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GEOFF THOMPSON:
Nice To See You, Wherever You Are!
© Marc Wickert 2002

also published in Fight Times & Britain's Martial Arts Illustrated magazines.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Mr Geoff Thompson

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From the Source

Geoff Thompson is widely acknowledged as being the world’s #1

authority on doormanship. With over thirty books, videos, documentaries,
a feature film and a decade of real-life experience as a bouncer in some of
Britain’s roughest nightclubs, few can dispute the accolades.

But this wasn’t always the case for Thompson who was constantly picked
on as a kid. In his debut bestseller, Watch My Back, Geoff recounts how
one Christmas morning his older brother discovered him alone and crying
out of fear that the beatings he’d been receiving would continue when
school resumed in two weeks time. This predicament continued
throughout Geoff’s childhood until he was eleven-years-old and embraced
aikido.

"Like a lot of people, I got into the martial arts because I was bullied, and
I thought the martial arts would be the answer. I thought if I learnt to fight,
I wouldn’t be bullied. It was at the time of the Bruce Lee boom, and I
wanted to be superhuman like thousands of other kids. That was my main
reason, so I could learn to fight, because I thought that would be the
answer. Of course later I realized it was less about fighting, it was more
about having confidence, having more cerebral strength," says Thompson.

Discorporation

"You become invisible. What the ninjitsu refer to as ‘invisibility’, I don’t

think they’re talking necessarily about actually disappearing, but if you
have a huge amount of confidence, because you’ve built up your physical
ability, then you become invisible to threat. You’re not seen as a victim to
people who want to attack, so the martial arts are very good in that
respect. You have to do the martial arts properly and train very hard and

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go through a forge so you get a tempered blade. And if don’t go through

the forge, then there tends to be a lot of insecurity. And being in the
martial arts can actually perpetuate trouble, because if your confidence
isn’t mature, people tend to go looking for situations to prove themselves."

The Bad News or The Bad News?

But at such a young age, Geoff was to encounter another type of predator.
As he explains in Watch My Back, it was a case of ‘out of the frying pan
and into the fire’, with one kind of bullying being replaced by another. So
his martial arts career was put on hold until he enrolled in Shotokan karate
classes. Through the torment provided by his young peers and an
unscrupulous adult, Geoff’s anguished mind still showed him little
compassion, however, as he dreaded the intimidation of karate sparring.

At purple-belt standing, Thompson put the karate classes on hold until

some years later when he enrolled in Shaolin Motga gung fu, which he
persevered with until earning his black belt. Geoff then returned to
Shotokan, but couldn’t understand why the fear of real-life fighting
remained.

"I reached the black belt level and physically I got the skills, but mentally
I didn’t feel confident. I still felt like a 9 stone weakling and remained
frightened of fear and confrontation. And when a situation developed in
my life, I didn’t feel as though I had control of it - not just the potential of
a fight, but of change. I was frightened of going up the mountain,
frightened of going down the mountain, and frightened of standing still."

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Thanks for dropping out

Pyramid Power

Geoff decided to address the problem by drawing a pyramid on a piece of

paper, and on the steps of the pyramid he wrote down all his fears, and
systematically confronted them one by one.

"The level I reached in martial arts didn’t build up the confidence I

thought it would. So I decided to go on the door and confront my fears
once and for all. Ultimately I was frightened of physical confrontation, so
I became a doorman to confront that fear and get some desensitization and
familiarization with that fear. I figured if I faced my fears I wouldn’t have

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any fears."

Geoff ’s jumping in the deep end wasn’t all smooth sailing. The first night
he worked he thought becoming a doorman maybe wasn’t the right career
move, but he remembers his colleagues patting him on the back and telling
him he’d done well – the reassurance was reassuring. He decided to give it
another go and eventually a day turned into a decade.

Mirrored Door

"I did my apprenticeship at a place called Buster’s Nightclub, which was a

very rough place, and that’s where I learnt the trade. I did four years there
and then I went on to work in lots of different venues. And I learnt loads
and loads of stuff about myself and realized that my fear wasn’t really
about confrontation – it was a fear of fear. I didn’t like the feeling of
adrenaline or anxiety. But I did become very familiar with the feeling, and
although I didn’t ever get rid of fear, it ’s obviously part of what you do.
It’s part of who you are. Biologically, fear needs to be present, but you
learn to manage it in extreme situations.

