Sentou Ryu Ju Jitsu

Established in Northern Ireland in 1996 Sentou Ryu Ju Jitsu is unique in that it is a mixed martial art that utilizes the most efficient elements of the Japanese, Thai, Brazilian and other martial arts to create a street effective fighting system.

Sentou Ryu Ju jitsu while having similarities to cage fighting is in fact a realistic street self defence system or if you prefer self protection system.

Sentou Ryu acknowledges that street violence involves multiple opponents and often attack by weapon wielding aggressors who never offer the luxury of tapping out.

Cage Fighting, the UFC and other arenas have in recent times allowed various fighting systems the means to tackle each other in an attempt to see which or who is best. The result however has been in actuality to create a brilliant and highly entertaining, limited rules sport. Although this environment is different to a street situation, it is still the closet sport to real fighting there is today.

Sentou Ryu has taken the lessons learnt from this arena, probably best described as Vale Tudo in the early days and blended them into a fighting system.

Remember however that the real ground is hard, attackers are almost always fully clothed, often armed and regularly not alone.

In particular over the years Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the Thai boxing systems have proven to be consistently effective. The creators of Sentou Ryu in its development sought out various instructors in these and other fields and while practising these systems worked on incorporating what was effective in them into what is now Sentou Ryu.

One thing however MMA tournaments do not in general offer is the techniques and tactics to deal with true self defence situations as opposed to a face to face fight.

Sentou Ryu also includes a finite set of techniques for defence against all possible surprise attacks such as headlocks, hair grabbing, knife attacks or attack by several people at once.

These scenarios are covered effectively by learning one or two counters to each type of attack, keeping them as simple as possible. With continual repetition the techniques become ingrained in the mind and are performed automatically if attacked.

Sentou Ryu knife defence for example uses a small number of techniques but these are practised continually in a sparring type situation. One man will try as hard as he can to stab or slash the defender, although not with a real knife. Very quickly however the defender learns what will work for him and what will not. A fake knife in the stomach does not result in any damage but it encourages the imagination to picture what would happen if it were real. This discourages showmanship and hones self preservation.

The two creators of Sentou Ryu have collectively competed in Sport Ju Jitsu at World Championship level, Judo and in several Kick boxing disciplines with the Pro kick gym under the excellent tuition of Billy Murray. Both Instructors were also actively involved in the earliest days of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Northern Ireland.

Sentou Ryu is not for the faint of heart and involves sparring almost every night in both striking and grappling disciplines.

The emphasis is however a little more towards striking than grappling as although grappling and ground fighting are essential parts of the arsenal we want to avoid the ground in a street fight if we can possibly can. On the ground the defender is for the most part at the mercy of a second opponent

That said any one who takes down a Sentou Ryu guy knows that it’s often not as good an idea as it seemed when he was getting punched in the face standing up.

The style is based in Japanese fighting systems, Ju Jitsu in particular, but borrows unashamedly from anything else that works.Sentou Ryu freely translated simply means Combat Style or Combat School in Japanese.

Sentou Ryu is not a sport but a modern Martial Art, all be it one that recognises that active sparring against opponents is the only real way to train to protect yourself. Sparring is however fully licensed, insured and practised in a safe environment with realistic but safe rules

Sentou Ryu is now regularly used by door staff, police and security services as an active means of self defences as well as by ordinary people who have been the intended victims of our increasingly violent modern society.

The essence of Sentou Ryu is simply to train to overcome an attacker as quickly and as effectively as possible no matter where or who the attacker may be. Ambitious words that require hard work and lots of time but may just save your life someday.

R & R Duff