George Shore has  coached some truly excellent fighters—especially in semi-contact and light continuous fighting—sports renowned for having to be fast, sharp and needing to use your brain to win. His ‘A’ team from the late 80’s and early 90’s consisted of champions such as Brian Nelson, Duncan Pollet, John Gwilt, Humbert Salmon, Cornelius Stone, Stella Dawson and Caroline Megyesi.

Interview by Mike Higginbotham

     I’m immensely excited to be speaking to a 40-year veteran of the martial arts… someone who can not only fight for real himself, but has trained some very famous World, European and UK martial arts champions—all using his methods. It's great speaking to you George, but tell me...

How have you produced
so many great fighters?

     Back in the late 1970’s, just after I got my first black belts in kickboxing and kung fu, it seemed that every man and his dog on a Friday night wanted to pick a fight with me because they’d heard I was a black belt!

     It was like something out of a movie… guys coming up and challenging me… I wanted none of it… but I learned very quickly what works and what doesn't in how to defend myself...

     Not that I’m suggesting anyone goes out and starts a fight to try out their martial arts skills, just that I was always being challenged.

    Secondly, I spent a lot of time at tournaments watching all the top fighters... I realised that with my fighting skills I could train my guys to be just as good if not better.  I just figured out what techniques worked and quickly ditched the ones that didn’t. All this meant I was able to develop a winning system.

     All the people I have coached have just listened to my proven advice and experience and then put it into practise.

Someone told me that you’ve sparred
 with Bill ‘superfoot’ Wallace?

     In 1979 I attended a PKA-Kickboxing weekend in Switzerland where Bill Wallace was there… and yes we did do some sparring together, nothing heavy as we were very respectful of each other.

     Bill is a great guy and we all traded some very interesting fighting and sparring tactics.

You’ve taught thousands of
regular students as well as top fighters…
What are the most common mistakes you see
when it comes to fighting?

     The first mistake I see a lot of relates to power… especially when it comes to punching...

     So many students have very poor punching technique. They can do the   movement, but they lack any real power. The solution is to learn to develop power that comes from the shoulder.

     This is how all professional boxers work. Punching power comes from the shoulder.

     Learning how to twist your torso in a specific way can make all the difference. I spend a lot of time with students showing them how to punch correctly to develop that power… the results are often quite staggering. You don’t have to be built like a brick out-house to punch hard. You just have to be shown the right technique.

     The second thing I see an awful lot of in both low and high grades during sparring is they fight like crabs on the beach…

     That is one guy goes forward throwing moves whilst the other goes back… then when they reach the other side of the room the other guy goes forward fighting and the once attacker is now going backward. It’s like watching a game of tennis. Backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards! It’s crazy...

     No, I train people to counter, whether it’s semi-contact or light continuous.

     Being able to counter an attack is a big thing in my coaching. I show students how to know when an opponent moves, so you can strike first.

     I trained this one guy so that he would just stand there, not move at all… as soon as his opponent moved to attack him… it didn’t matter if it was a punch or a kick… he was in, strike first—bang every time. It was awesome to watch. If you can counter punch, you are at an extreme advantage.

     Trying to block an attack is futile… in fact a lot of students try to block kicks that would never of hit them anyway! You need to counter. Most students won’t do this or don't know how, hence why you see all this marching backwards and forwards...

     You have to have a certain amount of bottle not to move back when someone attacks you. Learn to anticipate the attack and move and counter. And don't just counter with a single technique... follow up with multiple blows.

So how do you learn to spot
when an opponent is about to hit you?

     Well, you learn from someone coaching you on the predicable ways an opponent starts an attack. I’ll give you an example...

     When someone starts to throw a front kick at you, his chest moves backward… only slightly but it does. You can then learn to spot when someone is about to throw a front kick at you.

     Another example is for a round-house kick. Most people twist their chest when they’re just about to start the kick… again you learn to spot this and counter.

     The ability to spot when an opponent is going to make a move on you comes from experience... a good coach will have this knowledge and be able to pass it on to their fighters.

     Here's another thing... lots have people have heard that they should look an opponent straight in the eye when fighting… this is wrong because if you do that you can’t see the other parts of the body that give away when someone is about to hit you.

     After you are able to spot and predict when an opponent is going to strike, you then learn to evade…

     Evasion is another big thing I teach. It works so well because when an attacker throws a kick say, he can’t redirect it to a different place once mid-air. So that means if he initiates a kick at you and then you move, his kick won’t hit you… if you are fast enough to react and move in time that is… you then have the upper hand to counter. This can all sound quite technical and difficult, but as always once you’ve been shown how to do it… after a little practise it comes easily.

