I have trained Martial Arts since i was 10 years old, it taught me the path to success was a long and winding one requiring dedication, discipline and hard work. It is also littered with failure where we get dragged down and it’s at these points that most people walk away. I competed for the first time when I was 11, having 3 fights that day and losing each one, I’ll never forget the feeling that hung on to me for the 3 hour journey home and whilst I lay awake in bed that night. The following evening I was back in the gym and  started training 5 nights a week, by the time I reached 16 I was the British school boy champion having defended my title multiple times. Most people at this point believed I had a natural ability, but the truth is I worked extremely hard to make things look unnaturally easy.

You see to stay at the bottom is easy, it requires no real effort but to find joy in the climb and constantly fight to reach up, this is the secret so many people search for. Larry Holmes once said “Hard work aint easy, but it’s fair”. There really is no short cut for getting on your grind and finding your worth, eventually the pretenders fall by the wayside and those who are going to make it, make it.

It was ironically the hours spent in a gym breaking myself that i actually learnt how to build myself. The struggle continues and each day is a battle to be the best I can, whether in training, tattooing or parenting.

The following pictures are from a 6 month training trip to Thailand in 2010, I hope you enjoy.