Greg Newton
06-19-2010, 11:01 AM
Even today the name Dempsey still conjures up an image; a brooding caveman boxer with coarse black hair, and heavy brows with a menacing scowl. At 6-1 and 187 when stripped to his trunks Dempsey appeared larger than life. There was no surplus flesh, fat or muscle on his rawboned frame. If it wasn’t there to punch, it wasn’t there at all. His head was round, his face flat, and more than likely his bones were thicker than normal. Nature had equipped him perfectly for battling in the ring.
It didn’t come easy, despite the natural gifts and the leopard like speed of his fists. Dempsey grew up hungry and poor. He battled in many a mining camp trying to catch a break and find money for a meal. He trained and studied his craft. For Dempsey it was practice and more practice. Bob, weave, and keep the chin in the crook of your left shoulder. Hit the bag; do your road work, and spar. Put everything into making that punch harder. Drive from ankles up through the body and into the shoulder. Knock the other guy out before he knocks you out. Rabbit punch, kidney punch and tag your opponent with a meat hammer fist on the break. This was war.
Dempsey was a kind, soft spoken man and not much given to bluster and tough talk. He was quick to pick up a downed opponent he’d knocked out and help him back to the corner. But in the heat of the match he became a different person. Writer Robert Kahn tells this story of a sixty-four year old Dempsey giving him a boxing lesson he never forgot.
“How would you handle Johnson?” Dempsey said…
”You’ve got to watch the big right hand,” I said, “so I’d crowd him. Keep moving in close so he has no room to throw the right. Work on his body for a few rounds.”
“Pal,” Dempsey said, “I can see you know your boxing.”
“Thanks Champ!”
“Now I want you to get up. We’ll take off our jackets. Then show me how you’d crowed the Swede.” Dempsey gestured and a few busboys moved back tables, creating an open space, an informal boxing ring, in the center of the restaurant.
I’ve done it now, I thought. First I tell Jack Dempsey how to fight. Now I’ve got to spar with him. But he’s always been a genial sort, at least to me. After all these years, he’s probably harmless.
“I want you to crowd me,” Dempsey said, “and then I’m going to show you my old one-two.” I looked at him. Quite suddenly Dempsey was considering me with no geniality at all. His eyes were pitiless. It was as if he neither knew me nor cared who I was. The knuckles in his fists looked like eagle’s talons.
As ordered, I moved in. The fastest left hand punch I ever saw up close creased the right side of my face, etching a line along the jawbone. A right I never saw cracked into my midsection.
I spun back and lowered my hands.
Dempsey drove an even harder left along my jaw. “One-two,” I said. “One-two. That’s three.”
“Keep your guard up at all times,” Dempsey said in a cold, flat tone.
Then it was over. He put his hands down. The menace fled from his face. He patted my back. “Pal, you deserve a drink. This is my place, so I’ll be buying.”
*quoted from A Flame of Purple Fire - Jack Dempsey and the Roaring Twenties
There are lessons here. Keep it simple. Practice on the basics. Move. Work hard and put more work into it. When it is time to defend there are no nice guys. It is all primal. Do what you have to do and get out of there.
These are the same kind of principles that come across in Larry’s DVD series Split Second Survival. Keep it simple. Make every motion and every move count. Focus on a few things. When it comes time to defend there is no turning back. Do what you have to do and get out.
I talked to Larry around the first of the year. He told me that his training and teaching has gone way beyond what he was demonstrating in Split Second Survival. Like Dempsey, Larry has adopted the philosophy of keep training and keep doing. How can you make the simple better. How can you inflict more damage in the least amount of time with the least amount of training.
Larry will probably be a little embarrassed at my comparison to Dempsey. From my brief interaction with him, I can tell he is a down to earth laid back fellow that could care less about the spotlight. But like Dempsey, and like countless other dedicated fighters, martial artists, and self-defense instructors, Larry is a plugger. Keep learning and keep moving. It is as Larry said in his Live Fire DVD, “I had to find these things out for myself.”
Greg Newton
It didn’t come easy, despite the natural gifts and the leopard like speed of his fists. Dempsey grew up hungry and poor. He battled in many a mining camp trying to catch a break and find money for a meal. He trained and studied his craft. For Dempsey it was practice and more practice. Bob, weave, and keep the chin in the crook of your left shoulder. Hit the bag; do your road work, and spar. Put everything into making that punch harder. Drive from ankles up through the body and into the shoulder. Knock the other guy out before he knocks you out. Rabbit punch, kidney punch and tag your opponent with a meat hammer fist on the break. This was war.
Dempsey was a kind, soft spoken man and not much given to bluster and tough talk. He was quick to pick up a downed opponent he’d knocked out and help him back to the corner. But in the heat of the match he became a different person. Writer Robert Kahn tells this story of a sixty-four year old Dempsey giving him a boxing lesson he never forgot.
“How would you handle Johnson?” Dempsey said…
”You’ve got to watch the big right hand,” I said, “so I’d crowd him. Keep moving in close so he has no room to throw the right. Work on his body for a few rounds.”
“Pal,” Dempsey said, “I can see you know your boxing.”
“Thanks Champ!”
“Now I want you to get up. We’ll take off our jackets. Then show me how you’d crowed the Swede.” Dempsey gestured and a few busboys moved back tables, creating an open space, an informal boxing ring, in the center of the restaurant.
I’ve done it now, I thought. First I tell Jack Dempsey how to fight. Now I’ve got to spar with him. But he’s always been a genial sort, at least to me. After all these years, he’s probably harmless.
“I want you to crowd me,” Dempsey said, “and then I’m going to show you my old one-two.” I looked at him. Quite suddenly Dempsey was considering me with no geniality at all. His eyes were pitiless. It was as if he neither knew me nor cared who I was. The knuckles in his fists looked like eagle’s talons.
As ordered, I moved in. The fastest left hand punch I ever saw up close creased the right side of my face, etching a line along the jawbone. A right I never saw cracked into my midsection.
I spun back and lowered my hands.
Dempsey drove an even harder left along my jaw. “One-two,” I said. “One-two. That’s three.”
“Keep your guard up at all times,” Dempsey said in a cold, flat tone.
Then it was over. He put his hands down. The menace fled from his face. He patted my back. “Pal, you deserve a drink. This is my place, so I’ll be buying.”
*quoted from A Flame of Purple Fire - Jack Dempsey and the Roaring Twenties
There are lessons here. Keep it simple. Practice on the basics. Move. Work hard and put more work into it. When it is time to defend there are no nice guys. It is all primal. Do what you have to do and get out of there.
These are the same kind of principles that come across in Larry’s DVD series Split Second Survival. Keep it simple. Make every motion and every move count. Focus on a few things. When it comes time to defend there is no turning back. Do what you have to do and get out.
I talked to Larry around the first of the year. He told me that his training and teaching has gone way beyond what he was demonstrating in Split Second Survival. Like Dempsey, Larry has adopted the philosophy of keep training and keep doing. How can you make the simple better. How can you inflict more damage in the least amount of time with the least amount of training.
Larry will probably be a little embarrassed at my comparison to Dempsey. From my brief interaction with him, I can tell he is a down to earth laid back fellow that could care less about the spotlight. But like Dempsey, and like countless other dedicated fighters, martial artists, and self-defense instructors, Larry is a plugger. Keep learning and keep moving. It is as Larry said in his Live Fire DVD, “I had to find these things out for myself.”
Greg Newton