On 28 March 2009 the Bristol School of Self Defence were proud to host the Complete Self Protection Seminar by Al Peasland and Mick Tully.  Al and Mick are two of the country’s most respected martial artists and self defence instructors, with years of experience testing their techniques and beliefs in real-life situations. Al is the highest graded and longest serving instructor under the world-famous Geoff Thompson.

The following review of the seminar was written by Caroline Tovey (student of the Bristol School of Self Defence):

As I was walking up the stairs to the seminar, armed with only 4 hours sleep, a banana and a bottle of water, it crossed my mind, just for a second, that nobody had seen me and I could turn around and run away.  I didn’t know what to expect from the Al Peasland seminar. Generally I know what I will find when I get to the top of the stairs, it’s at least two men wrestling on the floor: my reason for getting up on a Saturday!  But on the website, Al looked scary.

Luckily, I didn’t know if there were any CCTV cameras and figured I would look stupid in the footage if there were, so I braved the seminar.  I am habitually early, but despite this, I arrived to find Lea, Paul and Tony already involved in an impromptu Q and A session with two surprisingly agreeable chaps, who introduced themselves as Al (Peasland) and Mick (Tully). (They don’t look as scary as their photos!) On this occasion, being early served me well as Al and Mick’s philosophy behind their approach to martial arts and self defence was very insightful.

The day started with a warm up, a bit of a self defence overview and the opening of a back catalogue of truly dubious jokes that only two men who could rip your arm off could get away with.  One of the first exercises was “acting the bigger psycho”.  I’ve believed for some time that this is an effective approach, but when faced with Chloe (my brilliant and tough partner), my offensive vocabulary just dried up.  Maybe there’s scope for a spin off “Shouting expletives for women” class.  I would go.

On the surface of it, Neuro Linguistic Programming and self defence are not compatible doctrines, but Al has married them together.  This doesn’t mean that you have to smile constantly whilst hitting people (although he never said you couldn’t), but that being a more focused, aware and nicer person can help you avoid having to hit someone in the first place.  Al talked of how we are at our most empowered when we are making choices and overcoming our restrictions.  Basically he’s a bit like Stephen Covey (who wrote ‘The 7 habits of highly effective people’) or Anthony Robbins, but if they showed you how to kick butt and told really corny jokes.  Plus, I don’t think most life coaches tell you to say the f-word in confrontational situations.  

As well as putting us in touch with our inner potty mouths, Al and Mick spent the rest of the day showing us how to hit, choke and render people unconscious (when they really deserve it obviously).  The session went on beyond the advertised 2pm to allow Mick to show us some “fun stuff”.  This mostly consisted of evasive movements which allowed you better leverage to hit the other person really hard.  Mick came into his own during this part of the day, enthusiastically encouraging people to hurt him in new and imaginative ways.  (I’m sure he should have been paying us!)

Al and Mick make a great double act and their enthusiasm is infectious.  They reluctantly called an end to the session at just after 3pm, although, they looked like they could have gone on for the rest of the day.

I left the class tired, hungry and calmer than when I arrived.  Everyone I spoke to was pleased they had attended.  Although we all left more able to hit someone, we all looked happy and less inclined to do so.  I walked around Asda that afternoon with a complete sense of calmness and believe me that is a first, so some of that optimism must have seeped in.  So the next time the choice is between shouting, swearing and punching stuff, or staying in bed a bit longer on a Saturday, you know which one to choose.

Caroline Tovey