Page 7 - Pat O'Keeffe Combat Kick Boxing

Preface

It is inevitable that with this ever-expanding catalogue of martial arts there has
been a parallel explosion of martial arts books and therefore, by implication, self-
defence books. Here the subject is just as problematic.
Books on self-defence range from the illusory to the realistically graphic. Whilst
many show simplistic defences against stereotypical attacks with little, if any, hard
information on how, why, where or when, there are also books of genuine worth
out there, but they can be very hard to identify.
The good books usually have an author with a proven background in applied
martial arts, whose skill and knowledge has been hard-won and then distilled
in harsh post-attack reflection, before being taken back into the arena and applied.
Or they come from an era when the emphasis was on martial art not martial
sport.
Whilst it is hard to recommend martial arts’ styles or clubs suitable for realistic
self-defence, there are books that can be recommended. I have included in the
back of this book an A-list of what I have found to be solid texts on this vital
subject. I have given each a mini-review. Hopefully the reader will be interested
enough to seek out some, if not all of these books.

Having asked searching questions of other styles and books, what is there to
recommend this one?
It has to be said from the beginning that this book is not exhaustive on the
subject of self-defence. No book, regardless of dust jacket claims, can be. What it
sets out to do is bring a kick boxing perspective to the attention of the serious
self-defence student. It asks him or her to consider the techniques of kick boxing
as a viable basis for self-defence and the kick boxer as an example of a survivor.
Many people reading this book will not be kick boxers (ring fighters) or even
necessarily training in kick boxing. They will read this book because of the lurking
suspicion in every martial artist’s mind that what happens inside the kick boxing
ring is very close to the real thing; that the skill, strength, stamina and sheer guts
of kick boxers are a solid base on which to build realistic self-defence.
By the late seventies I had trained in many martial arts styles, some hard, some
not so hard. My time under Steve Morris, from 1974 to 1976, was my first
introduction to kick boxing. The training was a Goju karate/kick boxing mix that
produced a fierce fighting style. The Earlham Street dojo was not a place for faint
hearts.
It left me however with a taste for full-contact fighting. I felt then, as I still do
now, that it teaches technique under pressure or, to put it another way, how to get
hurt and still function competently.
In 1979 I met Geoff Britton, a gifted kick boxing instructor with a lateral
approach to training and fighting. I stayed with Geoff until he moved to Spain in
the late eighties. His analytical approach to contact fighting changed the type of
martial artist I was to the extent that I still quote him to students and in my books.
Between Geoff Britton and Steve Morris I believe I had a privileged schooling
in the harsh world of kick boxing – the yin and the yang. I have also had to deal
with what can best be described as ‘situations’ and these did nothing if not reinforce
the harsh lessons I have learnt along the way.
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