That was before the operation turned me from a glamorous blonde into 6'2" of Yorkshireman. Worth every penny, I say.
Hello Peter, yes I was at the 1979 Nationals at Crystal Palace and that fight is still talked about. He did a rolling Kakato geri to clinch the title. Steve Cattle was my inspiration as I was similar in size and his tai sabaki was incredible to avoiding big fighters like Terry.
I still remember being asked to foot sweep him in a seminar <it's not my best technique, he probably only picked me as my other kicks were pretty fast at the time>
I would positively evacuate my bowels if Terry O'Neill told me to sweep him. It would be ten minutes of me tapping his leg followed by a big, booming 'HARDER, BOY!' *ahem*
Ironically, he did ask me to do it again! He wasn't impressed. I did try to keep my foot low on the ankle but remember hitting with the foot and most of my shin against his too <gulp> I always believe you get more out of seminars by getting to the front line, trying really hard and volunteering when needed for demoing stuff but not that day. The only other well known karateka I've had to try hit at a seminar is Mikio Yahara at a KUGB Nationals training week, the week I got my shodan
A work collegue of mine has trained with Terry O'Neill and Dave Hazzard. He recons Terry was fearsome and hard as nails but Dave Hazzard was better technique wise. This is going back alot of years though!
I trained with him several times in the seventies/early eighties both on courses and at at his club in Liverpool.Top man and one of the best kickers in the business.He worked the doors for many years and I believe he KO'd a quite few people with round kicks to the head.
It was different in those days (seventies).The dojo was full of young males with massive egos,mainly aged between 17-24 with the sensei a couple of years older.Anyone over 30 would have been laughed out of the dojne guy was 28 and we called him "stiff hips" because he couldn't kick to head-height from cold.
Hello Andy, Terry O Neill and Dennis Martin are good friends. Terry organized a course at Sunderland for us with Dennis. He has a company called CQB and he trains proffesional bodyguards. He specialises in knive and gun courses and thats what we did. He was very skilful and professional and made us realise how vunerable we are.He wanted everyone in tracksuits ,no gi, no belts we were Joe Public for the day. If you get the chance to train with him , do it. Kind regards John
I took my first grading age about 14 in 1984/85 with Terry O'Neil Bit of a nerve wracking experience that - if you passed with Terry you'd earned it for sure! I had to speak to him to tell him I'd got a broken arm that didn't straighten out fully and was quite daunted having to approach him, fearsomely huge presence that he had, lol Terry used to train Arnold Swarzenegger btw, around the time of conan the barbarian or maybe the sequel - he was a fights consultant, trained some of the actors in fighting & worked on weights with arnie too - he was an extra in one of the conan movies in a big fight scene as well