"And it has an overflow effect in your life. After working the door, and
facing people who are trying to kill you, everyday situations don’t bother
you at all. If the neighbour’s playing the music too loud or somebody cuts
you off in the car, it’s no really big shake because you’ve faced your
ultimate fears."

Looking Death in the Eye

Geoff says that the samurai had a similar philosophy where they treated
each day as though it were the last, then they were liberated from the
anxiety of dealing with death. He believes that working the door put his

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life into perspective in the same way. He continued to train in various arts
including judo, and returned to aikido. All the time he was eliminating the
fears of the pyramid he’d previously drawn.

"There were times when it was very hard, mostly because I didn’t
understand what was going on, but it teaches you a hell of a lot about your
body. Metaphorically, it was a bit like immersing an inner tube in water
and finding out where the leaks are.

"I thought there were a lot of weaknesses in the stand-up systems, which
were mainly long-range kicking systems, that were weak on close-range
punching and weak on grappling and ground fighting. And they were
weak on the psychological side of it, so I started to enhance my skills by
going into different systems."

Control Your Fears

Geoff says the door experience showed him what he was capable of doing,
but it also showed him the futility of violence. He deducted from the 10-
year experience that fear is natural, that it can be controlled, and that it is
only when you let fear overwhelm you that it becomes debilitating.

The courage it must have taken Geoff Thompson to confront his deepest
fears may seem remarkable, but even more staggering is that Geoff, whilst
standing just under 6-feet tall, weighed only 111/2 stone.

"I was 2 stone lighter than I am now. I was tall and thin. That ’s why
everybody wanted to fight me," laughs Thompson.

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Fish-hooking: anything goes on the street

Tailor-Made

Through the ‘door days’, Geoff didn’t adhere to any one style, but adopted
to his arsenal anything that he found practical and worked for him.

"I went into so many different systems, exploring, that it did become my
own style. I moulded it for myself. But now I don’t really practise any
physical martial arts as such. I’m practising yoga and meditation and a bit
of Qi Gong and weights. I do the weights to keep my body balanced and
keep the stress hormones out. The weights also keep my skeletal muscles
in place and keep everything solid. But I don’t do them for the physique or
strength. Everything I do now is for balance.

"I keep to light eating and avoid the trap of over-excitement or over-stress.
I kind of follow a Daoist premise, which is about flowing with life and

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riding the waves of life, rather than trying to oppose any of the natural
forces. It’s about eating light and thinking positively. And trying to aim
for goals but not grasp them. It’s that paradox of intent and surrender – it’s
intending to do things to improve your quality of life, but surrendering to
this natural flow."

Pre-Emptive Strike

On the subject of martial arts in general, Geoff believes that most of the
arts being taught in the world are not street effective. He says it’s not so
much the different codes of the martial arts that are inadequate, but that
the practitioners are not being honest with themselves.

"As far as physical self-defence is concerned, the only thing I found to be

consistently effective in thousands of altercations, and watching thousands
of altercations involving other people, was the pre-emptive attack. I’m
talking about when a physical situation couldn’t be avoided, or escape or
verbal dissuasion couldn’t be used.

"I personally think we should do anything we can to avoid a physical

confrontation. If we can’t and we have to be physical, the only thing I see
that works consistently in today’s arena is the pre-emptive attack. But I
don’t see many people teaching that. Most people are still teaching block-
counter, or letting the opponent attack first, or trap-counter. And it’s all
too late. If it’s going to be physical, it’s about learning to hit hard and
learning to hit first. This is the only thing that works consistently."

Whilst Geoff has admired the different systems of martial arts he has
observed around the world, he says what they are practising probably
wouldn’t work unless the art was being taught in a pre-emptive manner.

