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[tmd]

The interview with Jeff started very informally – he walked passed so we grabbed him . He joined the K4L team of TMD Kanku and Senshido, although it was near the Bar so Senshido was kinda part time. Also present was Mrs TMD who held the ‘recorder’ and TMD’s daughter and one of his young fighters. Like the unashamed ammeters that we are we started asking him stuff then remembered that we needed to record it so if it sounds like we missed off the start it’s because we did!

K4L
Have you heard of Kyokushin for Life or K4L?

JEFF WHYBROW
No.

K4L
We are an internet based forum for lovers of Kyokushin Karate, we have members from all organisations and most of the major countries in the world, in fact anywhere a Gi is worn! We have Shihans as members down to complete novices, a place to make new friends and discuss our mutual love of the art.

JW

Sounds cool, I’ll take a look in some time.

K4L
I’m sure this is something you will understand all K4L wanting to know, you fought a lot of great fighters, famous fighters, are there any that were about in your time that you feel you missed out on?

JW
Yeah, I was talking to Adamir DeCosta recently and I would have like to have fought him because we competed at the same time, we were both young and he was a very technical fighter.

K4L
What level of dojo sparing do you think is acceptable and how do you balance the need to produce the next champion with a class filled with people looking to follow other paths?

JW
I wouldn’t force anyone to spar, when it came to sparing I would just say right those who want to fight get a partner. That way those who were there just to get fit didn’t feel pressurised, I was never one for forcing people to do anything they didn’t want to and you have to try and cater for everyone really. Mind you after saying that someone will probably say “You made me fight!” But I don’t think I ever really made anyone fight.

K4L
What made you choose Kyokushin?

JW
I didn’t. I was a kid when I started and my Dad just said right to keep you off the streets you’re going to choose, I think it was Karate, Golf or Tennis? I think. Anyway we started and I didn’t like it I hated it. In fact me and my brother used to bunk off and go to the Saturday morning pictures with the money, until one day my Dad came back to pick us up and Hanshi (Arneil) said oh I think they’ve left, we hadn’t been for a month! After that he made us go and once I got my first grade which was after about nine months all of a sudden it was like a complete change? I just loved it, couldn’t wait to train, a total hate to love change.

K4L
Have you thought about why?

JW
I don’t know maybe it was because I was forced to go? Nobody likes being forced to do anything especially as a kid so I did it but it was always under protest and never with any commitment but for some reason after my first grading everything changed and there was like a desire in me and I began to enjoy it from then on it became the be all and end all – it just took over my life.

K4L
Did you ever fail a grading?

JW
No. I don’t think – I think I went straight through them all. Mind you it was the first time they had a junior class at Wimbledon and at first there were loads of kids but they all dwindled away except me and my brother so for around three to six months when we were around twelve and thirteen we virtually had private lessons off Hanshi Arneil so we only graded I guess when he thought we were ready, as I said it was nine months before we did our first one. I can’t really remember actually grading even for my Black belt I was in Holland and Hanshi Said ‘oh we’re going to put you in your grading’ so I had to borrow some money to do my grading, I think he just held me back and back as long as he could so I never failed but I also wasn’t interested in it in that way so it was like one day I was a yellow belt then a green belt it wasn’t a question of grading every few months.

K4L
Is your brother still involved in Karate?

JW
No he left when he got to 1st Kyu. He got into water skiing instead.

NOTE: A Natural break occurred as DKKC turned up and we all took a pause to congratulate her on her WIN!

K4L
Following on from the tournament today what do you see different about the fighters from when you competed.

JW
Technique, people are more technical now than back then. Back in the 70’s you had a handful of technicians and a lot of guys who used brute force and didn’t really have much in the way of technique, whereas nowadays more of them have both the strength and the technique, there’s better movement, it’s not just a case or relying on punch, punch, low kick. You saw it today, there was an Ashihara heavy weight lad there, a brown belt and he was trying things and if they didn’t work he tried something else and then if that didn’t work he tried something else, he had an arsenal of so many different techniques it wasn’t just a case of bashing away with something that’s not working, and just keeping plodding on – he kept changing and trying different things so although he wasn’t powerful he was good to watch, a real thinking fighter.

