Shiai Jutsu Returns

SHIAI JUTSU

In the early 1980’s I became very interested in creating the Ultimate Martial Arts Competition system. My reasoning was putting a lot of Martial Arts together I would create something unique so the name I came up with was Shiai Jutsu meaning the Competitive Art. So obviously I had to develop a system, which would suit Strikers and Grapplers, at that time nobody was doing a system like this. So my first attempt was to have a Semi Contact Striking every time a point was scored the match was stopped the point awarded and then the match continued. 1 points for a strike 3points for a throw an outright win for submission. This did not work, as Semi Contact fighters would just flick a strike and get a score. So back to the drawing board next was to have a grappling competition and then a striking competition and put the points together this was a failure. The only way forward was to have continual fighting awarding points as they fought if there was outright winner at the end form a submission or knockout points would total up like in a boxing match. Points were allocated for Strikes and throws. This was a success and we held several small competitions at my Club in Sittingbourne and we organised the first British at the Pier Pavilion Herne Bay.

While I was starting this all up I came across Jiu Jitsu Master Trevor Roberts 8^th Dan he had approached me in 1983 about becoming part of the IBF team for the 1984 World Jiu Jitsu Championships in Canada. Trevor was the ideal candidate for this tournament since then we have been good friends, he was the obvious candidate to help get this system going. Both of us agreed that we needed a Grading Syllabus and we based this on the Belt System once we had done all this and demonstrated all the techniques we would present it the IBF in those days my Father John Nobby Clarke was the President of IBF UK after seeing Trevor performance not only the demonstration but in competition as well he would award him his 6^th Dan in the style his grade and style was later ratified by the International Body. I would not receive any grade and would take the title of founder

Sadly it did not prove the Ultimate Style as I had hoped what happened at the British was carnage broken limbs and players losing control. Both Trevor and I decided that we would not run any more competitions till we had modified the rules. That would not happened Trevor become much more involved with his Jiu Jitsu and my obsession with Sombo took over and trying to put together a practical self defence system which I achieved with COMBATSOMBO which I registered as a Trade Mark in 1988.

I did not Know Trevor cared so much

Yet both Trevor and myself regret not taking the system further if we had done we would be Millionaires now because Shiai Jutsu was the forerunner of MMA, Cage Fighting and Combat Sambo. At around about the same time the Gracie family were developing their own style in Brazil, many have asked were we not aware of what they were doing and of course the answer is no, they were yet to be recognised by the World of Martial Arts but they have developed a style which now seen throughout the world, they also proved that grapplers could take on any one in Mixed Martial Arts matches.

So what of the future well Trevor and I have got together and I am now President of IBF UK and I have given him the authority to regenerate Shiai Jutsu under the auspices of the IBF. So what I hear you say yet another Strike and Grapple System, well NO we want it to be more then just that we want to become a true Martial Arts which concentrates on the perfection of Techniques we believe that through Shia Jutsu you become proficient at Karate, Judo, Aikido, Kung Fu etc. notice I use the word proficient not expert an expert is some one who spends his or her life in the perfection of one art. Yet many can compliment each for example I have a World Masters Judo Champion and 8^th Dan but I am also the only Sambo GrandMaster in GB who won 3 World Silvers, as the two are both jacket wrestling disciplines. I have grades and experience in many Martial Arts and Combat Discipline but I would be very vain man if I claimed I was expert in all them, in many I am proficient in some just basic.

So SHIA JUTSU is to be reborn if you want more information why not contact the Bolton Iron Man Trevor Roberts trevor@appliedjujitsu.com