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6th Dan black belt in Japanese karate, 1st Dan judo, Ultimate
Dan in dangerous man

Too Much Artillery

Selecting the right skills for yourself and not getting too obsessed with the
size of your bag of tricks is something Thompson advises – particularly in
an adrenaline-rushed street situation.

"Initially, when we enter martial arts we think we need everything. We

start collecting thousands of techniques. And ultimately we whittle that

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down, and we get one or two that are very potent. But those one or two
techniques may be different for everybody. What suits me may not suit
you, so we sift through the sand to find the nuggets of gold. Again, it ’s not
easy to find. We have to go through the whole process to reach that."

Law of Retribution

"The other side of it is, if you go into an art where you’re learning to kill –
something like judo where you learn strangulation - your confidence
normally goes to a level where you don’t want to be in fights. And you’re
so confident that you don’t see people as worthy opponents, so you
become invisible to threats. That ’s the art of invisibility. Once you’ve
developed the ability to kill people, you become ashamed of it, and you
think, ‘Well, I don’t want to kill people, I don’t want to hurt people, I
don’t want to become known as someone who is good at hurting people.’
So you let go of that need to be able to hurt others.

"The people who need to be able to do it are the ones who are not secure
in what they’ve got. And I think they’re the ones who need to go back into
the forge and once you go through the forge, and temper the blade, you
come out the other side and you don’t want to hurt anybody. You just
want to be gentle and give to other people. Ultimately you realize this is a
reciprocal universe and what we give out is what comes back."

Geoff compares this principle to the ‘boomerang effect ’, and says it was
something he had to learn for himself first-hand. He did this by pushing
himself beyond his own limits, and believes that if practitioners do the
martial arts correctly, they can completely re-humanize other people and
look at them as fellow human beings, rather than undesirables or the
enemy.

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"They’re other people who have wives and children, and mothers and
fathers – they’re human beings. And they’re probably just people like us
on a bad day. There are very few evil people out there. There are lots of
people who are displacing their aggression or are on the wrong track, but
there are not very many evil people."

Communication Skills

Part of Geoff’s philosophy is that once you begin to let go of the need to
be physical and start developing your communication skills, you then
realize that most things aren’t personal. He suggests that if you can
communicate with people, you can kill off all your enemies by making
friends of them. Geoff also acknowledges that it ’s not an easy thing to do,
but it is something he believes we should all be aiming to accomplish.

"Don Draeger said we should be so good at what we do, so powerful and

potent, that we can walk away from trouble. Don is someone I really
admire in the martial arts. The martial artists I respect most are the ones
who have developed their physical ability, and have also developed a
polarity to balance it – they’re very gentle but very firm. They’re not
shouting about how good they are or challenging people. They’ve found
some kind of peace within themselves. That ’s a true martial artist."

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The Elephant and the Twig and the Kind

Gentleman
The Write Stuff

"I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I was writing long stories when I was
in junior school. And then when I was twelve, the art teacher wanted to do
a film and needed a script, so I wrote a script without even thinking about
it. So writing has been in me for a long time, but I never really knew what
to write about. Then once I went on the doors I started realizing that a lot
of the experiences I was having were interesting. I would tell people
stories about the door work, and one of the guys I worked the door with

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said I should write them down.

"This prompted me to write an article for a magazine and it got some good
reviews. Then one of the guys I worked with suggested I write a book. At
the time I ’d forgotten my love of writing, probably because I was always
told that people like us (working class people) don’t write books. But I got
some note pads, and I sat in the toilet at work, and wrote my first book. I
wrote it by hand and I’ve still got the red ring around my bum to prove it.

"I put it on my shelf for a couple of years before one of my friends read it
and said, ‘This is really good’. So I sent it off and got some refusals, until
one company said they liked the sound of it and I got my first publishing
deal - that was Watch My Back."

Just Another Writer from Stratford-upon-Avon

"Then I thought, ‘If I can write one book, why can’t I write two? Why
can’t I write a film? Why can’t I write a play?’ The confidence I got from
writing that first book is what started me."

Geoff has now had his first short film made, which received very
favorable reviews, and stars Ray Winston (Nil By Mouth and Sexy Beast).
A contract for Geoff to write a feature film followed and he has just
completed the script. Sometimes I feel like I haven’t done anything, and
then I look at my shelves and see thirty books, and think to myself, there’s
a lot of work there."

