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Alnwick, Northumberland

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Phil Doherty - Below the Belt (click here)	Adverts
ASK STUPID QUESTIONS... PHIL DOHERTY: MY students are always asking me questions. Which is something that I encourage. But when I'm asked questions in the pub about martial arts I always get wary. Some of you may think I'm a bit paranoid, a bit strange perhaps, but I always get a little ball of dread in the pit of my stomach when I hear the words "Well, show us somethink then!" You just know that if you do "show somethink then" it won't end good. Done half-heartedly then the clever dick will just say "that wouldn't work" and if you apply it vigorously they'll squeal like a pig and shout how you tried to break their arm/leg/ finger etc. Or - quite likely - take a wild swing for your nose. (I once got a kick in the unmentionables ...well, I was young and stupid...)	Help support Martial News advertise your club or association... Write news stories and features for Martial News Spread the word about Martial News...
Richard Matthews - kenpo korner (click here)	PARTY SHOP
THREE BUTTON DOWN AND KENPO RICHARD MATTHEWS: While growing up in the North East of England, the very first bit of Self defence advice I remember getting was from my Mother, a lovely but tenacious little women from Dingle in Kerry was, “if a bad man grabs hold of you son kick him as hard as you can in the shins, stamp on his foot and then run like hell!”. The second bit of memorable advice came in my early teens from my Dad a true Geordie and a really genuine man who did not advocate violence at all but who was a realist about how situations can occur, any way his advice to me was, “if you ever have to fight a “Big Fella” then punch him as fast and as hard as you can aiming for his third shirt button down, if he is still standing then run like hell!”. This simple advice from what seems like an age ago was I suppose my introduction to the Martial Arts from a Self Defence point of view...CLICK ABOVE	Party Balloons - Fancy Dress Face Painting - Party Decorations Tricks and Treats - Wigs Saucy Fun Outfits - BOUNCY CAsTLES 01665 606656 www.onestopfunshop.co.uk
john barrass and matt chadwick - reality bites (click here)	AIKIDO CLASSES
SIMPLICITY UNDER PRESSURE JOHN BARRASS: As one of hundreds if not thousands of instructors teaching some sort of self-defence or combat method I am continually asking myself the same question. Are we really preparing our students for a real confrontation in the street? Are the safe training environments of the club or dojo giving a false sense of security to the students and how many students are now training to deal with multiple aggressors? Government records show that of all the violent crime that took place in the UK last year more than half of the attacks were carried out by multiple assailants. Some of these cases report two or more people attacking one person (including the use of deadly weapons). The more traditional methods of learning any given art or system as most people know is the one to one approach...CLICK ABOVE	Zanshin Aikido Sunderland University Sundays 6 to 8pm Fridays 7 to 9pm The new Cityscape Centre Chester Road Campus psethp@yahoo.co.uk www.zanshinaikido.co.uk0191 5226294
peter seth - aikido extras (click here)	MMA EQUIPMENT
THE INWARD JOURNEY PETER SETH: After well over forty years studying martial arts my thoughts at the moment are that (as probably been said many times before), the real "message" of martial arts is not to compete with others. But instead to take that hardest of challenges the "Inward Journey" of competing with yourself. Instead of the "outward" competition, the goal being to fight, win, destroy, kill, take, dominate – the list goes on! If more energy was devoted to an inward journey in this case using martial arts as a vehicle. Then maybe a less negative set of outcomes would result...CLICK ABOVE	Coming Soon Cut-Price equipment for the region's clubs
john atkin - ninjutsu uncovered (click here)	STREET COMBAT CLASSES
FLAT OUT FOR GRACIE! JOHN ATKIN: My days at the gym are always busy and Saturday 22^nd of May was no exception, apart from fitting in training with Royce Gracie to an already hectic day!!! I got to the gym bright and early to teach my Saturday morning private classes then taught kickboxing and two kid's classes named the tigers and the dragons. Syd, big Mick and Paul Holmes arrived to go to the Course; we said our goodbyes and set off for Hartlepool to John Dawson's CCA HEADQUARTERS. As I was driving we all chatted about how good the course would be as Syd and myself had trained with Royce before, and Paul was describing our ill-fated attempt to train with Eddie Bravo (see chasing twister blog), when at 70mph we had a blowout!!! The Holmes curse struck again!...CLICK ABOVE	Every Wednesday and Friday - 7.30pm Willowburn Leisure Centre Alnwick, Northumberland
sue wharton - the student's eye (click here)	FIRST AID & CRT COURSES
UKETE AND SEMETE IN KARATE SUE WHARTON: I thought I'd sorted out the roles of uke and tori a while ago then I decided to find out a bit more about them and Wham! Something that was straight forward is no longer straight forward. The word uke means to receive. The kanji character for uke depicts two hands, one reaching down, the other stretching up, and between them is placed the character for "boat". This "conveyance of goods from one person to another" became, over the centuries, the kanji to indicate the act of "receiving." It appears that the word "uke" is used differently in different martial arts. The most common understanding of the roles of uke and tori is found in the grappling arts where uke provides the initial attack and then "receives" the defensive technique from tori...CLICK ABOVE	First Aid Courses Conflict Resolution Training phil.doherty@hotmail.co.uk
Darren currah - A stranger in a strange land (click here)
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS IN BULGARIA DARREN CURRAH: My girlfriend and I went along to watch one of the classes before I decided if would join in. I got there early and a couple of young lads were there waiting for the instructor to arrive. I tried speaking with them to find one of them spoke pretty good English. We had a reasonable conversation in broken English and I got a little info about the club and instructor. People started arriving in dribs and drabs, some already changed and quite funnily some of the lads were holding a Gi top up whilst the others got changed. I guess there not used to a female being in the room, not like martial artists to be shy in front of women. There were only about 12 lads and only a few with a Gi top and belt, but no Gi bottoms just shorts and most just in a t-shirt and casual shorts...CLICK ABOVE	COMING SOON... Cut-price clothing and Equipment for the region's clubs
Peter Falkous inside the cage (click here)	MMA COMPETITIONS
STANDARDS OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS (MMA) PETE FALKOUS: At times you always think to yourself ‘that would make great content for my blog’ and suddenly you forget about it, my fault for not taking a notebook everywhere I go… oh well. I guess it might not just be me who has thought about this before although it is something that never seems to be written about or even talked about outside of friendship circles. The standard of fighters who are competing in MMA seems to vary drastically from promotion to promotion, regardless if it is the UFC or my very own Northern Fight League. In the early days of going and reporting on events it was taken for granted that not all fighters would be of a high standard, which I believe they are these days on a whole...CLICK ABOVE	Northern Fight League MMA and K - 1 www.northernfightleague.co.uk