In "days of yore" before The MAT Academy opened its doors and phrases that are now common-place throughout the hills and dales of Rhondda Cynon Taf, such as "Snakes" and "Don't touch that Squirrel's nuts!", had not been coined and the now infamous (but very amusing), "Mother" jokes, were safely tucked away in some sick and rancid recess of Wayne Samways mind ; Andy and Lewis, two fine, dedicated, but extremely naive-in-business martial artists dreamed and schemed towards the day when the doors would open on their very own Mixed Martial Arts studio.
It was going to be the most incredible Mixed Martial Arts Dojo in the kingdom; a full sized boxing ring would be its crowning glory, a cage would allow for gladiatorial battles, a matted area would stretch as far as the eye could see and a wondrous array of punch bags, speed balls, focus pads, kick shields and gloves would would adorn walls fully bedecked with guild-framed mirrors and fill beautifully crafted storage cabinets to capacity. The changing rooms would be the very finest around, turning all other gym owners in the land emerald with envy, crimson with fury... or BOTH!!!
The dream finally seemed to be becoming reality when, in early November 2011, a most fortunate opportunity arose to purchase a goodly sum of mats - although not enough to stretch as far as the eye could see; a boxing ring - though of mere training dimensions; a cage - or sections of one that could be bolted to a wall; and a hotchpotch mixture of foul smelling, mismatching gloves, shin pads and striking equipment; all from a trusty fellow martial artist whose dream of MMA greatness had sadly failed to come to fruition.
So with glad hearts and large loan from the exchequers coffers, our heroes found themselves with a cart-load of equipment in desperate need of storage until premises could be found. After much deliberation Andy remembered an old acquaintance, Mark. A scoundrel by nature but good...ish at heart, Mark owned some land and upon that land did dwell a rather weather-beaten, ramshackle building, no longer in use, that could possibly suffice as a place to store the newly purchased equipment while they searched for the ideal place, in the ideal location where they could finally present to the world the ideal MMA studio.
Surprisingly, asking for nothing in return, Mark agreed that Andy and Lewis could use the building to store the equipment for as long as it took for them to find their permanent MMA palace . With a hand-shake and a somewhat knowing and disconcerting grin, Mark left our two heroes to off-load.
The Winter of 2011 was a harsh one indeed and in more ways than one for Andy and Lewis. All through the Winter-time they had trudged the length and breadth of Rhondda Cynon Taf, scouring the kingdom in search of their ideal location - but to no avail. The combined greed of every landlord they approached and the County Sheriff's unreasonable tax demands meant that it soon became very clear to them that their dreams of a beautiful, palatial MMA studio were soon to be shattered and laid to dust before them. What were our heroes to do? They were at a complete and utter loss, they had hit a brick wall, they had crashed and burned, they had ploughed over their corn but had no means to build it so "people will come", their proverbial pythonesque parrot had ceased to be.
Then, one miserably cold and wet January morning in the year of our lord 2012, our two heroes, sat atop their neatly stacked mats, drinking very good coffee (for on some things they just did not compromise), mournfully surveying their purchase, which seemed to be good for nothing other than catching the rain water that was pouring in from the numerous leaks in the weather-beaten, ramshackle storage unit, were rudely awaken from their mournful situation by the dulcet tones of Mark bursting in through the ill-fitting door of the unit. It's not that Mark meant to burst in but the door had swollen so badly with the rain that the only way to open was to give it a good solid shoulder barge or kick.
(For the sake of decency, I've had to paraphrase Marks actual dialogue)
"Oh You pair of front-bottoms! Get the fornicating coffee on 'en! 'Make love' to me, you two look like some 'mother-lover' has died for fornicatesake!"
(see what I mean?)
With a fresh and extremely good coffee (for there is no compromise on coffee) made, Andy and Lewis proceeded to tell the raucous rapscallion Mark their perilous predicament. (just think of Pilot in Life of Brian and that line is quite funny). Having listened to them surprisingly quietly, Mark came up with the obvious solution. "Why don't you use this building?"
Andy and Lewis looked at each other, looked around at the draughty, dirty, leaking unit, looked back at each other, both shaking their heads then turned to Mark and simultaneously barked,
"HOW MUCH?"
The price, as it turned out, was a good one, so with some relief and a whole lot of trepidation a deal was struck and with the help of the local village idiot, Simple Tom, they set to work making the old shed at least look presentable which, it has to be said, they managed with some measure of success.After two months of hard work The MAT Academy Wales was ready to open its doors on April 1st 2011.
OK! I've had a laugh here about our journey to finally opening The MAT Academy, but in all seriousness it was a big worry. A relatively large amount of money had to be borrowed and then some. Whilst the inside of the building did look really good, the outside of the building still looked like a neglected hut and the leaks and draughts and electrical problems were all there just waiting to reveal themselves at the most inappropriate times (which they have on many occasions). We had serious doubts about our location and still thought that people would take one look at the outside of the building and make a sharp U-turn.
It was at this time that I spoke to the wise man of Welsh MMA, Richard "Shaky" Shore of Tillery Combat. Having listened to me voice our numerous doubts and worries he simply said,
"Listen Andy, It's not the building that makes a good Dojo. It's the people in it".
Not a wiser word has ever been spoken to me. In two years we have assembled what I believe to be the best coaching team anywhere (see
The MAT Academy Coaches ). We have built a core membership of fantastic people, men, women, boys and girls that train regularly and support everything we do, even through the floods and the blackouts. Greenhorn martial artists that walked through our doors in those first few weeks are now competing successfully and bringing back medals and in Lewis we have one of the best professional MMA fighters in Europe. Others not interested in competing, have found a new passion in Martial Arts and together we've all built new friendships and relationships that will last a lifetime and that alone makes everything worthwhile.
Every bit of financial, mental and physical worry that myself and Lewis have endured and are still enduring, pales into significance when you consider the effect this small club has had on the lives of those that have become part of it.
So to all our loyal, members/friends we say thank you and keep training hard so The MAT Academy can continue to go from strength to strength.
