I loved it.

We (Tom and I) were about 10 minutes late getting there because we got lost even though it turned out to be on the same street Tom used to live on. When we walked in the guys had already started and what they were doing looked really odd, nothing like any other fighting style I have seen.

The trainer started out by showing us the basic position of Keysi; the Pensidor (aka thinking man). Basically gripping the back of your skull with both hands, one on top of the other, so that your forearms cover the top and sides of your skull and your shoulders and upper arms cover the face and jaw.

It is your natural reaction when attacked to adopt the Pensidor. As the instructor explained it; Imagine I throw a pad at the back of your head (so you don't see it coming), as it bounces off you your natural reaction is to throw your arms up over your head and crouch slightly. Keysi acknowledges this, and instead of trying to teach you to overcome this natural reaction and adopt an alternative stance, shows you how to go with it to put yourself into a position where you are both well defended, and ready and able to unleash your attack.

Another interesting effect of using the Pensidor is that it kinda looks like you are cowering. This may lead your attackers to believe that you are an unworthy foe, underestimating you momentarily which, as you are in fact doing the very opposite of cowering, could give you a momentary advantage.

We were put against a wall where we were attacked by being pushed and grabbed in the chest then hit with a pad in the head, using the Pensidor to defend against it. It is surprising how hard a blow you can take with pretty much zero effect when in this position.

After this Jason (the trainer) demonstrated using Keysi to deal with 3 attackers. This was really interesting to watch especially as there was no pre-agreed attack, the guys just came at him and he did his thing. I've never seen this before. As Jaz remarked when I was discussing it with him that evening, normally at a class you are told 'Grab my right shoulder' and if you accidentally grab their left shoulder, they'll say 'No my right shoulder' and 'Not like that like this' etc. and then show you what to do if you are attacked in exactly that fashion. Not very helpful if someone attacks you in a slightly different way, you can't exactly tell your assailant in a real situation that they are attacking you in the wrong way. Also, learning this way means you need to learn a different move to deal with every possibility and be able to instantly pick the right one for the specific situation you find yourself in. (You should all be able to see the parallels between Keysi and natural, authentic game, and most other fighting styles and structured, routine game. Of course this is not a new way of thinking, this philosophy first found its way into the minds of fighters thanks to Bruce Lee and Jeet Kune Do, being influenced, as he was, by Taoist philosophies including Sun Tzu's Art of War.)

After this he also demonstrated being attacked by three people and using the boxing style to defend himself and again using Wing Chun. This was to show the weaknesses of these styles in a realistic multiple attacker situation. With the Wing Chun he was able to handle and defend against two of the attackers but left himself wide open for potentially devestating attacks from the third. He was clearly proficient and respectful of both styles, his Wing Chun shit was very impressive, and was careful not to talk down the strengths of those other styles too.

We were then shown how to do a basic attack (hammer fist) and approach whilst in the Pensidor. A lot of the philosophy is about switching the predator and prey roles. You have been ambushed by multiple assailants, they start out as the predators. The aggression in Keysi is used to flip the situation on its head so the hunter becomes the hunted. Jason related this to his military training and how they are taught to respond to an ambush situation by charging their ambushers thus destroying their plans and wrestling back the advantage. In the attack and approach the aim is to charge your opponents and get right up in their shit, this flips the situation so you are now the predator. It also takes away the distance that most fighting styles require to be effective (and certainly the big haymaker style most 'hard nuts' employ), it ruffles your opponent causing confusion, and cuts off many angles of attack from any other assailants because their allies body is in the way.

Despite being told repeatedly to take all aspects of the training seriously Tom lazily flopped forward when the instructor was demonstrating how the style flows continuously forward from all positions and took a light shot to the chin, which was fucking hillarious as he tried to 'man it off'.

I also understand that, pumped up on his newly acquired powers, Tom went home and, like any self-respecting Northerner should, gave his girl a good beating.

At the end of the class one student was asking the trainer about a situation he'd been in that week where he had shouted some abuse at a couple of guys in a skip who then attacked him and his friends. He was coming from an angle where he felt he should have done more. Jason was unimpressed and used a great military style example. The instructor is a pretty intelligent guy and works in the hospital as an anaesthesiologist so sees plenty of young guys come in on a Friday and Saturday night who either become organ donors, paralysed, basket cases or otherwise premanently disabled and has no desire to fight unnecessarily. He said that this little space around him was the Republic of Jason and he has no designs to invade anyone else's country; he has sufficient resources so doesn't need to pilage others' countries, he only wants peaceful relations with them. However, if they invade the Republic of Jason it is a different situation altogether. And, said that the student had basically been a dick for shouting at the guys and that anything that happened after that point was a total irrelevancy. I liked this analogy and attitude.

Overall, it completely lived up to my expectations and I'll definitely be returning. The group was small and hopefully it wont get too busy as the size means you get a lot of individual attention from the instructor. Jason wants each of his students to feel at least a small incremental improvement in confidence and feelings of capability after each session and I certainly felt that after this first class.


Peace,

kowalski