As time goes by it will be nice to see this grow as you all share your comments and histories as Im sure they are all unique. 

As a kid I was involved on the wrong side of the track getting mixed up in gangs and being a bit of a naughty boy. I took uk TKD as a kid as I thought this would be a great way to hurt people.

After a couple of years I got involved in a fight where the other guy pulled a knife on me, of course I tried to kick the knife out of his hand and ended up with the blade embedded in my knee, my immediate thought was, well that did not work did it and luckely the other guy was a shocked as me and he set off running, and I could'nt.

So I took up boxing and I seen this as being more viable for fighting. a few years down the line I was in a bar talking to a freind and the subject of fighting came up and he informed me he done martial arts, I scoffed at it saying it was useless (based on my previous expeariance) and said boxing was far superior as far as I was concerend,so he offered to have a spar with me.

So off we set to the local hall and we sparred to which he kicked the living daylights out of me, I was fascinted and ask when he finished I asked him what it was he was doing, he explained that he done Kali and said that the empty hands where the advanced side to it and with that produced some weapons, this is how we start off he said.

I was facinated, weapons wow, that would really come in handy in the fights I was getting into, so I started to train with him on a regular basis, and I took it up because I wanted to find better ways to hurt people. My freind and first FMA instructor was a little known top class exponent called Peter Dunne.

The more I trained the more I was fascinted with this art that came from the Philippines, hell I did not even know there was a country called the Philippines, but I was hooked. About a year down the line he introduced me to his instructor Bob Breen of the Jeet Kune Do Kali camp and I began training with him.

The more I trained the more I drifted away from the darker side of my life, Bob started to get other top Masters over to the UK, people such as Tuhon Bill McGrath, Suro Mike Inay, GM Dionisio Canete and of course GM Dan Inosanto.

I was well and truely hooked, I had the oppertunity to travel to the Philippines with Bob back in 1987 and 1989, in 87 I was busy with work and setting up a new home so my finances prevented this, in 89 I had my trip all booked as I was staying in Malaysia for a month studying Silat and was planning to pop over to the Philippines when the rest of the guys got there, but at the last minute the Philippine trip was reschedualed for another date in 89 when I would already be back in the country.

I never got the chance to go out to the Philippines until 1992 and this is when I had my first real expeariance of the FMA on it's home turf. Wow, I was really hooked and was amazed at the sheer brilliance of the art, since then I have travelled back and forth seeking out as many top afficinado's as I can to gain what ever information they have to offer. And now I do it because I love it and have no desire to hurt people anymore.

Best regards

Pat