Shake, grapple and roll

Shootfighting isn't wrestling - it's no-holds-barred, anything-goes extreme combat with a long pedigree. And, as Mark MacKenzie discovered when he joined the professionals, yes, it hurts

27 January 2002

'And sprawl." Alexis Demetriades barks instructions from inside a circle of bull-necked men. They hit the deck with astonishing speed and a synchronised thud. A split second later, they're back on their feet. "And sprawl." They drop again. And again....

Somewhere in this circle is me. I'm the one struggling to rise as far as his knees before diving back to the floor. A few minutes later, the whole group is breathing hard. "This is how you are going to feel 30 seconds into a fight – if you can't take it in here, you won't make it in the ring."

"Here" is an aikido dojo off London's Kilburn High Road. For Alexis and his students are exponents of a form of competitive combat barely known outside the insular world of the martial arts. Shootfighting. No guns, lots of fighting.

While few people have heard of it, shootfighting can be traced back to ancient Greece and the Olympic sport of pankration, a highly regulated wrestling event which permits punching and kicking. Modern shootfighting, in contrast, is notable – notorious even – for its lack of rules and is billed as an "anything goes" combat style. It is at times a ferocious contact sport and to the uninitiated can look like a straightforward punch-up, to be relegated somewhere beneath bear baiting on the list of great family days out.

The reality is quite different, with an emphasis on skill and grappling technique as well as extreme levels of fighting fitness. Shootfighting takes its name from the "shot": the lightning-fast, rugby-style tackle or "take-down", around which other moves are built. With fighters classified into weight divisions, bouts are won by submission, knockout or stoppage, when a fighter is no longer able to defend himself.

After an energy-sapping warm-up of sprints, tumbles and star jumps, Alexis calls the fighters together to start the session, which today is focusing on grappling rather than striking. I'm paired with Michael, one of the group's handful of professional fighters.

The first move we practise is a basic throw, and I'm about to get my first taste of just how quickly you can find yourself in trouble in a shootfighting ring. I lay my hands on Michael's shoulders and instinctively he "drops his level", hunkering down into a squat. Then he launches himself into my midriff, lifts me clean off the floor, turns me sideways and dumps me on the ground. The whole move takes less than a second.

"It's important to know when you are in danger," Alexis explains. "If you get into trouble standing up, it's important to be able to put someone on their arse."

And the trouble Alexis is referring to is big trouble. In martial-arts jargon, shootfighting is an MMA: a Mixed Martial Art. This means that when your opponent decides to use your head as a punchbag, he might kick off with a bit of Thai-boxing and follow up with a couple of jiu-jitsu moves. And if he's a real showman, he'll finish off with a combination all his own.

After the throws comes "ground work", a key area of the sport in which strong grappling skills are essential, explains Alexis. Good floor technique helps fighters elicit submissions by "placing an opponent's limb in danger" or by setting up a knockout. The next move Michael demonstrates is "the mount". Pinning an opponent to the floor, the attacker climbs astride him, holding him by the throat as he delivers the knockout punch.

As I rub Michael's fingerprints off my windpipe, Alexis tells me that ending up on your back doesn't necessarily mean two weeks sucking hospital food through a straw. Should a fighter fail to pin his man, a skilled opponent will often use his "guard", locking his legs round his adversary's waist to stop punches reaching their preferred destination.

Saving the best until last, Alexis shows me shootfighting's trump card: "the choke". Having pinned me down, he gives me just enough room to wriggle on to my stomach. "That's called 'giving up your back'," he explains, "a fighter's worst-case scenario." The choke, when it comes, is that old wrestling favourite the "sleeper" hold – an arm round the throat that puts the lights out in seconds.

After the session, I chat to Alexis and fellow instructor Paul Ivens, who explains that shootfighting's spiritual home is Japan, where both have fought. "Competitions in Japan are regularly attended by 20,000 people, with ringside seats costing up to £1,500. "It's a very technical sport and the crowds are highly knowledgeable about what they are watching," says Paul. "Fights are broadcast on television and written up in the papers, and huge amounts of betting money changes hands."

Yet while Japanese fighters may be revered and enjoy lucrative endorsement contracts from major sportswear companies, the situation in Britain is rather different. "Here you can fight for as little as £50, in a sports hall or a nightclub," says Alexis.

"The same sort of venues where you would expect to see a low-level, middle-of-the-week boxing match," Paul adds. "In each case, the rules depend on the individual promoter and what he thinks will make the fight more exciting. He may choose to have five- or 10-minute rounds, or he may do away with rounds altogether."

Despite their "anything goes" reputation, shootfighters the world over adhere to a code of sporting conduct. Felling a man with a knee to the solar plexus may be applauded; but moves considered "dishonourable" can lead to an early bath. Eye-gouging is strictly forbidden, for example, as is fish-hooking (tearing at the side of the mouth with a finger). This almost gladiatorial code of honour no doubt owes much to shootfighting's shared history with pankration, the sport used by Alexander the Great to train his troops.

On the subject of wrestling skills, Alexis is particularly qualified to voice an opinion. The talents he and Paul have developed through shootfighting are such that the pair will soon go up against the country's best freestyle wrestlers for a place in the Great Britain wrestling squad and a chance to compete at this summer's Commonwealth Games.

Why then, with so much history, does shootfighting have such a low profile in Britain? "The general public have different views on what we do," says Alexis. "Some think it's completely brutal, but I suggest people give it a try. Have a go and see just how much skill is required."

The facts

The UK currently has no governing body – details of shootfighting in your area can be found on the Submission Fighting UK website at www.sfuk.net

Your next chance to see shootfighting in the flesh is on 2 February at the UK Mixed Martial Arts Championships in Maidstone, Kent. For information, contact Lee Johnstone on 07949 068 269 or at lee@southernshoot.co.uk.

Classes with Alexis Demetriades and Paul Ivens are held at the Yoshin Kan Aikido dojo in Kilburn, London. For details: www.londonshootfighters.com

The language