Interview.

Neil Hall: Why and when did you start training and in what art?

Shane Riley: I started in Wado Ryu Karate in 1972. My father had always wanted me to start doing Judo at an early age. This I found strange, as my father had been a prisoner of war with the Japanese for over four years, having worked on the infamous Burma Siam railway. I would have thought he would have been very anti-Japanese but he told me one that life is too short to bear grudges and you can't dwell too much on the past, you have to look to the future. I think his outlook on life has helped me in my path in the martial arts and life in general. I had seen the early James Bond films which featured the martial arts and was intrigued by the idea of the " Judo Chop". A Karate dojo opened locally and me and a friend went to have a look, we were both fascinated and joined up. After about two years I finally did some Judo. I hadn't realised how physical it was, I turned up all cocky and was battered for a few weeks by all these low grades. I suppose you could say I was cross training then but didn't know it. You did Karate for punches and kicks and Judo for throws and groundwork but it was hard at the time to mix them up, you tended to do one or the other in a situation. I don't think we had the maturity to understand and the arts at that time didn't overlap, they were taught in isolation to one another.

Neil Hall: Was the Karate and Judo training any different then to now?

Shane Riley: Judo was very vigorous 'Old Style Judo'. I went along as a young, cocky 17 year old Karate purple belt and got plastered every week for about 6 months by all the yellow, orange and green belts. I did Karate for around 12 years and Judo for 2 years, I still do a bit of Karate now, where I first met you, Neil. I have also trained in Shotokan and Shukokai Karate. The sparring in those days was always heavy, we all got battered.

Neil Hall: What was different about ' Old Style Judo'?

Shane Riley: In Olympic Judo they are all fighting for a grip, back then you just started with a grip and went for it. Also it was more technical then, more into detail, there are many changes now. It was good at the time, everything is good when you are young.

Neil Hall: Did you do any other arts before you went into Aikido?

Shane Riley: Yes, I did some Jujitsu and bits of wrestling with various people over the years, also my father took me and my older brother Boxing when I was 12 years old. He took us to an old army Boxing instructor in the works canteen, he had 2 cauliflower ears. My dad said it was for us to look after ourselves. Also when I first started Aikido we always did half an hour of grappling at the end of the class.

Neil Hall: So cross training is not a new thing to you then?

Shane Riley: Not really, we didn't call it that at the time, we just trained in what was available in our area. You just did Karate, you didn't realise there were other styles about until later on. Otsuka Sensei, founder of Wado Ryu, Ticky Donovan, Sakagami and Walter Seaton came up to Huddersfield, we trained with them, Wado Ryu was strong in this area at that time. When we trained in different styles it wasn't like a challenge thing, it was just an add-on to what you did already. Nowadays some people cross-train but don't get a core base in something solid. I was glad I did Karate for a long time and Judo before moving into Aikido. It gave me a good grounding in stances, etiquette etc. in martial arts, you definitely need a core. Some people think Aikido is a soft option, some styles are an some are not. Some people might get a shock if they trained with a hard style Aikido like ours. We train (at a higher level) with an uncooperative Uke unlike some style of Aikido.

Neil Hall: Is it important to you that you Aikido is practical?

Shane Riley: Oh yes, definitely! Because me and my Senior Grade Dave Hemmings had trained in Karate and Judo we experimented with the Aikido. Also sometimes people coming into the classes had Karate, Kung Fu, JuJitsu etc. backgrounds, so you had to make it work against different types of opponent. You couldn't just say to them ' grab me here and run around after me', you had to make it work. We had some interesting moments proving Aikido could work.

Neil Hall: So you had pressure testing from people coming into the Aikido?

Shane Riley: Yes, you cannot expect people who have done a bit just to take your word for it; you had to show them it was workable. Also at that time we were working on building sites and were always messing about and trying things out together. Dave was still doing Karate as well so we were always trying each other out. I found out at that time that the Aikido I was doing was alright but still lacking in certain area's, it wasn't quite as effective as I would have liked it to have been. I met up with Dave Martin from the midlands, his Aikido was more dynamic, and he came up to teach. Also he knew people like Gary Williams, he was into Judo and Karate, 3rd Dan Karate and 2nd Dan Judo. He had always been involved in GoshinRyu as was Brian Whipps, known as 'Skippy'. He was probably the biggest influence on me, he was very dynamic, 3rd Dan Aikido and also involved with the GoshinRyu, amongst others. It was all interlinked then. Skippy is such a character; he's only 5ft odd, but very hard and dynamic, back then he was about 40 and very impressive. He made us realise there was a lot more to it all than we thought. Last time he came up he was about 60 and he was still grappling with me and Dave, Amazing!

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