Bruce Lee and all that

I've been fascinated by Bruce Lee and martial arts since I was a kid. Back then, there was no Youtube or anything, so it was always a real treat to see some clip of Lee on any of the few terrestrial channels, or turn up unexpectedly in some movie likeMarlowe. You might catch some short piece on karate or some such on Nationwide or somewhere, but by and large there was just no information out there to get hold of.I did get hold ofKung Fu Monthlynow and again, but that was the price of my full weekly pocket money, so I only ever got two copies! Actually, I don't think I ever saw any more copies in the newsagents or I'd have bought them regardless... Anyway, I used to buy those Kung Fu comics too,The Deadly Hands of Kung FuandIron Fist, as they were slightly easier to get hold of; in a provincial northern town in Scotland.I tried my first karate class aged about 10-years-old. For about six lessons. The nearest classes were over ten miles away, a half hour or more bus ride, and at night, so my dad had to take me there and back, and wait the ninety minutes in between too.That was never going to last.So, it wasn't till I got to sixteen, and a mate got into it too, at the very same classes at the very sames places I went to when I was 10, that I got back into it. But again, the distance, the bus fares and class and grading fees were a bit of a burden on my non-existent bank account, and I was relying on the folks to fund it all. So, again, it just petered out after about a year or so.Until I went to university. I was in halls and flats, I had four years lined up, and Freshers week advertised a Freestyle Karate class - which I signed-up to. Actually, I'd went looking for the Kung Fu class that had a poster up in the Student Union but those guys never showed up, so I went with the guys that did.I was looking to switch to Kung Fu as there wasn't exactly a lot of choice of martial arts classes out my neck of the woods, and the only thing offered was Shotokan Karate. I found it flat-footed and unrealistic, the blocks and strikes, and the thing that I really loved, all them high, fancy kicks I seen in movies were non-existent. But mostly it was how stiff and lacking fluidity that made think I was just kidding myself with this shit, that it was unlikely anyone was going to come at you like in the drills we practised. I remember asking the instructor (sensei) what the best best block for a side kick was during just such an exercise, and him demonstrating a "wing block" - which was hand on hip, and swinging the elbow to deflect the kick - in theory. That one always stuck with me for the sheer bollocks of it. A Shotokan side kick is such a convoluted, telegraphed motion that it's easier to just take your time and stroll out of its way.Nothing to fear here...So, I was looking for something with a bit more flow, and in my inexperience, thought that only the Chinese martial arts possessed that characteristic. In the event, the Freestyle karate thing fitted the bill for me and I stuck with it all the way through to first Dan.Absolutely loved it too! I don't think I ever missed a class. I was sorry to leave further education solely because I'd miss my karate classes. Freestyle had been just as it said on the tin and free of the regimented, clockwork drills of traditional karate, and had that fluidity I'd been looking for. It was pretty rounded too as one of the instructors was also a Ju-Jitsu guy, so we did a fair bit of grappling as well.Thus when I returned back to my hometown, and couldn't find anything comparable to what I'd been doing, I was forced to try traditional karate again and returned to Shotokan.For maybe two classes.I remember thinking the instructor was shit. I mean, he was probably good at Shotokan, but it was the same flat-footed bullshit. I'd been learning boxing-type punches and Wing Chun trapping techniques, and the "stepping punch" drills just seemed a massive (no pun intended) step backwards. In sparring I easily ran rings around the guy taking the class, and he kept stopping to tell me, "That wasn't allowed" whenever he got another bop. "Allowed" meaning in terms of competition point fighting, rather than points in terms of protecting yourself or actual self-defence.But I still wasn't fighting, and still really hadn't with my Freestyle either, because it was still "light contact" with its own point systems. I'd had the fight reality gap driven home as guys from the boxing club used to come to Freestyle on occasion, and I recalled one memorable (and sore) pasting I got. He wasn't being a dick either, he just spared at a different level of hitting.I was thinking then, that I needed something a bit harder, as well as a bit closer to what to I'd been doing. So, I bounced to Kickboxing. That was still in its early days up in my neck of the woods then, and there was only one class available.The instructor was... a "character" too, to put it diplomatically. A bullshitter to be undiplomatic. He was good at what he did, he wasn't a phoney, but my Lord did he love himself and get carried away with his stories. I thought 50% of it was horse shit, but a lot of the guys ate it up. Many of these sorts of clubs can become little fiefdoms and this dude was certainly carving that as he was aiming to open a whole academy