Chán School of Nunchaku

12/09/2026

The street vs the ring

My work as a writer and editor has led me to get to know and become friends with some of the greatest fighters and martial artists around.

These are people who have done it all in the ring, on the mats, and in the street - professionally, on the doors and through close protection work, and through necessity, to protect themselves.

Yesterday, I was chatting with a fighter about the differences between the various martial arts, and we touched on something most people overlook.

While full-contact fighters have the skill set for the street and can do serious damage to someone with the same techniques they use in the ring - this is even before we consider dirty techniques - the street is radically different from the ring.

1. In the ring, you know when the fight starts. The bell goes. You don't have to read the situation. You are left in no doubt as to when you can start hitting your opponent.

2. In the ring, you know what to expect, even in the octagon. There are boundaries. There are rules. There are permitted techniques.

3. There are things you can do in the ring that you might not do in a real situation. For example, going all in with an assailant and taking them to the ground isn't wise if their pals are waiting to put the boot into your head or worse.

4. You trust that if you are incapacitated, the referee will protect you from further injury and, if necessary, medics will attend to you.

5. Short of bashing your opponent with another object or stamping on their head for five minutes after the bell has gone, you are highly unlikely to face any legal consequences for hurting or attempting to hurt your opponent. You both agree to the risks.

6. It will usually be one-to-one.

7. It will mostly be familiar territory - the rules, the ring, the etiquette - even if the venue is different, the crowd is hostile, or the climate is challenging.

Compare that to the street:

1. It can kick off unexpectedly at any time.

2. The weapons used against you may not be confined to parts of the human body - think bottles, knives, knuckle dusters, or worse.

4. Your assailant is probably not interested in a fair fight. They want to bite your face off.

5. Whatever happens is likely to have legal consequences, and you might have to justify whatever actions you take.

6. You will have to decide when the physical violence is necessary. Too late, and you lose the initiative; but too early, and you may get it wrong, escalating a situation that could have been resolved peacefully.

7. There's no referee and nothing to stop your assailant from killing you if they get the better of you. Their friends might even help.

8. Completely unfamiliar and probably dangerous situation - concrete floor, curb edges, table corners, glasses, protruding objects... no ropes or canvas for a soft landing.

9. No amount of sparring and martial training will make you any wiser as to whether something is going to kick off in a bar, in the street, or in the subway. This is a separate skill that you have to develop.

Even with these contrasting points that I have taken from the top of my head, it is clear that to be able to handle yourself in the street, you must train a different set of skills in parallel with your 'fighting tools'.

Situational awareness - paramount

Evasive strategies - how to safely take yourself away from danger if you can't avoid it in the first place

De-escalation techniques

Being prepared - 'the wall', flinch response, owning a space

The law - knowledge is power and gives you more confidence to do what you need to do (pre-emptive strikes, reasonable force, improvised weapons)

Evidence - what are the optics like (do you look like the aggressor), and are there cameras or witnesses nearby? Again, the more sure you are about the situation, the more confidently you can act.

Adrenal stress training - you probably don't think this is a factor for a full-contact fighter used to dealing with intense situations in the ring, BUT you are NOT in the ring. True story - highly effective ring fighters have been known to freeze when true violence has erupted around them. It's a different kitchen.

The moral of the story? To protect yourself on the streets, you need more than the fighting tools you learn in the dojo, kwoon, or gym. You must be aware of the realities of real violence and train the necessary skills to overcome those situations.

04/08/2026

What does it mean for a person to have four-wheel drive, and how do we improve it?

The Chan Nunchaku Method revolves around sensitivity, awareness, and moving in harmony with the nunchaku to make the most of momentum.

At the heart of sensitivity training is mindfulness.

Until I started practising Tai Chi, I didn't know what it truly meant to be grounded, and balance was hit-and-miss. Exercises such as standing on one leg or doing different kicks with the same leg without stepping down can improve balance, but the process is accidental, almost like trial and error.

Tai Chi taught me to be conscious of how my weight was distributed through my feet. Power, stability, and balance all come from the feet up. If you're not grounded, the rest doesn't matter. It's the first thing you learn in a boxing class.

When I started in Tai Chi, the first four-hour session was spent learning about being grounded, internally connected, standing, and walking.

