Jim Armstrong (RAW Combatives)

He was in NZ recently and I went to a quick courtesy seminar with him on Saturday.

He's orginally from the UK but based in Australia now, has anybody on here trained with him before?

I really enjoyed his material. It was practical, simple and effective and flowed well with the stuff I already now. I'm interested to hear if anybody else has any experience with him.

No mate never heard of him

can you give us more details

I guess this is the best place to look. He is a Senshido affiliate instructor as it turns out but he has his own way of doing things too.


http://www.rawcombatives.com.au/

I have trained with Jim in the past. He's a great bloke with lots of humour. He has a very realistic take on violence - on any given day, anyone can do anyone, in his words. So, he's not into being the toughest man in the room, even though he usually is.

He does a lot of Senshido concepts, Geoff Thompson line-ups, WW2-style Combatives, kickboxing and he loves stick fighting. He also brings in a lot of guest instructors - Deane Lawler, Ray Florio, even UFC fighters, I believe. I like that because it shows that he's open to new ideas rather than an insular master trying to keep his disciples bowing down in worship.

I haven't trained with him for a while but I do try and make his seminars when they are on. If I was to be honest, he is more of a synthesiser of other people's work rather than a genuine innovator. But I think that's not a bad thing. He has faced a lot of real-world violence and can put other people's work into proper context. He also always credits his sources unlike many.

He also loves having crazy beards and hairstyles!

Thanks for posting Jason.

From what I found with him I'd have to agree with you. He explains his concepts very well and actually made me appreciate and understand my own arts and experiences a lot better...like you say a "synthesiser".

Hopefully he will be back in NZ later on in the year because he's going to focus on stick fighting and some other stuff as well which will be really rewarding.

And yes he pulled out the "anyone can do anyone" call in our seminar too. I think he has a good point although I'd still rather him on my side!