K4L
I understand what you are saying, I can remember when you went to a World Tournament in Japan and came back a week later and Won a semi contact tournament.

JW
No I didn’t, when I came back from Japan I took part in a WUKO Tournament open to all styles but I didn’t win it. I came third, I fought a guy called Stan Knight a top international WUKO fighter and I think I beat him 6-0, every time he came in I just caught him with a Tettsui’s so it was like Wusari, Wusari, Wusari and it miffed a few people. But I lost the next fight so came third.

K4L
That still shows great adaptability and control to take part in a World Knockdown Tournament and a week later do so well in a non contact event?

JW
Yes but I grew up on WUKO, when I was a kid we only did WUKO. We only really started doing knockdown when Tatsu Nakamura came over from Japan in 1977, it was all WUKO before that.

K4L
Do you think it is beneficial for fighters to start with Clicker or WUKO first?

JW
Well it was for me, but that’s all I know I don’t know about for everyone. If you look at kickboxing you’re straight into the pads and developing power then the technique comes later. I guess it depends when you start, I think WUKO is good for kids rather than just getting them straight into knockdown, I have seen 4-5 year old fighting and the parents are behind them saying things ‘like kill him’ , and ‘take it like a man’ and stuff. It wasn’t for me but people grow up differently, there are different cultures and you have to respect that.

K4L
Bruce Lee was asked about fighting Muhammad Ali and he couldn't because of Ali’s far greater size despite his outstanding abilities as a Martial Artist. When you competed you fought guys much bigger than yourself, famously Dolph Lungren.

JW
Yes but I was a black belt and he was a green belt.

K4L
He was still a big guy!

JW
He was, and he was strong but I only beat him by weight, it was a draw really and to be fair he was kicking the hell out of me.

K4L
When you took part in tournaments and you knew you were going to be heavyweight did it change your training in any way?

JW
No I liked being heavyweight, because I was faster, a lot faster so I could move and I felt happier to use that advantage. A lot of the time I was under weight and I had to put on some extra jumpers to weigh in at heavyweight. But again back then it was different, first there were no weight categories, then two, then four where there was a light heavyweight, the year Gary won. Then after that it was set at three and hasn’t changed.

K4L
Do you think as people are getting bigger there should be a move towards more weight categories? If you look at having to fight guys who are 100kgs+ and you were only what 82-83kgs?

JW
I was 78kG. That was my fighting weight, it was only as I got a little bit older that I became naturally heavier. I felt like I could out run them, that they couldn’t catch me. I just did whatever was needed, so if I had a big guy steaming into me I thought well I’ve got to move around more whereas if I could I’d try and pressure them, generally though I was a counter fighter, I used to wait and let them come at me and then I’d retaliate.

K4L
How did you train when you were fighting?

JW
I used to train a lot on my own, there wasn’t all the coaching and squad training like you have now you had to do it on your own sometimes others would join you, where I used to train sometimes Bernard Creaton used to join me occasionally. The dojo training was not to prepare you for tournaments you had to do that yourself.

K4L
Bernard Creaton had a nickname of ‘the Devil in a Gi’ because of his change in attitude inside and outside of the dojo, he was always very nice outside but hard work inside. How did you find him?

JW
He did have a bit of a bully’s streak in him. But I always got on with him I never had any problems with him. One time he kicked me in the back of the head at squad training which was nasty but I got him back. I disagree and can’t agree that type of behaviour especially if it’s an abuse of power, I grew up in a Gi so if I ever saw someone bullying I would step in, I would not tolerate it. I never got it, if you know you can beat the guy you don’t have to beat him to prove it. I don’t think you could be like that anymore.

K4L
When you used to teach you didn’t spar much, generally you just walked around helping out.

JW
Well yes because I was there to teach and if I was sparing something could be going on and I won’t know.

