Summer Camp 2010
44th Annual Summer Budo Camp
ACF Dibgate Folkestone
August 22nd – 29th 2010
Yes 44
years the Camp has been going I wonder if there is any such record in the World
let alone in Great Britain. When Nobby Clarke first started the Camp could he
have foreseen the fact that it would last that amount of time? The Clarke
family have kept up the tradition it was 1988 when Nobby suffered a stroke and
massive heart attack something he never fully recovered from and in 1990 he
died, Martin took over the reigns but in the last few years he has had to rely
a lot on his son John to organise the coaching side as a knee and hip injury
had left him in a considerable amount of pain, this apprenticeship has left
John in a good position to take over in years to come or in his fathers phrase
Decades to come.
Fight Night
The first
camp was at the Schools Journey Centre St Mary’s Bay Romney Marsh Kent, this
was a WW2 Camp which was converted to a holiday camp in the mid 1970’s this was
demolished to make way for housing and the Camp moved down the road to the
Jefferstone Road, Army Cadet Camp, St Mary’s Bay we were there till 2005. With
the camp being decommissioned a new ACF Camp was built in St Martin’s in the
Plain, Dibgate, Folkestone, this was a brand new building with excellent
dormitory accommodation and cooking facilities and made the ideal venue for a
residential course.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s Nobby
would be running for 4 weeks, 2 weeks of Juniors, 2 weeks of Seniors with 100
to 150 students on each week and people would travel from all over Europe, Ex
Soviet Union, USA, Canada and Japan, to participate in the Camp either as a
Student or Instructor. Martial Arts such as Judo, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Sombo,
Japanese Weapons, Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Aikido, Olympic Free Style Wrestling, Kick
Boxing and even Aerobics was used as a warm up lessons started at 7.30am and
finished at 10pm, this was the camps heyday. Sadly these days have long gone
and now we have just one week with about 30 attending, with peoples attitudes
changing to this sort of course.
Yester
year Martial Arts students would give up a week to improve their skills and
learn new one plus they
accepted that training would be hard and living on an Army Camp was part of the
bonding between Martial Arts Practitioners. Today its sun sea and sangria full
accommodation with Sky TV etc, the modern student needs to be pampered and
cajoled into participating in courses and competition, they no longer have the
toughness or discipline of their predecessors. To survive most Martial Arts
have had to moderate how they teach and present their particular discipline in
a more user friendly way (that jargon basically means make it easier and
softer). Some hard styles still exist but they have become more for the
spectator, any grappling sports that favour throws as opposed to ground work is
often shunned as the modern day student doesn’t like the impact of a throw.
Some like
Martin Clarke and his followers still prefer the throwing styles like Judo,
Sombo, MMA SportCombatSombo, Belt Wrestling, Kurash etc and that is reflected
in what is now taught at the Summer Camp Which is Grappling and Jiu Jitsu. No
the camp no longer has the numbers but it prides itself on maintaining the
ethos of the Camp. Yet traditions like teaching Judo and Jiu Jitsu Kata are not
forgotten, it is still the wish of most IBF members to get their Black Belt at
Summer Camp and to be able to say I spent a week at Camp.
IBF SUMMER CAMP 2011
Well
August is here again and once again it is time for the Annual IBF Summer Camp
in fact this is our 45th year it was first started by Nobby Clarke 6th
Dan Deceased using the old St Mary’s Bay Schools Journey Centre, then the ACF
camp St Mary’s Bay Romney Marsh which was to be our home till 2006 when that
was demolished to the newly built ACF Camp Dibgate St Martins Plain Folkestone.
Nobby ran the camp till 1988 when illness prevented him carrying on his son
Martin took over, the camp is still known as Nobby’s camp event though Martin
has run it for more years, but then that is what a legend is all about.
Martin Clarke teaching
CombatSombo
Colin
Carrott Joe Blanco John Clarke
As the
years moved on we saw massive improvements in the facilities and the equipment
used, plus the camp expanded from a Judo programme to Martial Arts and Combat
Disciplines. Sadly the interest in these courses has slowly died, at the height
of Summer Camp in the late 1970’s Nobby would run for 4 weeks with two junior
weeks and two Senior weeks over that period he would have 600 players not just
from GB but from all over the world, this year we were down to one week and 18
course members. Some say it is time to throw in the towel but my answer to that
is NO what we need to do is change the way we run the run the course and what
we do.
