martial artist bio Born in England, Martin walked into his first training hall at the age of nine. One of his friends wanted to try a Judo class at the local YMCA in his home town of Paignton, Devon. His friend soon left. Martin stayed. At age sixteen he began training in the brilliant street fighter Ed Parker’s Kenpo Karate at the rough ‘doorman’s academy’ in the same town. Named because many of the local bouncers trained there he was introduced to Kenpo in unsparing bare knuckle sessions. One year later at age seventeen he began working at the local clubs as a bouncer himself, a profession he continued for the next ten years in clubs from London to the U.S. Over twenty years later, after rediscovering the roots of Ed Parker’s journey studying boxing, Judo as-well-as jujitsu, Thai-boxing and Filipino weapon under world class teachers, Martin developed his kenpo to be recognized by the masters of the art as ‘Simply Amazing‘. Until he saw Vladimir Vasiliev, the former Russian Special Operative and former head instructor to the highest levels of the Russian military demonstrating at a seminar and knew he had witnessed something strange, unique and absolutely lethal in any environment. This was Martin’s first exposure to The System. Now, training under Vladimir and the legendary Mikhail Rybako for the last ten years Martin is recognized as one of a handful of Senior Instructors in Systema and sees this beautiful and profound art in a very different way. Martin now teaches his highly effective combat solutions to S.W.A.T. teams, the Boat Teams of Naval Special Warfare Groups Two and Four,  Special Operations Groups and civilians around the globe.