In 1988, my brother and I had watched a Jackie Chan movie on video and so we decided to go try out a local Taekwondo club.
The club was run by master Kim stones who was the heavy weight world champion who went on to win it for a second time.

I fell in love with the style and trained most nights of the week with different instructors around Yorkshire. In 1992 I started Ju-jitsu under Master Brian Lister. This was a new avenue of martial arts, where instant pain and unnatural throws made me think twice about how practical TKD was on its own.

In 1995 I joined the British Combat Association with Geoff Thompson and Peter Consterdine. Once again I had to rethink my ideas from a traditional martial art to realistic self defence system.

I then joined the National Federation of Personal Safety, with Mark doors and John Steadman. This was self defence in a theoretical way, which was about prevention instead of the cure. The topics on the law and witness management blow my mind, so much that I got retrained and eventually became a personal safety officer.

In 1997 I received my 1st Dan in Taekwondo under Grand Master Cho’s A.I.M.M.A.

In 1997 I opened my first martial arts club. This was one of the most exciting parts to my martial arts training.

In 1999 I joined Master Dave Turton’s ‘Self Defence Federation’ and had my eyes opened in more ways than one of just how much I didn’t know about street self defence.

Through the next four years I studied Aikido, Karate, judo, Gracie bar Ju-jitsu, and one of the most different arts of all was the Russian Systema.
Systema wasn’t about looking good it was there with one thing in mind and this was about surviving an attack and destroyer your enemy.

In 2003 I studied Aiki jutsu and Ken jutsu under the amazing Master Ian Stewart. This was a relaxed but traditional art where respect was of the utmost importance.

2004 started me off in Askrima, after 17 years of training I found this the most challenging art of all, due to the totally different approach to the attacking and defending techniques. Now once again I find my self wanting to learn more and looking forward to the next 17 years of my martial arts training.