Lee Morrison – Solo Pad Training Drills

After twenty-five, I started Urban Combatives.-Two years spent researching different methods of fighting in Asia and Western. My research began in the school playground, and continued all the way through high school, where I was involved in many pub brawls as well as street fights. It moved on to where I have been for the last twelve years – working as a bouncer within the pub and nightclub environment of door security work. It would be an understatement to say that this was the most successful part of my combat effectiveness education.

Anyone who has ever been in real blood–Snot, violent confrontations will understand what I’m talking about. Three years in the dojo is three years worth thirty seconds on the streets. Multiplying that number by a lot will result in similar conclusions to mine and those of other better men. Those conclusions are the result of a combination of active learning from my own experience, and from those who I have trained with and aspire to, as well as thousands of hours spent travelling, training, reading and studying – sorting the wheat from the chaff. Believe me when I tell you that there is a lot of chaff in the martial arts world. It is being passed off to be effective and practical.-defence.

Here is the first indication that such a system has missed the point – the words ‘self-defence’. The word ‘defence’ This indicates that you are in an environment where physical responses are not only necessary but your only choice. How about escape and avoidance? This can be achieved by being aware of your surroundings and understanding attack rituals, dialogue, and body language. You will have a better grasp of these events before they become too severe for you to escape. The term is a popular one among the best in the field. ‘Self-Protection’ There is so much more.

If you see a potentially violent and aggressive person following you on the street, for example, it could be you.-smart instincts tell you that he has already weighed you up as a his next potential victim, making you then decide to take the action of turning the very next corner and running like a b**tard in order to avoid and escape the experience. This is not a good Self.-Protection? It is.

You have no other options and the person is determined to destroy your future quality of living, there is only one option: a physical reaction. You should not hesitate to make the individual look like a grease blot on the pavement in such cases.

If you want to achieve this goal, then the key is to be the first to do it and work hard. When you have the chance to escape, do it without hesitation. If not, then you must continuously attack until the threat is terminated – then escape to safety at the first opportunity.

Good street security and personal security-Your power base must include smart awareness ‘stay safe’ Your game plan. A cultivated mind must be just beneath the surface.-set that holds an unwavering conviction – that if you are offered violence, then you are prepared to respond in kind, overwhelmingly.

I find the Western Combatives methods appealing because of this. My training is very much influenced by people who have tested their systems under the pressure of reality – be this in ‘live’ scenarios, scenario training, and dynamic simulation. The people who are confident in what they have will not hesitate or be uncertain at the moment of truth.

Fairbain, Sykes and others pressure tested their ‘Defendu’ system in the violent streets of 1920’s Shanghai, to the methods of veteran Coventry doorman Geoff Thompson, who learned what worked for him in some of the worst establishments in the ‘neon environment’ During his hundreds of Animal Day sessions, he would be found on the floor of his dojo.

To close, I ask you to continue my introduction with an open mind and to take whatever you find useful from this offering.