Muhammad Ali Training Camp

Reading, Pennsylvania, United States of America, 5th October

For the lucky ones this was definitely the place to be even though the American skies are not as safe as they once were and for many of us this was to be a chance of a lifetime.

Master George Dillman, one time sparring partner of Ali and also a very good friend, realised a dream of his when Ali's training camp came up for sale. Shortly after the end of Ali's career his offer was accepted and as they say the rest is history. Master Dillman has obviously spent a lot of hard earnt money refurbishing the camp as anyone with an eye for detail could quite clearly see. Basically, he has managed to transform the camp into a shrine for Muhammad and at the same time create a wonderful epicentre for Martial Arts and in particular Pressure Point Karate (Kyusho Jitsu). The key to Kyusho Jitsu was passed on by the infamous Hohan Soken to George Dillman many years ago in the form of a scripture and told the secrets are there, perhaps one day you may find them.

Fortunately for the western world Master Dillman came upon the secrets by accident while working closely at the time with the Great Professor Wally Jay of Small Circle JuJitsu fame. Due to their friendship with the Great late Bruce Lee and with each other they were able to work together as a team rather than as individuals to enhance their systems. If only this could be done so readily today martial arts would have found some sense of harmony (Yin and Yang comes to mind). George Dillman came across the secrets whilst watching the Professor teaching his Small Circle JuJitsu and without further ado he took some of his black belts into another room and performed his first Pressure Point Knockout.

Thursday October 4th
Thirty British martial artists gathered together at Gatwick Airport feeling apprehensive about flying across American airspace, but on the other hand, determined not to let recent events stand in their way. One couldn't help but notice that the aircrew seemed more relaxed due to our presence! After an eight-hour flight we landed at Pittsburgh Airport with two hours to spare before our connecting flight to Reading. Forty minutes later by car we arrived at Ali's camp.

At the training camp everywhere you looked there were signs of Ali's past presence from photo's and portraits in the gym (from which Master Dillman had created a purpose built dojo) to Ali's living accommodation which some of us were lucky enough to be billeted to. And those mountains full of rock and quartz one could see why Ali chose this location rather than anywhere else.

Friday 5th October
The opening ceremony started at 6.00 pm. Over one hundred martial artists bowed onto the mat eager with anticipation of whom they were about to meet and what they were about to learn. Master Dillman opened the presentation with a brief history of the camp and his friendship with Muhammad Ali, needless to say he held all of us spellbound. There had been some talk during the day that Professor Wally Jay may be attending the course but as no one had seen him it was still just hearsay. And as if Christmas had come early in strolled the Professor to an almighty applause. His presence guaranteed nothing could compare with this can you imagine having the likes of George and Kim Dillman, Wally Jay, Leon Jay, Will Higginbotham, Jim Corn, Mark Kline, Evan Pantazi and Paul Bowman to name but a few needless to say all of the British Team were glad they had put the 11th September behind them and refused to be dictated to by terrorism.

That evening is still a bit of a blur in my mind as all of us were still getting over the journey from the UK. All I remember is that training finished around 9.00 pm shortly after which we changed out of our Gi's and into our casuals for a little light refreshment down by the fireplace. Being able to drink a few beers and talk martial arts with Masters of this quality is in its self a mind blowing experience. Every one of them a gentleman and I can only describe it like being a kid in a sweet shop, talk about being spoilt for choice.

The following morning training started at 9.00 am, once again Master Dillman started the ball rolling with one or two memories from the past. One of which sticks in my mind in particular, it was about one of Professor Wally Jay's trips to George's training camp. He explained he used to have a mountain tiger as a pet, unfortunately for the Professor the night before the course he was given the room next to where the tiger was kept. On awakening the following morning, George couldn't help but notice how weary looking the Professor was on welcoming him to a new day. He asked the Professor "Did you sleep okay?" to this the Professor replied "No, not really because the tiger kept me awake most of the night dragging his chain across the room", to which George replied "What chain? he isn't tied up." "What" said the Professor, "you must be joking, tonight I will need somewhere else to sleep."

As time goes by some of the memories of the Dillman camp fade into the back of one's mind so I will recollect some of the magic I saw that weekend. Obviously the Professor was absolutely amazing using his small circle to move opponents twice his size and fifty years younger in most cases around the room with hardly any effort. As I grow physically and mentally stronger I can appreciate how much time and effort the Professor must have put in to achieve such perfection and harmony with his system. At the ripe old age of eighty three, thank God, we have his son Leon Jay to educate us with this martial way.

