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	I was born in 1947 in Govan, Glasgow Scotland Once famous for its ship building industry Govan is situated right by the river Clyde. Along with the Gorbals, Govan was known as one of Glasgow’s toughest area’s. In past days police would walk around in two's for their own protection. Some wore leather neck bands to protect them from razor attacks of the teddy boy gangs that roamed the streets at night. Like many a run-down inner-city area Govan could be a dangerous place at times. My father had a bit of a reputation as a Glasgow hard man and had done some boxing before the war and as a means to survive the hardships of the these years he boxed illegally in the dockland pubs fighting mainly Russian and American sailors for money.
Living in such an environment you had to learn how to look after yourself and although my upbringing may not of been an academic one, it did help me survive many a bad situation. My interest in karate started late October 1959 My interest in karate began late October 1959. I was 12 years old and it was after seeing a demonstration on television of a karate expert smash through a wooden door with his bare fists. I thought to myself, how could he have the power and skill to do that. I wanted to be just like that karate man, to have that power and skill. So off I went to find a karate club. However, the accepted age for joining a karate club back then was around fourteen or fifteen so I had to pretend to be older. Note: The style of karate practiced at that time in Scotland was the traditional Japanese original hard style of Shotokan. Note: Training was very basic although brutally physically tough. Because of this there were no women or young children participating in karate at that time.
If you can imagine, in a city like Glasgow joining a karate club back then was certainly not for the faint hearted. Most students were either made up of teddy boys, gang members, street fighters, nutters or just plain hard men. Doing karate then was usually either: to enhance your fighting skills, test yourself, or have the opportunity to damage someone. Maybe not all the students were like this, but what I experienced most were. If you are wondering what category I would put myself in then you would have to ask shihan or yondan as well as all my past students that question. Having such a deranged group meant that the instructors had to be that much tougher and a lot more brutal in their approach. Although some of the students were good street fighters and were very aggressive, most were not tremendously fit. On the other hand instructors and senior students although pretty good fighters themselves were always in good physical condition and because of this most of the tough nuts when pushed found it hard to stay the distance with them. The atmosphere and attitude in class sometimes lent towards a more sadistic nature where one could smell the tension and aggression. But it was well suited for that time and place.
in the early days Although basic (no fancy stuff), karate then compared with today's standards was much more physically and mentally demanding and lot more aggressive in it's approach. You have to understand, at that time Karate was just beginning in this country, had just come over from Japan or Okinawa where the philosophy of karate was not for winning trophies, keeping fit, or for having a nice sporting hobby after work. Karate was taught then as a kill or be killed fighting art and clearly something that should not be confused with some of the watered down soft styles that are being taught in many so called karate clubs today.
We had weekend courses outside in mid winter Our Japanese masters would take us training to the windswept Scottish mountains, sometimes we would be there in the middle of winter or forced into the freezing sea or lochs to do sparring, kicking, punching and kata techniques. Thinking back, we must all of been completely mad to do this. Training in these days was a non stop regime of 2 or 3 hours of grueling repetitious techniques along with very hard physical exercise. Everyone was very competitive with each other. Being pushed, punched, kicked or hit with a staff by our instructors along the way was normal practice. A typical warm up 1,000 kicks over a chair, 1,000 punches, bunny hops around the dojo (banned today), star jumps to the last man standing which usually lasted over half an hour where the instructor would only stop when the last man gave up, usually ending up with very sore feet either blistered or bleeding. Throughout the years I have certainly trained in many an odd place, such as; working men's clubs, dingy old shop basements, old church halls as well as outside training in all weathers. Many of the indoor premises were old establishments that had stone floors or were unpolished floors boards that were so rough that your feet would often feel like they were being ripped to shreds. Sparring in these days was a very aggressive affair Sparring at times seemed nothing more than all out war. No protective equipment was available in these days and heavy physical contact was the norm. To a degree it just was plain fear and survival, take no prisoners was the attitude of us all. Anything went, head butts, knees, teeth, even grabbing the hair, throat or groin was deemed acceptable, well to a degree, although some students did get carried away. You could grab your opponents legs if they tried a kick and throw them hard to the ground, followed up punching them semi hard to the body or skin contact to the face (that's a laugh). Also dropping down with your knee on someone was a good way to wind your opponent especially when they are down and then jump on them to wrestle them into a strangle hold submission. You were expected to do these moves lightly but usually we all got all carried away most times. As you can imagine there were always lots of injuries, bruising, strains, broken fingers, ribs, toes, black eyes, loose teeth or a broken blooded nose. Sometimes a bad fracture to the arm or leg happend now and again. However the truth is, it all seemed to us then just part of our karate training and something you accepted without question or thought. Sparring was usually done one to one, although you could find yourself