Multi Skilled Martial Arts 

 

The Adult System of MSMA is a blend of different Martial Arts, brought together by my 30 plus years experience in the Martial Arts learning from the best Instructors in the UK and around the World. 

It has a modern approach with traditional values and the Student whom studies MSMA should be able to handle themselves in a Sporting environment & Street confrontation.

The idea of MSMA was conceived in the run up to my 5th Dan Grading in 2006 i was Grading in my Original art of Tae Kwon Do but learning the curriculum was a chore as i was focusing my training on SDF, Grappling & Eskrima, i needed a way to combine what i was training into my syllabus. 

My mentor Dave Turton said to me that i don’t really do Tae Kwon Do anymore i do Tae Kwon Do Plus! As i was adding stuff in but this didn’t feel right when it came to a Traditional Art, another mentor of mine was Andrew Morrell and i was learning Kick Boxing, Ju-Jitsu and his blend called Cobra FMA. I had graded in all of these with him and showed one of my long time Black Belts Keith Whitton the Cobra FMA curriculum i was doing and he looked at me amazed and said why are you learning that when you could put your own together with all your experience and knowledge. 

So thats what i did, i spent a year writing the Curriculum for both Kids & Adults MSMA and submitted it to both Dave of the SDF and Andy of the CMAA both agreed to sanction the curriculum and MSMA was born in 2007. 

From 2007 to now it has evolved a lot and always will, the students are the proof of the pudding and i have some great Black Belts now including my Senior Instructor Team who have assessed into the syllabus like i did and a group of 3rd Dan’s and 3rd Dan Cycle Students who are the first batch of MSMA Black Belts and leading the way for 2nd Dan’s, 1st Dan’s and Coloured Belts.

MSMA is made up a variety of Arts, Styles & Sub Systems. The MSMA system has core aspects and additional aspects, some Arts/Styles are in from the start of the syllabus where as others appear further in.

Each Coloured Belt has a Syllabus requirement and of course an expected level of proficiency. Dan Grades are no different, each Dan Grade upto 5th Dan has 3 assessments in between which again is based on Syllabus Knowledge and Proficiency and also time served.

Each Art/Style has a lineage and below I will i will details the Arts that make up the MSMA Adult Curriculum

 

SDF Modern Street Combat 

This is the core of the system and the Self Defence side of what we do, street orientated no nonsense Striking, Locks, Cranks, Takedowns, Chokes and more against a variety of attacks including Weapons, Adverse Situations and Multiple Attackers. 

This is the system of Dave Turton my mentor and number 1 influence, i had 18 years of tuition from Dave and was graded to 5th Dan Black Belt an honour he reserved for just 6 people.  

Dave was taught by Welsh Martial Arts Masters The Warfield Brothers John & Gordon and they were taught by the great Great Grand Master Kenshiro Abbe, his lineage goes back hundreds of year in Japan.

 

Goshinkwai 

Goshinkwai is the more Martial Arts based stuff that Dave Turton taught me, it obviously has the same lineage as SDF. 

In Goshinkwai there is a lot of focus on footwork, aggression, accuracy, distance, timing and other principles. This is more technical and brutal that SDF so appears further into the Syllabus.

 

Kick Boxing & Superfoot System

As Kick Boxing is a Sport we look at rules set to define what style of Kick Boxing we do, our main striking rules set is Light Continuous as thats what we compete in mainly. Our Kick Boxing has a few different lineage paths from Kim Stones & Scott Hinds at KSTA to Andy Morrell of the CMAA, we also are Superfoot School so we are hugely influenced by Master Bill Wallace one of the greatest ever, i am a dan grade under him as are many of the Instructors.

We use Jab, Cross, Hook, Uppercut as our basic punches and Front, Side, Round, Hook and Axe Kicks as our basics as well as Jumping & Spinning variations plus obviously combo’s of all of these. We train Shadow striking, Pad Work & Sparring.

 

Combat Kick Boxing  

As well as our regular drills we also add Elbows, Knees, Low Kicks, Superman Punches & Spinning Back Fists in to our curriculum these come from a variety of Arts & Systems including Panantukan, K1 and MMA.

 

Eskrima 

The Filipino Martial Art of Eskrima is another core aspect of our Syllabus, mainly based around Single Stick but also includes Double Stick, Stick & Knife, Blded Weapons and a variety of devastating Empty Hand methods that somewhat gets over shadowed by the Weapons, the empty Hand stuff mainly comes from Panatukan and includes Punches, Kicks, Hammerfists, Elbows, Knees, Trapping, Joint Manipulation and Limb Destructions. 

The Stick is a great Weapon to learn as it is very versatile and you can adapt to other Weapons easier.

