On Saturday 23rd October 2021, it was a great honour for me to host a seminar with my Teacher, and lifelong inspiration, Grand-Master Sken.

The seminar was initially planned for our members before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and despite the setbacks of the last 18 months, we were still able to achieve our goal due to discipline, dedication and determination.

Grand-Master Sken arrived very early Saturday morning and we used this time to view the facilities of the Wolf-Gym and talked extensively about how training techniques and methods have evolved and changed over the years. Especially with the advent of global promotions such as ONE Championship and Cage-Muay-Thai rules and the UFC and MMA-Striking.

Then I was very fortunate to have a One-to-One Personal-Training session, with Grand-Master Sken, which for me was incredible. Best described by simply saying that it was literally like going back in time, as the last time I had trained under Grand-Master Sken’s watchful eye would have been over 25 years ago. I keep my own training ticking over at a pretty high base level, yet was soon pushed past this. When I train, I usually track my calorie burn, hitting about +1’000 calories a session, when I finished the session with Grand-Master Sken, this was +1’300… a good 30% higher… it was pretty tough going! The session focused on Switch-Hitting, Mis-direction and Muay-Boran. I loved every moment, and although my chest was pounding from the intensity - I was very happy throughout.

The Seminar ran from 11.30am until 1.30pm. This too, was a surreal trip down memory lane for me. The session started with Skipping & Exercises, then several rounds of Shadow-Boxing before moving onto technical skills.
Grand-Master Sken, would demonstrated techniques onto the Thai-pads that I was holding for him, and then he would walk around the Studio offering corrections to the students, with me assisting. This was again, like time-travelling back to 1991 when, as a Brown Grade and just 19, I was Grand-Master Sken’s assistant at a club he had at Eccles Recreation ( Sports ) centre 30 years ago. A club he later gifted to me, to help start my full-time career as a professional Martial Arts Instructor.

All of the members participating thoroughly enjoyed seeing Grand-Master Sken display his outstanding techniques. At one point, while explaining about distance, he placed his elbow to my chest, and then perfectly placed the left high kick across my head, ( and I am 6ft 4in / 193 cms ). No additional time was spent stretching prior to this, Grand-Master Sken literally just executed his perfect technique!

The students also enjoyed seeing Grand-Master Sken demonstration Split-Level Striking / Ground-Striking, using Muay-Boran finishing strikes, as this entailed throwing me all over the place like a rag-doll and showing potential groin strikes and arm breaks, ( such as a knee through the elbow of a locked out arm ). As I have already said, the whole experience was surreal. Just like the 'Master & his Apprentice' way of leading the class, from 30 years ago!

After finishing the seminar with some stamina work on the Thai pads, GM Sken spoke very kindly of his thoughts about the day, and he was very complimentary of everyones effort. He said how pleased he was to see that the highest of standards which he had passed to myself, had been maintained, and expressed his sincere belief that this is the correct way to run a Martial Arts academy.

Grand-Master Sken also shared, some of his childhood stories about Thailand and his journey in life that had brought him to the UK, and how proud he was when he was awarded his Grand-Master status from the Thailand government.

Grand-Master Sken then presented each person their own hand written participation certificate.

It is quite rare that people ever get such an opportunity to train with a currently active Grand-Master, as many of such stature such as 9th and 10th Dans, unfortunately have ill health or have passed away. To reflect everyones deep appreciation, on behalf of the Wolf-Gym, I presented Grand-Master Sken with an award as an additional thank you, as without him dedicating his life to teaching Martial Arts, none of us would be here today.

Grand-Master Sken, has been my inspiration as a career professional Martial Arts Instructor for over three decades, and to have him train my Students, my Champions and my two sons, was a very special day for me.

Photo’s - to follow :