Handouts

After sitting down and performing some very basic arithmetic I came to the stark realisation that I was financially broke. The simple problem was this; I had become so single minded about practising and teaching martial arts, that I’d forgotten one simple factor - I still had to earn a living. This was in October 1986, six months after starting my first martial art Club.

Having to sign-on for unemployment benefit didn’t sit well in my mind. I remember as a kid my father finding himself in a similar situation. Working as a builder’s labourer and experiencing a long hard winter, the extreme weather conditions brought his work to a complete standstill. For several months he was left with no other option but to claim benefits to support our family. My mother, obviously protecting the family pride, strictly informed me not to mention this to anyone. In those days it was considered an embarrassment to be claiming social handouts.

For myself, I felt totally ashamed that I’d gotten my family in such a predicament. I can hardly recall a time in my life that I experienced such depression. However I also realised that I was lucky to have an understanding wife and a very supportive family. One other thing that I also discovered, that when the chips-are-down, often someone surprisingly comes along to help fight your cause; a knight-in-shining-armour if you like. In this case it was the owner of the local leisure centre where I rented my martial art room.

One day, we just happened to be talking about how my club was progressing when he suddenly presented me with a proposal. He suggested that together we should organise a special fund-raising session, which might benefit us both. His idea was to hold a disco/dance for my members. The entrance fees collected on the door would assist our club funds, while in return he would make money from the bar receipts. It seemed like a fair arrangement and a win-win situation for the both of us.

We proceeded in making arrangements and the event soon came around. Students invited their friends and family members and the event was extremely well attended. As the night progressed there were lots of people dancing, drinking, laughing, all having such a wonderful time. The leisure centre owner was also having a great time as well, gaining plenty of drink sales. I on the other hand was feeling very insecure about my future, secretly I worried about how I was going to make ends meet.

The day after the event I met up with the leisure centre owner. After talking about the success of the previous evening, I recognised that he was someone I could confide in and I informed him about my monetary problems. As a knowledgeable businessman he immediately recognised my plight. He informed me that it wasn’t unusual for many young homeowners to go through similar financial difficulties. In fact he said that many years ago he’d also had cash-flow problems himself but somehow managed to get through them.

After our talk, I felt so relieved about sharing my problems. I'd often heard it said that a problem shared is a problem halved and in this case it was absolutely true. The helpful leisure centre owner then proposed to me another solution. He insisted that I should actually keep the money raised from the disco event to help provide support for my family. It was a very kind offer and one that I’d never even thought about. He also pointed out the following fact; that fundamentally I was the heart of the club and my own stability, whether financial or otherwise was paramount to the club's own survival.

Once again I felt really uncomfortable about receiving the handout, however at the same time I was truly grateful for the support. I understood that this was a lifeline that I could ill afford to ignore. Despite much soul-searching I eventually decided to accept the £30 door receipts to help pay the family food bill for the forthcoming week. It was a charitable donation that not only provided me food for my table, but also much needed food for thought. 

I came to the conclusion that what I'd experienced was a very tough lesson indeed. I sat down and thoroughly analysed my situation.  I then solemnly vowed to myself that I would never ever put my family in such financial jeopardy again. This was definitely the wakeup call that I needed and one that would act as a catalyst to drive me forward to achieve greater things... Again this was to be another major turning point along my journey.

Tough Times

I began teaching my martial art classes in a very small dingy, claustrophobic room at the local leisure centre, which was the only available sports facility in the town to hire at the time. It was a long thin and very narrow hall and there was hardly enough space to breathe let alone do anything else. 

Despite the cramped conditions the room served it's purpose, however during the summer months the area became so hot that students would often pass out due to the lack of oxygen. The only air-conditioning available was the twin fire escape doors at the end of the room. It was here that many students were often resuscitated and nurtured back to life. Many injuries did occur within this environment, however I mainly ignored them and considered it to be all part of the training. Student’s that survived really deserved their place in my club, those that didn't …. just quit.