[tmd]

K4L
How easy was it to retire from fighting?

JW
Easy! I stopped fighting when I got married the first time, I was only 23 but I’d been fighting since I was 16 and I wanted to concentrate on teaching. I notice that when I stopped fighting and concentrated on my students they all did better, but when I started fighting again, there level would go down, it’s very hard to be focused on two things at once. After I got divorced I started fighting again but then I remarried so I retired.

K4L
Have you trained any champions?

JW
Sure lots, loads of kids, loads of knockdown champions, kata champions all sorts, the girl who was the first European champion was one of mine. Michael Thompson was one of my students, most of the top British guys have trained under me at some point.

K4L
Do you think too much emphasis in the martial arts, especially Kyokushin is placed on fighting ability and tournament placing rather than the ability as a martial artist?

JW
Fighting gets all the publicity, sure it does there are a lot of good martial artists who you’ll never hear off but you can’t all be champions. There are plenty of people who were no good on the mat but are brilliant teachers and they have people under them who are good fighters, just because you are a good fighter won’t make you a good teacher and vice-versa.
Most of us have different talents but there are exceptions like Darren Stringer who is good at fighting, kata and even refereeing he’s good at everything he does. But more commonly you get people who have a particular strength and who are weaker in other areas.

K4L
How do you think Kyokushin can move forward to keep appealing to people who maybe see the MMA stars and think I want to do that. How do you keep their interest?

JW
You have so much choice, before it was do you want to do karate or judo but now there is so much choice, you’ve got ten different styles of karate, jujitsu, kickboxing, MMA all these things, all this choice, it’s like having 200 TV Channels but you’ve got to pick one and stick with it. You have to know what you want to do, what you want to get out of it, or you’ll just keep looking at all the different styles and never progress.

K4L
How would you suggest some one starting choose a dojo?

JW
Look for a good teacher, somebody who is there for the students not themselves. For some guys it’s a power trip and all about them, rather than the good guys who are all about what they can do for the students.

K4L
Sometimes the teaching gets diluted as clubs have to survive economically and water down the training to up the numbers how do you feel about that?

JW
Well again it depends what you want as a student, do you want a black belt or do you want to be good. And some people aren’t interested in belts at all, you look at Kelly Brammer, she’s been a green belt for God knows how long, she’s not interested in grading all her training is about competing. Grades are meaningless on the mat.

K4L
Which Kihon technique would you say is the most effective in a self defence situation?

JW
The most valuable technique for the street? Hiraken-Tsuki-Jodan, strike to the throat. Instead of teaching people to punch to the face it is better to hit them in the throat as hard as you can it is more guaranteed to stop them. Especially if I was teaching girls it is even more valuable, punch a guy in the face you’re more likely just to anger him whereas if you can stop them breathing it will buy enough time to get out. I guess also the groin so groin or throat, if you look at animals hunting it’s the same.

K4L
Which Martial Artist have you most admired?

JW
Andy Hug personally impressed me the most he could just turn it on just like that he was the most impressive, you just watched him and thought you’ve got it.

K4L
Trevor Marriott beat him didn’t he at Palace?

JW
Yes because he damaged his knee and he withdrew. So not really.

K4L
Andy went into K1 after Kyokushin was that something you considered?

JW
No I was too old by then, I was coaching Michael( Thompson) when he started in K1, it was Andy that got Michael into K1 they were good friends, it was exciting times they were big matches I was with them at the time in Japan which was a great time.

K4L
You used to do a lot of breaking, where did you first learn to break?

JW
I have to give credit to Frank Parry he was the one who taught me how to break, he was a good martial artist, he was a judo guy who also trained with Nakamura in Japan, he was very good at sweeping. He showed me how to break.

There are lots and lots of Stories of Mas Oyama and they are that, stories. I’m not saying anything bad about anybody but fighting bulls is BS and breaking bottles is BS, I think the stories have been exaggerated time and again until they are nothing like true, ridiculous. The film you see of Oyama with a bull, it’s an Ox, probably really old and off to slaughter. As for the bottle I would love to have someone show me how you can break a bottle without cutting your hand or shattering the bottle. There are ways to doctor it, I experimented with it when I was into breaking and any bottle that broke clean had been doctored.

