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International Combat Martial Arts Encyclopedia

Who is Who in the International Combat Martial Arts

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Andrew Davies

I first encountered martial arts back in the late 1960’s when I had a very quick couple of Judo classes at a local community hall, but never progressed on at that time. I only took them up seriously during the early 1970’s during the big ‘Bruce Lee’ Kung Fu boom period when I started learning the Pak Mei (White Eyebrow) system under Sifu George Taylor who would travel down from Birmingham to teach every week in Bristol. At first the classes were very big with hundreds of students joining but as time went on and training became progressively harder and more intense, the numbers declined until there were a hard-core of about twenty or so left. From the beginning I found classes enjoyable and although not a sporty type, I relished the challenges of progressing through the ranks and acquiring new skills even though it meant tough physical demands. Sadly after a couple of years Sifu Taylor handed the school over to a senior student who was not skilled enough back then to run a club, so about ten of us started visiting other martial arts schools to see if there was something else available. We tried several Karate and Kung-Fu Schools which although good, did not seem to appeal to us so we drifted for a few months from one school to another in search of more suitable instruction. During a visit to one particular Karate Club we noticed that several of the Brown and Black Belts were sporting a number of Black eyes and heavy bruising and we inquired as to how this had come about. We were told that a couple of Chinese Black Belts from a Taekwondo club had trained there a couple of days previously and had basically ripped them apart.

We eventually found a Chinese Taekwondo instructor running classes in Bristol who was connected to those who had visited the Karate club. We were quickly asked to demonstrate our skills and proceeded to demonstrate the first part of our form which if memory serves me right was from the ‘Nine Step Push’. The Taekwondo instructor quickly stopped us and proceeded to demonstrate the form in it’s entirety – it turned out that he was also skilled in Pak Mei Kung-Fu. Mr. Thomas (Kin Man) Yau Needless to say we enrolled in Taekwondo under Mr. Thomas (Kin Man) Yau (pictured above) where I went on to test for my 1st Dan Black belt in November 1978. Other instructors at the club were Mr. Fred Loh, Mr. Tan and Mr. Alfred Toh under the guidance of Master Fred Lee 6th Dan, head instructor of the British Taekwondo Association. Prior to Mr. Yau returning to Hong Kong I joined the ‘Premier Taekwondo Academy’ under Master Murray Walker 4th Dan where I successfully gained my 2nd Dan Black belt and was elected as one of the first Executive Committee members of the newly formed British Taekwondo Control Board, the official body for WTF Taekwondo in Great Britain, as was appointed as regional Olympic Coach for Taekwondo in the South West region. It was during my time on this Executive that I first experienced the ugly face of martial arts politics and did not seek reelection after my first term. The Davies Brothers with Master Han, You Guen. I later went on to become a student of two-time WTF World Taekwondo Champion, Master Han, You Guen and ran schools for him in the West of England area. Today, I run my own full-time academy in Bristol with 22 Black belts and almost 300 students plus nine satellite schools in Bath, Swindon, South Gloucestershire, Weston-Super-Mare and North East Somerset.

Master Davies continues succeed at the highest level.

Over the years I have entered many competitions and have won several national titles in both sparring and patterns culminating in a European Silver Medal in 1999. More recently I have been focusing on weapons forms and am continuing to study and now compete in this area of martial arts.

At present I am in the process of writing my first book on basic patterns which I hope to see published in autumn 2002, followed by instructional Poomse and weapons video's. (WIF).

Vladimir Djordjevic

Vladimir Djordjevic was born on January 23, 1973 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He holds 7th Degree Black Belt in AikiJujitsu, 6. DAN in Daito-Ryu-Aiki-Bujicu and 5. DAN in Real Aikido and JuJitsu. Vladimir started Karate training at the age of seven under the instruction of his late father. At the age of thirteen he starts training in Taekwondo with the teacher Vlada Savic. During that time he is active in European handball playing for his elementary and high school and later for his city team and professionally for "IMR- Rakovica" BG, & "Partizan"- Belgrade.

