Kevin Murphy started Krav Maga with KMM in January 2014. Similar to Russell Brotherston's interview he illustrates the lack of attention to self defence in public facing workplaces.
So. Who are
you?
My name’s
Kevin Murphy, I’m 50 years old and I’m the landlord of Murphy’s bar in
Leamington Spa. I grew up in Whitnash. Been in Leamington all my life. Run the
bar for 22 years, it was Baker’s Wine Bar before that, before then briefly Rick’s
bar and before that the Regent Wine Bar. The first wine bar in Leamington. Took
me 3 or 4 years to drag it down market.
What
attracted you to Krav Maga?
Keep fit and
keep my body supple and to hone my reflexes so that when I work on the door of
a weekend if someone comes to attack me I can defend myself probably a little
bit quicker because I’ll be used to the contact and also the adrenalin wouldn’t
kick in so much so you wouldn’t get so upset or nervous if something did
happen.
I spoke to a
pub bouncer last week who said he’s not allowed to punch but only to restrain.
Do you think that Krav Maga is a better option for those who want to look after
themselves in Security or Doormen etc?
Bouncers are
allowed to use reasonable force, but there’s always that question as to what is
reasonable force. If you’ve got a chap swinging punches at all and sundry and
the only way to quiet him down is to lamp him one yourself then you should be
allowed to do that. It all depends on what you compare things to. When I did my
SIA course I wasn’t taught ANY restraint techniques at all.
Really?!!
What they
teach now in SIA, if you went now, there is a half day on restraint techniques
but as I’ve got the old one I’ve never had to do it. I can understand where
Russell is coming from because with mental health patients they don’t know
sometimes that they are being violent. You should be able to defend yourself or
restrain them, the system has gone too far stupid the other way. My ex wife
works in a hospital where there’s a person who suffered a stroke. He left the
ward and the people in the hospital couldn’t grab him by the arm and take him
back to the hospital. They had to phone the police up and 4 police officers had
to turn up and take him back to the hospital. A massive waste of resources when
one person could have quite easily gone up to him, taken his arm and said “Come
back with me”.
What did the
SIA course you did actually involve?
The course I
did covered the law on underage drinking; Licensing law; calming down
techniques with palms up and open. They all had names. They taught you how to
be not submissive but not aggressive. How to stand to be non threatening so you
don’t inflame the situation. Which is all well and good but if someone is
determined they want to punch your lights out you need to be better. Either
restrain them or you need to defend yourself and disable them very quickly
depending on the threat.
So with the
SIA you did there was a lack of physical training?
Yes, when I
did it but I know since then they’ve changed it to include restraint
techniques.
I understand
you do charity work. Can you tell us about that?
I cycled
around Vietnam. 500km in about 6 days. It was very, very hilly. That was Cystic
Fibrosis. Done a bit for Help For Heroes. Doing a Bingo night for the military
ward of Queen Elizabeth hospital. I’ve sponsored a school in Ghana, sent them a
couple of thousand pounds. Done quite a bit for Myton Hospice over the years.
Done a bit for Save the Children and the Red Cross.
Where else
have you done?
Cycled around
Paris for The Big Issue and I’ve done Lands End to John O’Groats for the ex wife’s
hospital and Myton Hospice.
On a Friday,
when you get trouble, when you get a
confrontational situation do you get people throwing punches?
Not normally
no because of the style of pub I’ve got. Mainly regulars and people who come in
who aren’t are sons or daughters of one of my older regulars. So 9 times out of
10 if not 98 times out of a hundred, if there is any tension or arguments we
can sort it out with a firm word before pushing and shoving starts and
certainly before punches are thrown.
In this
country even the police are taught to go for “verbal” persuasion. The best way
to end something is without violence. In this country we only seem to have that
side of things. Do you think like in America we should have that but be trained
and have the ability to use the physical side.
Yes. It’s always
best to have the knowledge and not need it than need the knowledge and not have
it.
Finally what
would your motto for life be?
Be nice and be
happy.
