Jamie Clubb, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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By Lesley Jackson, on 07-06-2008 12:04

Lesley Jackson continues her series of interviews with Martial Edge’s newest contributor, Jamie Clubb and is relieved she never attended the particular kickboxing club Jamie speaks about. Also, the important friendships that have shaped his current martial arts career.

Last time we were introduced to Jamie Clubb, founder of martial arts school ‘Clubb Chimera’, writer and Martial Edge’s latest contributor. After spending time earning his 1^st Dan in Sakiado and training in Taekwondo, he found one of his toughest martial arts tests was sparring against seasoned street fighters, part of the group of people that surrounded Jamie within his circus environment. This episode finds Jamie questioning the effectiveness of his previous martial arts training and seeking the advice of one of Britain’s most successful and challenging martial artists; Geoff Thompson.

Our instructor was a bully and he even once engineered a fight between me and a fellow instructor after the class. I won, but looking back I realized that I had been sent in to do a number on this poor guy because he wasn’t ‘towing the line’. - Jamie Clubb

“Geoff was causing quite a stir at the time and really upsetting the martial arts status quo, to which I felt a part of. He seemed to be dismissing everything I considered to be a martial art in favour of boxing and wrestling and it really narked me being a proud ‘white suit’. I naively read his critique of the way martial artists trained as a complete attack on what I believed. Furthermore, his anecdotes taken from his autobiography ‘Watch My Back’ just seemed like outright thuggery to me – and this was coming from someone who had witnessed and been a part of real fights. Then after my sparring incident, I changed my mind. Encouraged by a letter in a magazine letters page by someone who said that far from being some mindless thug, Geoff was actually a courteous human being who had replied to his every letter with a hand-written response, I decided to write to Geoff and pour my heart out. Just as I had hoped, Geoff replied to both of my letters with a hand-written reply. I bought two books from him, one which was ‘Animal Day’ in order to swallow my bitter pill properly.”

It was to be a few years before Jamie would get in contact with Geoff Thompson again but when he did, it would have a much more positive effect than his next set of experiences. After deciding to leave Taekwondo, Jamie started to cross train in full contact kickboxing and after being recruited as a kickboxing instructor, he gave up Taekwondo for good. However, this is where Jamie was introduced to the seamier side of martial arts as he bore witness to instructors whose practises veered from the immoral to the downright dishonest.

The Ugly Side of Kickboxing

As Jamie describes he, “learnt ‘life experiences’ from Kickboxing.” As well as the head instructor regularly beating his fellow instructors in class he would open clubs with the intention of selling memberships, merchandise and licences and then closing the school down without paying any of his overheads. The chief instructors were raking in the cash jamie clubb images.jpg as Jamie comments, “All those who ran their own network of clubs drove around in the top of the range cars.” However, it was the manipulative nature of this particular instructor that appears most insidious as Jamie describes:

“During my time teaching Kickboxing I bore witness to a side of the martial arts world that is rarely ever seen and yet is rife the world over. My instructor regularly slept with students – he even laughingly told one woman after they had finished their rather unlovely coupling ‘you’ve passed your yellow belt’ – and did just about everything we are told is unrepresentative of the martial arts. Our instructor was a bully and he even once engineered a fight between me and a fellow instructor after the class. I won, but looking back I realized that I had been sent in to do a number on this poor guy because he wasn’t ‘towing the line’. Our instructor would regularly set us on one another and I was once even sent down to take away this guy’s last local club, simply because he refused to keep driving all over the country to teach the other classes.” However, as Jamie is keen to point out; this particular instructor was by no means the only one behaving badly and was certainly not the worst, which makes one wonder how bad some instructors could be!

Fortunately, thanks to Jamie’s, “good grounding in morals from both the circus side and my father’s side the romance of the seedier side of things wore thin quickly,” and Jamie left this unpleasant scene. However, as with most unfortunate experiences, Jamie managed to, “get a window into the previously inaccessible world of martial arts. I saw how in the UK there was no sponsorship unlike in European countries and the retailers were the ones who made any real money. I also saw that as blatantly bad my instructor was, at least he wasn’t a hypocrite. I witnessed the surge of what Generation X martial artists have called ‘McDojos’ or ‘Belt Factories.’” From this Jamie also learnt about how martial arts can create, “a cult of personality,” that can dominate and intimidate a student’s life when they may have started a martial art to increase their self confidence in the first place. Jamie finishes on this topic, “If you read Michael Shermer’s chapter ‘The Unlikeliest of Cults’ in his book ‘Why People Believe Weird Things’ you will see a performance criteria for a cult that reads like a ‘what’s wrong in the world of martial arts’. Geoff Thompson points to the 1970s for the emergence of the martial arts mystique and the proliferation of black belt charlatans. However, it actually goes back much further. Historians like Tang Hao were exposing martial arts fraud and bad training practises back in his native China in the 1920s and 1930s.”

Education Crusade

From then on, Jamie then pursued a huge mixture of martial arts to enable him to become the well rounded practitioner that he is today. This varied from learning Shaolin wushu styles from the reputable Neil Genge to help him with his martial arts performance act in the circus to Ju Jutsu to gain grappling skills to Muay Thai to further his already prolific kickboxing skills. From then on, Jamie entered a personal crusade of learning as much about martial arts as possible. In Jamie’s own words:

Jamie Clubb the Ealy Years
Lesley Jackson speaks in depth to Martial Edge’s latest contributor Jamie Clubb. Jamie has years of experience in the world of martial arts and has cross trained in a variety of styles. He has also been raised within the colourful world of the circus. In a series of interviews, we will discover more about Jamie’s interesting background and some of the characters he has met on the way.

“Around this time I began attending the Geoff Thompson seminars and also started regularly attending other seminars headed by reputable people. Matty Evans privately trained me in the Real Combat Method for around a year, where I concentrated on the fence, pre-emptive striking, power striking, stand-up grappling, groundwork and Mixed Martial Arts concepts. I also went to seminars, workshops and intensive courses run by Iain Abernethy (Bunkai Jutsu), Rick Young (Jeet Kune Do), Russell Stutely (Open Circle Fighting Method), Chris Rowen (Goju Ryu), Richard Bustillo (International Martial Arts and Boxing Academy), Mo Teague (World Combat Arts and Functional Jeet Kune Do), Dennis Jones (pre-emptive striking), Steve Rowe (Shi Kon), Alan Gibson (Functional Wing Chun), The British Free Fighting Academy, Karl Tanswell, Fillipe Jerry (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), Braulio Estima (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), Steve Morris (Morris Fighting Method/MMA), Peter Consterdine (BCA self-defence and power development), Andy Norman (Keysi Fighting System) and many others. I was also invited down to a Peter Consterdine ‘Training Day’ and was one of the select few who were invited to train in Geoff Thompson’s 6:30am training sessions that became the blueprint for his master class, which I also completed. I spent this time really getting into my personal training, researching and acquiring certification. I became affiliated to the Martial Arts Standards Agency, the British Combat Association and World Combat Arts.

Through my friendship with Geoff I got my work published in Martial Arts Illustrated magazine and I became known as a type of ‘where’s Waldo’ of the seminar circuit. A trademark feature of my interviewing technique was to get some personal training with my subject and then write a piece on them. Through Matty Evans I interviewed the man who Geoff Thompson considered to be his main self-defence influence during his days working the doors in Coventry’s most violent time: John ‘Awesome’ Anderson. I video-taped our private lesson and then conducted two interviews that spanned a three part article. It was a fantastic experience.”

Next time: Jamie sets up his successful school ‘Clubb Chimera’ and some of the lessons he has learnt about the variety of characters he has met.