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ELITE FREESTYLE KARATE & KICKBOXING INTERNATIONAL
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Here is a transcript from a magazine article in which GSR appeared in 2003.
An Interview with
GORDON SCOTT-RUSSELL
GORDON SCOTT-RUSSELL is a 4th Degree black belt who runs Elite Freestyle Karate and Kickboxing International (EFKKI) from Coatbridge, just outside Glasgow. He is a part time instructor holding down a full-time job at the Scottish Society for Autism, working with autistic adults.
Peter Lewis - How many clubs do you have Gordon?
GSR - I have over half a dozen clubs operating in South Lanarkshire.
PL - How long have you been involved in the martial arts?
GSR - Since I was eight years old, so going on for thirty years now, though it doesn't feel that long. I have black belts in tae-kwon do, shotokan, and Thai boxing/kickboxing and a 4th Dan in freestyle.
PL - So you started in the early seventies? What set you off on the road?
GSR - Funnily enough, it was when I was a scout. I was at scout group and I was very much into martial arts films. One of the Scout Master's there, only a young guy about eighteen years old, who was a purple belt in shotokan invited me along to a shotokan class and that was my introduction into it. I continued to do shotokan for about ten years and achieved my 1st Dan. However five or six years into it I felt that shotokan didn't have all the answers as I found it a bit restricted and mechanical. I'm not criticising it, I think it's a great style, but I felt that I needed to expand my horizons.
One of my friends, Steve Bell, had just come out of the army, he was trained in korea and worked in the borders and we kept in contact. When he first left, he ran a tae-kwon do club way up in the north of Scotland, but his wife's family lived near me so Steve relocated there. I began training and I achieved my second black belt with him.
One of my other friends was a kick boxer and he got intrested in kickboxing. I started training with a guy called Gary Wilson from Aberdeen, he was Spirit Combat International, BKBU.
PL - So you came from a background of traditional karate, moved across to tae-kwon do and then you suddenly moved into kickboxing? What's in your head?
GSR - Right now we teach what we call a progressive fighting art, which basically works all your range. For instance if you are a judo fighter, but you can't punch then you are lacking. So what we do is try to incorporate most styles to give the individual a complete system that works for them where it counts, which is basically on the street, unless they want to compete, which we can arrange as well. We look to teach them a defensive system. I don't believe that 90% of the systems in which I'm a black belt would work at street level. You could pick anybody off the street and they would be able to fight, whether they do boxing, kickboxing, karate or any kind of martial art, It's human nature when you get angry to shut your fist and punch out. That's the sort of person you're going to encounter in a fight, the Neanderthal type who is going to throw you a right cross.
When we do our martial arts training we work on it as a 100% base system - 10% will work, but the other 90% will help the 10% to work better. I tell my students when teaching a certain technique that this won't work in a real fight, but that the procedure is helping them with their distance and their balance or that by practising another technique, which again might not work in a real fight, but can help them increase their speed, timing and awareness of their body position.
What I've actually done is to delve back into my history of traditional karate, tae-kwon do and kickboxing and developed it into a workable technique. Many people these days are cross training, everyone is searching for the perfect system and you can't get it. Mixed martial arts is the answer. If you're a great boxer, but you can't kick, that's no good, you're lacking something. You might not kick in a fight, but if you can kick then that's something else you've got to your advantage. You might be able to grapple but never get to the floor, but you can still graple if you need to. What we've looked for is a technique that works for each individual. We'll teach you a few techniques, we don't look to make everybody stand in the same way, people are different heights and different weights. We want people to adapt the techniques so that they feel comfortable with it, they shouldn't be doing something that doesn't feel right to them, but you still need a core system to develop from, which is what we teach.
PL - Say for instance you have an eighteen year old kid in the club and you've shown him some combination moves and he isn't happy with them. He,s fumbling with them and it's not workng for him. So you give him the directive to adapt the techniques so he feels comfortable with them and he comes back to you having adopted his own natural position, but his punches are dire. What would you do?
GSR - We will work with him make him better. But as they say, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. In other words you can only work with what you've got. I beleive in `individual martial arts', if you get ten black belts in a room, all good, but you will always have one who is better than the rest and one who is poorer than the rest because everybody has different levels. What we try to create is the best that the individual can be. Obviously some are better than others, some are more flexible, some have stronger punches, but what we're looking for is to take what you've got for you and make it work for you. What works for one person will not necessarily work for another, so we look at each person's individual skill's, where their strenghts lie and build on that. We have a lot of coaches and we'll split the class so we can afford the time to be individualistic with each student.