Those
involved in Combat Disciplines today are not the hardy breed of yesteryear,
they no longer want be thrown around the mat. There are two distinct types who
want to do combat disciplines
First Is
the traditionalist who still want carry the tradition of hundred of years,
enjoys the discipline, courtesy, realises that what they do is a Martial
Art and always appreciate the need for such things as Kata and know that
competition is just a part of what they do.
Then
there is the Modern concept made popular by Cage Fighting and Shoot Wrestling
this has led to various off shoots involving different forms of Submission
Wrestling some with stinking some without, this has been widely called MMA
(Mixed Martial Arts) a much discredited name which has nothing to with Martial
Arts. The correct term for grappling without strikes is FILA Grappling and with
strikes FILA Combat, both are
The
Martial Arts weekend will be for 11 years and above and Adults in fact we want
to actively encourage juniors to attend, the grappling weekend will be more
intense so the minimum age will be 15. The price will be kept low just £200
this will include all tuition fees, dormitory accommodation and breakfast and
evening meal plus will give discount for block bookings.
This
year’s camp although small in numbers was large in character with all those
attending putting in 100%. The activities this year was Judo, CombatSombo, FILA
Grappling (MMA), Sambo, SportCombatSambo and use of focus mitts and kick
shields. Instructors were Grandmaster Martin Clarke, John Clarke Sambo Master,
5th Dan Judo, Colin Carrott Sambo Master 4th Dan Judo,
Ian Parker 3rd Dan Judo and we had a visit from Joe Blanco 3rd
Dan Judo. Also on the course was 60 year old Alann Clarkin from Burnley who
attended the course and was awarded his 3rd Degree CombatSombo.
Allan not only participated in most of the lessons he also instructed the
course in pad and bag work as well giving a full hour of fitness training, his
40 years of Martial Arts knowledge and the fact he holds 6th
Dan at both Kickboxing and Traditional Jiu Jitsu will be great boon to British
CombatSombo. His Dojo in Burnley has been running since 1982 http://www.black-knights-kickboxing.org.uk A comment from John Clarke
“Allan was one of the best Coaches outside Sambo and Judo I have met”
There
always a few special people at these camps, well the truth is they are all
special for having the gumption to attend and realise if something is worth
having it is worth working for but there were a couple I would like to mention:
11 year
old Lewis Clarke the forth generation of Clarke’s to be involved in Summer camp
and 11 year old Ryan Marsden from Burnley both had never done CombatSombo
before and worked exceptionally well through the week keeping up with the
Adults. Both were awarded their Junior Orange Belt CombatSombo the first
Juniors to receive a CombatSombo grade, Lewis was also awarded a Green Belt in
Sambo. 39 year old Vicky Franks deserves a mention being the oldest female on
the course but not for that reason but for the for the fact she managed all the
fighting including FILA Grappling (MMA)
The big
finally of the week is always the Black Belt Grading, this year there was no
competitive Judo or Sambo grading so we missed out on the punch-up but two
students were taking Technical Grades, they were Laurence Sandum and George
Loscombe both successfully passing to 1st Dan Black Belt Judo
The Bash
Night was once again held on the Thursday night, this is where Judoka, Kurash
Wrestlers and Samboist come along and have a sparring session, and this is
always a spectacular event with the Dojo being full of spectators. This event
has been going for over 30 years, not so many this year maybe it was because
instead of being free they had to pay £5.
As always
you will get someone mention the fact it is a hard week, these are normally
reminded of the time 30 years ago when two very fit Black Belt s turned up,
trained for a day and during the night they packed there bags and left without
telling anyone or the time a Belgium Jiu Jitsu club of about 15 booked in only
to stay one night, they told us that they never expected to do actually contact
and train hard.
Allan
Clarkin paid us a very nice compliment when he said that in his 40 years of
attending courses he found this the friendliest and best value for money ever,
a great indictment of what we are doing.
As usual
I would like to thank all the instructors and staff for there help in producing
another successful week and yes we will be back next year
Laurence Sandum George Loscombe passed to
1st Dan Judo
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