Going To Class Gavin J. Richardson

It was a glorious day. The sun was shining, the top was down and I was blasting round the country lanes in my Ferrari convertible.

Angelina Jolie was sitting next to me in a rather tight World Combat Arts tee-shirt. We pulled up at some traffic lights and she leaned over to give me kiss.

Left to Right: Anthony Pillage, Mo Teague [centre] & Gavin Richardson

Strange, I thought, that felt like an elbow in the ribs. I went to kiss her hoping for the familiar sensation of warm flesh on flesh - only to feel another less present but equally unmistakable sensation. It was that good old fashioned elbow again, right in the ribs! Angelina smiled at me with those wonderful plump and curvaceous lips, gently opening her mouth and said, “Turn that bloody alarm off!” Another elbow was delivered. I looked at her, puzzled but there it was again “TURN THAT BLOODY ALARM OFF!” Her accent had changed. Angelina no longer spoke with her sexy silky tone, but instead she sounded a lot more like a grumpy half asleep Scouser. Exactly the sort of tone I’d expect to come from my wife when she had been woken despite not needing to get up for least another four hours.

One eye opened and I was back in the real world. With my best Neanderthal grunt I rolled over and hit the alarm button. It was 4am. I looked out the window to be greeted by a pitch black sky and heavy rain lashing down without mercy. The trees on the other side of the field were being bent sideways by the wind and I thought, great, I can’t wait to go out in that.

Twenty minutes later and I was checking my bag. Bag gloves: check. Boxing gloves: check. Vale tudo gloves: check. Focus mitts: check. Training knife: check. Kali sticks: check. Judo Gi: Check! Bottled water: Check!

Fruit: Check! Butties: Check! Red Bull: Check! Training notebook: Check! Hmmm, I thought, there’s something missing. Ah yes, painkillers! I will need them later.

With the car packed up I was off. It was now 5am, the weather was atrocious and I had 280 miles in front of me for my trip to Weymouth to train with my instructor Mo Teague. The stereo went on and I pulled off the path.

Three Red Bulls later and I am sitting with the hand brake on, looking for a gap in the traffic. I can see the RAC building about a mile in front of me and I know that the M5 is just around the bend, but the M6 at 7.00am is not a nice place to be. Forty minutes and about a mile and a half later and I’ve passed the road works. The “lead welly” goes on as I join the M5. I find it quiet and open, so I try to make up for the time lost on the M6, as I head off with forced optimism towards the sunny south. My high spirits are in for another battering. The weather continues to be nasty; really nasty and I’m doing about fifty miles per hour with the wipers on full.

It seems to take hours to get to junction twenty-five, where I get off the motorway and onto the country lanes. With a momentary smile I remember the lovely Angelina.

Finally the weather eases off and as I reach Yeovil the sun comes out. It’s now 10.30am and I’ve only got about half an hour to go.

I was introduced to Mo Teague about eight months ago by a very good friend of mine, Anthony Pillage. I had been looking for a new instructor to help with my martial arts development. After 20 years studying Karate, I wanted to widen my experience and learn new skills. I already ran a successful Karate club here in Liverpool. I’ve always tried to be open-minded and although the classes are based on my Shotokan background, we use lots of moves and combinations from many different styles. Being Bunkai and reality-based, our attitude to training is very similar to Mo’s, so I found it easy to learn and adapt to the way he does things.

There are many Jeet Kune Do classes all over the UK but very few of Mo’s “Functional Jeet Kune Do.”

As an instructor with the WCA (World Combat Arts) I get to train with him whenever I can get down to Weymouth. At the moment that’s only every other week! We opened Liverpool’s first “Functional Jeet Kune Do” class in Fazakerley on October 11, 2004, and the classes have really taken off. The excitement and enthusiasm shown has been outstanding, so much so that when I was introduced to Richard Bustillo he invited me train with him at the IMB conference in LA in June of 2005.

Better still because I will be going over as JKD instructor under Mo I can take a number of students with me. So far we have 6 people all looking forward to training with some of the best martial artists in the world, but that’s another story.

As I walk into Mo’s dojo. Its 11.15 and my legs feel like jelly. I’m as stiff as a board, but I’m happy. There are big smiles all round, as Mo welcomes me in. “Good trip down?” he asks. “Yes, no worries” I reply, “Took a bit longer than I expected, but can’t change the weather can we.” I get a warm smile and the pleasantries are over. “Right then Gav, ten times round the dojo then ten times the other way to loosen your legs up” - and so it begins

After a good warm up we start on the pads. Jab, cross, hook, uppercut, I work the combinations and come in at different angles to get my arms loosened up. Two minutes in and I’m sweating already. Jab, jab, cross. Jab, jab, cross. Jab, jab – BANG! A focus mitt slaps me across the head, “Thanks Mo.” “Guard up” he says with a smile, and on it goes. We do about half an hour on the pads working different combinations and really getting the blood flowing. We stop for a drink and I write out the combinations so I can go over them back home with my own students. One thing that I really like is that Mo is so organised and systematic. We do the class and I write down the notes. To continue the correct learning formula, I then type them up at home and give them to my students as we repeat the session in my classes. This is far better than trying to rely on my legendary bad memory.

Back to the training; “What do you want to work on today” Mo asks. “Well, grappling is my weak point so if it’s okay can we do that,” after twenty years of Karate I have a fairly good punch. I also know lots of knife and stick work, but the grappling and groundwork is all new to me, so without further ado I’m on me back and rolling young Shane from my guard into the mount before sliding over into the scarf hold.

We drill the positions again and again until Mo is happy that they are right. Next we move onto key locks. I demonstrate the few I have learnt and he fine tunes them for me. Using poor Shane as his assistant he shows me 101

another half dozen ways of applying them from different positions. I have a go, but it doesn’t seem to work that well. “Do it to me so I can feel which way it goes,” I asked, knowing it is going hurt, but I feel it’s the best way to gauge the pressure needed to pull off the move.

