With the onset of the autumn/winter season nights become longer and shrouded in darkness, this is the time when you would be well advised to carry with you a portable light source, apart from it’s obvious benefit to emergency situations it is also a great aide to everyday life.

Any personal item small enough to be carried in a pocket or hand bag can be easily dropped and become a devil to find in the dark as it never seems to land at your feet but bounces, rolls and slides off into the darkest recess that can be found, something as simple as a flashlight is the very thing that you need to help in the search for your valuables.

Dog walkers, joggers, in fact anyone with reason to be out during the hours of darkness have good reason to carry a personal flashlight simply to illuminate their path.

One of the problems that we see with the majority people using a flashlight is the way in which they carry it, usually with their hand hanging by their side and pointing at the ground a very short distance in front of their feet, a much better way is to carry your flashlight at eye level, offering a longer, wider illumination.

This also allows you to easily direct the full beam into the eyes of any potentially unsavoury characters who may approach you with dubious intentions, disrupting their plans just long enough for you to escape or defend a bad situation.

To make your flashlight easier to carry and not drop especially if you are going to be running add a lanyard or small strap which can easily be attached to the tail end of your flashlight placed around the back of your hand and looped over the bezel, this will leave you hands free for other tasks.

There are a multitude of flashlights available on the market and you should have no problem finding one to suit your hand size.

The authors preferred every day carry is a small L.E.D. light which is carried on a key ring, with the ring large enough to slip over a finger, this again makes it easy to hold at eye level and almost impossible to drop when on the move.

Alan Beckett

This what happens when Brian knocks me on my ass.

You are captured from the opening line, “The last thing Richard Hilzoy thought before the bullet entered his brain was, Things are really looking up.

However this is not just another story of covert black operations run by secret government agencies, it takes us deep into the psyche of two feuding siblings and the events that bind them to one another, sometimes painfully.

Murder, corruption and intrigue all play their part as the story goes full circle reaching it’s final climatic end.

Coming soon this great new book for all fight fans, from the pen of Lito Angeles  Lito has been studying the martial arts for over thirty years and trained with many famous instructors, his experience and knowledge will make this book an instant best seller. Available for pre-order now at Amazon , this is one not to be missed.

This is an excellent article by Jamie Clubb.

The anxiety a child faces when entering a secondary school for the first time is well known. Books upon books have been written discussing this key moment in the lives of young people.

The anxiety a child faces when entering a secondary school for the first time is well known. Books upon books have been written discussing this key moment in the lives of young people.

New children are on the bottom rung of the age ladder, ignorant of the new institution’s social and working structure and awed by its size in comparison to their primary school.
This all makes them prime candidates for bullying.

Therefore, it is small wonder that many of my new child students come to me at this stage in their lives either as a reaction to bullying they are experiencing or to pre-empt the bullying in the first place.

Much of what is written in magazines and books discusses the worries a child faces before entering secondary school for the first time is all focused on the first day. However, it is not always the first day or even the first week when the real problems crop up.

When a child first goes to a new school the initial experience is rarely as bad as he might think. The first day at a new school is all about acclimatization and learning new routines.

Teachers and even older children understand about the worries a new child faces and can be fairly sympathetic. It is later on that a lot of bullying tends to surface.

This is because the victim has been selected and it takes a certain degree of time for this to happen. What also happens is that the victim has lowered their defences by this stage and revealed potential weaknesses.

I remember seeing children at my secondary school that seemed popular and confident for the first few weeks descend into a miserable state of being persecuted over time.

One child, not the most likeable of people I have to admit, came across as a real extrovert in the first week and looked set to be the “class joker” for our year.

By the end of the first week he had become the target of the jokes and a campaign of bullying seemed to go in waves against him and occurred both in his year group and in his school house. He eventually left at the end of the second form (Year 8).

Another was an inoffensive little soul who not only appeared to have friends in his year, but also what appeared to be a degree of protection from the older children.

His bullying was a slow gradual process that only really surfaced in the upper school once all his protection had left the school and his passivity and small stature, not to mention certain physical characteristics, became perfect areas for bully exploitation.

Both these children fell into a false sense of security when teachers and parents were confident that the anxiety stage was over and the child didn’t need watching over.