PL - You obviously work to a curriculum. How much does karate, tae-kwon do, and kickboxing help you with what you do?
GSR - What we teach is an eclectic system. We've tried to take the best - the strength of shotokan because it's a very strong style; the fluidity of movement within kickboxing; the techniques of Thai boxing, and the kicks and movement of tae-kwon do. We do a lot of kicks, spinning kicks and back kicks, because whilst I don't particularly like these kicks, practising them will enable the lower kicks which fall into the 10% bracket to work better and faster.
If you can do 'fancy kicks' then the basic kicks, which will matter in a fight will work better for you every single time. If you can kick to the head with control, power and focus, when you bring it down to the kneecaps as in a street situation it's going to be easy for you and that's what counts.
A large percentage of my students are under sixteen years of age and the world today is rife with scum so I love teaching them, it's so rewarding. I get comments from parents who say how much happier their child is or how much better behaved he is. Sometimes I get approached by parents who want me to speak to the child if he is in trouble at school knowing that he will listen to me and take my advice because I am the Sensei.
PL - I believe you used to work on the door?
GSR - Yes, that was an eye opener. That's the front line basically where you learn things that work and things that don't. If you've worked a door then you know that your jumping, spinning hook kick to the jaw doesn't work, nor does your reverse punch. You learn the trade and I'm trying to teach that now to my young students because the steets that they're walking in these days are not nice places. I'm a big believer in giving people confidence, but confidence that they can back up. The worst thing you can do to anyone, be it a child or an adult, is to give them a false sense of security. You don't want some silly girl thinking that she can risk walking down a dark alley because if five guys attack her she'll be okay because she does karate. They should know what works and know what doesn't.
PL - What is the most common technique you used on the doors?
GSR - Straight right every time. If you're in a crowded pub or club you can't kick, you're always standing close face to face so definitely the straight right cross or a headbutt - the Glasgow kiss as we call it (laughs) - that never fails.
PL - What's your connection with Andy Morrell?
GSR - We recently joined Andy's Cobra Martial Arts Association and since then we've gone from strength to strength. He's a top bloke. We're organising a lot of things.Andy recently did a seminar for me in Scotland on street awareness and hopefully next year James and I will be coming down to do a seminar for Andy. Also next year we'll be holding the first CMA England v Scotland International which will be held just outside Glasgow. We're organising that right now,that'll be combat kickboxing and light continuous.
PL - Any final comments Gordon?
GSR - I believe that although I've got a black belt in various martial arts, anybody who stands still with what they know already isn't a true professional. If they think they've got a complete system and they don't try and up date it, then they are definitely still water and still water goes stagnant. You need to keep flowing, to keep looking for better ways to do things. When something becomes outdated and is no use, you should stop using it as much and bring in new things. You see that many people with a 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th Dan. At the end of the day you can be an absolutely brilliant black belt, better than a 7th Dan because it's down to the individual and whether you keep moving and keep looking for new ideas and bringing new ideas in. Martial arts should always progress, it should move with the times. Why teach something that could knock a Samurai off a horse as you're not going to meet one down the street, you are far more likely to meet someone with a Stanley knife. I,m a big believer in knife defence, we live in a knife culture.
If you meet someone with a knife you are better off not fighting them because at the end of the day it doesn't matter how many Dans you've got round your belt, any fool can catch you in the vein or the face. It's just so dangerous to fight somebody with a knife, it's an absolute last resort and even then you need to try and even up the score by picking up a brick or a chair or a bottle. You can't walk in with the mentalityof, "I'm a black belt, I can deal with this". Any bloody fool can pull a trigger and any bloody fool can knife you.
PL - Thank you Gordon.
GSR - Thank you Peter.
An Interview with
GORDON SCOTT-RUSSELL
GORDON SCOTT-RUSSELL is a 4th Degree black belt who runs Elite Freestyle Karate and Kickboxing International (EFKKI) from Coatbridge, just outside Glasgow. He is a part time instructor holding down a full-time job at the Scottish Society for Autism, working with autistic adults.
Peter Lewis - How many clubs do you have Gordon?
GSR - I have over half a dozen clubs operating in South Lanarkshire.
PL - How long have you been involved in the martial arts?
