How It All Started

HOW IT ALL STARTED

 

After retiring from teaching the martial arts in 2009, due in part to ill health, I began writing a series of articles on the martial arts. Not wishing to cover the same ground that many others had done many times before with regard to the history, development, origins and technical aspects of the various combat styles I thought I would try my hand at writing a beginners guide to the combat arts instead, but of course, this had also been done many times before.

 

 

It was at this point that I realised that many, if not all, books and articles that were aimed at the new beginner were based on a specific fighting style in the main and were aimed at promoting that particular way of doing things as a way of attracting new students to their school of combat. This being the case only the positive and beneficial aspects of the martial art style in question would be promoted, of course, and not the negative things that the new beginner would be unaware of at that point in time.

It was then that I made the decision to highlight not only the positive and beneficial aspects of learning the martial arts but also many of the tricks and cons that some instructors would turn to.

 

Although not aiming to be controversial in any way I also thought that to do the work I was undertaking any true justice it had to be open and honest and needed to be based on my own true experiences for accuracy. I also realised that to make things as fair as possible I also needed to be neutral and balanced in the way I write so that I did not harm the many martial arts clubs and individuals around the world who did teach and promote the fighting arts to a very good standard.

 

Having been involved in the martial arts since 1973, and had seen a fair few things in that time, I set to work to put together a series of articles that were informative for the new beginner in addition to some more technical stuff for the more advanced student and instructor. I also began adding various factual events that ranged from just plain silly to illegal.