of schools.I just wanted to train, but I didn't really fit in with the after-class stories as I say. You'd be sat on the floor after cool-down stretches, listening to this guy brag on everything from how women he'd banged, to how many guys he'd beat up. I smiled, but I couldn't cough my yucks up like the otherFight Clubcult members sitting beside me.Not too sure what practical application this has...Also, I remember a couple of niggles. My Dan grade couldn't be accepted. Apparently he'd had to send my certificates off to somewhere to have them vetted, and they were rejected, so I was back to square one. That was okay, though, I could live with that, I just wanted to continue training... except I'd given him them certificates on the Monday and got them back on the Wednesday. Like, "sending them somewhere" was just a bald faced lie - this guy was running a business and me on the ground floor was more about the potential fees that could be extracted out of me over the years, than the training being something completely different.I just didn't trust the guy or think he was all that bright. I think he had an opinion on me too. I remember during one drill he was stood watching me and then said, for no reason I could think of, "You're just a nice middle-class boy aren't you, Adam?"How was I supposed to answer that? I also remember he was getting together some club night out, and was speaking some shit about getting girls, when he suddenly pointed at me and said, "We're not letting you near them though!" I wasn't quite sure what he meant, but apparently he thought I was such a handsome dude that I'd clean up - if only! Okay, that was a nice comment... but I'd never had any perceived advantage in the looks dept pointed out in any other martial arts class! By a man!There was just something "off" about that whole class. The female only classes he took, I'd heard rumours of "inappropriate" behaviour by him that didn't surprise me, and thought he was doing them classes more for himself than the women. There were also rumours of fighting with his students, as in real, actual fighting, and he'd been nicked and in the papers for a ruckous with a neighbour or something.Like I say, there was something off. I'd detected it early on and after a few months left it.I tried something else after that, it was more MMA as that had started to gain ground around then with the first of the Ultimate Fight Challenges coming out on video, and the Gracie brothers coming to prominence.That club was very different. Very hard training, but no less a clique and fiefdom too. I didn't really take to it. That was not so much the club but me. There was a lot more focus on ground fighting, and although I'd done a bit, I was pretty much a beginner compared to guys who'd done it a lot. I tried to stick with it, but I didn't love it, not like I had the classes during my uni days.And that formed a routine. I bounced to two other clubs after that, and they were a compendium of the same problems I'd experienced at the others - one to a much greater degree, the other to a much less.I just wanted to train, not give homage, and I think that was what was at the core of the problem. You see it on blogs, on forums, in any club where there is a person front and centre instructing as the "expert." There's a seductive dynamic set up of leader and follower, and it's frightening how quickly and readily people will assume those roles.I've never been an ass-kisser, and those who wish to ass-kiss me, I definitely don't encourage. Because I've led martial arts classes like I've spoken of as the instructor, and also taken guys out on informal "class" over the years re pickup fromScotlair.I've eschewed playing the "Alpha" or tinpot guru. Sure, I'm just as susceptible to flattery, it's nice to hear or read good things about yourself, but you should never start believing your own bullshit.For instance, I don't consider myself a "fighter." I might,mighthave an edge with another "nice middle class boy" who's had too much to drink of a Saturday night, but against your hardened thug for whom daily violence is a fact of life? Nah. And I've been away from it for some years now too.But would love to get back into it.That was always it for me though, I was in it for the love of doing the martial art, not for the kudos of others. Well, not for the direct kudos of being a teacher anyway. It was to try and be my boyhood hero, Bruce Lee, and to feel good about myself. Like trying to beJames Bond, it was all the same thing.Sure, at the core of it there was some element of receiving the kudos of others, but it was in a more abstract, film "audience" way, rather than looking for actual, real fanboys in real life.Like this blog. Its function is to sate my desire to write, more than as a vehicle to try and hold myself up as some sort of "authority." I've got a story, a few years on me, so maybe I have something to say that people may find interesting.But I watched Jackanory as a kid, but didn't want to live in a commune with fellow lovers of the story telling show, worshipping the guest readers.I guess the point I'm getting to, is pursue what you love, take instruction if need be, give respect where it's due, but don't turn your brain off or make yourself subservient to anyone.And trust your gut on character.