Leon Jay is himself a master of Small Circle JuJitsu and is also a Dillman Karate instructor combining small circle with Kyusho Jitsu (Pressure Points). He has enhanced their system and has made it one of the best martial arts in the world. I would just like to add that both of these legends could not do enough for you, nothing was to much trouble for them, and one thing that I have learnt from men of this calibre is that whether you are on the mat or in a restaurant they are always courteous, polite, happy and a pleasure to be with. The transitional flow concept of small circle is one of the keys to their success allowing the practitioner multiple techniques moving from one to the other in case your opponent decides to go where you don't want him to go. Watching Leon doing this made me realise how lucky he is to have a father like Wally Jay.

Thankfully Master Dillman decided to explain the use of the chi energy (internal energy). Until now most of us found this subject much harder to learn than conventional martial arts and as one of the best places to build chi is in the mountains this seemed the best time to do it. In order not to give away too much I would like to recall a comment made by Master Jim Corn when asked by me "do you have to practice every day in meditation and Qi gong?" to which he replied "heck no! everyone has it, you have just got to believe you have it". This remark cheered me up immensely because up until now I had always found it hard to build chi as I have never been able to find the time to sit still for five minutes to practice Qi gong and was wondering if I would ever have what it takes to achieve inner strength. I am sure there are a lot of other people out their thinking thank god for that.

There were a few memorable chi moments as well as managing to move my partner with my very own chi, as well as knocking him out later in the day with a small circle technique coupled with a 'sound' given to me by Master Evan Pantazi. Well you could have scraped me off the ceiling after that one. Actually if I remember rightly I followed Evan around all evening thanking him and if I wasn't doing that I could be seen all over the camp giving my explanation of my amazing feat.

Where was I, oh yes chi, well even Pantazi gave a masterful demonstration of this. He lined up an assailant, who ran across the room at him, slightly fired up, in order to enhance the technique. Then as the assailant came within about one metre, he dropped into horse stance, side on, thrust out his arm with an open hand and shouted aloud and dropped his man within six inches of his hand and never touched him once. Now I know there will be a lot of sceptic's out there reading this article, to them I say this, I was there, I saw what happened with my own eyes and after a fight career accumulating over seventy full contact boxing and kickboxing fights I really don't care if you believe me or not.

This brings me onto Master Jim Corn, what a phenomenal character the word dynamic springs to mind. Well Jim made light work of his demonstration by immobilising and dropping his man from six feet away using the scissors finger style. You will have to forgive me because after his demo I forgot my name momentarily and needless to say the onlookers were left agasp. In fact there were that many Masters doing chi knockouts that day it was a job to keep up with the proceedings.

As explained by Master Dillman the American law is not a great deal different to that of the UK, except that one in three people carry firearms and pushing someone could mean a huge legal bill. So as you can see making the wrong decision could mean death or at the least serious financial problems. Therefore the Dillman Karate instructors who were in the police force demonstrated subtle differences in the way you deal with an attacker in order not to leave yourself open to conviction or death. This is where human pressure points come in useful allowing you to deal with such situations without leaving so much as a mark.

Saturday 6th October
The evening session was brought to a close by Master Dillman reflecting over what we had seen during the day and also informing us of the up and coming Karaoke later that evening. George reminded us all that there was to be no one getting legless and that we were not to talk martial arts all night, as if we would!

We were told that everyone was to get up and sing so not wanting to let ourselves down myself and two other British lads Colin and Malcom got up to sing Hotel California thinking safety in numbers and all that. Well just before we went on in comes this great big American guy to sing one of Meatloaf's songs 'A Bat Out of Hell'. We looked at each other and thought we need to hide now! Being brave and moaning to each other about being stitched up we went on and totally ruined a great song, don't you just hate people that can sing. To my surprise both George and Kim Dillman had great voices and Leon Jay wasn't bad either but best of all my long time friend and mentor Master Paul Bowman was definitely a star as was Master Will Higginbotham on the harmonica, what a cracking night.

Sunday 7th October
Today was an open forum for all of the instructors who had taught over the previous few days. Master Paul Bowman claimed his place on the international martial arts scene with a brilliant demonstration on Ying and Yang using the wrist lock on his training partner to amazing effect. Then after a couple of first class pressure point knockouts he left the floor to a huge round of applause. At last a Brit could match the American masters with his Kyusho skills. Apart from Master Leon Jay and Paul Bowman no one in Britain has the information to progress any further in the secrets of Kyusho Jitsu.

As always the Professor would sit on his throne watching over each demonstration, occasionally offering advice on how to make a particular technique work just that little better and of course create more pain.

Leon Jay on the other hand was by now full of exuberance due to being promoted to seventh dan. His demonstration on chi knockouts proved to me that as Master Jim Corn quoted to me that believing in yourself is the key to chi knockouts. I reckon Leon must have been listening as he was dropping people like flies.

Just as this chance of a life time had to come to an end so I guess does this article. As time goes by you begin to realise that being a decent person is definitely a requisite in becoming a real Master of your art.

Sensei Keith Gray