Responding to the Critics

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“You absolute whore!” were experienced martial arts champion, self-defence expert and fitness instructor Floyd Brown’s not-so-sympathetic words when I showed him the marketing campaign being used to sell my new DVD/download self-defence programme – “Rapid Street Defence”. And there I was at the beginning of 2012 with a stack of terrifying bills looming over me on one side and the prospect of a reputable career in imminent danger on the other. 2012 is the year I get more bookings for my self-protection seminars and workshops than before, and it is also the year I have scheduled the beginning of my new “Vagabond Warriors 2.0” programme. It looks incredibly promising. Since 2003 I have steadily built up a reputation as a critical martial arts coach; one that is not afraid of controversy so long it is justifiable. I have trained and I have learnt. During this period I have made good friends and won the respect of people like Iain Abernethy, Geoff Thompson and Mo Teague, coaches who have bucked the martial arts trend and established themselves as powerhouses of information and experience. My new self-defence programme bore their names with quotes beside them singing my praises. These were hard-earned and specific quotes provided by people that many in the martial arts world consider being world class teachers – massive inspirations for me. However, what preceded these quotes is another story altogether.

I will let you read the marketing page and compare it to the rest of my website to decide whether it is a good reflection of my services or me. Hopefully you will buy it and I won’t feel so bad about being thrown to the wolves of derision that are currently snapping at my cyber-heels. However, for now I feel I need to provide some form of explanation and an attempt to address some of the negative issues raised by the promotion of this programme.

A Straightforward Job

Let’s start with a little background and something of a saga. In 2011 I was approached by Lee Mainprize to be one of several martial arts instructors who could teach an instructional film. Lee has a strong presence on the internet and is actively involved with martial arts and information technology. My research yielded nothing bad on the man. He had been actively involved in martial arts for many years, was well known to Bob Sykes of “Martial Arts Illustrated” and generally came across as a mainstream instructor who was savvy about the internet. The only issue raised was by an individual who seemed somehow narked about his apparent success, hinting at “McDojoism” – that “Generation X” word we use to describe commercialized martial artists who focus everything on making money fast.  It was a poor argument based on little and was dealt with quite swiftly by the more rational posters on a forum. I proceeded with the job.

Now, I am not going into the intricacies of the deal. Essentially a few martial arts instructors, including me, spent half a day being filmed teaching their own martial arts programme. I was a little different, in that I was booked purely to teach a generic self-defence programme that didn’t even have a name. It was later titled “Rapid Combat Defence” and then “Rapid Street Defence” by Lee later on. The deal was simple for me. I got paid a single price to teach the programme in front of the cameras and I would make money on any copies I sold. I was not misled in anyway on the financial side and I was paid on the day for my services. Now, there are plenty who would have considered my willingness to go into a job and not demand royalties as well to be naïve and foolhardy. Perhaps they are right. However, the truth is the martial arts industry is far from ideal. Many of us don’t teach full-time and struggle too. Profile is everything for many of us and there is a strong incentive that just getting your name out there on a commercial product will pay dividends. This is why the cottage industry of British martial arts moviemaking (and consumer end low-budget moviemaking in general) seems to cynically exploit those who appear in their films by paying them with supposed publicity. The same goes for magazines. Few martial arts writers in the UK get paid for their work. This is due to the fact that the martial arts industry sees exposure in any form of media as free advertising. Therefore an editor of a magazine has his door being knocked down countless martial artists hungry to get into the magazine. He pretty much has his pick. Magazines like “Martial Arts Illustrated” have tried to make this fair deal in the past by paying their writers with actual advertising space, but this is still a whole world apart from other mainstream sports magazines.

Perhaps I should have negotiated a harder deal, but I doubt it would have done me much good. Lee, if you are reading this you are probably nodding now. The demand was for a good quality self-defence programme not for “The Jamie Clubb Show”. I needed the work. It was a done deal. Looking back at the critically acclaimed documentary series “Cross Training in the Martial Arts” in 2005 and 2006 the financial situation wasn’t any better. The difference was I didn’t get paid a penny for putting the DVDs together with the cameramen/editors or for all onscreen and off-screen commentary I provided. I got my expenses paid and I receive royalties from the films. My father, who runs a full-time business in the media, thought I was mad. In fact, he loathes the offer of getting paid through publicity and will turn down a job on the spot on principle if this is offered. However, he doesn’t work in the world of martial arts. “Cross Training in the Martial Arts” did get me recognition, it won critical acclaim and brought me closer to some wonderful people. It was also a quality product that I am proud of (the second edition at least!) Unfortunately I wasn’t teaching to big numbers at seminars and courses at the time, so I have never made much money off the success of that series. The DVD helped raise my profile, but by the time that profile received any attention the DVDs were bought!