GSR - Since I was eight years old, so going on for thirty years now, though it doesn't feel that long. I have black belts in tae-kwon do, shotokan, and Thai boxing/kickboxing and a 4th Dan in freestyle.
PL - So you started in the early seventies? What set you off on the road?
GSR - Funnily enough, it was when I was a scout. I was at scout group and I was very much into martial arts films. One of the Scout Master's there, only a young guy about eighteen years old, who was a purple belt in shotokan invited me along to a shotokan class and that was my introduction into it. I continued to do shotokan for about ten years and achieved my 1st Dan. However five or six years into it I felt that shotokan didn't have all the answers as I found it a bit restricted and mechanical. I'm not criticising it, I think it's a great style, but I felt that I needed to expand my horizons.
One of my friends, Steve Bell, had just come out of the army, he was trained in korea and worked in the borders and we kept in contact. When he first left, he ran a tae-kwon do club way up in the north of Scotland, but his wife's family lived near me so Steve relocated there. I began training and I achieved my second black belt with him.
One of my other friends was a kick boxer and he got intrested in kickboxing. I started training with a guy called Gary Wilson from Aberdeen, he was Spirit Combat International, BKBU.
PL - So you came from a background of traditional karate, moved across to tae-kwon do and then you suddenly moved into kickboxing? What's in your head?
GSR - Right now we teach what we call a progressive fighting art, which basically works all your range. For instance if you are a judo fighter, but you can't punch then you are lacking. So what we do is try to incorporate most styles to give the individual a complete system that works for them where it counts, which is basically on the street, unless they want to compete, which we can arrange as well. We look to teach them a defensive system. I don't believe that 90% of the systems in which I'm a black belt would work at street level. You could pick anybody off the street and they would be able to fight, whether they do boxing, kickboxing, karate or any kind of martial art, It's human nature when you get angry to shut your fist and punch out. That's the sort of person you're going to encounter in a fight, the Neanderthal type who is going to throw you a right cross.
When we do our martial arts training we work on it as a 100% base system - 10% will work, but the other 90% will help the 10% to work better. I tell my students when teaching a certain technique that this won't work in a real fight, but that the procedure is helping them with their distance and their balance or that by practising another technique, which again might not work in a real fight, but can help them increase their speed, timing and awareness of their body position.
What I've actually done is to delve back into my history of traditional karate, tae-kwon do and kickboxing and developed it into a workable technique. Many people these days are cross training, everyone is searching for the perfect system and you can't get it. Mixed martial arts is the answer. If you're a great boxer, but you can't kick, that's no good, you're lacking something. You might not kick in a fight, but if you can kick then that's something else you've got to your advantage. You might be able to grapple but never get to the floor, but you can still graple if you need to. What we've looked for is a technique that works for each individual. We'll teach you a few techniques, we don't look to make everybody stand in the same way, people are different heights and different weights. We want people to adapt the techniques so that they feel comfortable with it, they shouldn't be doing something that doesn't feel right to them, but you still need a core system to develop from, which is what we teach.
PL - Say for instance you have an eighteen year old kid in the club and you've shown him some combination moves and he isn't happy with them. He,s fumbling with them and it's not workng for him. So you give him the directive to adapt the techniques so he feels comfortable with them and he comes back to you having adopted his own natural position, but his punches are dire. What would you do?
GSR - We will work with him make him better. But as they say, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. In other words you can only work with what you've got. I beleive in `individual martial arts', if you get ten black belts in a room, all good, but you will always have one who is better than the rest and one who is poorer than the rest because everybody has different levels. What we try to create is the best that the individual can be. Obviously some are better than others, some are more flexible, some have stronger punches, but what we're looking for is to take what you've got for you and make it work for you. What works for one person will not necessarily work for another, so we look at each person's individual skill's, where their strenghts lie and build on that. We have a lot of coaches and we'll split the class so we can afford the time to be individualistic with each student.
PL - You obviously work to a curriculum. How much does karate, tae-kwon do, and kickboxing help you with what you do?
GSR - What we teach is an eclectic system. We've tried to take the best - the strength of shotokan because it's a very strong style; the fluidity of movement within kickboxing; the techniques of Thai boxing, and the kicks and movement of tae-kwon do. We do a lot of kicks, spinning kicks and back kicks, because whilst I don't particularly like these kicks, practising them will enable the lower kicks which fall into the 10% bracket to work better and faster.
