Martin was born in England, Martin walked into his first training hall at the age of nine. One of his friends wanted to try a Judo class at the local YMCA in his home town of Paignton. His friends left. Martin stayed.

At age sixteen he began training in the Hawaiian street fighting system of Ed Parker’s Karate, at the ‘doorman’s academy’ in the same town. Named because many of the local bouncers trained there he was introduced to Kenpo in bare knuckle sparring sessions. A year later he began working at the local clubs as a bouncer, a profession he continued for the next ten years in clubs from London to the U.S.

Twenty years later, after studying Boxing, Judo, Thai-boxing and Filipino weapons fighting Martin met Vladimir Vasiliev, the former Russian Special Operative demonstrating Systema at a seminar and knew he had witnessed something strange, unique and absolutely lethal in any environment.

"When I first trained with Vladimir he stopped me in the middle of a sparring session and said in his own inimitable way, ‘Martin, I know men that you would take to pieces in the ring’. Of course, stupidly beaming with pride I thought he was complimenting me, until he turned away to attend another student and added flatly… ‘But they would kill you.’"

Martin now teaches his highly effective combat solutions to civilians, SWAT and Special Operations Units around the globe.