family martial arts uk

Discussion in 'General Martial Arts Discussion' started by jager, Apr 17, 2011.

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  1. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    Pretty much yeah - Geoff named it but the fence is in effect a fighting measure. Dave Briggs was a big fence user too, although I think he got most of his steam under Geoff. Geoff even named one of his fences "the Briggs method".

    Geoff always said he spent most of his time fixing a problem that should not have been there in the first place - reality in combat arts. Somehow that phrase and "Family Martial Arts" do not sound compatible
     
    Hannibal, Nov 17, 2011
    #41
  2. caveman

    caveman Threadkiller

    I heard he attended one Geoff Thompson seminar and is milking it.
     
    caveman, Nov 17, 2011
    #42
  3. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    Sounds about right!
     
    Hannibal, Nov 17, 2011
    #43
  4. B I R C H

    B I R C H Valued Member

    Ivan Rolls is in Geoff Thompsons Master Class
     
    B I R C H, Nov 18, 2011
    #44
  5. Smitfire

    Smitfire Cactus Schlong

    Now...I've got Geoff's vids on the fence, pre-emptive striking, animal day etc.
    And it's not something I'd ever call family martial arts. :)
    Unless you come from a very sweary and aggressive family that is.
     
    Smitfire, Nov 18, 2011
    #45
  6. Hannibal

    Hannibal Cry HAVOC and let slip the Dogs of War!!! Supporter

    Not listed on the BCA site significantly. But then perhaps it is unique to Geoff

    Geoff's Masterclass is a very new innovation of his, so Ivan is a new player to the game - nothing wrong with that, but it does mean he is inexperienced at that aspect.

    However how do you explain the lack of listed grades in other systems?
     
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2011
    Hannibal, Nov 18, 2011
    #46
  7. caveman

    caveman Threadkiller

    Even if it's true it doesn't justify what he's doing.
     
    caveman, Nov 18, 2011
    #47
  8. Killa_Gorillas

    Killa_Gorillas Banned Banned

    I trained for a little while in a gendai budo club that was affiliated with the BCA and had regular seminars with applied jujitsu/jujutsu/jiu jitsu guys... it was pretty much a complete load of ****. Crappling, weak WJJF syllabus and to top it off they awarded a 5 year old with a black belt.


    What this illustrates is that it is possible to have legit conections with people of repute and still suck **** and teach garbage.

    Family martial arts is a BS McDojo/Daycare centre out for your cash, you can tell that just looking at ANY of their promotional material. And the guy looks like a fracking pussy too.
     
    Killa_Gorillas, Nov 19, 2011
    #48
  9. Putrid

    Putrid Moved on


    Which means he is on a self development rather than self protection course.Nothing wrong with Geoff's stuff but he has pointed out his aim these days isn't to train fighters.
     
    Putrid, Nov 19, 2011
    #49
  10. jager

    jager Valued Member

    FMA update

    hi

    i havent been on here for a while and have just read all the posts. Thanks for all the input.

    I would like to maybe answer a few coments that are on here. Firstly though i should point out that i did stay with FMA and a few months ago gaineed a black belt through them.

    In regards to the blackbelt (no one has gotten one in 2 years, minimum possible is 3 and you would need to have some martial arts background to do it in this time) , i have a family who have history in martial arts and i wanted to do something different to just kickboxing or Karate. since getting my belt i have looked into other arts and can say that as FMA works like a MMA facility i would class myself as mid range in couple of discaplines, mainly kickboxing and jiujitsu. bit of jack of all trades and master of none, which is what you would bet from and mixed martial arts club.. I have gained a lot of confidence and also a lot of fitness in doing this and have found that it is a very good basis to start.

