“Pay attention,” demands instructor John McLeod, “We are going to go through these quickly. There are a lot of ways to hit someone with a stick.”

Plenty of martial arts classes begin with discussions of spirituality and concentrate heavily on “forms”—that is to say they are far more arts than they are martial. This is hardly the case at Circle of Iron, a training center for students of Muay Thai, Kali, Pentjak Silat and Jeet Kune Do based at Dongdan in Beijing.

“I don’t ignore the spiritual side of martial arts,” explains McLeod, “but I am interested in teaching people things that might actually be applicable. I’m teaching them to fight, not to perform forms.”

McLeod, who has studied various forms of martial arts since he was 15 years old, opened his school after a stint studying in Shaanxi, known as the cradle of Chinese martial arts and for its variety of boxing styles. But he found his instructors left something to be desired.

“They could look pretty, but they were essentially acrobats. They couldn’t fight,” he says. So he brought Beijing a taste of true martial arts. Using a variety of different techniques from different countries, McLeod trains an international crowd of Beijingers hailing from Sweden to Bangladesh.

“I would love to be able to do this for a living some day,” he says, “but my main goal is to give people here in Beijing a chance to get access to the real thing.”

McLeod concludes the Kali section of our class by demonstrating the nine deadliest knife attacks. The first two strokes went against either side of the neck. The next two cut open the stomach, first horizontally then vertically.

“The fifth stroke pierces the perineum,” McLeod says, stone-faced, making a slicing gesture in the direction of this columnist’s perineum. The students wince. McLeod’s voice softens. Gesturing to me, he says, “Don’t worry. He would already be dead.”

Jonathan Haagen

What: Circle of Iron
Web: www.circleofiron.zoomshare.com
Tel: 130-0113-6398