That brings us here: I am David Benjamin Holt, The Founder of Hammerforge.

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Currently, I am forty; my journey in martial arts began when I was three and a half in Shōrin-ryū. I can't say I remember much from that period in my life, I can however say with confidence, that I have been unsuccessful in breaking away from martial arts ever since. I continued with Judo, Isshin-Ryū, Wadō-ryū, Kyokushin, Catch Wrestling, Japanese Jujutsu, Kickboxing, plus others. At eighteen I began venturing away from traditional arts and participated in Vale Tudo and other unsanctioned fights; they were eye opening, violent, and excellent benchmarks.

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I moved to California in 2002, and for the next nine years participated in smokers, sparred, trained or fought anyone who was willing. During that time I honed my craft further, became a certified personal trainer and fitness coach, fused high intensity functional strength training with martial arts, ran a fight club, and acquired a few cuts, bumps and bruises along the way. Eventually rejecting a lot of the previous teachings I had received - protecting those I love is my focus and why I train, which means no filler, fluff, kata, needless training etc was allowed. I began instructing in 2003, opened a school in 2007 and found others who shared the same interests and goals. Training was on a different level, I was blessed with great students - they became a second family.

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In 2012, my fiancé and I decided that it was time to move back to Florida. So I closed shop and ended that chapter of the journey. Two years later I joined a local MMA school, but missed teaching and running my own drills: so I signed a lease for a large warehouse. Long story short, I married and started a family, helped a friend fight kidney cancer, then fought a rare cancer myself in 2021, an appendiceal mucinous neoplasm (AMNs). The tumor, my appendix, gallbladder, all the peritoneum lining in the abdominal cavity, ascending colon and part of the transverse colon were removed over the course of ten hours. I was hospitalized for 18 days. A wild ride in the ICU, collapsed lungs, losing forty pounds of body weight, and more... rebuilding my body after that experience was a challenge - cancer is an experience I highly recommend skipping. The debulking surgery and HIPEC treatment was necessary, it was also the worst fight I ever won. The treatment procedure is often referred to as "The Mother of All Surgeries". An in depth read about appendix cancer debulking and HIPEC is available here.

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Hammerforge was six years in the making before it, and I, were ready to open; perfectionistic and relentless (i.e. stubborn) when I commit, I mean it. Leadership, knowledge, experience and skill must be passed on to the next generation of warriors... plus I really love training. Lead by example.

 

~ Time to train: Let us begin ~

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