fighting 2,3, 4 or more opponents. We had special names for these fighting sessions, such as; the "Pub Fight", "Street Fight" "All in fight" "Smash & Grab" or "Grab & Smash" where everyone in the dojo attacked anyone near them, just like a big battle. The fights were actually a big free for all and would last to the last man standing, the winner ( who was let off doing the hundred press-ups or the hundred bunny hops). Saturday and Sunday were special sparring sessions being 3 to 4 hours long where we all usually ended up totally soaked in sweat, battered, bruised or badly hurt, but always in most cases very bloody. You never forget these times, anyway the pain from my past injuries that are still with me today won’t allow me to forget. I have often wondered how on earth I ever managed to survive some of these lessons. Thinking back, we must of all been completely mad to do this, although thinking about it, being a bit crazy did help you survive it. Come to think of it, I would be worth an absolute fortune now if the compensation culture was around back then, although all the people I have damaged would be very well off to. 7 years of hard training I achieved my black belt after 7 years of hard training. Seven years with at least 4 times a week training was the minimum time required for black belt. However I was totally obsessed and was training up to 6 days a week. Much later competitions between different karate schools sprung up and were hard fought battles. However later on when karate started to spread many new schools took a more softer approach to their training and students like myself who were brought up on old style karate found that our type of aggressive fighting methods seemed to suffer badly from a lack of control usually leaving the other guy picking up his teeth ending up with me being disqualified. I left Scotland in the late 1960s Since my shotokan days I have experienced other karate styles such as: Shukokia, Kyokushinkia, Gojo-Ryu and Wado-Ryu. I have trained with and have had the privileg to meet some great Japanese and Western masters of the martial arts, such as: Sensei Kanazawa, Sensei Enoeda (deceased), Sensei Kato, Sensei Mack, Sensei Tommy Morris, (Shotokan). Sensei Nanbu, Sensei Kimura, deceased (Shukokia). Sensei Higaonna, (Gojo-Ryu). Sensei Shimitsu, Sensei Mejii Suzuki, Sensei Fuji, Sensei Meada, Sensei Sakagami, Grandmaster Tatsui Suzuki, (Wado-Ryu). Other fighting styles I have participated in The other styles I have practices have been: Okinawan Ryukyu-Jitsu with Grandmaster Inoue and Sensei Mead, (Jujitsu & Kobudo, martial art weapons). Sensei Dillman (Kyusho-Jitsu) nerve, vital point strikes and locks. Judo and karate with Sensei Robinson, 6 times World Judo champion and Wado-Ryu karate teacher. Wu-dan Tai Chi. Iai (the art of Japanese sword drawing) with Sensei Elsgood, Unarmed Combat and boxing at Brighton Boys Boxing Club. Finally I have to say that my foundations before came from street fighting, father, upbringing and my environment. I was one of only two Westerners Around early 1970 I was asked to join a Japanese demonstration squad sent down to Brighton from London by the head man of Wado-Ryu in Europe, Sensei Tatsui Suzuki. The squad consisted of myself and another Westerner who was at that time the British Wado-Ryu champion and five of the best Wado-Ryu Japanese karate masters in the World, some being ‘All Japan’ open style champions. It was said excluding myself and the other Westerner, that because of these famous Japanese masters coming together it was one of the best Wado-Ryu karate demo squads ever put together outside Japan. One of the Japanese masters, Sensei Fuji wanted to open a karate school in Brighton It was decided that all the karate masters would put on a demonstration in Brighton at the Brighton Boys Club where Sensei Fuji would open a karate school . Commenting was Tom Hibbit who was then the secretary of the British Wado-Ryu Association. Mr Hibbit is now an M.B.E and head of the A.M.A one of the largest martial art groups in Britain today. After sparring with the British champion I was asked to sparr with Sensei Sagagami one of the Japanese teachers, Meiji Suzuki was to referee, “a big mistake”. During the fight things started to get a bit rough, so much so to the enjoyment of the other Japanese instructors when one of my punches cut open Sensei Sakagami's lip! I must stress this did not go down well with Sensei Sakagami (in Japanese terms ‘it's loss of face’). The fight became so fierce I ended up with a broken arm which I did not realise at the time. It was only later in the changing room my arm swelled up like a balloon that I wondered if it was broken. As I said before you just accepted injuries. Later on I thought maybe I should go to hospital. It was there they confirmed it was broken. I was told later that Sensei Sakagami injured his leg which was a result from his front kick that luckerly I blocked and clearly if it had got through to where it was aimed at it clearly would off prevented me from ever having children. I believe it was that kick that broke my arm. Master Fuji as well as being a snappy dresser was one of karate’s true gentlemen. A week later master Fuji opened his karate dojo in Brighton. With my arm in plaster I was one of his very first students waiting at the door. Sensei Fuji would always bring another Japanese teacher every week to help him. On that very first week he brought along Sensei Sakagami who had a limp. I dared not ask about it as this would be most disrespectful. Unfortunately within 6 months due to certain events the school sadly closed and it was back again to travelling up to London to train at Sensei Suzuki's dojo. I would like to state that I have had to calm down a LOT, and I do mean a LOT. Although my previous training may of been hard and sometimes brutal, it certainly has given me a strong mental constitution that has sustained my appetite for karate for over 49 years of the constant daily grind of repetitious training and has also installed in me the continuing search for self improvement. Embroidered on my belt in Japanese kanji is the word "karate student" to remind me that I must always be humble and to continue to strive for perfection for I have still much to learn about this wonderful ancient art. OSS!