Instructor Profile Mark

I first dabbled in martial arts at university, where I picked up some bits of Aikido, JuJitsu, Karate and Japanese sword and staff fighting from friends who were studying these arts.

For the next 10-years I was self-employed and had no spare time; then in 1997 I got a new job in Nottingham (developing computer systems for a large technology company) and joined the KickFit gym, training in Progressive Kickboxing. This was mainly as a way of improving my fitness (ten years of relative inactivity coupled with my asthma had left me very unfit) whilst learning something interesting.

In 1999 I joined the new the Instructor Training Programme at KickFit and began to help teach classes. To give myself more experience I also began to branch out and started training in trapping, grappling, Jeet Kune Do concepts and Eskrima (all at KickFit).

In the following years I have attended seminars in many different arts, with various teachers, including Grandmaster Richard Bustillo (who studied under Bruce Lee himself) and Dany Guba (Grandmaster in Doce Pares Escrima).

I was one of a group of five who became the first ever people to be awarded the 1st Dan (black belt) level in Progressive Combat Systems (a generic name for all of what we teach at KickFit). My next black belt (specifically in Eskrima, which has its own grading system) will take several more years.

In 2005 I became a full instructor at KickFit and now teach classes regularly.