasoned veteran then a strength increase might be a welcome boost to your endeavours.
The reason I've missed an issue or two is that I considered that anyone who has read my articles has all of the information needed to progress for a significant period of time. There is no short cut, no secrets, no formula that will benefit you in the quest to get bigger. Organised routines sold and promoted in various media may well be of great benefit to you, that benefit would largely be due to a structure and organisation of training that stresses continual progress in a progressive manner. Sticking with a routine and constantly striving to improve are the 'secrets' everyone seeks. It is a sad reflection on society that we all seek out the short route to success - a popular author has estimated that in order to be World Class in virtually every field of achievement needs at least 10,000 hours of effort - ten thousand!
That seems like an awful lot of work - especially if you're only a teenager - that's a long way to go. Let's think about this though - do you need to be an Elite powerlifter to be a good martial artist, it might be fun to be both but is it necessary? Somewhere along the way on this hypothetical 10,000 hour journey you're going to be strong, and very, very early on this journey you will be stronger than you are now.
I think that a degree of perspective is useful in this field - it takes a long time to reach your full potential in any field, some are lucky and get there faster, think about this - if you were one of these lucky people you would know this by now. If you were someone that instinctively knew what to do in your training then you probably wouldn't be reading this article - you'd be doing it.
Dont feel bad about this - you are likely to make up 99.9% of the weight training population. Another (hopefully) small percentage might decide to use steroids and make gains that way. Steroids are a great way to make a hopeless routine look useful and they’re a shortcut and you’re not so weak willed and weak minded to need a short cut are you ? You want to look at your gains and feel proud - you want to laugh when people ask you if you are taking steroids - it’s a good feeling, much better than lying and hiding your illegal and illicit habit...
Read more in Combat magazine available from WH Smith and all good newsagents and don't forget to look out for the Digital Edition
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THE POWER TO WIN - It's All in The Mind! |
Developing Proper Mindset for Self Protection
 You can't succeed at anything unless you first have a mindset that is conducive to success. The world's top athletes do not win competitions purely through their physical prowess. In the world of sport, very little separates the winners and the losers in terms of physical fitness and skill levels. What really separates the winners and the losers is mindset. Winners spend a great deal of time working on getting the right mindset that will lead them towards success.
Similarly, the military spends a lot of time in making sure their personnel have the right mindset in place before they are sent out into the field. The military understand that it is not just a matter of showing a person how to fire a gun; you also have to get that person psychologically ready to fire that gun under extreme pressure, otherwise you don't have a soldier, you just have a guy with a gun in his hand.
The same thing applies to self defence. You can teach a person all the physical techniques in the world but unless that person has the right mindset that will allow them to use those techniques when it truly matters (when they are under extreme pressure) then what you end up with is another person walking about with a proverbial loaded gun who doesn't have a clue how to use it when it counts. There are loads of people out there who, to stay with the same analogy, are over-confidently waving guns around, firing shots of into the air in an effort to impress themselves and others. It is only when they find themselves in a situation where they have to use that gun for real do they find themselves badly lacking in the mental attributes necessary for success. The thing that they put so much misplaced faith in to protect themselves is swiftly taken of them like it was nothing and shoved where the sun doesn't shine. They are left feeling shattered, physically, mentally and emotionally and wondering what went wrong.
The field of self defence has come a long way in recent years, thanks to the teachings of people who have spent many years immersing themselves in the reality of brutal violence, testing to see what worked and what didn't work and then coming up with workable systems to teach others what they have experienced firsthand. Thanks to these trailblazers, most people now understand that successful self defence demands a whole different approach to that of the approach expounded for many years by traditional martial arts. Proper reality training has very little to do with martial arts, or at least traditional martial arts. To meet the demands of the street you have to train for the street and that doesn't involve doing complicated and unworkable techniques, nor does it involve doing techniques which haven't been thoroughly pressure tested, either through firsthand experience or through properly formulated pressure drills in the dojo...
Read more in Combat magazine available from WH Smith and all good newsagents and don't forget to look out for the Digital Edition
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FEKO 2010 CHILDREN AND CADETS OPEN NATIONAL KARATE CHAMPIONSHIPS |
 Held at its regular venue, the Harvey Hadden Centre in Nottingham, this years Championships clearly showed their importance in the karate calendar by attracting over 500 entries. Event organiser, Jim Reece, ran the day's events, organising the four tatamis and over forty categories. He was accompanied at the by FEKOs Chairman, Alan Carruthers and FEKO Executive Members Noel Mantock and Dr Josh Johnson. In charge of the tatamis was FEKO Chief Referee Robert Phillips.
Throughout the day the competitors, coaches and officials demonstrated an exemplary level of professionalism with both wins and defeats being accepted gracefully. At the end of what was a very successful day, Mandie Read's Dudley Shukokai Karate Association took home a substantial number of trophies winning 16 Gold, 13 Silver and 17 bronze, once again topping the results table.
Kyojo- Kai having recently rejoined Karate Sport England saw their squad win 8 medals, much to the delight of coaches John Anderson, Glen Middleton and Trevor Justin. Another face from EKGB days was Fred Rose (BUKA) and it was real pleasure to welcome him and his members back in FEKO again.
FEKO's Children and Cadets together with FEKO's Cadets and Senior Open National Karate Championships are now firmly established and much anticipated events in the National karate calendar.
Another successful National Championships once again proved that an 'open to all' National Championships without restraint to political affiliation is the best way to bring all karateka together as one family and move forward. Immediate feedback from the Championships has been extremely positive...
Read more in Combat magazine available from WH Smith and all good newsagents and don't forget to look out for the Digital Edition
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