About me
Believe it or not, I wasn't always particularly athletic or adventurous. most of my life, I was actually significantly overweight and suffered from ailments like asthma, flat feet, and didn't get out of the house much. I was glued to video games, in somewhat of a safety blanket from the world. but it was in those video games that my love for movement began, or at least, the idea of trying to emulate it.
I was born in the United Kingdom, and lived there till I was fifteen. For those who're unfamiliar, the school system in the UK does things a little differently to how they do things in the US. For starters, all students wore uniforms, which I hated, as they weren't flattering in the slightest, which only added to my anguish as a portly, emotional pre-teen. The way that school is structured is also a little different: elementary school or "primary school" as we call it, is more or less the same, and then middle school starts around the same age, but for high school, the formatting is a little different. The equivalents of middle school and high school in England are broken up into "Secondary School", which encompasses what we would think as grade 7-10, and "College" which is like 11th and 12th grade, but more focussed towards college prep for university, and often geared towards more specialized fields of study.
Before I left the UK, I was much more interested in the arts, particularly music and drama. I loved to act, I sang and played guitar in a couple of bands, and as most teenagers do, I fancied myself a celebrity in the making, and was going to be a rock star.
This changed however when I came to the states. Moving from the relatively cosmopolitan city of Salisbury to the middle of the woods in Vermont was an enormous adjustment. Cultures clashed, cliques and high school etiquette was bizarre and scary, and tried as I did, I always felt like the black sheep; I was misunderstood and not taken seriously because I spoke with a funny accent, and had interests that didn't perfectly line up with the rest of my peers.
Perhaps it was out of sheer boredom that my interest for Parkour began; living in the woods, there's not much to do save for walking and around and climbing trees and boulders. So I did. I then began to watch tutorials on YouTube, and tried to copy them, mostly floundering and making a fool of myself, but something about the individuality of the discipline drew me to it, and the fact that this was something that I could own and no matter what, there was always something to work towards or make better.
Parkour Generations Morzine Camp, 2011
It wasn't till I was Eighteen that I got serious about Parkour. Frustrated that I couldn't learn more on my own, I sought out groups that offered Parkour instruction. Ironically, there was a group back in the UK called Parkour Generations who had been teaching Parkour in London for a few years at that point in time, and offered boot camps in the French Alps in the Town of Morzine. Undeterred, I flew bck to Europe to give it a go.
It was perfect, as the town was deserted in the summer save for a few mountain bikers, and the instruction given by expert Martial Artists like Dan Edwardes, ex-army drill sergeants of the French Foreign Legion such as François "Forrest" Mahop, and Skilled practitioners of the discipline like Chris Rowat, I was rung through the mill, and reborn an Athlete.
We were put through many interesting physical challenges, such as scaling the underside of bridges, walking on hand railings, vaulting picnic tables, and all manner of inventive methods of challenging the body using what was around us.
"Every successful individual knows that his or her achievement depends on a community of persons working together."
It was in these camps that I found my identity. I found a community of people who felt the same way as I did about this activity, and with the same intensity. I was not alone. I went on three separate trips in total with Parkour Generations to the French Alps, and each time I learned something new about myself, in addition to working myself to the bone and not being able to feel my legs for a week. In all seriousness, these camps sparked the fire in me for wanting to be an educator, because it would be an injustice not to share the incredible experiences I had with the rest of the world.
I continued Parkour into college, and met others like me at the University of Vermont who wanted to learn, or had already been involved with Parkour in high school themselves. We had a little unofficial club for ourselves, and often trained with Champlain College's own official Parkour club.
Even though I was studying Environmental Studies at the time, Parkour always seemed to take priority. During my college years, I felt almost like I was living two identities; the one that society wanted me to be, and the one that I truly felt comfortable with. It made sense at the time to make myself a safety net of sorts, but it still never felt quite like I was being authentic.
Through attending college and special interest groups though, I was able to connect myself with local gyms in the area. I started out coaching at gymnastics gyms like Regal Gymnastics and Green Mountain training center.