Of course, this is a perfectly understandable attitude to take. If a child is going to be independently minded and be allowed to grow socially he or she does not need to be constantly watched and overdoing this only contributes towards lack of confidence.

However, this is also the prime time for the bully to strike and it is when a child will need to be able to prevent this from happening or to deal with it in a manner that will prevent future bullying.

It is because bullying can take on this form that I understand why “quick fix” solutions were never going to work at my classes at Woodlands School. Our training is as close to reality as possible and it is from this honesty that we derive a healthy mental and physical education in self-protection.

A key feature of our classes is the way we develop the individual, which is unlike most martial arts classes or even self-defence courses that make people conform to a set routine.

By taking this approach we train principles, which our students confirm through activities rather than learn by accumulating superficial techniques. This makes self-defence become part of a person’s character or personality.

A big area of ours is the development of attitude. It is attitude that will contribute more than anything else in the prevention of becoming a target. If, however, they do become the target of a bully it is attitude that will give them the fortitude to handle the situation in the best way possible.

In conclusion, anti-bullying is a question of character building. However, this character building is not created through gimmicky courses or quick bits of advice. Rather it is earned through a practical understanding of human behaviour both that of others and your own.

Jamie Clubb runs regular “Clubb Chimera Martial Arts” classes for children and adults at Gym 3, The Woodlands School and Sports College, Broad Lane, Coventry each Wednesday 5:30pm-6:30pm (6-14 years old) and 6:30pm-8:00pm (15 years old+). Classes include training in realistic self-defence and MMA (Mixed Martial Arts).

Contact: jamie@clubbchimera.com
http://www.clubbchimera.com/

The Instructors would like to take this opportunity to wish all our members a very happy Christmas.

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The last night of training this year will be  15^th December.

As usual this will just be a fun session.

Training will resume as normal on Monday   5^th January.

Take care, we look forward to seeing you all in the new year.

Alan

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Readers may be interested in the book which has been in the works for some time. Working with Warriors covers Dennis Martin’s training in Karate, then Close-quarter Combatives, as well as working on nightclub doors with Terry O’Neill and Gary Spiers.
Tery O’Neill captained the World Championship winning British Karate Team, and was rated by Black Belt Magazine as “The toughest man on Planet Earth”.
Gary Spiers worked on nightclubs in Australia before spending several years training in Karate in Japan. He then settled in Great Britain where he became a legend in front-line security.The book then goes on to discuss his work in VIP Close-protection, then training bodyguards in Europe, RSA and USA.
There are several interviews in the book, including one specially done with Terry, and another with Tommy Mac, who was the guy who started Terry on the door of the famous Cavern Club, and who trained with him in grappling.
Working with Warriors has an introduction by Geoff Thompson
Chapters include:
1 The Beginner
2 The Karate Kid
3 The Victoriana
4 Gary Spiers Part I
5 Tom McNally?
6 The Top Rank
7 Japan
8 Minding Miss World
9 Close Protection
10 Training Bodyguards
11 The Quad
12 The Paradox
13 Murder Capital/The Unit
14 The Maori II
15 The Gutterfighters
16 Fight-winning Techniques
17 Old School, New Rules
18 Gary the GynaecologistWorking with Warriors has numerous photographs: 

I go down to Norfolk every couple of years to see relatives.

Fortunately my cousin is the ex firearms officer for that area.

So with Sandringham, Bacton Gas Sight and ex prime Prime Minister John Major on his doorstep he has a natural interest in anti terrorist precautions, firearms and Close Protection.

And then, like me, he has an interest in history involving the Second World War.

This time down he took me to a museum, Muckleburgh Museum.

The museum some how has very up to date equipment on display from the likes of the Gulf War and Afganistan going back to the Falklands and the second world war.

Infact some of the older equipment was used in the movie “Saving Private Ryan”.

The museum is well worth a visit however give yourself some time as these places really need a couple of sessions.

Norfolk was one of the major strong holds set up to combat the German invasion.

Pillboxes, which are now under conservation order, are littered around the area and are even in gardens. One of them is now painted pink but unfortunately I did not get a picture of this.

The 202 Battalion (the Underground Army) was set up in this area and here is a drawing of one of their hide-outs.  They are open to the public and believe it or not some are still being found.

tSome of the knives and daggers on show.

  There were numerous of tanks armoured cars on display.