K4L
Who taught you the Nunchuku?

JW
I learned the Nunchuk’s from a film, a Cini-film that Steve Morris made, Steve Morris was supurb, I heard once that a bunch of Japanese guys came over to learn Nunchuku form Steve Morris. I watched the film over and over again and I used to play with the Nunchuku a lot but that film is where I got all the techniques from.

Everything I know is taken from someone else, and anybody who says this is my technique has to know there is nothing new under the sun. You either see it or hear about it but it’s come from somewhere and all though.

K4L
But surely it’s all about application? Yes you were shown the techniques but it’s your ability to apply them that can take it to another level don’t you think?

JW
I guess that’s right and everybody does things slightly differently, to suit themselves it’s like when your teaching there is no good making a carbon copy of you because your strengths are yours and your students will have a different way, they will have a different talent to be developed, it might even be something you can’t do but you can see how they can do it. I think that’s what makes a good teacher, again the emphasis is helping the student fulfil their potential.

K4L
Can you tell us about the Hungary World Tournament?

JW
It was really good there was about 15-20 groups representing Kyokushin in some way and the atmosphere was great, really friendly, like an extended family there was no edginess or ‘well I’m this and your that’ just a familiarity that we were all Kyokushin.

K4L
Do you think there could be one in the UK?

JW
Yeah I think so, what they did was basically like when we had our world tournament a few years ago they saw that and just took it to a much, much bigger level, so they had the whole of Kyokushinkaikan there and then on top of that they had the all the other organisations putting up teams. This was helped by the sponsorship, they paid for everything which makes a huge difference but it was a great tournament.

K4L
You have a reputation as Jeff the friendly nomad travelling the world, how did that come about?

JW
I went travelling because I got divorced, it was a bad divorce and I went into a travel agents and just brought a round the world ticket to get away from it all, it really helped me deal with the divorce emotionally. So I went round and ended up in South Africa as it was the last stop and it just so happened I walked into a travel agents and they had the same ticket I had just used but for half the price so I said I’ll have another one, so I did it again and when I got round again they had some economic problems and the ticket had halved again, I travelled for three years on the trot. In the last ten years I have travelled around the world six times, I just love travelling, I’m in a situation that allows me the freedom to do it, I have very little commitments.

K4L
A lot of our members have memories of you stepping into their dojo and they have been astounded that you have just walked in from nowhere and just joined in the class, they have all said what a positive experience it has been for them.

JW
It used to be that if I saw a dojo I would always go and have a look, I was travelling in New Zealand when I heard the loudest kiai’s I have ever hear and I was drawn to the noise like a moth to a flame. There was about seventy brown belts on a course just giving their all, it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end!!

This sort of thing just seemed to happen to me all over the world and I could never resist having a look!!

The last couple of years though I’ve not taken my Gi because it was becoming that I was being asked to take the class and stuff. I still liked to do it but I was looking to train and when I walk in and the highest grade would be a Sandan they’d think getting me to take the class was the right thing but I wanted to get in line and train. At first they might be a bit uncomfortable until they see I’m just there to train and then they relax and get on with it, then I can relax and have a good session.

[tmd]

K4L

One of the most amazing things I saw you do was the Pinan Ni in reverse how did that come about?

JW
I liked that, it took me a couple of weeks to break it down and figure it out. I was asked to do a demo and everyone’s seen the high grade stuff and the breaking and I wanted to do something different. I was watching a lot of Cini movies and the time and I was rewinding one and watching it doing backwards and it just came to me. What I wanted to do but I didn’t have the bottle was when I finished to go out backwards too!
It was interesting the reaction of the crowed because to start with they were like ‘what’s this he’s doing? It’s a low grade kata what’s so good about that?’ And when I finished the first half there were a few claps but not many, and it was like half way through coming back that people realised what was going on and started to appreciated it.