My work through these gyms with individuals like Noah LaBow and George Coultas, who work with the US freestyle Ski team, opened up my eyes to the notion that perhaps pursuing coaching as a career wasn't quite as far-fetched as I had originally thought.
However, it took me a long time to get to that point, as I wasn't particularly well established and didn't have a consistent clientele. So to pay the bills, I got involved in Special Education as a para-educator (Ed tech to Mainers).
Green Mountain Training Center team
In my mind, being a para-educator was always supposed to be a temporary position till I found work with either Parkour or environmental activism groups. I briefly worked at a day school in Montpelier, Vermont, with adults with mild disabilities, and then for a year at Kindle Farm School near Brattleboro, Vermont. At Kindle Farm, I got my first taste of what it felt like to be a real educator. Outside of assisting students with emotional trauma in the classroom, I lead two specials classes: Parkour and British Lifestyle and Culture. I loved working there because it felt like how education should be done; small classes, plenty of time outdoors, learning about nature, tapping into the students' interests, everything was great.
After living a year with my (now) wife near Brattlboro, she got laid-off by her very unsupportive school district. We no longer had ties to Vermont, and decided to move to Portland Maine.
In the Portland area, I continued to work as Ed-tech III/BHP with a couple of different agencies. My heart goes out to all Ed-techs who are under-utilized and often over-qualified for the roles and tasks that they're given, As it's impossibly hard at times, and also miserably dull, but somehow, never quite in between those two extremes. Thankfully though, I found part time work at a local ninja-warrior gym, Maine Warrior Gym.
At the Maine Warrior Gym, I met my current colleagues, and learned so much from them, both aiding me in my personal practice of the discipline, and teaching it to others. It was the perfect embodiment of Bruce Lee's training principles, which mostly boil down to surrounding yourself with people who're better than you at things you want to become better at.
I was doing things that I didn't think I was even capable of. However, as Muhamed Ali famously said, "Everybody has a plan until they're punched in the face".
"All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."
On September 15th, 2016, I bailed out of a flip and hit my head and the back of my shoulder blade from 6ft up onto concrete. I had a seizure, a traumatic head injury that induced a minor bleed in my brain, and tore completely through my left AC ligament and partially tore my CC ligament in my shoulder.
Most people would throw in the towel here, but not me! However, the road to recovery was long and arduous. It took me close to a year of bi-weekly physical therapy sessions and about a year and a half until my head started to feel clear again.
The shoulder was bad enough, but once the sling came off, most people forgot that I hit my head. It's an invisible injury that people take for granted, and makes folk wonder why you're acting strangely or irritably for no apparent reason.
I learned a lot from this experience though; I had to be incredibly patient. I absolutely hate sitting around still and not moving, so not being able to practice my sport for months was sheer hell on earth, but I still got through it.
I also learned that I'm not invincible, and that life can change within a blink of an eye. Thankfully, I have all my mobility, wit, and more since my brush with death three years ago, but the experience put life into perspective for me. I wasn't going to have the opportunity to pursue my hopes and dreams, or to live an authentic life, one where I can truly share my passions and experience them myself.
It's taken me a while to get there, though through this masters program, and some soul searching of my own, I've been able to prioritize what's important and necessary for my success and happiness.
I'm now working full time as head instructor at the Maine Warrior Gym, teaching Parkour and American Ninja Warrior to people of all ages. I also work with private clients, who're mostly competing athletes either competing in the sport itself, or using parkour and ninja warrior as cross training for their own sport.
I also recently got married to my beautiful wife, Sophia. She has played a major roll in my journey to where I am now. She has also supported me in my dreams, and pushed me to be a better teacher, athlete, and all-round swell guy. I couldn't have done it without her. We also just bought a house in Gorham, Maine, together, and we love it.
Thank you for taking the time to read my autobiography of an "about me" section, and I hope that this has been an opportunity to get to know me a little better!