How I Started Out in The Martial Arts

Here’s a guest article from one of my students and an instructor in the Self Defence Federation, Ghulam Nabi Rezbi.

(Note: These are his words and I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says)

I was the original 5 stones weakling. I was the guy who got sand kicked in his face by the original 7 stones weakling.

In 1983, I walked into my first proper martial arts club in a back street off Whitechapel in the east end of London. It was a club teaching a modified version of the original Shaolin dragon style of kung-fu. A style I was familiar with from watching countless Hong Kong movies.

Although I’d done a little martial art training in the form of karate in the privacy of my home, it was nothing much to speak of. I was in my early teens and the thought of getting any formal training by an instructor never occurred to me.

Up till then, I did a little weight training – if you can call it that – and a few kicks and punches. But, I was beginning to develop a raw power in my strikes that would last even till now, in my 40s.

Although I was getting tired of being bullied and pushed around by the bigger boys, my quest to better my self physically really began after trying my hand at weight training during a games lesson in school, a few years earlier. It was a lesson I have never forgotten… a lesson which prompted me to make a decision – and give me the determination – to get started on my journey.

During this particular lesson we went to a canoe club where there was a room with very little equipment. To be exact, there was a bench and a barbell bar and a few weights discs.

As soon as I saw the weights my face lit up. I’d do a few repetitions and look like Arnie in no time.

There was three students there, including myself. The teacher stuck some discs onto the bar and stuck onto the bench. I think it weighed about 15kgs, including the bar.

The first two boys got down and pushed out 10 reps each. I couldn’t weight to get on there and show them up.

I lay on the bench, stuck my hand on the bar, and lifted it up. I slowly lowered it to my chest… and could hardly push it back up. I struggled to do five reps (that’s 5).

I don’t remember what else we did that day. What I do remember is going home after school finished, determined never to let that happen again.

The older ones among you may recall shops used to use weight stones for weighing food on scales. I collected together three of these. They weighed 5lbs, 3ilbs and 2lbs… a total of 10lbs ((lbs = pounds).

And thus began my very first regime of weight training.

Curls, shoulder presses… lateral lateral raises… front shoulder raises..l overhead triceps extensions. You name it. If it could be done, I did it.

What I lacked in weight I made up for by training with shear intensity. I tensed up every muscle in my body when I used those 10lbs weights. My body shuddered and shivered.

I was was training HARD.

What I could not do with the weights, I did without… push-ups, squats, sit-ups – things I still do to this day.

As time went on, I devised my own style of training, to make up for a lack of equipment. By the time I was old enough to attend the evening youth centre at my school, I was training with an intensity which attracted the attention of the top guy training in the school gym.

One time, while I was training, this guy sat on the bench and watched – I hadn’t noticed until he made a comment. I remember he said, “That guy trains HARD”.

That was all that was necessary. You see, this guy was recognised as the top guy there by everyone, including the teacher.

And, (this is a demonstration of the power of a testimonial from and authority figure) from that moment on, I suddenly became an expert in all matters related to physical training. Weights, calisthenics, isometrics, nutrition… you name it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I was an expert, but people now perceived me to be. And all it took was one simple comment from the resident expert.

I must admit, it felt good.

As the years went by, I carried on training the same way. Except now I was incorporating a little weight-training at the youth centre.

My older brother gave me a physical training course called Hercules 2. It was a course structured around using whatever was available in the home.

I stuck to that for quite a while. And it helped to define my physique.

When I entered that kung-fu club for the first time, I was 16 years old. The instructor, a fellow countryman – if you can call him a man – was 17, and a little overzealous in his training.

Not that it did any hard. In fact, the conditioning training he put everyone through has served me well to this day, almost 26 years later.

I am still in good shape. And, even more importantly, I can take a heck of a lot that’s thrown at me.

It takes a lot to hurt me, and even then it’s very unlikely I’d give up due to an injury. That type of training strengthens not only the body, but the mind, too.

It conditions to mind to go through the pain. To ignore it and carry on. Not in some mystical namby pamby way… I’m not talking ’sensei walks through fire, eats granite and shits burning coals’ kind of way.

I’m referring to the raised level of pain threshold… the ability to take pain because you’re used to it.

During one particular training session, while sparring (sometimes it would get rough) I hurt my hand quite badly. As a result, I was off training for a while.

When it was time to return, I found the club had disappeared. If I recall, the owner of the property wanted his hall back for some other purpose.

That was the end of that.

Over the next few years I continued to train at home, both physical conditioning and martial arts. I went to a few clubs but found nothing to my liking – I got bored too easily.

It wasn’t until 1993 that I found Jim’s Mega Gym. This was a Thai-boxing gym run by Jim Mills, a quiet and like-able guy… and a very able instructor.

I train with Jim for a few months and then carried on my usual routine of training at home, primarily because the sports centre where we trained had begun to make changes and moved premises.

As time went on, I continued to look for something I could stick with. Something that was real.

I found it in the form of the Self Defence Federation. This is an organisation put together by Dave Turton who, like me, started out in various arts but was looking for that ’special’ something.

He found it, in the form of Goshinkwai… the ‘most brutal form of combat’ he had ever come across.

Goshinkwai isn’t so much a self defence… more a pure combat form. An art meant only to end the fight. As such, not many people could take the level of intensity associated with this style of fighting.

It was because of this reason that Dave decided to create the Self Defence Federation, an association geared towards not only realistic self defense, but real self defense. Something that actually works in a real confrontation.

I realise every man and his uncle who ever practiced a martial art claims the same things. But, well… all I can say is, you gotta try to believe it.

I can sing the praises of SDF till the cows come home, but they’re just my words.

Anyway, I joined up as soon as I found out about the SDF and travelled from London to South Yorkshire as often as I could to train in what I consider to be…

…the single best self defense form I have ever seen.

And I’ve seen my share in over 25 years.

I took my first instructor certification with Dave just over three years ago and am aiming to become a master instructor depending on my circumstances.

What have I gained from the Self Defence Federation and Dave Turton?

A determination to be among the best self defense instructors in the country. A goal I feel is very attainable due to the very nature of the training.

The SDF and the Goshinkwai style of combat fighting is the perfect recipe to work towards that goal. And I’m confident it will happen. God willing.