I learnt most of my Eskrima from Guro Dave Irwin, i will travel to Selby every week for over 10 years, i had already done 8 years of Eskrima before that including training with Dave in the past but these lessons from 2008-2018 really gave me a good knowledge and skill level in order to pass onto others, i was awarded the Black Grade from him something he only awarded 7 people in his 30 years of Eskrima, the style is a blend of a few different styles he trained over his years many years training with The Krause Brothers, Mark Wiley and others. 

Eskrima is on every Grade from White Belt to 5th Dan.

 

Serrada Escrima 

I also learned a pure system of Escrima from Dave as well as his blend which is called Serrada, its the System of Grandmaster Angel Cabales, the first Eskrima Instructor to openly teach his art to non Filipino’s, although he taught many top Instructors he only certified 12 masters, one of those was Mark Wiley and i was awarded my Advanced Instructor Degree directly from him.

Serrada means to close and the stick is much shorter than the Blended System and everything is focused on getting in close. It is based around Single Stick and Stick & Knife. It is one of my favourite Systems ive learnt. 

Serrada is only taught to Senior Dan Grades, 3rd Dan plus.

 

Catch Wrestling 

Catch as Catch Can Wrestling is a brutal Wrestling art that originated in England and then was popularised in Wigan in the early 20th Century, it is based around devastating Takedowns & Brutal Submissions such as Wrist Locks, Leg Locks & Neck Cranks. It has both Standing Grappling & Ground Fighting.

I was lucky to learn from the very best in the World Billy Robinson, he was from Manchester but had settled in Japan and later in America, i became his European Rep and brought him over from the states 3 times, i was lucky to get alot of training with him both on seminars and on his 3 day training camps plus countless hours in the car, hotel and the pub. Through Bly & Jake Shannon of Scientific Wrestling i achieved the level of Certified Catch Wrestler Level 2.  

The Standing stuff comes in at Advanced Grades but the Ground Game is after 1st Dan.

 

Ju-Jitsu 

We mainly incorporate the Throws of Ju-Jitsu into MSMA. They are our Fundamentals, we have reaps, hip throws, shoulder throws and other takedowns in the Syllabus upto Black Belt.

I have learnt Ju-Jitsu from a variety of people originally from Paul Murphy, as well as on many seminars with Trevor Roberts, private tuition with Andy Morrell and Dave Turton as part of the SDF Training and mainly syllabus wise from Matt Hunter who graded me to Black Belt.

 

Tae Kwon Do

Tae Kwon Do is my original art, the majority of the Kicks we do come from years of Tae Kwon Do, although they are in the Kick Boxing syllabus i learnt them first doing TKD, we also have a traditional ethos especially when it comes to respect in the classes, this is routed in our classes and stems from TKD.

I learnt TKD from Master Kim Stones who was World Champion he learnt from the great Master Tony Quigley and was Dan Graded by Grandmaster Rhee Ki Ha & Grandmaster Hee il Cho, his lineage and mine goes quickly to the founder of TKD General Choi Hong Hi

 

Combat Grappling 

Combat Grappling differs to other Grappling styles because it is purely street orientated where as our other Grappling style are for Sport. Combat Grappling again comes from the great Dave Turton, it is mainly ground skills but does have Takedowns too, the aim of the techniques is to get back to your feet by damaging your attacker however you can.

 

Boxing 

Although most of our striking is Integrated so Punches & Kicks etc we do have pure Boxing Drills, i went on a ABA Course and qualified as a ABA England Tutor and use the skills i learnt in the course as well as lessons i have had with various people to include in the Syllabus.

 

Native American Warrior Arts 

The rarest Art in MSMA is NAWA i learnt this from Danny Hoskins who i brought to the UK twice, i spent a week each time learning from him then practiced what i had learnt with my students through his Online Academy. Danny learnt from many sources including Swift Ear who learnt from Grey Otter. 

The main aspects we use are the Apache Knife but also have some of the Tomahawk techniques and Tomahawk/Knife War Dance Applications.

 

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

I achieved my Blue Belt in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu from Royce Gracie in Sheffield in 2004 but didnt keep up training when my Instructor Andy Roberts moved to London, i do try and get to Royce’s seminars every year and continue to learn from him when i can. As we have talked about loneage in each section Royce has probably the strongest lineage in Martial Arts as the Gracie Family is the most famous family in Martial Arts and Royce trained with his Father, Uncle. Brothers & Cousins. 

We mainly use the Guard game in MSMA syllabus, passing the guard as well as working from it in the underneath position.

 

English Martial Arts 

I was very lucky to learn English Martial Arts from the modern day Founder Terry Brown, he wrote the book which started the interest in Historical European Martial Arts. 

I travelled to London many times to train with him in Sword, Cudgel, Quarterstaff & Barefist. Times i look back on fondly. There is only a small amount of EMA in MSMA but quite a few principles are employed. 

 

As you can see we have a very well rounded Curriculum with a wide variety of  training methods from around the World.