    In regards to the fees - i did find it a little expensive to start but since leaving i have noticed that an average class elsewere seems to be roughtly £10, as i was going at leat 3 times a week, sometimes for 2 classes a day this would be very costly regardless of where you train so it does seem to even its self out.

    right, on to the trainers - Ivan Rolls, abilitly wise is very good, he does teach regardless of what people say, his credentials last time i asked were - blackbelt karate and kickboxing, he has gained a blackbelt from geoff thompson and last i heard has also gained brown belt in brazillian jiujitsu.
    Laura Shippley - blackbelt teakwondo, FMA, and also geoff thompson. she is currently training in brasillian jiujitsu but unsure at the level she is at.

    On talking to Ivan rolls i do believe he does want the best training for the students but sometimes he is to eager and comes accross as false, if he stopped the "Positive attitude" at times he would come accross as more credible.

    When i started there was a trainer called Prof Sharkey, he has had a mention on here and to be honest i thought he was a bit poor, too full of himself and not very technicaly adept. since he has left the club got a lot better.

    FMA has made what i thought was the progression it was working towards as in having MMA fighters and have entered into a few amature fights and are yet to lose, it is a start and has a long way to go to be near wolfslair and kaobon.

    i have since moved on to escrima which i do find excellent and when i started was able to hold my own sparing with some of the more experienced fighters due to my training.

    I do understand the McDojo coments and if i an honest agree that that is how it looked and at times felt but it has come a long way since then.

    Hope this gives a more realistic impression of the club.
     
    jager, Jul 27, 2012
    #50
  11. Killa_Gorillas

    Killa_Gorillas Banned Banned

    Fair play. Good to see a club bettering itself; ultimately that's the attitude everyone wants to see.

    Where did the BJJ rank come from? who are the ammy fighters and what shows do/did they fight on etc...

    Your post seems pretty honest to me. I'm wondering if you've trained at facilities like Kaobon and how your experiences compare?
     
    Killa_Gorillas, Jul 28, 2012
    #51
  12. Brutal

    Brutal Banned Banned

    Yeah! where did he get his brown belt from?

    Homophobic comments removed.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 28, 2012
    Brutal, Jul 28, 2012
    #52
  13. taichi bob

    taichi bob Valued Member

    Hi..Jager interesting message...good luck with your martial arts training....me..I'm rather sceptical about people being masters and proffessor at such a young age..me pushing towards the seventy mark...would be interesting who teaches you escrima?
     
    taichi bob, Jul 28, 2012
    #53
  14. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

    His facebook shows adverts for erik paulson, billy robinson, John will and victor estima seminars. But no mention of a bjj brown belt.

    IIRC one of John wills liverpool seminars was cancelled last minute the last time he was over. Might have been these guys.
     
    Dead_pool, Jul 28, 2012
    #54
  15. jager

    jager Valued Member

    in response to new questions, BJJ teacher i think is neil murray (think thats his name), the MMA people where classes as 1st or 2nd dann but again i am crap with names, i think one is on youtube under 8 second roling arm bar. I think it was at liverpool Olympia.

    i am doing Escrima with http://www.liverpoolwingchun.co.uk/ the owner/teacher is called Paul (never asked his surname), he seems very capable i am also happy that this is for over 18s only.

    i havent been to Kaobon as i am unable to get there but i do know people from there and i do hear very good things about it, i did go to wolfslair when i lived in widnes and also found this as good place to train.

    There are regular seminars at the club with (again forgive me regarding names) mike gregory (wing chun and Kali) there has also noticed some adverts for seminars with someone who was Brock Lessners trainer.

    I do also agree with the coment regarding the "Master" status, although i did quite like Ivan Rolls i didnt take much notice of this title.
     
    jager, Jul 28, 2012
    #55
  16. Reacher

    Reacher New Member

    That is Scott Matthews.
     
    Reacher, Oct 15, 2012
    #56
  17. Aegis

    Aegis River Guardian Admin Supporter

    Got bored this evening, so I requested the brochure entitled "The 6 things you should look for before choosing a martial arts academy". What a load of absolute rubbish. For anyone wondering what those six things are, here you go:

    The idea that healthy competition in a sport a child loves is somehow harmful is just baffling to me. Kids enjoy competitions, and competitions can be excellent ways to test training. Also, why assume that just because an academy likes to train decent competitors they automatically have to ignore all other aspects of development?