While practising a Tai Chi form, you should be able to stop moving at any point without losing your balance. So, if you are in the middle of a step, you should not need to complete the step to stop. You are effectively squatting slightly throughout the form, sometimes with your weight evenly distributed across both feet, sometimes more in one foot, sometimes completely balanced in one foot, but at no point are you over-committed or out of control.

This is what I mean by four-wheel drive in the feet.

The four wheels in your feet are the balls of your feet on the front and the heels on the back. To shift your weight into any one of the wheels, focus on pushing that part into the floor. If you push the balls of your feet into the floor, you are shifting your weight there, and if you shift it all, your heels will rise from the floor.

Try this. Take any stance you want - horse-riding stance, boxing stance, natural stance - and experiment with shifting your weight. Once you have had a little practice, try walking in such a way that you remain rooted in one or both feet. That is, slowly lift the heel of the foot that is stepping, almost like peeling it from the floor, and push your other foot into the floor.

Once the stepping foot loses contact with the floor, all of your weight is in the other foot. You must remain balanced as you move the stepping foot forward. You must be able to stop at any point during that movement. Place the heel down first and slowly transfer your weight into that foot.

For many, ordinary walking is falling with style, even if their posture is good and they are pushing off with the glutes and engaging the pelvic floor and lower back. There is often a moment when the stepping leg is swinging forward. In Tai Chi, the movement is controlled.

If you stand still in a natural stance while practising nunchaku, you might wonder why improving your connection to the ground is important. However, you should always be looking to combine full-body movement with your weapons practice and learning how to shift your feet will help with this.

26/07/2026

For the last six years, I have been teaching a stroke thriver (as we like to say). Our journey started around nine months after his stroke, and I have enjoyed watching him grow from strength to strength since then.

This is not a big-up for me, by the way. I am one small cog in a large wheel of support, but the main driving force is not us. It is him. He is inspirational.

We started with Yang Style Tai Chi after I launched free online Tai Chi classes in March 2020 at the beginning of lockdown. Little did I know that he would go on to become a private student.

Since then, he has learnt the Yang Cheng Fu, and the Yang family Jian (double-edged sword) and Dao (broadsword) forms, and he has progressed from barely being able to stand to being able to run, cycle, and did I mention that he did the equivalent of walking from coast to coast across America!

Today, we made a great start with nunchaku.

I have no doubt that he is going to do well with them.

20/06/2026

After over 40 years of martial arts practice, teaching for 20 of those years, I am very happy and proud to announce my most recent martial arts promotions:

Fifth Dan - Mushin Ryu Self-Defence
Fifth Dan - Kobudo
Fifth Dan - Chan Method (Nunchaku)

I have a love-hate relationship with grades, so you won't hear me talking about them much.

As a pioneer with nunchaku, even while still in my early teens in the early 80s, I excelled. Not the majorettes, baton-twirling stuff, which is all very well in its place, but practical, martially applicable combinations, always using solid wood weapons.

For many years, in my thirties, I was paid to deliver training in other people's martial arts clubs, but felt locked out in the cold when it came to trying to launch my own nunchaku style because the question would always be asked: who is your master, what's your lineage, and who authorised you to teach nunchaku?

Grades can be a gateway, but they can also be used to keep people out, and that is what I have always detested about them. I will always be grateful to Ary Haur, founder of Chuldow Martial Arts, for grading me to third dan in Kobudo. Although that wasn't the same as being recognised specifically for my work with nunchaku, it gave me the authority to set up Chán School of Nunchaku, which I launched in 2014.
Since launching the Chan School, I have taught nunchaku to people from all over the world at all levels.

Thanks very much to Andy Cobra of Cobra Martial Arts Association - CMAA for your ongoing support.

I am celebrating today, but this is just the start of many more decades of training and teaching... until the day I take my last breath.

26/04/2026

Yesterday, I was reminded of the importance of looking at training from different angles.

I work with a stroke survivor (thriver), an incredibly inspirational guy who has gone from strength to strength since his stroke seven years ago.

He was struggling to coordinate his arms and legs for a move that he could have done easily had it not been for the stroke. Many people take their strength, balance, and mobility for granted, but these things rely on a very complex infrastructure of nerves, muscles and grey matter. A brain injury can change everything in the blink of an eye.

