Welcome
Mark Porter
Mark Porter, the main instructor at Wexford MMA, is a third degree black belt in Goju-Ryu Karate and a brown belt in Judo. He started 6 years of training in Judo at the age of 8. At 18 he began training in Morio Higoanna's training association. He trained for four monthe fulltime at the headquarters in 1993. He also trained in Thai Boxing in Thailand and taught and trained throughout the world.
He stopped training in Karate in 1997 and embraced a more realistic cross-training approach. Prior to this he had allways been open to many different approaches having trained in Jeet Kune do and Thai boxing at Bob Breen's academy, Kyokushinkai at the Tokei London and with Leo Lipinski's (8th Dan) Goju-Kai. In Ireland he studied Silat under Liam Macdonald. It was training with Steve Morris in 1995 and 1996 that radically changed his take on fight training. While he continued to train and teach Mark resumed training with Steve Morris in 2005.
Mark Porter considers Steve Morris one of only a few people to have mastered body movement as it pertains to martial arts. Steve's approach, experimentation and research over a forty year period is both remarkable and revolutionary. Steve's ability to describe and demonstrate this approach to martial arts is as clear and accesible as a student of martial arts is ever likely to experience. Mark has found training with Steve to be the most free-flowing, functional and applicable training that he has ever had.
He first encountered Brazilian Ju Jitsu while training in Cornwall in 1999 but it was in 2005 that Mark started his study of this martial art in earnest.
The training at Wexford MMA stresses function over form. It focuses on:
- Modified Thai Boxing
- Graeco-Roman wrestling.
- Judo
- Brazilian Ju Jitsu
- Mixed Martial Arts, utilising the transition from stand up, clinch and ground work.
We begin training with a sports specific warm up. Fundamental movements are worked on. Pad Work, flow, reactive and situational drills are core to the cirriculumn. Sparring and rolling are included at the end of the class. It is realistic but safety is a priority.
Mark was a Staff Nurse in Accident and Emergency. He is also a Registered Osteopath and Acupuncturist. He qualified as a Sports Therapist and studied Sports Rehabilitation at Leeds University. These above qualifications add to the overall teaching.