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"Et tu, Brute?"

Reflections on the Mirrored Door

There were regrets at work, and times when Geoff didn’t think he’d make
it home from work. "Three of my friends were murdered during the time I
was working – one was stabbed to death, one was clubbed to death and
one was shot. We had two people killed in one night in Coventry.
Working the door is a life-and-death situation. There were a few times
when it came on top and I don’t know how I got away, just pure
providence. There were a few times when I thought I’d killed people. And
I unashamedly got on my knees and prayed to God for another chance.
And I said, ‘If you give me another chance, I’ll turn this baby around, and

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I’ll tell people how it really is.’"

The Good Guns

"My experience of violence is that there’s no romance in it. It’s ugly.

When you’re there you don’t want to be there. Having knocked lots of
people out and having hurt lots of people, it’s not something I wish to
repeat. If people train really hard in the martial arts and go into the arts
that are not questioned, like judo, boxing, wrestling, thai – the really good
physical arts – they will develop an artillery that will be so good they will
be able to walk away from situations.

"That’s why the best people are the most gentle people. If you look at the
Gracies or the Machados, when you actually meet them – I’m not talking
about their reputations – when you meet them they are the most gentle
people you could encounter. And people like John Will in Australia, who
is a Machado black belt, he is a very gentle and giving man. People like
that I really admire."

A Last Word from Geoff Thompson

"You can’t play with the martial arts. You either have to do them or you
don’t. But to half do them, you don’t really get the answers. If you do
them recreationally, you only get the recreational results. If you really
want to find yourself you need to delve into the arts and it needs to
become a life passion. And what you have at the other side of it is
liberation, and it really is worth the journey – the art of invisibility.

For Further Information On Geoff Thompson:

www.geoffthompson.com

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Geoff Thompson
Nice To See You, Wherever You Are!

"Part Two"
© Marc Wickert

(previously published in Fight Times & Martial Arts Illustrated)

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With British Judo Champion Wayne Lukin

As stated in Part One of this article, Geoff Thompson is widely

acknowledged as being the world’s #1 authority on doormanship. With
over thirty books, videos, documentaries, a feature film and a decade of
real-life experience as a bouncer in some of Britain’s roughest nightclubs,
few can dispute the accolades.

Watching Geoff Watch His Back

While working as a doorman for all those years, Geoff ’s survival skills

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were continually being road tested. He was working six nights a week, and
never experienced a night when he didn’t physically have to restrain
somebody or make his own techniques work. And this was against people
who were doing everything in their power, not only to stop Thompson’s
techniques from working, but also to make their own work. Geoff learned
very quickly what was and what wasn’t effective.

In Part Two of this article, we will be focusing in more depth on

Thompson’s bestselling autobiography Watch My Back, which
incidentally led to the author’s being invited to join the Royal Court
Theatre writers’ group.

Leave Your Saddle at Home, Jock

In Watch My Back, Geoff talks about traditional martial arts and how they
haven’t been adapted to today’s world, as though they are too sacred to be
touched, even though today’s adversary is no longer a samurai on
horseback.

"Traditional martial arts just hasn’t evolved. I know people think it’s
sacrilegious, but …you get the most sensible people… I was just talking to
someone about this yesterday…you get the most sensible people, and
they’ve got the latest up-to-date computers, the latest injection-fueled cars,
they have the cutting edge of everything in life, and they’re so pragmatic.
But as soon as you start talking about martial arts they say, ‘Oh, you can’t
change that. It’s 200 years old so it must be right.’ And it’s really silly
because it’s like saying that the horse and cart will get you there, and they
will, but it’s not going to stop that mode of transport from becoming
antiquated. And you’re not going to compete with the 2.5 injection engine.
The environment and the enemy have changed.

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"If we went back 200 years to the ancient masters in martial arts, they
wouldn’t be doing now what they were doing then. They’d think this was
dumb. Most of the stuff that people are learning in traditional arts was
designed for battlefields, for fighting people on horseback armed with
spears and swords. Today’s enemy is completely different, and is from a
completely different environment."