With this prevailing hard-nose attitude I soon began to sort out the weak from the strong. During the process I collected a few “die hard” students along the way. These students I considered to be “serious” practitioners, those that could take a good old beasting and still come back for more. This kind of practice was considered hardcore and not suitable for anyone with a fragile disposition.

At the time I’d just stopped working as a Painter & Decorator and found some casual work labouring for a couple of friends that owned a small landscape gardening business. I wasn’t teaching martial arts full-time - only for the love of it. I didn’t really care too much about earning lots of money, all I was really  interested in was practicing Kuk Sool.

One day, my two friends informed me that they'd just obtained a large contract and asked me if I would like to work for them on a more permanent basis. The only downside was the job would require me  being away from home at least three or four nights a week. My dilemma was this;  to either take the job, which would mean earning a reasonable wage to support my family and closing down my martial art club, or to choose to stay in the very same position without having any employment at all. You've already  guessed... I took the second option. 

At the time it may have felt like a difficult decision for me to make, however looking back, it was a relativity easy one. I certainly didn’t want to be away from my wife and my baby daughter for long periods of time and I definitely had no intention of giving up on my dream of running my own full-time martial art school.

After turning down the job offer, I had no other option but to register for unemployment benefit. I remember feeling really sad and embarrassed asking for social handouts, but there was no other alternative. It wasn’t long after this that another problem soon began to emerge. One night Alison and I sat down and performed some very simple arithmetic, it revealed to us a very basic home truth – we were financially broke.

At this point it would have been easy to revert back to performing any old job that would pay a decent wage, however work was scarce with nothing available. These were really tough times and thoughts of trying to make ends meet are still firmly etched into my mind to this very day.  If it wasn’t for our parents and the support that they gave us, I really don’t know where we would have ended up.

My Way

After informing my wife Alison about my personal ambition to start up my own martial art club, it wasn't too long after this major announcement that my dreams soon started to transform into reality.

A few weeks earlier I’d already started a Ladies self-defence class at the local Leisure Centre in the town where I lived. After the course had finished I was then asked by the operator to teach martial arts on a more regular basis. This opportunity basically came about after another local martial art instructor had failed to turn up to teach his classes and I was invited to take his place.

My instructing role soon became more permanent. On 1st July 1986 I officially opened my very first martial art club in Halesworth Suffolk. After the initial opening I slowly began to attract more and more students, however it didn’t take me too long recognise that although my ambitions and desires were strong, my actual ability to operate a successful club was an entirely different matter.

I’d had very little experience dealing with any aspect of business. My wife was unable to assist me because she was busy attending to our newborn baby. I struggled with certain things, such as keeping accurate bookwork, memberships applications and other forms of paperwork. Most of this just didn’t interest me. All I wanted to do was just practice and teach martial arts and do nothing else.

My first group of students quickly discovered my intense training methods. In fact I actually felt proud if someone decided to quit. I often referred to this as an act of “culling,” basically a method of sorting the weak out from the strong. I didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘retention’. Students were basically given a choice, “ It was either my way - or the highway."

Today, I refer to this type of approach as “Old School" training. Most people who taught martial arts back then didn't know any different, we just followed certain methods that had been handed down from our own Instructor's. It must have seemed very regimental and militaristic back then and good customer service never existed. Looking back, following these specific methods I now realise that I lost many promising students along the way.

In the late eighties there were only a few other martial art clubs around in my area.  Martial arts had not reached its peak like it has today. Instructor’s from different clubs rarely spoke to each other or had any connection outside of their own organisations. Personally I didn't really care about mixing with anyone else, I just kept my head down and concentrated on teaching and training.

It wasn’t long before I started to feel slightly out of my comfort zone, which I now recognise as a sign of growth. Everything that I did back in those early days was done via trial and error and I understand now that I made many, many mistakes. 

To summarise; I basically didn’t care about anything except training. I didn't know how to treat people properly. I wasn’t willing to communicate. I wasn’t interested in discovering about the operational side of things. In short; it was a complete recipe for disaster! 

It wasn’t to far down the road that I would soon discover the complete error of my ways.