Those that know me are aware that I’m a man of great passion and belief. The core passions that have driven me to this stage in the development of iSPARR are my family and the sport of boxing.

I boxed as an amateur for many years and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of my career. When it sadly but inevitably became time to ‘hang up the gloves’ I began to coach my young son Nathan to see if I could help him to develop his style, his technique, and more importantly, to obtain the enormous pleasure I had from the sport.

It was during this important time in my life that I suffered the devastating and life-altering challenge of a stroke.

Anyone who has experience of the condition, whether personally or through witnessing other family members, will realise that almost everything changes and new ways have to be found to take on even the simplest of life tasks.

My own father had been a great influence on me and on reflection, the two most relevant pieces of advice that he gave me were first, ‘always tell the truth’, and secondly that ‘every challenge brings opportunity.’

I have increasingly become aware of the significance of that advice in recent years.

Prior to the ‘stroke’ my son Nathan had continued to make great progress as a boxer. I was so proud of him and was desperately keen to help him realise his dreams and to be at his side during his boxing journey. As you can imagine, my medical condition soon limited my involvement. I became increasingly aware of my limitations and to be entirely honest, felt great frustration and even despair at my inability to play a meaningful part in his boxing development.

What I did notice, however, was that I began to view things from a different perspective, because I now had to, and that significant change, eventually altered my entire approach to coaching.

Quite obviously, I couldn’t coach Nathan in the way I had used to, so one day, out of complete frustration, I brought the sparring bag out from the garage and set it up on top of the kitchen island (table top).

That simple act brought about a fundamental change in which I viewed his style, technique, and most importantly his footwork. My brain was racing with ideas as I tried to fully comprehend the possibilities this different perspective gave me as a coach.