World War Blues

Geoff says the defence systems that work in war generally work in reality
fighting: the pre-emptive and deceptive strike, and the killer blow. "Things
that they used in the First and Second World Wars, such as the single and
double foot stomps to the head: gratuitous, ugly and very workable.
Punching people so hard that they go back in time, and when they wake up
their clothes are out of fashion. It’s all very basic, very ugly, but also very
workable. Biting, butting, blinding and anything that will win the fight and
save your life."

Thompson observes that this approach is not what he has seen in

traditional arts. If it ’s art for art’s sake, then he thinks it’s okay, but if
you’re training for violent, street survival, then what’s being taught needs
adapting and shortening, so that it can work against a contemporary
enemy in an ever-changing environment.

"When I went on the door, I was highly graded after twenty years of
studying martial arts, and I realized straight away that what I had was not
working: it wasn’t only not working, it was laughable. And I discovered
that in the real world where violence is the norm, most martial artists were
ridiculed, they were not thought of as being credible in a real fight."

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What are friends for!

How to Break Friends and Infuriate People

After this experience, Thompson returned to his class and told them their
training was ineffective and had to change. This was something he found
to be extremely difficult because he’d been rared on traditional styles. But
rather than hiding his head in the sand, he made the necessary
adjustments.

"It was really just taking what we had and adapting it for a real situation.

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That ’s what I did. And as a person who’s been in hundreds of fights and
experienced thousands of affrays involving everybody from the layman to
the world-classed martial artist, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t
work. And I have a duty to say to people, ‘This is how it is.’ You can kid
yourself all you want, but when you’re outside the chip shop, and your
wife or children are depending on your techniques to keep them alive,
you’d better know what you are doing."

Geoff first altered his fighting style by visualizing that every strike he
delivered in training was directed at an assailant in a real-life street
confrontation. When he trained with a partner in the gym, every blow was
intended to hit the mark with full force. This approach caused Geoff’s
sparring partners to retaliate with the same ferocity and venom. From
these battles he developed the now-famous, no-holds-barred Animal Day
sessions.

"No quarter was asked and none was given. These sessions were later
featured on many mainstream TV shows and became legendary within the
martial arts world, with requests to visit coming from every corner of the
globe."

Just Gimme Some Truth

Whilst Thompson does not discourage people from training for art ’s sake,
or for the philosophical benefits that martial arts can bring, he does
stipulate that if practitioners are studying for defence then they need to be
honest with themselves.

"But don’t take my word for it: put it under pressure, do an Animal Day,
see what works and what doesn’t. If it doesn’t work under those
conditions, it won’t work in the street. It’s ridiculous to think that you can

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have a long-range art, where all the sparring you do is with other people
who also use long-range systems, and expect it to work when somebody is
fully intent on taking hold of you, biting your nose off and taking away
your range. In the street, situations escalate so fast and are so violent."

In Las Vegas with Geoff's wife Sharon and Chuck Norris

Yes, by George

We often hear President Bush talking about a pre-emptive strike. In fact,

he seems to be mentioning it so much lately, those familiar with Geoff
Thompson’s teachings probably wouldn’t be surprised to see George Bush
at one of Geoff ’s seminars. Thompson is amazed that most martial artists
have no knowledge of attack rituals. He states that prior to a fight people
will question their own abilities. They will feel like running away. And
even though their opponent may not show it, he will be feeling exactly the

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same, because 90% of the battle is in the pre-fight.

"From that observation, the only thing I’ve found that works consistently
is the pre-emptive attack: hit first. The block and counter doesn’t work.
The trap and counter doesn’t work. Letting people grab you and then
throwing them doesn’t work: it’s all too late. It needs to be pre-emptive,
you need to be first."

In a Bombshell

"And if you’re really good at what you’re doing, and really confident,
you’ll avoid nearly all the situations. And you’ll have the intelligence to
talk them down. You just won’t be there. You’ll have the intelligence and
the courage to let people off because you’ll be so potent at what you do.
But if it does become physical, you’ll hit them first and you’ll hit them
hard. That’s it. I mean there are thousands of books out there, but I can
give it to you in one line: Learn to hit f**king hard!"

