MARTIAL ARTIST
Due to my father being a third Dan in Shotokan Karate when I was born, it would not be unfair to say that some aspects of Martial Art training were inculcated in me from a very young age, along with the accompanying Samurai code usually referred to as budo. This last part, the budo mentality, which is philosophy, ideology, Zen agnosticism and ultimately a way of life all rolled into one, (or as the Japanese word itself means: bu-do – Literally: War-Way or more poetically, the Way of the Warrior) took me some 35 years to evolve beyond.
While this Way certainly has many positive, potentially extremely ethical and certainly honourable attributes, it also has certain limitations of rigidity, obedience to a sense of duty – Which need not be specifically personified (and thus be all the more insidious) – that can be quite harmful to someone whose best interests are not necessarily aligned with being a soldier in feudal Japan. Something I think you will agree is not particularly conducive to a happy life in the 21st Century.
Systema, the Russian Martial System which I trained in exclusively from 2003 to 2008, when I was officially made an instructor, and then I continued to train in and teach until 2016, has much to do with my evolution in all respects, including the updating of my budo code to Version 2.0 – The 21st Century version.
Shotokan Karate – 2nd Dan Grade
2nd Dan Grade – I trained first with my father then later under Allen Strates – 7th Dan World Shotokan Karate-do Federation (WSKF) Chief Instructor for the Western Cape (South Africa) and on the technical committee for WSKF organisation in the world. My Second Dan Certification was No. 20817, issued on the 15th December 2001.
Systema Instructor
I was certified by Mikhail Ryabko in February of 2008 after training with Dimitry Kirillov in London. I have also trained with Vladimir Vasiliev, Konstantin Komarov, Valeri Riazanov, Alex Kostic, Emmanuel Manolokakis, Vadim Dobrin and Uldis Veismanis I trained and taught in London until 2016 when travel and work commitments made it impossible to continue teaching. You can see the old website below where the videos for the Systema book are also linked to if you have the book to go see them.