The Shoot

So I went to Colne Valley Black Belt Academy, run by “Martial Arts Illustrated” editor, Bob Sykes, and filmed the footage. There were a few problems. Firstly I wasn’t able to get a student available. I live in Oxfordshire now. My one remaining club is a children’s class in Coventry. My main work with adults is in workshops, seminars and courses all over the country. At the time, I had no adult students or assistant coaches available. So, Bob kindly leant me one of his students, a remarkably talented young man who did a fantastic job given the lack of preparation time we had on the day. Now, I stand by the content 100%. It was filmed by professionals at a good venue and I did not compromise on the material. The student was not one of mine, but a very adept individual with and a real pleasure to worth with. Ideally when I teach self-protection I put an emphasis on the soft skills aspect, but the mandate I was given for the programme was that it should 80% action and 20% information. There’s nothing wrong with that. The programme provides advice on the law relating to self-defence, advice on awareness, as well as basic information on the body’s natural response to stress and provides low maintenance no-nonsense hard skills tactics. I teach when and how to pre-emptively strike someone and then various contingency tactics. Emphasis is placed on being pre-emptive, proactive (keeping, regaining and maintaining control of a situation) and on the importance of pressure testing. There are no magic tricks, no secret moves and guarantees provided. I did attend a second day’s shoot to ensure that certain essential soft skills were included and prior to its release I recorded a special bonus audio file on dealing with multiple attackers. However, other than this I walked away from the project, satisfied that it was a job well done.

Early Problems

Initial problems seemed to start as soon as the shoot was finished. Bob Sykes, for reasons known only to him, decided to have an online dig at me whenever the programme was mentioned on Facebook. The same day I had a lengthy friendly chat with him in my car after I had finished my shoot, he had shot back at me with a rather nasty putdown after I had said I was coming up to film at his place. He seemed to be having issues with several other people in the martial arts world that were connected to me and I don’t whether I got caught in the crossfire or he genuinely disliked my work. It was all rather bizarre. He seemed to have a go as soon as Lee mentioned my programme on Facebook. Whether or not it was a joke I couldn’t really fathom. As far I could see, it was a person in a position of influence drawing negative attention to a product that had barely been given chance; an individual that called my first “Cross Training in the Martial Arts” “DVD of the Year”; a person who had got on fine with me the very day he had posted his initial nasty putdown.

Putting this rather odd episode behind me, I got an early peek at the campaign that Lee intended to use to promote our programmes. Mine mentioned some particularly bizarre over-the-top comments, particularly with reference to my training with a disciple of the Shaolin Temple.

“Barely anyone knows exactly the secrets he absorbed from the Shaolin disciple, we’re still trying to pry out the secrets from Jamie.”

 I actually thought it was intended as a joke and found it all very amusing. For the record, Laoshi Neil Genge of Song Shan Shaolin Kung Fu and Wu Shu in Bristol was this disciple. The man is one of the nicest people in the martial arts I ever met and dedicated to Chinese martial arts. Barely a year past when he wasn’t booked for a month of training in China with several renowned instructors. He trained at the modern Shaolin Temple and is considered a disciple. When I got him an interview for Combat Magazine back in 1999, Malcolm Martin called him “The West Country’s Best Kept Secret”. He built his own guan in his back garden and taught at an Olympic standard gymnastics centre. I trained there initially to gain skills for a “Mortal Kombat” audition, back when I was interested in a career in martial arts entertainment. I continued making the hour and a half trip to his school for five years when I was performing my martial arts live act.

The Launch

So, 2012 arrived and so did “Rapid Street Defence”. I still hadn’t seen the full film (I still haven’t!), but it had arrived. The marketing made me cringe. I had seen loads like it before. It was a brash lengthy letter that delivered scary facts and anecdotes about violence, and then provided amazing answers to these problems via my teaching. The advertising pretty much sums up what I don’t like about the reality-based self-defence movement. However, I wasn’t about to get pious about it. I asked Lee whether he would reconsider the marketing; make it a bit more tasteful. I received a firm no. Apparently I didn’t understand marketing. I let it slide. If it saves someone’s life that a more tasteful advertising campaign wouldn’t have reached then that’s a good thing. That’s what Geoff Thompson told me when I phoned up for a bit of a heart-to-heart.

He should know. Back in 2003 Kate Kray interviewed him for the shamelessly sensationalist pulp non-fiction literature “Hard Bastards 2”. Once again, Geoff didn’t compromise with his interview. He didn’t make up stories. He tried to get his point and honest opinion across. He told me he originally regretted doing the book. It wasn’t the direction he wanted to head. However, it connected with an individual who found him through that book. That individual sought out Geoff’s own work and so his journey began. Likewise, when I passed a job to do “Danny Dyer’s Deadliest Men” – a “hard man” TV series that is actually worse than Kray’s book – to Mo Teague, my coach drew negative criticism. The episode portrayed Mo as a psychologically damaged ex-soldier with violent issues. Many martial artists took it at complete face value. I was shocked. Okay, I have an advantage. I see how the media works on a regular basis. My family has also experienced, first hand, how bad the media can distort and blatantly make up information about individuals. Nevertheless, the programme a lot of the general public and provided Mo Teague with the type of exposure a coach of his calibre deserves.  

