I started martial arts as a young child. Like most kids who train, I drifted in and out of it. In my 20s I found my way back — first through MMA and Krav Maga, then deeper into striking, then into Muay Thai itself. Around the same time I was running marathons and competing in triathlons at amateur level. Sport in some form has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.
I travelled to Thailand more than once to train. I tried a lot of clubs in the UK looking for the right environment. I didn't find it for a while. Then I walked into MCMA in Northwood, and that's where I stopped looking. That's been my home club ever since — and now where I coach.
What kept me in it for 15+ years wasn't one thing. It was a mix — the competitive side, the discipline, what it does to your head, the relationship between coach and student. All of it. But the moment it stopped being a hobby and started being something more was when I noticed what it was doing for me outside the gym.
Marathon & endurance
Micro-progression
Endurance training taught me that everything worth doing is built one small step at a time. You don't run a marathon by deciding to run a marathon. You build it kilometre by kilometre, week by week. The body learns. The mind catches up. The same is true of Muay Thai, and of anything else worth becoming good at.
Muay Thai
Composure under pressure
Muay Thai teaches you to think when you're tired, breathe when you're tense, and respond rather than react. I started noticing those skills showing up at work — in difficult meetings, in hard conversations, in the moments where leadership gets uncomfortable. The mat was teaching me how to lead.
Fatherhood
Patience & structure
Becoming a father taught me what teaching actually is. It's patience. It's structure. It's holding the standard without crushing the person. Everything I'd learned about coaching adults rewrote itself once I started teaching my own children — and that's where the Juniors programme eventually came from.