Have you ever noticed how many involuntary sounds your body can make when pain is applied? From grunts and groans to weird growling, choky noises.

When you train with Mo Teague the first thing you learn is to tap out. Pretty much everything he demonstrates hurts and it hurts like hell. Those weird noises just can’t be held in when it feels like your having your head shoved up your own bum!

Another half an hour or so and I’ve got a few more key locks under my belt, so it’s onto the ankle and the knee. Oh my god I want to cry! He shows me this move called the calf crush, not just once but a few times to make sure I understand it. I thought my leg was going be ripped off! Then it was my turn to try it on Shane and I must say it’s very easy to do. I also feel a hundred times better when somebody else is making the silly noises and tapping the mat.

Next we move onto a rolling knee bar. It’s Shane’s turn as I get my leg stretched and try not to sound like a big tart, groaning on the floor. The next move is the nastiest yet, a sort of triangle leg choke with an arm bar. Shane is good at this one! If he does it right, the choke is so strong that you watch the world go dark instantly. You don’t tap out of a move like that; you slap the hell out of him in blind panic. If he gets the leg position wrong and doesn’t choke you, the hold just squashes your head and jaw together so it feels like your teeth are going to explode, while the arm bar is going to dislocate your elbow. I like that one and try for ages to get it right.

With five pages of notes to type up and very sore ankles, knees, elbows and shoulders, Mo says it is time to try some Vale-Tudo (Brazilian for “Anything Goes”).

It sounds good to me; a roll on the mats and the chance to hit back.

Yeah, right! I get to lie on me back whilst Shane takes the mount. I have two minutes to get him off as many times as possible whilst trying not to get punched and elbowed in the head. It is only light contact, but when you’re on your back getting hit with elbows fists forearms and whatever else your partner can hit you with it feels like you don’t have a chance.

I weigh close to sixteen stone. Shane is probably about nine stone. Stood up I could swing him about like a rag doll. But down here he is outstanding. It didn’t matter which way I twist or turn I cannot get the little bugger off. He is like my Rottweiler with a bone. In two minutes I think I get him off once and that is only because he got bored hitting me. “Time” shouts Mo. It has to be the best word I have heard all day.

“Right, change roles” he says. I think, “Right, you little bugger… let’s see how well you move with me sitting on top of you.” I climb on top him and drop my weight. I hear funny noise as his lungs are squashed. We tap gloves and off we go. At one point I want to yell Yee-haar! And wave a cowboy hat in the air. It’s like riding a bucking bronco machine at the fair, except we are hitting each other as well.

I think I last about fifty-seconds before I’m thrown off, but I’m straight back on and decide upon a more serious focus. This time I'm staying here, I think to myself. I end up being so focused on staying on that I actually forget to hit him. That’s when I hear Mo’s voice saying, “Don’t just sit there, hit and look for submissions.” Submissions? How the hell do you do all that? You are expected to hold on, hit and not get hit, control the partner and be ready to get a submission position when the opportunity arises. The method to attaining these seemingly ungraspable goals is to simply practice, practice and practice some more.

We did two more rounds of Vale-Tudo and I wanted to die. I was sweating like a pig, my arms and legs felt like lead. All I wanted to do was crawl over to the corner and recover in peace. But I could hear voices. The kids had started to turn up with their parents for the start of the early class, they were all watching Shane and I rolling about like two mad dogs fighting over a bone. Finally “Time!” was shouted. It was the last one of the day and I was finished (in every sense of the word).

We stood up and grinned at each other, we had both landed the odd sly dig and we were both covered in little bruises and red marks. As the kids started their warm up we went off to get changed. It was going on 4.30pm and we had been training for over FIVE hours. Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun? Shane went home and 102

Mo and I went for a bite to eat and a chat about training and life in general.

Is it just me or do you feel more alive after a good training session. The more it hurts and the harder you work the more you appreciate your rest periods. Sitting in the pub my body is getting itself back together, as I finish a rather large mixed grill & down a pint of fresh orange.

Mo now seems a thousand miles removed from the mad instructor who was tying me in knots just an hour or so before. We talk about how my classes are going in Liverpool and how the students are progressing. He gives me tips on fine tuning technique and ideas to help Improve fitness levels. Mostly we just chat like two mates who haven’t seen each other for a couple of weeks.

To me Mo comes across as a quiet and peaceful man - intelligent and very well educated - his manner is relaxed and open. As we walk through Weymouth he says hello to somebody virtually every other step. You can see people are genuinely happy to see him, but at the same time he has a sort of glint in his eye whereby you know if things got out of hand he would make very short work of anybody stupid enough to cross him.

By 6.00pm we were making our farewells and I was heading back to the car. A handful of pain killers, another Red Bull and I’m sorted. I head out of Weymouth, heading north to Liverpool and home.

It is just touching midnight when I stagger in through the front door. The wife has waited up for me…again. I know she is back at work at 8.00am and she looks as knackered as I feel. As I do her a cuppa she asks How my day was: “Hard, got swung around and tied in knots, punched in the face and elbowed in the head.” “The usual then” she says with a weary grin. “Yes, you know me, I Love all that.”

As we finish our drinks, I ask “Can you do us a favour in the morning?” “What?” she queries back, putting her empty cup in the sink. “Try not to wake me when you get up” With a final slap around the head, my day is finished and I follow her up to bed.

For information on Functional Jeet Kune Do classes in Liverpool

Call Gavin Richardson

07968 534 640

Special thanks to Jamie Clubb for helping with the organising of this article.

Copyright©Gavin Richardson 2005.