My journey to Team Elite X-Training began on September 9th, 1966. I was 5 years old and completely mesmerized - Bruce Lee was on TV for the first time. Though it took nearly two years to convince my grandmother to sign me up for Judo classes, for the next twenty-five years, martial arts would define me. 

In 1980, while studying Philosophy and Kinesiology by day, I opened Tjader Harris’ Chinese Boxing Club in Oxnard, California, and began teaching evening classes to SEALS from the local Naval base.  In 1982, I closed my martial arts school and moved to Los Angeles to choreograph fight scenes for film and television.

 While pursuing film projects, I became one of the 5 original trainers at Matrix One Fitness Complex, widely regarded as the first true personal trainers in the United States.  A year later, the trainers of Matrix One would be called upon to consult with the American College of Sports Medicine, and I was personally entrusted with writing the industry’s first personal trainer accreditation program.  

In the years that followed, I bounced between personal training and fight scene choreography until I happened upon two challenges with significantly higher risk quotients – motorcycle road racing in 1989 and rock climbing in 1991. Between the two, I would find ample opportunity to challenge both gravity and my body’s ability to recover from it. Over that period, an unfortunate but interesting pattern began to emerge; I would injure myself racing, doing stunt work, etc., then rehabilitate those injuries with activities I’d never attempted before.  I soon began to realize that, not only was I recovering quicker at a more advanced age, but the all-around nature of my conditioning via cross-training was allowing me to transition from activity to activity with a much shorter acclimation curve.  I’d become a better athlete!

Then, in 1999, while working on a film, I suffered a debilitating neck injury that resulted in partial paralysis of my right leg.   A year later, after achieving the best condition of my life, I created Team Elite X-Training. Since then, I’ve broken my pelvis (2009), my neck and back (2015), I’ve contracted Covid 4 times, and at the end of 2023, I had my right index finger amputated. Of the many things I’ve learned, these 4 stick out:

1. You don’t cheat gravity.

2. Love everyone, but understand that not everyone will love you.

3. Never, ever, EVER give up on yourself. Challenge is how humans grow; embrace it.

4. If you excel at 2 and 3, number 1 is largely irrelevant.

Live Brave.