K4L
Do you think you’d have a look at the forum?

JW
Yeah sure – I’ll sign in and say high sometime.

K4L
Is there anything you would like to say to the World Wide Family of Kyokushin

JW
Good luck, follow what you feel, follow what you dream – if you dream anything you can do it – nothing is impossible. That is what it (Kyokushin) has taught me, nothing is impossible but you have to believe you can do it then you can do it.

They don’t say the Dojo Kun anymore and I grew up with it, it was like a foundation for me, a moral code, something to look up to, I don’t think it was right to remove it (from the IFK) I feel like something has been lost, etiquette and respect has been lost.

K4L
Well Jeff it has been a pleasure, from all at K4L a big OSU! And thank you for taking the time to speak to us tonight.

Cracking! Thanks TMD.

Typical Jeff, modest and completely honest. He was / is one of the best ever from the BKK.

Gary

[flukey]

thanks TMD a very good interview. I am so glad you asked about pinan ni in reverse as I saw it on youtube about 6 months ago, i was just amazed

[powerof0ne]

Very good interview. Seems like a real honest and down to earth guy and I envy anyone that has trained with him.

[jcc]

Osu!

Thanks for that tmd. Great interview, much appreciated.

Osu!

[KvW]

Osu!

Great interview. A very interesting read. Thanks TMD.

[kakatootoshi]

Thanks for taking the time to do this for everyone.

Originally Posted by tmd

K4L
Can you tell us about the Hungry World Tournament?

A new tournament fighting for food or those in famine?

[kanku]

yes, a big vote of thanks to t.m.d for typing this up and posting, i know how busy you are..it must have taken a lot of time.

I trained under Jeff and the man is just interested in karate, he would let anybody from any style or organisation train with us and spend a lot of time trying to help them while they did.

when Jeff turned up when it was due to be another instructor the whole place used to go upbeat, a true all round ambassador for our sport.

if we ever had a United Nations of kyokushin and it`s off shoots, this would be the man who would get my vote as president!

people might like to call him Jeff the hippy or suchlike..but when he talks....everybody listens and more importantly....RESPECTS!!!!

at the interview he was very honest and did not duck any questions and was imo very frank........i have said before that if everybody had his attitude the world of kyokushin would be a better place!

tmd i know it`s not much but please accept some rep from me for your efforts!! sorry mate would not let me rep you again!!

[ksan]

Good interview, Osu!

[kyofighter]

Good read. Osu.

[nzproud]

Great read thanks!

[FredInChina]

Thanks TMD, Kanku and Senshido, Great interview; Osu!
Repped.

Originally Posted by kanku

(...) i have said before that if everybody had his attitude the world of kyokushin would be a better place!(...)

(sorry Senshido, gotta spread reps before I can honor you again...)

[kakatootoshi]

The fact that Shihan thinks Dojo Kun is important has made me respect him more.

[Bloke]

Thanks for this guys - great read - so good in fact I am now going to be late for work

[tmd]

Just a quick thank you for the rep but without the other guys this would not have happened, just like last time it was Kanku who set it up and helped with the questions as did Senshido.

This was a different experience for me than the interview with Hanshi, harder in some ways and easier in others. Harder because I don't know Jeff other than by rep and as clearly pointed out I am no pro! but easier in that the guy was just so frank & honest that no matter what we asked we got an answer.

People often talk about regrets especially as they hit 40 , I now have a new one, when my dojo closed back in 1990 Kenny Jarvis went to train under Jeff, it was a fair trip from my place and I was doing shifts but I never made the effort - man do I regret that now!

[Olrac]

Thanks for this great interview
OSU

[senshido]

I would just like to say that I had very little input, tmd was well prepared in case we managed to capture him, and kanku managed to grab him and get him to agree, which was very easy as Jeff is such a nice guy... it was a pleasure to be there

Osu

[polarbearfighter]

I found these after reading the interview:
JW performing pinan ni forward and backward:

You Tube

JW vs. Dolph Lundgren:

You Tube