Hello - My name is Martin Blakeway and I am the Managing Director of Martial Art Shop.
I have been doing Martial Arts for over 28 years now and ever since I started in 1984 it was, is and always will be, a massive part of my life.
I started in a Taekwondo Style that helped Develop a great kicking and striking foundation. This Style also allowed us to take part in many kickboxing events too. Having taken part in Semi Contact and Full-Contact kickboxing events and moving up the grades I became a Black Belt some five years later in 1989.
I opened my first clubs while living in north London.
I ran three successful Clubs in St Albans, Watford and Luton for a few years before living a lifelong dream and travelling around the world for two and a half years.
On returning to the UK I opened 8 Martial Arts Clubs in the Midlands area. By now I was adding Jiu-Jitsu Being a full-time Martial Arts Instructor was a dream career and I developed some excellent students who themselves became some of the UK's best fighters and Instructors. One of my students was Paul Taylor, after 6 years of training and still in his early twenties Paul was already getting his name known in the kickboxing circles.
When he won the World Kickboxing Title in South Africa he was ready for the bigger stage and just a few years later was fighting in the biggest stage in Martial Arts – THE UFC !