The Backlash

As I predicted, it wasn’t long before others in the martial arts world started picking up the over-the-top marketing and, of course, I had a nice red target sign all over me. Suddenly I was an example of what was bad in reality-based self-defence. It was as if I became the embodiment of what I criticized in my article “The Pornography of Reality-Based Self-Defence”. The advert has a clip from the programme showing a basic distance control exercise. The context of the exercise is to teach a person when it is legally and tactically best to pre-emptively strike. A makeshift wall is erected behind him to prevent the student from escaping. The coach (me) then plays the role of the unarmed aggressor. I stay outside of the student’s personal space and test his barrier (or fence).  

I was amazed by a lot of the criticism about this very basic tactic. Many people seemed to think the student should simply attack, which is not only illegal but also runs the risk of being drawn onto a strike. There were irrelevant argument about striking martial arts stances – the student in the footage does nothing more than raise his hand momentarily every time I move forward. He is using an unconscious and non-threatening barrier. There is nothing static or stylistic about it. On the day I just told him the concept. I emphasise again and again that the hands must never be seen as “martial arty”. That’s the whole point. I have seen this tactic used and have used it myself millions of times.

Then at the other end of the scale I had critics who felt the drill was unrealistic. Apparently this is not how attacks are initiated. In real life people get into your face. Er, hello! They don’t if you keep your damn hand up and hit them first! A link to footage of an ex-soldier hitting an aggressor on his doorstep was used to illustrate the proper use of the fence. This clip, which was reported in The Sun newspaper, shows an aggressive man trying to intimidate another man on his doorstep. After spending ages in the doorstep man’s face the aggressor finally gets the confidence to attack. The doorstep man responds and sits the bully on his backside, assuming a type of static fence stance afterwards. Full respect to the man on the doorstep; perhaps he had assessed that the bully was never going to hit him with much force and this was the reason why he allowed him to stand so close. It is dead easy to be judgmental and shout from the sidelines in such instances. The end result is the innocent party thwarted the person who meant him harm. Whatever he did worked. I am not disputing that. However, from a teaching perspective I would rather not take the risk of allowing anyone I deemed as potential threat into my personal space. I am not going to allow him that freedom or take the risk. He touches my hands, I hit him. It’s as simple as that. I base this on my own experiences, countless observations of real-life situations, studies in behavioural science and, rather bizarrely, on the experiences of my family members when they have trained wild animals.  Yes, with my circus background, sometimes real-life is a little stranger than the wildest of marketing stories!

One of the forum discussions caught the attention of Neil Holland. Neil was a policemen for 30 years, is a crime prevention expert who has worked with CSI and is an amateur and pro boxing coach. This is what he had to say publically about my instruction in the clip:

“I could write a dissertation on why I endorse your instruction in that clip. Should the threatened person end up having to strike then it needs to be crystal clear that non-violent options were seriously attempted first and that in spite of everything the threatened person genuinely believed he was about to be subject to serious harm. Unless the definition has changed (it may have done, mine is very old and I haven't checked it before posting) an assault used to be described as 'any attempt, threat, or offer to inflict unlawful physical harm on another person with the apparent ability to carry it out'. Even if the legalities have changed slightly, in my opinion one still needs to demonstrate that REASONABLE steps were taken to avoid a violent act by yourself. What better way than to try and keep the aggressor out of your personal space and to take positive action to diffuse the situation? Not only that BTW, the foot positions in the film are spot on for a few reasons that are common sense never mind martial art based. If the student, via teaching, is familiar with the micro-detail of such circumstances they are therefore mentally prepared and calmer. This helps them to make decisions that are not emotionally triggered and likely to result in OTT responses and gratuitous violence under the false belief that they 'Didn't start it, but they'll finish it' mentality. Many people out there haven't been involved in an altercation since the playground and from experience I know that one single punch can turn a person's life, and their families' upside down. Taking everything into consideration, the stance is perfect and what I would teach in terms of self defence.”

Fortunately, there are others who know of me and have kindly defended me, and seen the marketing for what it is. PA Smith - who I haven't been in contact with at all during this whole episode or since - said he was shocked by the way I was being promoted and suspected I had nothing to do with the promoting side. My thanks to other disperate martial arts instructors who know me and my work and stood by me.  This is no slight on Lee Mainprize. He has a product he has invested in and needs to sell. This is his area of expertise. If I make any sales through the page he has created for me and I have (shamlessly?) linked then I can only thank him. Contrary to one instructor's wild assumption, I am not doing this for a living and have financial issues of my own. Hopefully 2012 will be the year that changes and I can continue produce the sort of work that got me the credibility represented by those valuable quotes on the advert.

The exposure has also brought more attention to my other work, including footage taken at a small informal workshop I ran last year and yet more misunderstanding. More grist for the mill, as the old cliche goes, and I look forward to addressing this criticism and better explaning my "unusual" coaching methods in a future post.

In the meantime, I thank everyone for their support particularly Zoe Nelson of Kyushinkai Martial Arts in Telford, Andras Milward of FAST Defence and Kamon Wing Chun, Andrew Holland of MASAC Ju Jutsu and the selfdefenceexpert.com and Floyd Brown, who encouraged me to write this piece.

Also Andrew Rheeston who first drew my attention to negative discussions regarding the programme's marketing. He actually went on the forum and defended my position.