Foot & Mouth Disease

Thompson does not suggest high kicks to the head, although he admits
there are some people who have made them work. He believes they are
not practical for non-sporting conflict, and are not consistently effective.

"It’s just common sense really. And I’m not saying they don’t work, but
there’s a place for them. And, believe me, if you’re facing somebody
who’s a real threat, you won’t want to take your feet off the ground.
People underestimate how frightening a life-threatening confrontation will
be. When you’re facing violent people outside, there’s not a part of you
that wants to try a high kick because it’s just too risky. You’re far better
off using something economical like a punch, that might travel 8 or 12

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inches, where you can get a knockout in one hit."

Kickers & Grapplers to be Towed Away

Boldly, Thompson suggests that kickers and grapplers will not last on the
street if they can’t punch. Although Geoff acknowledges that he loves
grappling, and he has great admiration for grapplers, he believes that a
street fight is the last place to be for the grappler, because fights are very
rarely one on one. He says that if a fight was one on one, then he would
back the grappler, but he feels that scenario is indeed a rare occurrence.

"In a real situation, what you need is something clinical, something quick
and something pre-emptive. And it’s always the hands that are closest to
the target, and you can drive your whole body weight through it. You can
finish someone with one shot, which leaves your hands free to deal with
the second assailant.

"Kicking for the average player just doesn’t have the potency to be
practical: it ’s too slow, too deliberate and too risky. The danger of
grappling is that it is a protracted art: you can’t finish someone clinically
in less than a second as you can with punches. The moment you grab one
person you tie yourself to him. And he only has to be a road digger or a
bricklayer or any manual worker, and even though you’ll finish him and
probably tear him a new arse, the technique is protracted. So while you’re
doing that, his mate is kicking your head like a football or his girlfriend is
stabbing you."

Thompson says when one grapples, he faces the danger of what he calls
‘the four Bs’: blinding, butting, biting and buddies. He states that the
grappler can have the upper hand on the ground, only to be attacked by the
adversary’s girlfriend, who’s stabbing the grappler with her stiletto or

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sticking a broken bottle in his neck.

Geoff Thompson the Author

If You Were Allowed One Wish

"People often ask me what art I would select for a physical confrontation
if I could only take up one discipline, and I tell them it would be boxing. If
I could choose two arts, then I would say boxing and grappling. But I
would never choose just one discipline.

"You really need three systems: firstly a good punching system, preferably
boxing because it’s based on the knockout. Secondly, a good grappling
system, preferably judo/jiu jitsu or catch wrestling, because they have
submissions. Thirdly, Thai-boxing because it’s ferocious and is a practical
art. The good thing about western boxing is that it is pre-emptive. There

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are lots of good shoot-fighters out there now, and that’s a great art because
it combines all three ranges, but you still have the problem of adapting to
the street and not going to the ground.

"If you’re choosing a club, look for the broken noses and the cauliflower
ears."

A Horse Called Fear

One of Thompson’s favourite subjects is harnessing fear. He suggests that

when novice defenders first experience a rush of adrenaline they often
mistake it for fear. But he states that they can use the latent energy to run
away, or to fight if there are no other options. And the way to become
used to fear is to get exposed to fear by participating in confrontational
arts such as boxing or judo where there are no hiding places.

"If you make a mistake in judo or boxing you’ll get choked out or knocked
out. And most of these arts are done with partners and with no complying.
You need to confront fear in order to get used to fear. It’s okay to feel
fear: you should feel fear."

Geoff says he would sometimes lower his voice and purposely let a little
fear filter through in his speech during a confrontation, so as to encourage
his adversary to drop his mental guard, which opens a window of attack.
Sometimes Geoff would even say he was scared to give his attacker a false
sense of confidence, and then king hit him. Again Thompson stresses the
importance of deception.