    This is basically just an attempt to claim to be better than competitive martial arts without actually having to develop a martial artist demonstrably better.

    If I see a bad school, I'm going to make people aware of it. Why? Because most beginning students can't tell good from bad and will often assume that just because the school has a load of students the quality of training is fantastic. Other times instructors will be making wild unverifiable claims, and it can often take an experienced martial artist to identify those fantasists.

    Utterly irrelevant when it comes to their ability to actually teach martial arts, of course. Might be nice to have all these additional features, but a martial arts instructor does not have to be active in the community to be a really good instructor.

    What's wrong with help while teaching? At the moment we're going through a university fresher period, and consequently we're running classes with three or four instructors regularly. The extra help allows students to get additional feedback from a number of experienced martial artists.

    Being able to control a class is important if it's kids, so this is about the only one I partially agree with so far.

    Risk Free Trial is usually just called "first session free" or similar. "Guarantee" is, I reckon, almost entirely meaningless within martial arts. I'm not going to guarantee anyone anything other than the fact that I'll teach them if they turn up and I want them as a student. What they learn and how fast they learn it is up to them.

    Safety mats are something I agree with, though as I teach jujutsu I would be mad not to have such features. A karate class more often than not will not require mats for the vast majority of their sessions, so even on this point it's a hasty generalisation.

    This is so wrong it's downright offensive. How about option 3:

    I believe in only charging students for lessons they actually attend.

    Those familiar with my outlook on martial arts will know that I feel that martial arts contracts are often used by desperate instructors who realise they only way they can retain students is to impose hefty cancellation penalties for exiting contracts early. A poster above mentioned something about a 3-year contract at over £100 a month. I teach students for £5 a session and at my club there are 3 sessions a week. £60 a month if someone turns up to all sessions, with no obligation to pay if they go on holiday or away on business.

    Oh, and our club has been around for over 15 years - I reckon that's pretty good for "amateurs" and "hobbyists".

    Charging at stupidly high rates on contracts doesn't make you professional. It just makes you expensive and restrictive.


    Seeing martial arts instructors spouting nonsense like this really ticks me off for some reason...
     
    Aegis, Oct 16, 2012
    #57
  18. Aegis

    Aegis River Guardian Admin Supporter

    Just to add to this, after a little more digging it seems the Advertising Standards Agency has already ruled that point number 6 (quoted in my last post) breached the following advertising standards:

    • 3.1 (Misleading advertising)
    • 3.38 (Other comparisons)
    • 3.42 (Imitation and Denigration)
    See here for the ruling, presumably against an associated school (given the identical text of the paragraph in question).


    I wonder if anyone from Family Martial Arts UK would like to step forward and clarify why they are still using an advert subject to the following decision:



    I'd also like to know how the use of an advert deemed to be deliberately misleading and in breach of regulations fits in with points 2 and 3 of their guidelines for selecting a martial arts club...
     
    Aegis, Oct 17, 2012
    #58
  19. Mike Flanagan

    Mike Flanagan Valued Member

    Hi Aegis

    Good going. I did find point 6 surprisingly offensive. I trust you've forwarded the evidence of this breach of ASA's ruling on to ASA?

    Mike
     
    Mike Flanagan, Oct 17, 2012
    #59
  20. Aegis

    Aegis River Guardian Admin Supporter

    I haven't actually. Owning a large forum like this and also being an instructor gives me a lot of hassle when making a complaint about a martial arts advert, as it's a double dose of vested interest. Last time was enough for me, I'd rather just name and shame like this.

    This thread is now on the front page of google when searching for "family martial arts UK", which I think is a good place to be if we want this sort of information to come to light.
     
    Aegis, Oct 17, 2012
    #60
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