"Martial arts began for me as a hobby and a way to keep fit; today it has become my career and my life. I am learning something new every day and enjoy every moment of not just the knowledge I have gained, but also the knowledge I am passing onto to others. Now I have the pleasure of sharing this with Famously Fit readers." I have always since an early age excelled in most sports, winning countless trophies in football, cricket, athletics and softball. When I reached the age of 30 my biological clock was saying leave it to the younger guys. Being a sporting person most of my life I still needed to keep fit in some way. I had tried over the years many different styles of martial arts, Karate, Kung Fu and Ju-Jitsu but never really stuck to any until the arrival of Jean Claude Van Damme and the movie Kick boxer. That was it for me; I had to give this exciting new sport of Kickboxing a go, and joined the PKA (Professional Kickboxing Association) the founders of kickboxing in the UK.

At the level of Purple belt my Sensei asked me if I would be interested in becoming an Instructor through their rigorous training program, and ten months later passed my First Degree Black Belt and became a teaching Instructor with my own classes for the PKA. I worked my way through the ranks and am now currently a 5th degree Black Belt co- running the London Region of the PKA. To add to my knowledge of Kickboxing teaching I thought I should know more how the body works so took and passed the YMCA Gym Instructor course level 2. I have been practising Kickboxing for 19 years and am now also learning Thai-Boxing, Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do and Hairojin Ju-jitsu to further my knowledge.

I have appeared and modelled martial arts techniques in 3 books, The Kickboxing Handbook by John Ritschel, The Martial Arts Guide by Claire Bone and The Perfect Warrior by John Ritschel. I have written many articles for Combat Magazine, Action Martial Art Magazine in America and had my own column called Ask Dave in Fighters Magazine for a year, answering people's martial arts technical and physical problems.

Through my work in promoting Martial Arts, in 2006 I was honoured to be inducted into the London Martial Arts Hall Of Fame where I received the Special Merit Award, and again in 2007 and 2008 receiving master of the year. In 2009 I received Humanitarian of the Year by the board of directors of The London Hall Of Fame, of which to this date has been one of my proudest moments due to the significance of this award. I was shortlisted for the CoOp Local Champion Award in The Pride of Britain Awards for saving a young boys life when he accidently hung himself by the neck from a washing line whilst playing action man, I pulled him off a minute from death, a memory that haunts me to this day but proud to say his parents still have their son. In 2010 I once again was honoured with the True Spirit of Martial Arts Award again in the London International Martial Arts Hall Of Fame. Also in 2009 I was inducted into The American Action Martial Arts Hall of Honours receiving Outstanding Dedication to Martial and again in 2010 and 2011. Significant in the fact that being inducted 3 times in The American Action Martial Arts Hall Of Fame I could possibly receive higher ranking award in the future, hopefully one day to move from being known as Master to Grandmaster. I spend my days running kickboxing classes for children and adults, personal training clients in kickboxing from all walks of life and travelling round schools teaching my skills as part of students PE lessons to encourage youngsters to become active in sports. I also am heavily involved in doing seminars in knife prevention within communities, with the motto "carrying knives is not cool". As a hobby I like to be involved in TV and films as an extra and have appeared in itv's Fat Nation, big brothers little brother and sky one's cirque de celebrite. I also travel the world participating in giving seminars in kickboxing to many foreign students, receiving many awards on my visits. Among those awards are Budo Spirit Award meaning "True Warrior" and also a special award for my continued work against knife crime.
Over the last few years I have taught many students including martial arts movie star Scott Adkins, actress Stacey Cadman and currently Lee Latchford Evans and have been lucky enough to train with some of the world's greatest martial artists. I have trained students that have become British and World Kickboxing champions. At 49 years old I came out of active participation for one more time and one a gold medal at the TY-GA World martial arts tournament in a pad-work routine competition Through my forthcoming articles I hope to cover many aspects of martial arts including varying techniques, training exercises, events competitions and Interviews with not just the well known exponents of martial arts but also the unknown foot soldiers who are dedicated the their chosen a

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