About > Mark Dearnley

Mark began training in Taekwondo in Gloucester in July 1992 and in May 1996, achieved Black Belt 1st Dan. At this point Mark started to diversify his training in Martial Arts by taking up Kickboxing and Jujitsu, and through studying books, magazines, videos and attending seminars.

During 1997, following successful completion of referees and coaches courses, Steve asked Mark to consider training at his club in Stroud with a view to being his assistant, and Mark and Steve have worked together ever since.

In 1998 Mark commenced training in Range Fighting at Mark Weir's Gloucester club. Range Fighting incorporates kickboxing and grappling and involves the application of kick, punch, knee, elbow, trapping and locking techniques. Mark has also had many excellent training partners over the years, the main being Alistair Mason, a third Dan black belt in Karate and previous to that a Judo specialist, and their training has evolved to incorporate boxing, judo and self defence techniques.

Over the last few years, Mark has graded to Black Belt in Kickboxing and second dan in Taekwondo, and competed successfully in open light continuous and full contact kickboxing tournaments. Mark takes a scientific approach to training and teaching, and has done a lot of work towards the modification of the Kickboxing and Taekwondo syllabus.