My student understood the move in principle, but when he tried to execute it, his body would do something else.

An idea came to me.

The stroke had affected his dominant side, his left side. We were training with the jian, the double-edged sword, so the manoeuvre involved the right side of his body.

What if I get him to try this with his left side, I wondered. It is weaker and now incapable of fine motor control, but for the large sweeping movements of swordplay, perhaps his muscle memory from before his stroke will come to the fore.

The plan worked. He was able to do the move with his left side, even though that took the most damage from the stroke.

Every time he executed the move with his left side, he increased the likelihood of his right side being able to do the same. And that is exactly what happened. He was able to do it with his right side.

Forget whether it's been done before.

Forget what others say is or isn't possible.

Someone has to go further.

Someone has to explore new avenues.

Someone has to be innovative.

Why should it be someone else?

If you want to excel as a martial artist (or in any other avenue in life), consider what kind of training will take you further.

06/02/2026

An essential part of the martial path is learning to operate from a place beyond ego.

The fundamental error many make when handling nunchaku (or any object or person) is thinking they can control anything but themselves.

Nunchaku will do what they do, regardless of what you want them to do. It is you who must change.

When being flexible isn’t enough

04/02/2026

This morning, I got to spend time with my sensei, studying this kata in the great outdoors.

My sensei was a private student of Master Tatsuo Suzuki for 25 years, and he has stayed true to the teaching he received.

I enjoy the attention to detail, and while I am not opposed to the evolution of kata, I value the historical significance of focusing on a single moment in time. When I train with my teacher, I feel as though I am with Suzuki and connected to his lineage.

So, I expect no more from my students than I give to my teachers. This morning, I trained outdoors, on gravel, and the temperature was 2.5 degrees. It was glorious.

My students train with me in the local park.

Chinto is a demanding kata. I enjoyed this morning's session immensely.

11/01/2026

It was great to enjoy a cup of green tea with my old friend and student, Phil Stevens, yesterday.

Sadly, however, he is a very bad man, and he bought a packet of chocolate chip cookies and some other biscuits especially for my arrival. Since it was the first time we had seen each other this year, I accepted his generosity and ate half the packet!

Thanks for the treats, Phil.

I was especially pleased to hear how some of the training we have done had come in useful with the other arts that Phil studies - proof that many of the skills we develop in one art will bring about improvement in other areas of training.

03/01/2026

In most cases, what works martially with one weapon - or empty-handed - should work with any other weapon.

I won't go so far as to say it is an acid test, as there are exceptions.

Many of the combative combinations I train for nunchaku work with tonfa, sword, short sticks, and, in some cases, classical boxing.

When practising or discovering a combination, ask yourself how that movement would work for another weapon or empty-handed. Likewise, look at the other weapons that you know and see which movements translate into nunchaku combinations.

02/01/2026

Life as Training - Training as Life

As I got on with my routine this morning - preparing the coffee percolator, feeding the cat, putting bread in the toaster, taking hummus out of the fridge (my new go-to spread), and booting up my laptop - something dawned on me.

I didn't feel particularly great when I woke up or enthusiastic about getting out of my warm bed. If I could have downed a triple espresso before attempting the mission, I would have done. But the routine is there for a reason. I get to sup the coffee once everything else is done.

So, I just got on with it, robot style. Those chores don't give a damn about me, my mood, or my wider mission. And I have to do them regardless of my feelings.

Focusing on the task instead of my feelings about life, the universe, and everything was not only cleansing. It also put me in a kind of one-foot-in-front-of-the-other flow state.

By focusing on performing the task as quickly, effectively and efficiently as possible, it became a meditation. It was almost like practising kata.

It's not the first time I have slipped into this zone state to get through mundane tasks, but I don't usually reflect on the significance of that approach.

Life is a series of decisions and activities, many of which are routine, challenging, or even unpleasant. The more you try to escape this, the harder it gets to face. It's like toothache. The more you try to ignore it, the louder it gets.

Peace can be found by surrendering to the inevitable. The problem isn't the task. It isn't even how you feel about it or your mood in general. The problem is how you respond to those feelings and that mood.

Feelings, moods, and thoughts are a fact of life just as much as those mundane chores are. So carry on regardless. Focus on the task at hand. That is mindful living.