     I can’t emphasize just how important being able to evade is. So many students spend so much time training on punching and kicking techniques, yet the one that will make a huge difference, how to evade, is much neglected.

     Learning how to spot a technique coming at you… then evade… then counter—it’s key to being a great fighter. One of the best counter punchers in boxing I’ve ever seen was Chris Eubanks and he has one fine boxing record.

     Counter punching works.

Can you tell us some of your
favourite winning techniques?

     One of my personal favourites is leg sweeping. Nice, simple leg sweeps.

     When your opponent gets swept, it’s like their will to fight disappears. You have dominance every time.

     If you can learn how to leg sweep you’ll definitely become a better fighter… but so many people get it wrong. Either by trying too complicated sweeps or trying them on an opponent much heavier than themselves… which never works.

     A sweep is also the perfect counter to the most commonly thrown kick in fighting—the roundhouse.

     All you do is step inside the kick and sweep the rear leg from inside to out and it’s an easy winner. Leg sweeps should be a fundamental part of your training.

     My second favourite technique is to set people up by faking movements.

     Making your opponent react in the way you want him to is key. This is probably the one thing that will make you unstoppable… simply because you create the upper hand every time—you control the fight. Let me give you an example…

     I’ll pick my knee up high with my lead leg and throw a powerful high kick to the head within striking distance—hopefully I’ll make contact, whack, then I’ll drop my leg down again. Now again I’ll deliberately pick my knee up high again to look as if I’m going for the same kick to the head… my opponent will automatically lift his hand or glove to block his head… as soon as he lifts his arm up… exposed become the ribs and I’m in for a hard body shot and multiple strikes...

     My next move would then be a fake to the body, my opponent will go to protect his ribs, and I'll kick to the head instead... can you see how this all works?

     Setting your opponent up is extremely effective because you can use any number of moves to start the attack. This is why it takes brains to win a fight—in a tournament or in street situation.

      I have a developed huge collection of faking and set-up movements, all very easy to implement and all work so elegantly.

You’ve mentioned street defence…
can you give us some advice on
what to do in a real-life scenario?

     This is going to sound really soft but if you can, walk away… walk away, run away from any life threatening scenario.

     Of course, there will be a time when your back is up against the wall… here you have two decisions:

1. Use something such as a  front kick to push the attacker away to give you time to escape, or...
    

2. Attack as the best form of defence.

     Obviously striking first is dependant on how you’re being attacked... if someone swings a punch or a bat at you, you can see the hand move, and counter… again if you’re trained properly.

     One of the most effective self defence moves I teach is the thigh kick… but with a difference. See most students will kick around to the side of the thigh to get a dead leg—this is unreliable. The ultimate method involves kicking your attacker on top of the thigh, about two inches above the knee. It always brings a person down… but you have to be trained in how to do it right.

     Another tip is to train your weaker punching hand. Most of us punch hardest with our right hand… but you may be in a position where you can only hit with your left… so train that left hand to punch as hard as your right—or visa versa if you’re a southpaw.

You are very famous for your speed...
and how you can show people how
to get in first, fast and hard...

Speed if often the one thing which a person can work on and see great results—in fact it’s number one in our ‘5 master keys to kickboxing success’ online course…

You have a fascinating technology called the ‘saturation point’ technique–can you briefly explain it and why it creates champions?

     Of course. The number one reason why students never feel like they are any good at fighting is because they cannot get in quick enough. The problem lies in that most move their body first… then throw the technique. This is very slow.

     The way around this, which gives you lightening speed, is to move your body and striking limb at the same time.

     So let’s say you’re standing there in a fighting stance… you want to hit your opponent. Most students shuffle forward, then strike… but this is too slow and your opponent can often see you move and then counter you.

     From your fighting stance you have to train to move and strike in one explosive movement… it is so effective.

     Once you’ve been shown what to do and had some time to practise it—you cannot believe how fast you can attack.

     It’s funny because people look at me now and think I’m a 60 year-old, 5' 7" grey-haired codger... which I like because no-one can believe how fast I can strike—all because of the saturation point technique.

     It is something anyone can learn and if you were to ask me which one technique over all the others is the best, it'd be this one every time... you just can't beat speed.

     You can have all the power in the world, but if you can't get in first you're at a big disadvantage... getting from point A to point B as fast as you can is crucial.

George, you’ve shared with us some brilliant insights into how to become a better fighter—which I think an awful lot of people want, even if they don’t enter tournaments…

     All I can say is the best fighters are the ones who have the confidence to move forward to attack, even if they are being attacked themselves.

     With the right coaching and being shown for real how to do all what I’ve talked about, will make you a formidable force indeed—as shown by the champions I’ve schooled.

Thank you for revealing some of your winning strategies for how to fight and win.

     The pleasure was all mine, Mike. Thank you.