My formal martial arts journey began at the age of 6. I began in Shorinryu Shidokan, “small forest style”, karate. It is the main branch and same root style that brought Lyoto Machida to the UFC light heavy weight championship. My sensei was Robert Herten, a black belt and the distinguished member of the Paterson police force. He was able to separate the things that would work well in a real combat scenario. We also learned judo so that we would be able to better defend ourselves in a real life scenario. Later I took an interest in Boxing and trained on the east side of Paterson for two years at Ike and Randyʼs. After boxing, I took up Muay Thai under Ace Ramirez. I spent 2 1/2 years training in the art of eight limbs. We had moved from The Paterson area to Allamuchy where I began training under Reginald Goode. Reggie was also from a karate background. As a 8th degree black belt he used his striking style to win multiple world championships in American freestyle kick boxing. He was also well-versed in Japanese jujitsu and western boxing under the tutelage of an Olympic level coach. Because of our similar backgrounds and styles I was able to pick up Reginald Goodeʼs style of striking much more naturally because my body had grown up doing some of these motions repetitively. I spent the last eight years with Reginald Goode. He cornered me in my first very successful amateur fight. He was also a great mentor to me and shaped the way I coach fighters.

When he retired is when I got back into coaching at Gael Force. I did not want to let his lineage of martial arts stop with me. My mission is to teach people as much as possible of what I have learned throughout my 22 years of training martial arts.