If you can do 'fancy kicks' then the basic kicks, which will matter in a fight will work better for you every single time. If you can kick to the head with control, power and focus, when you bring it down to the kneecaps as in a street situation it's going to be easy for you and that's what counts.
A large percentage of my students are under sixteen years of age and the world today is rife with scum so I love teaching them, it's so rewarding. I get comments from parents who say how much happier their child is or how much better behaved he is. Sometimes I get approached by parents who want me to speak to the child if he is in trouble at school knowing that he will listen to me and take my advice because I am the Sensei.
PL - I believe you used to work on the door?
GSR - Yes, that was an eye opener. That's the front line basically where you learn things that work and things that don't. If you've worked a door then you know that your jumping, spinning hook kick to the jaw doesn't work, nor does your reverse punch. You learn the trade and I'm trying to teach that now to my young students because the steets that they're walking in these days are not nice places. I'm a big believer in giving people confidence, but confidence that they can back up. The worst thing you can do to anyone, be it a child or an adult, is to give them a false sense of security. You don't want some silly girl thinking that she can risk walking down a dark alley because if five guys attack her she'll be okay because she does karate. They should know what works and know what doesn't.
PL - What is the most common technique you used on the doors?
GSR - Straight right every time. If you're in a crowded pub or club you can't kick, you're always standing close face to face so definitely the straight right cross or a headbutt - the Glasgow kiss as we call it (laughs) - that never fails.
PL - What's your connection with Andy Morrell?
GSR - We recently joined Andy's Cobra Martial Arts Association and since then we've gone from strength to strength. He's a top bloke. We're organising a lot of things.Andy recently did a seminar for me in Scotland on street awareness and hopefully next year James and I will be coming down to do a seminar for Andy. Also next year we'll be holding the first CMA England v Scotland International which will be held just outside Glasgow. We're organising that right now,that'll be combat kickboxing and light continuous.
PL - Any final comments Gordon?
GSR - I believe that although I've got a black belt in various martial arts, anybody who stands still with what they know already isn't a true professional. If they think they've got a complete system and they don't try and up date it, then they are definitely still water and still water goes stagnant. You need to keep flowing, to keep looking for better ways to do things. When something becomes outdated and is no use, you should stop using it as much and bring in new things. You see that many people with a 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th or 7th Dan. At the end of the day you can be an absolutely brilliant black belt, better than a 7th Dan because it's down to the individual and whether you keep moving and keep looking for new ideas and bringing new ideas in. Martial arts should always progress, it should move with the times. Why teach something that could knock a Samurai off a horse as you're not going to meet one down the street, you are far more likely to meet someone with a Stanley knife. I,m a big believer in knife defence, we live in a knife culture.
If you meet someone with a knife you are better off not fighting them because at the end of the day it doesn't matter how many Dans you've got round your belt, any fool can catch you in the vein or the face. It's just so dangerous to fight somebody with a knife, it's an absolute last resort and even then you need to try and even up the score by picking up a brick or a chair or a bottle. You can't walk in with the mentalityof, "I'm a black belt, I can deal with this". Any bloody fool can pull a trigger and any bloody fool can knife you.
PL - Thank you Gordon.
GSR - Thank you Peter.
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Picture set one
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Picture set two
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Picture set three
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Picture set four
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General Pictures
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Here is a transcript from the September 2008 MAI magazine.
Gordon Scott-Russell is a 6th degree black belt who runs Elite Freestyle Karate and Kickboxing just outside Glasgow. He is a part time instructor/trainer who holds down a full time job as a private investigator with a private company.
Scotland Story
GORDON SCOTT-RUSSELL
MAI: Hi, Gordon, can you start by telling us a little about your self and clubs?
GSR: I teach in the South Lanarkshire area of Scotland which is 10 mins from Glasgow. We teach Freestyle Karate and Kickboxing and also MMA. The Karate classes are aimed at the younger kids but we find the older kids and adults are more into the Kick-boxing and MMA training. We also have a group of good young fighters who fight out of the GSR Fight Team, all are doing really well.
MAI: Do they just compete in Scotland?
GSR: Well that's what I was going to come to. We have a great group of fighters and promoters up here who are doing their best to get the Scottish guys out there to fight for bigger and better titles. We have some great fighters in our stable who are doing really well, and we're now working with some good people, such as the WKA Scottish rep Stuart Allan. We have also taken part in some IKF shows.
MAI: So you're looking to expand your fighters horizons?
