Geoff Thompson (writer)

Geoff Thompson (born in 1960 in Coventry, England) is a writer, teacher, and self-defence instructor. He has written several books on self-defence, martial arts, and fear control,

as well as Watch My Back, an autobiography about his early years and how he came to be a nightclub doorman working in his hometown of Coventry.

Fighting disciplines

Thompson began his martial arts training in the Eastern arts including karate, Aikido, and Kung-Fu. However, during his time as a nightclub doorman, he found that what he had learned was inadequate for the reality of violence. Thompson came to realise that the techniques encouraged and practised in touch-contact and semi-contact martial arts were not always suitable for self-defence. Though he utilizes a small core of these techniques as part of his teachings, Thompson prefers full-contact martial arts and combat sports such as boxing, Muay Thai, Judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and Greco-Roman- and Freestyle wrestling.

He holds the ABA Boxing Instructor certificate and high-level coaching awards for wrestling, as well as a 1st Dan in Judo, and an 8th Dan in Shotokan Karate.

Geoff Thompson was also the first instructor to name and extensively teach "the fence", a technique in real-life defence involving keeping your hands in front of you in a non-threatening manner so as to protect yourself in case a situation escalates but without provoking violence.

Video and film

In addition to his books, Geoff Thompson has written and presented a series of martial arts and self-help DVDs. In 1995, he and his self-defense school featured in the Channel 4 documentary Passengers. In 2004, Thompson won a BAFTA award for 'best short film' for his screenplay "Brown Paper Bag". His short film "Bouncer" starred Ray Winstone. His most recent work "Romans 12:20" directed by the Shammasian Brothers and starring Craig Conway has finished production and was shown at a private screening in London on 23 January 2008. It toured the film festival circuit in the early part of 2008.

Thompson's first feature film Clubbed is an underworld drama set in the early 1980s. It was released in the United Kingdom on 16 January 2009.