27/09/2026
Following on from yesterday’s successful taihojutsu seminar in Royton near Oldham, due to a couple of points raised, I feel it more than appropriate to try, to give a more comprehensive answer’s to a couple of points.
Firstly, why did I not physically train myself?
Well as you may of noticed I was involved with administering the seminar in the background. The main reason I did not train myself is based on health grounds, although I have been involved with Jujutsu since 1979, starting training myself in 1986, under Allan tattersall sensei in my home town of Rochdale, i progressed through the grades, in 1995 I trained in Canada, learning the MAX27 police baton system with the aim of becoming the UKs main instructor. Despite gaining level 2 qualifications from both the Nippon Dai Budo Kai and the World kobudo federation, I did not gain, the converted Black belt until I was 50, which was around 6 years ago.i was awarded the grades of Shodan and oku iri in the Koryu Ryoi Shinto Ryu. Unfortunately it was in 2020 whilst working on a reality tv show filmed in Salford, that I became unwell, resulting in, a 5 day hospitalisation and a diagnosis of type 2 tablet controlled, none insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Four years later after several TAIs I had a full blown CVA Caused by blood clots, which affected both sides of my cerebellum. In addition I had a clot affecting my left brachial artery, this resulted in a collapse, an ambulance journey, almost a month of being comatose, personality changes, short term memory loss, mobility issues and BPPV, resulting in 2 months of hospitalisation, a tracheotomy, and ventilated breathing. I was eventually discharged in October of 2024, following the provision of several mobility aids to help me, some of them I still use, even now as my full recovery still has quite a way to go. My medication was changed and I was started on Apixaban which as some of you will know is what people call an anti coagulant, or “ blood thinner”, treatment with this kind of medication means I have to unfortunately minimise training, as I have to be careful not to get thrown as much as I once did, as it could cause an unstoppable bleed. For a short while in January/ February this was changed to heparin injections, which do the same job, which along with a daily dose of aspirin, to prepare me for bypass surgery resulting in the transplantation of a vein from my right leg, to replace my brachial artery. Although in some ways this operation has been a success from a restoration of blood supply prospective, nerve damage had happened which continues to improve, all be it extreamly slowly. Sorry that was a bit long winded but this is the main reason why I do still train, but perhaps not as often as I would like. Currently I travel to train with my teacher, king sensei, who taught yesterdays course, as often as I can, I am due to go down to Kent next month to train with him. Most of the time though my efforts are focused on running this open and friendly organisation, sorting out bookings and courses for you all to enjoy. Now on to the subject of grades, whilst some of our seminars focus on Koryu Jujutsu and Japanese kobudo, as opposed to Okinawan kobudo, we also have modern jujutsu instructors and at next years spring seminar in Rochdale we will have no less than 2 local Karate instructors joining us. Whilst I appreciate that gaining grades, seems important, at least in Modern/ Gendai Martial arts in Koryu styles, grades are more a type of earned gift, purely at the discretion of the style leader, who themselves decide what “rank” to award you. In Koryu - grades are not important, training is. However sometimes a style leader will award a grade based on any number of things, mainly perseverance in an art, service to a style or its promotion and support. Koryu grades are traditional and not syllabus based. Since the award of my Shodan award, I have been granted 2nd Dan, I have also since that time been granted 3rd Dan in Modern jujitsu and 1st Dan in Iaijutsu by a number of organisations. I have been promoted to 3rd Dan in Jujutsu and 2nd Dan Iaijutsu by the JBIF, and I am just waiting on certification, that said in essence, from a Koryu point of view, training is more important and that is something I do when I can. Once again to all those who attended yesterday, it was great to meet you. And once again thank you for your support. Please keep your eyes out for future developments and seminars here at the NJJKR.