GSR: Yes. Myself and a few other promoters and trainers feel Scotland should be out there fighting and winning as much as possible with as many groups as possible. It's all about working together in a fair manner. That is not the case sometimes, as I'm sure you know.
MAI: You mention the WKA and the IKF? What federation do you work for?
GSR: I teach for the CMAA (Cobra Martial Arts Association), It's a great federation run by my close friend Andrew Morrell who has done a great job in bringing together an excellent group of people from around the country who all contribute where they can, with advise and guidance where possible: Rob Toombs, Jason Olsen and Dave Turton to name but a few. These guys all look after each other, like a big happy family...well as happy as a family can be - ha ha.
MAI: So where does the full contact side come into it?
GSR: In the CMAA there was loads of traditional Karate and Freestyle etc but there wasn't a big demand for full contact, so Andy and myself decided to create one within the CMAA. So I'm the Full Contact Arts Director with the power to sanction CMAA Full Contact bouts up to British Level in all weight classes, also Scottish and English versions separate.
MAI: You said you are a private investigator? Does your martial arts help in that line of work?
GSR: No comment - ha ha.
MAI: OK, enough said. So how can people get in touch with you?
GSR: Well they can contact me through the CMAA web site (www.cmaa.co.uk) and go to the Full Contact section or my own web site (www.efkki.com).
MAI: Thanks, Gordon, hope to speak to you again soon.
GSR: No problem, anytime.
"Master Gordon Scott-Russell has over 35 years of Martial Arts experience, he has Black Belts in various martial arts and a vast experience in other fighting systems which has led to Master GSR developing his modern approach to combat in today's sometimes violent streets."
Gordon Scott-Russell is a 6th degree black belt who runs Elite Freestyle Karate and Kickboxing just outside Glasgow. He is a part time instructor/trainer who holds down a full time job as a private investigator with a private company.
Scotland Story
GORDON SCOTT-RUSSELL
MAI: Hi, Gordon, can you start by telling us a little about your self and clubs?
GSR: I teach in the South Lanarkshire area of Scotland which is 10 mins from Glasgow. We teach Freestyle Karate and Kickboxing and also MMA. The Karate classes are aimed at the younger kids but we find the older kids and adults are more into the Kick-boxing and MMA training. We also have a group of good young fighters who fight out of the GSR Fight Team, all are doing really well.
MAI: Do they just compete in Scotland?
GSR: Well that's what I was going to come to. We have a great group of fighters and promoters up here who are doing their best to get the Scottish guys out there to fight for bigger and better titles. We have some great fighters in our stable who are doing really well, and we're now working with some good people, such as the WKA Scottish rep Stuart Allan. We have also taken part in some IKF shows.
MAI: So you're looking to expand your fighters horizons?
GSR: Yes. Myself and a few other promoters and trainers feel Scotland should be out there fighting and winning as much as possible with as many groups as possible. It's all about working together in a fair manner. That is not the case sometimes, as I'm sure you know.
MAI: You mention the WKA and the IKF? What federation do you work for?
GSR: I teach for the CMAA (Cobra Martial Arts Association), It's a great federation run by my close friend Andrew Morrell who has done a great job in bringing together an excellent group of people from around the country who all contribute where they can, with advise and guidance where possible: Rob Toombs, Jason Olsen and Dave Turton to name but a few. These guys all look after each other, like a big happy family...well as happy as a family can be - ha ha.
MAI: So where does the full contact side come into it?
GSR: In the CMAA there was loads of traditional Karate and Freestyle etc but there wasn't a big demand for full contact, so Andy and myself decided to create one within the CMAA. So I'm the Full Contact Arts Director with the power to sanction CMAA Full Contact bouts up to British Level in all weight classes, also Scottish and English versions separate.
MAI: You said you are a private investigator? Does your martial arts help in that line of work?
GSR: No comment - ha ha.
MAI: OK, enough said. So how can people get in touch with you?
GSR: Well they can contact me through the CMAA web site (www.cmaa.co.uk) and go to the Full Contact section or my own web site (www.efkki.com).
MAI: Thanks, Gordon, hope to speak to you again soon.
GSR: No problem, anytime.
"Master Gordon Scott-Russell has over 35 years of Martial Arts experience, he has Black Belts in various martial arts and a vast experience in other fighting systems which has led to Master GSR developing his modern approach to combat in today's sometimes violent streets."