My next blog post will be about training, but I want to finish telling you about my school, the community I'm located in, and some of the people I'm meeting so you get a picture of what I'm doing out here.
I moved back to Texas in October of 2014 and by December of that year I'd closed on an acre of fenced land on a state highway at a busy intersection. I bought a 2400 square foot metal building from DDM Pipe and Steel and at their recommendation hired a terrific guy named Alex Castillio to pour the foundation and put the building up. That Christmas my friend Tom and his wife Deb gave me a Kettlebell that they'd inscribed with silver paint to say "Rob's Dream School." It's on my desk and I'm looking at it as I write this.
By the end of February 2015 the building was finished, and for the next 8 months me, Tom, Deb and a friend of ours worked on doing the interior build out. The entire place is designed exactly the way I want it so I can teach exactly the way I want to. It's got everything my students need to train hard and smart - Thai Kickboxing gear, weapons racks, 1200 ft of mat space with 3 windows for natural light, 10 - 70 lb. kettlebells, battle ropes, sand bags, dip and pull up stations, flat screen TV in the workout area for Skype lessons, etc., acid stained floors, a nice reception area, I've even got a 600 gallon fountain out front with water lilies and Koi. A dream school indeed! The people I'm teaching and the community I'm part of are great. It's rural but so close to everything I need that I sometimes forget my neighbors keep horses and cattle. My students are a mix of ranchers, tradesmen, Austin IT professionals, and all the rest. In some ways it's like I never left Virginia and in others it's completely new to me.
I opened for business a year and a day to the date of my arrival here in Texas.
Next time: the first of many sure fire training tips.
I moved back to Texas in October of 2014 and by December of that year I'd closed on an acre of fenced land on a state highway at a busy intersection. I bought a 2400 square foot metal building from DDM Pipe and Steel and at their recommendation hired a terrific guy named Alex Castillio to pour the foundation and put the building up. That Christmas my friend Tom and his wife Deb gave me a Kettlebell that they'd inscribed with silver paint to say "Rob's Dream School." It's on my desk and I'm looking at it as I write this.
By the end of February 2015 the building was finished, and for the next 8 months me, Tom, Deb and a friend of ours worked on doing the interior build out. The entire place is designed exactly the way I want it so I can teach exactly the way I want to. It's got everything my students need to train hard and smart - Thai Kickboxing gear, weapons racks, 1200 ft of mat space with 3 windows for natural light, 10 - 70 lb. kettlebells, battle ropes, sand bags, dip and pull up stations, flat screen TV in the workout area for Skype lessons, etc., acid stained floors, a nice reception area, I've even got a 600 gallon fountain out front with water lilies and Koi. A dream school indeed! The people I'm teaching and the community I'm part of are great. It's rural but so close to everything I need that I sometimes forget my neighbors keep horses and cattle. My students are a mix of ranchers, tradesmen, Austin IT professionals, and all the rest. In some ways it's like I never left Virginia and in others it's completely new to me.
I opened for business a year and a day to the date of my arrival here in Texas.
Next time: the first of many sure fire training tips.
For the curious, here is a super tiny low resolution picture of myself at my old school, many years ago. Unfortunately small ones like this are the best I have right now. I'll probably be attaching them to future posts. Hopefully I will be able to dig up some better ones from storage in the future.