In late eighties he becomes focused only on Martial Arts starting with Full Contact and Savate Box, while in early nineties he becomes focused on Kickboxing and Thai box. He becomes a member of state team Red Star, Belgrade, coached by Neven Dondur and Nebojsa Milosevic. During this period he competes in many Kickboxing championships.

Vladimir serves army from March 1991 to May 1992. First six months he is in army police force, but for the reminding time he is a part of Anti-terrorist-diversant force. During this time, together with his superiors he trainees other soldiers in martial arts. Besides Kickboxing, Savate and Thai box with which he has already mastered he come in contact with Aikido, JuJitsu and Judo.

After the army, he returns as a team member of Red Star, Belgrade. In 1993 he opens his own school for Kickboxing, together with Kickboxing Federation of Yugoslavia he organizes State Junior Championship in Kickboxing. During this time he gets introduced to Grand Master Ljubomir Vracarevic owner of aikido school in Vracar, Belgrade. He becomes a major turning influence in Vladimir's outlook on martial arts. Vladimir becomes more aware of importance of self defense presented in Aikido and JuJitsu. In the same year Ljubomir Vracarevic opens a school for new form of aikido called Real Aikido. This form focused on using highly flexible and wildly incorporated set of self-defense techniques taken from the knowledge of Japanese sensei's, excluding the elements of religion and philosophy. Using this as a base and adding the elements from different martial arts techniques Ljubomir formed a style that Vladimir will devote himself to completely.

Vladimir started training under Ljubomir Vracarevic, his talent obvious from the beginning. That's why soon after, under the supervision of his trainer, because of high popularity of Real Aikido, Vladimir opened his own school for real aikido called "School of Real Aikido Djordjevic". Immediately after opening sensei Zoran Petkovic becomes a main instructor, while Vladimir and Nikola Ognenov become his assistants. During this whole time Vladimir still trainees in World Center of Real Aikido under sensei Ljubomir Vracarevic. He attained his master title in 1997 in Real Aikido.

In 1998 he comes to West Palm Beach, Florida. Immediately he starts training in the academy of Mat Birov (five times undefeated championship in Open style: KickBoxing, ThaiBox, Judo, JuJitsu). After couple months of training Vladimir becomes an instructor in the same academy. In 1999 Vladimir has a match with Mat in open style. After 48 minutes of fighting the match was pronounced "No Winner".
After the match Mat announced:" I thought that because of his speed and powerful low kick, if I knock him down on the floor I will win, but once we were down on the floor I couldn't get him of me".

At the end of 1999 Vladimir moved to Chicago where he continued his training in several clubs throughout the area. He focuses mainly on his own advancement, mostly in club "Shidokan Karate USA". In late 2001 he opened his own school "Ultimate Martial Arts Academy". In June 2002 under the guidance of his sensei Ljubomir Vracarevic, Vladimir opened first school of Real Aikido in America called " United States Center of Real Aikido ".

Vladimir is currently finishing his first book " Our Way " , that should be coming out at the end of 2004.

He is intensively teaching Real Aikido techniques for self defense used by: law enforcement agencies, bodyguard schools, security companies.

He produces fight scenes for movies scenes located in Midwest area.

He was inducted into " 2002 Hall Of Fame "

Action Martial Arts Magazine's Hall Of Fame 2003 - " Excellence in Teaching of the Martial Arts ".

US Martial Arts Hall of Fame 2003 - " Distinguished Master Instructor of the Year ".

Martial Arts Association - International - " Ambassador of the MAA "

Lifetime member of United States Martial Arts Association, World Center of Real Aikido, Combat Martial Arts Practitioners Association, NAPMA, International Narcotic Enforcement Officers Association...

11th USNTF International Championship 2003 - Adult Champion

Arnold Martial Arts World Games 2004 - Gold Medallist (Self Defense)

IMACOF - Certified Defensive Tactics Instructor

US Martial Art Hall Of Fame 2004 - " Most Distinguished Law Enforcement Trainer Of The Year "