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With former European Heavyweight Boxing Champion Scott Welsh

Take it on the Chin, Boy

Geoff compares the street fighter to a sniper. He says the novice often
makes the mistake of looking at the opponent’s face when aiming for the
jaw. But a sniper doesn’t set his sights three inches above the target, he
focuses on what he intends hitting.

"You only have to miss by half an inch and you’ve missed the knockout.
So if you want to get the knockout, you need to look at the line of the jaw,
you need to look at where you’re hitting and place the punch there. It’s
difficult to get accuracy when you have adrenaline running through your
body. But if you train for accuracy, and train for accuracy while you’ve
got adrenaline flowing, then you will be accurate. And one punch will
normally end the fight – if not by knockout, then by hitting them so hard it
will discourage them from batting on."

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Thompson says that although some instructors preach the theory that one
shouldn’t show their hand by looking where they are going to hit, in an
adrenaline-filled situation, the fighters get tunnel vision, and all things on
the peripheral disappear.

"People don’t notice little things such as whether you’re looking at the
eyes or the jaw. It’s only if you’re looking at something obvious, like if
you drop your eyes to look at their bollocks, that they’ll get an idea that
you’re targeting the groin for a kick. Very few people look in the eyes
anyway. They tend to look anywhere but the eyes, so if you look at the
jaw they won’t notice it."

You're feeling very sleepy ....soon you'll be out

to it.

Can We Still Be Friends?

Although Geoff found that most people he dealt

with, during his decade on the door, could be
talked down or allowed to walk away whilst
saving face, he did find there was a minority of
people who only respected him when he got
physical.

"It’s really like a lower form of communication.

So when you punch them in the eye they’re
like, ‘I understand what you’re saying now’.
Not only do they respect you afterwards, they’ll
often like you for it. But they can’t help
themselves, because they have to take
advantage of a perceived weakness. It’s not a

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matter of being physical, it’s a matter of being

firm. When I started the job at the factory years ago, I stood up to the
bullies and next thing they’re making me cups of tea and wanting to have
my babies. You do it more to save them from themselves, because if you
allow them too much leeway, you’ll end up having to be physical with
them and then they will have a problem!" For more information on Geoff
Thompson go to www.geoffthompson.com

Geoff Thompson
Part Three
The Castaway Dreamboat
© Marc Wickert www.knucklepit.com

photos © Geoff Thompson

Ever wish you could be the best in the world at something? Ever wish you
could win the lottery and make all your dreams come true? Ever wish
upon a star? Geoff Thompson is like that: He spends most of his life
dreaming. What separates Geoff from most of us is that he makes his
dreams come true. And he doesn’t leave anything to chance. He works and
works until his dreams become reality. To Thompson, life’s stumbling
blocks are merely stepping stones that need to be overturned.

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Geoff ’s whole life has been a series of hurdles he’s erected for himself.
And every day he raises their height. When Geoff wanted to feel safe on
the street and decided to stop being bullied, he took up bouncing for ten
years at some of Britain’s roughest nightclubs. He wanted to become an
author and has now published over thirty books and thirty videos.

"If I only set realistic goals, I would not have achieved anything in my
life. I pride myself on the fact that I set goals that others would consider
completely unrealistic. In fact, if I had listened to many of the people
around me, all my life, I would not have even set goals in the first place,
because all of the things I aimed for seemed impossibly grand, even
pretentious to them. And yet, it did not stop them from happening. It did
not stop the whole universe from conspiring to make my little dreams into
big realities," says Thompson.

Over 20 publishers turned down Geoff’s first book, "Watch My Back". He

says at times the rejections seemed to outnumber the manuscripts sent out.
But the determined author kept submitting his autobiography as a bouncer,
until someone finally saw the book’s potential. Today, "Watch My Back"
is a bestseller. Even more amazing is that Geoff wrote the entire book,
sitting on the toilet each day, whilst he was employed as a factory floor-
sweeper.

Thompson also wrote the hugely successful novel "Red Mist", and his
latest film, "Brown Paper Bag", starring Ronnie Fox and Jo McInnis, won
a BAFTA in the Best Short Film category. But none of his success has
been handed to Geoff on a platter. He has defied the odds and made the
impossible happen through his hard work and unrelenting persistence.

