About

I’m Harry, certified strength and conditioning specialist, and creator of the bestselling training program No More Skinny Grappler.

My scientific approach towards improving combat sport performance has helped hundreds of people build resilient, useful bodies of their own.

Are you next?

Over the last eight years, I’ve been in the trenches testing out the science on real bodies, seeing what really works and what doesn’t. I’ve even put my own body through thousands of hours of training. Whilst I haven’t figured it all out yet and I’m still constantly learning, I do know what is worth putting your time into, and what isn’t.

Like many 12 year olds, discovering Bruce Lee was monumental for igniting my path through the physical culture worlds. Seeing Bruce on screen began my obsession towards training the human body and mind. I started Wing Chun with Kevin Chan (Kamon Martial Arts) a couple of years later, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Mauricio Gomes (father to Roger Gracie).

I received zero guidance from school teachers on how to train my body for sport, or how to get stronger to be useful in life. I snuck in to the gym after school and would lift with the older lads, picking up bro-science tidbits where I could. And then at sixteen years old, I stumbled across “Westside for Skinny Bastards” by the legendary Joe DeFranco. It was exactly what I needed, a program for metamorphosis to transform my skinny self, into a tank. And boy, did it work! In as little as three months, my peers respected me and the girls wanted to know my name. Rugby and martial arts would consume my attention for the next few years, injuries came and went, but still I was on the quest to discover more about the body and mind.

In 2011, my life would change forever. A catastrophic back injury took me out of the game whilst I was living in New Zealand. Too much parkour on concrete surfaces without doing the prerequisite strength training to resist the forces at play, compounded over a three-month period until one night at work, whilst dragging in a plant pot from the beer garden, an explosion went off in my spine and I couldn’t move. A bad case of a bulging disc in my sacral spine that was pressing on my sciatic nerve would be the diagnosis (but not until months later.)

Living in Queenstown, I met a geologist who was a great rock climber in his spare time, and he introduced me to Slacklining; a cousin of the infamous tightrope, made popular initially from the climbing community.
I made it clear that with my injury I was in no shape to stand on a wobbly, narrow trampoline. But with some friendly support and lots of persuasion to get out of the house, I was assisted on to the slackline, and immediately became completely consumed by the madness of it all. Although I couldn’t even stand on it, weirdly, it was the one activity I could do, because it involved me standing up with a straight spine. Putting my socks on was an agonising challenge, but trying to stand on a wobbly piece of taught webbing, twelve inches off the floor, (although currently unattainable) had mileage, and deep down inside, I knew it.

After flying a full twenty-seven hours back to the UK, and having to lie on the floor of the aeroplane with my legs on the seat, due to the insane levels of pain in my spine, I would remain more or less bedridden for the next nine months. But I never forgot about the slackline. Desperate for medical help, I hustled my way into the doctor’s office, and the National Health Service put me through their Back Pathway program at the time; an eight week course of very light circuits, once a week. I found the whole process actually rather humiliating, knowing that just six months ago, I was backflipping off high ledges, and now I’m in a room with ten other people who have never even seen a dumbbell in their life, let alone touched one.

I needed more help, so I threw away the box of five hundred pain-pills the doctor had whimsically offloaded in my direction, and spent my life’s savings on private tuition with a classical Pilates teacher. Three times a week, for three months, would should me just how weak I was all over, and it was at this time I was introduced to my lat and glute muscles. I learnt about the mind-muscle connection, and after 9 months of really hard work, both with classical Pilates mat-work for the body, and Slacklining for the mind, I fixed my back injury.

I would go on to push my Slacklining as hard as I could, travelling the world, walking lines high in the sky, and teaching hundreds of people the art of balance.

It wasn’t until I discovered the illustrious Locker 27 Strength and Conditioning gym in 2013, that I realised there was a pedagogy of knowledge that I had been searching for, unknowingly, all these years. I moved into a van and literally parked opposite the gym, spending every waking hour learning as much as I could about all things physical. I was very fortunate to be exposed to some of the best coaching staff in the country and my eyes were opened to a body of knowledge that could not only help athletes, but everyday bodies, too.

After completing my gym instructor level 2 and personal trainer level 3 qualifications, I realised that the course material was doing the public a disservice. To pay my bills, I trained clients in a way they had never experienced; translating the principles of sports science from the strength and conditioning world, into real training sessions that could help normal people with everyday corporal issues. And the results were unreal. Bodies were completely transformed and I knew I was onto something.

In 2022 I completed my Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist certification, allowing me to continue the depth of my work with athletes and special populations.
I now have over three thousand coaching hours on a one-to-one basis under my belt and I’m a unique S&C coach in the sense that I’m also a skills coach in the martial arts. I received my purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from Ben Dyson in May 2022 and have been coaching BJJ for the last five years.

This knowledge of the martial arts, alongside my expertise with strength and conditioning means I can relate and relay valuable guidance towards combat athletes in a way that most coaches cannot.

Just look at some of what my clients have to say about working with me.