Bulldog Academy - The Arts

Bulldog Martial Arts Academy

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu | Jeet Kune Do | Mixed Martial Arts | Karate

The Arts

A brief history of the arts trained at the club and what they involve.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

When Japanese Jiu Jitsu master Mitsuo Maeda moved to Brazil in 1914 he was greatly assisted by Brazilian politician Gastao Gracie. In return Maeda taught Jiu Jitsu to his Gracie’s son Carlos who in turn taught it to his brothers Osvaldo, Gastao jnr, Jorge and Helio. In 1925 the Gracie’s opened a Jiu Jitsu academy in Brazil and Gracie Jiu Jitsu was born.

Over the years, the original form of Jiu Jitsu taught was refined via brutal no rules street fights. The refined art concentrated heavily on ground fighting, where a great percentage of the fights ended up.

Today, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is widely acknowledged as the corner stone of modern ground fighting and most if not all, UFC fighters at some point in their career add the study of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to their arsenal. To anyone serious about MMA, the study of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a “no-brainer” but on it’s own it also forms a worthwile and extremely enjoyable art to practice, as its utilisation of the whole body makes it perfect for someone looking to the martial arts for health and fitness. The nature of the art also makes it perfect for rape defence for women. An awareness of how to fight on the ground from your back can obviously be extremely valuable in this scenario.

Jeet Kune Do

When the late Bruce Lee moved to the USA from Hong Kong. He was already a serious practitioner of Wing Chun Kung Fu. However, he found that in the US, most of the opponents he would face would be considerably larger than himself, making some techniques less effective than they would be against a similar sized opponent.

With this in mind he began to look at ways to modify the knowledge he already had to develop a universally effective martial art. He also came under fire from the Chinese community in the US as he had begun to teach the “secret” martial arts to Westerners.

This upset the Chinese hierarchy so much they sent a fighter to humiliate Bruce. Bruce beat the fighter but he was very critical of his own performance, feeling that the combat could have been much quicker and more efficient if the “messier” unnecessary movements of the arts were refined. Hence was born Jeet Kune Do. The Way of the Intercepting Fist. An art dedicated to removing the “fanciness” from martial arts and making it a functional tool, cherry picking, the best parts from various styles and looking at the most efficient way of moving and dealing with your opponent.

After Bruce’s death, several of his students carried on his legacy. One of these Students was Larry Hartsell who developed the grappling side of JKD with inputs from Greco-Roman wrestling, Judo and Sombo amongst others. Chris and Richard have had close links with Larry since 1995, with Chris being Larry’s main England representative for several years.

Mixed Martial Arts (AKA Cage Fighting)

In the early 1990s Rorion Gracie moved from Brazil to Los Angeles. His family's Gracie Jiu Jitsu had been used effectively in "no rules" martial art contests known as Vale Tudo (meaning "anything goes") since the 1920s. In the rest of the world however, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) was pretty much unheard of. Martial artists tended to stick to their particular style, e.g. Judo, Karate, Kung Fu etc and very rarely did different styles compete against each other. In 1993 Rorion Gracie and Art Davie conceived the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Rorion's aim was to showcase to the world the effectiveness of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. At UFC1 (a pay per view TV event in the US) several different competitors from various martial arts competed in tournament in an Octagonal cage with pretty much no rules to see which art was the best and most effective in a real fight. Royce Gracie entered the competition as a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner and decimated the opposition, which consisted of many much larger opponents. The event was pretty unregulated, with no rounds or time limits, bare knuckles being used and only biting, eye gouging and fish hooking (putting fingers in your opponent's mouth) being disallowed. As a result it met with widespread condemnation. Many dubbed it barbaric and like "human cock-fighting" with many States in the USA banning it from being held there. As a result of all this, it stayed fairly low key, with only "die hard" martial artists even knowing of its existence.

However, one thing did emerge from these tournaments, namely the importance of the study of the grappling arts when engaging in "real fighting". Royce Gracie dominated the early competitions, placing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the spotlight. Soon people came to realise that in order to be a "complete" fighter, one would have to cross train several disciplines and that being good at "just" the striking arts or the grappling arts was no good. Muay Thai fighters, while very dangerous on their feet were rendered useless on the ground against BJJ practitioners and wrestlers were often punched unconscious as they tried to secure a takedown on say a boxer or Karateka. Thus modern MMA was born. In 1997, Dana White and Lorenzo and Frank Fertita bought the struggling UFC franchise, which was just too hardcore to make it really marketable. Over time, the rules evolved to make it less brutal and more of a competitive sport so it could besanctioned by official sports bodies. Over the years, the use of gloves, the removal of the "tournament" format, timed rounds with a maximum limit to fight duration and weight categories were all introduced, giving us the UFC we see today, the fastest growing sport in the world.

Karate

There are many styles of Karate, but the one taught at the Bulldog Academy originates from Shotokan Karate.

Shotokan is a school of karate, developed from various martial arts by Gichin Funakoshi (1868–1957) and his son Yoshitaka Funakoshi (1906–1945). Gichin Funakoshi is widely recognized as having brought karate from Okinawa to mainland Japan.

Richard Wild the club’s instructor began learning Karate back in 1978 at a time when Karate was at its peak in the UK. Training was extremely hardcore and a far cry from many of the “watered down” versions taught today. The club at which he trained was a member of the KUGB (Karate Union of Great Britain).

Keinosuke Enoeda (1935-2003) was chief instructor of the KUGB. He won the JKA All Japan Championship in 1963 and reached the rank of 8th Dan. All of Richard’s gradings were awarded by Keinosuke Enoeda up to and including his Black belt.

The style of Karate taught at the club is very much tailored toward self defence in the modern 21st century. Unnecessary and overcomplicated moves are dispensed with and the art has been refined following Richard’s varied experience with other arts to a very practical and useable fighting system. The teaching of Kata (a combination of movements in a form or dance like arrangement) is dispensed with in favour of basic techniques and pure conditioning, making the system very easy to learn and extremely effective. The resulting style of karate concentrates heavily on effective strikes and locks to neutralise an opponent as quickly as possible without relying on brute strength. It is an ideal art for someone with no (or very limited) experience of martial arts who maybe just wants to have fun and get fit and learn how to defend themselves along the way.