TECHNIQUE
WORKSHOP
DEFENCE AGAINST AN UPWARD GROIN KICK
We’re all familiar with the sucker punch, but what about the sucker kick? A swift
soccer-style kick to the family jewels can start and finish a fight all at once — even Mike
Tyson once used it over a punch during an out-of-ring road-rage incident. You can
check it or evade it...the only thing you can’t do is take it.THE INSTRUCTORS
JIM ARMSTRONG
Raw Combatives
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Jim
Armstrong took up martial arts in the mid-
1980s, training primarily in freestyle karate,
Thai boxing and Filipino martial arts. After
immigrating to Australia in the early 1990s,
he moved into reality-based training and later
became an instructor in Richard Dimitri’s
Senshido system as well as the affiliated
Protect Self Defence with NZ’s Phil Thompson,
Nasubukang arnis under Doug Tucker, and
Lee Morrison’s Urban Combatives (UK).
Armstrong also holds Black-belts in a couple
of other arts and has fought in kickboxing and
arnis, competing in two WEKAF Stick-fighting
World Championships.
Teaching from his RAW Combatives school
in Glen Waverley, Victoria, Armstrong takes a
very pragmatic approach to self-defence: “Your
first response shouldn’t be a physical one if
you have other options,” he says. “So, I always
teach students to avoid, control or de-escalate
situations. You can’t just pay lip service to this
either — it has to be trained and tested... The
physical part of training is always the most fun,
but it is most certainly not the most important.”
GARY MARTIN
Hsing-I, Tai Chi & Pa Qua
Gary Martin began training in kung fu as a
young child and was awarded his Gold-sash,
Grandmaster level in 2006. With a strong
focus on reality-based street application,
Da Shi (head master) Martin has been
teaching the Chinese arts of tai chi, pa qua
and Hsing-I for 38 years, having opened
his Sydney school in 1979. The Gary Martin
Kung-fu Centre has grown to become
the largest martial arts training centre in
Australia and Martin’s teaching expertise
has been recognised in the form of Blitz
magazine’s ‘Kung Fu Instructor of the Year’
award and a Hall of Fame Tribute Award
for his “Outstanding contribution in the
positive promotion of kung fu in Australia”.
As well as running his school alongside wife
and fellow master Julie, Martin also teaches
mental performance skills to elite athletes
and high-achieving businesspeople.
“Our passion to see others benefit from
training in these three rare arts has never
diminished, and I am fully committed to
continue teaching long into the future,”
says Martin.KYL REBER
ZDK Karate, Muay Thai
& Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Kyl Reber has 20 years of
teaching and security industry
experience and runs Chikara
Martial Arts in Brisbane,
Queensland. He began his training
in taekwondo as a teenager in
country Queensland, then moved
to Brisbane for university, where
he became a long-time student
of Zen Do Kai coach Brad Ross.
With 23 years of training in Bob
Jones Martial Arts under his belt,
Reber now holds the ranks of 7th
Degree in Zen Do Kai, 7th Degree
in BJC muay Thai, and 1st Degree
Black-belt in BJJ under Peter
de Been.
Reber has run security teams
at some of Brisbane’s busiest
nightclubs and spent most of his
time working and assisting in the
operations of large music festivals,
concerts and sporting events
across south-east Queensland.ON THE MAT |ƫ333ċ (%06) #ċ*!0ƫđƫ^53