"Take the short film "Bouncer" that we recently made. Our budget for the
whole film was only ten grand. Hardly enough to feed the extras, let alone

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actually hire anyone to make the film. It starred Ray Winstone, Sean
Parks, Ronnie Fox, Paddy Consedine – four of our biggest stars – and a
supporting cast of 200 extras and crew. Ray Winstone alone usually
charges 75 times more than our whole budget. He did it free because he
liked the script. We had to find the locations (free), hire the extras (free),
shoot the film and then get it to all the film festivals – with no money, and
then send it in to the BAFTAs. At last count, "Bouncer" has been in 30
international festivals, winning awards and award nominations around the
globe.

"More than one person scoffed when we said that we were aiming to get
Ray Winstone as the lead, and when we told them that we wanted to enter
the BAFTA competition, many of them said, ‘Impossible’. And yet we did
it. If I thought realistically, I’d still be sweeping floors in the factory."

Geoff has now completed the first draft of a motivational book tentatively
titled "Shape Shifter" which he says is about the process of shifting from
where we are, to where we want to be. And he has finished the third draft
of a film with working title "The Death of Christine James", which is
about people coping with changes in their lives.

"The fictitious character, Christine, gets mugged and suffers post -

traumatic depression. Her husband develops a complex, because he was
unable to help her, and it’s about how they cope with this change in their
lives. It’s a love story."

Thompson’s self-defence book, "Dead or Alive", is another of his

publications that has received international acclaim.

"It’s about self-protection and covers the whole gamut, everything from
avoidance, awareness and escape, verbal dissuasion, loop-holing and

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posturing, physical attack, understanding fear, and the attacker’s ritual.

I’ve been working with best-selling criminologist, Christopher Berry-Dee,
and he has access to all these murders and muggers. We interviewed
rapists and serial killers to find out how these people operate. I then
devised an attack ritual, which is the kind of ritual attackers go through
before they assault someone.

"This then allows you to become more aware, because it’s more about
awareness than physical confrontation. And if it does get physical, then we
get right to the nitty-gritty: the pre-emptive strike, the ability to hit f**kin’
hard from close range, the ability and the courage to hit first, and the
knowledge that being first to strike is the only thing that works in this
situation. And then it goes into the support system, like kicking and
grappling. Finally, it goes into the aftermath: the emotional aftermath and
understanding the legal ramifications."

At forty-four, Thompson still does a lot of yoga and running, but for the
man regarded as the world’s #1 authority on doormanship, he says most of
his martial arts training now involves what he calls ‘internal
scrimmaging’, where he wrestles with his thoughts.

"Most of my martial arts strength has come from the outside to the inside.
I work a lot on self-control and self-strength. The physical training only
takes you so far. It takes you to a pinnacle, and when you get to where
you’re about as good as you can get physically, it spills over and

starts to come in cerebral, and starts to come in emotional and spiritual.

You begin exploring your mind to see what you can do with it."

Through his motivational books and videos, Geoff also helps others to
overcome their fears ("Fear – The Friend of Exceptional People"),

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negativity ("The Elephant and the Twig"), and stress ("A Book for the
Seriously Stressed"). He also shows people how to reach for the stars and
grab hold of them ("The Great Escape").

"Are you getting what you want out of life? If your answer is ‘no’, why
not try seeing what you want a little more clearly, talking what you want a
little more succinctly, and certainly thinking what you want with a little
more accuracy. I am amazed by the number of people out there who want
success, but see, think and talk failure. And they are not even aware of the
fact that they are doing it. They actually predict their own failure when
they say something like, ‘Well I put in for that job, but I know I won’t get
it.’

"In life, you usually get exactly what you order, and what you order is
what you think, say and do. How many instructors do you know in martial
arts who actually get out there and train under other instructors? How
many martial artists do you know who never step outside their local class
to enable their talent to grow?

"Dare yourself to do the things that you really want to do. That’s the real
key. Dare yourself, and you will get everything from life that you want."

For more on Geoff Thompson or to order his books and tapes:

www.geoffthompson.com

For the Ultimate Street Defence Manual click here

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