Based: Cape Town
Born the first of four sons, John McGrath was one of those young boys who didn’t receive positive or empowering advice towards his life skills, education, and sense of self.
With the rise of unemployment and poverty, thousands of Irish men and women fled the country for the safety net of the United States or the UK, leaving behind a bleak socio-economic vacuum, that was the Ireland of the 80’s.
John now looks back at his roots and see exactly how they shaped his belief of challenges can either make or break a man.
“It is always a choice” he says, “You can see the obstacle as a challenge or a limiting problem.” It’s through this very profound way of thinking that John managed to transform his life into a relentless story of not only overcoming but to triumphing over circumstances.
At age 13 he discovered the sport of rowing which brought about a radical change in his life, seeding within him a strong conviction that he could not just be good at something but in fact excellent!
The key to unlocking this excellence starts by making a choice to willingly submit to intense transformational, forging of ruthless, goal-focused discipline, to strengthen and sharpen both body and mind from the inside out, John’s has become a true testament to this.
Through the vehicle of Sport John’s identity slowly began to change, refining and redefining his values and goals and setting him apart as an outstanding sportsman.
At age 23 he went on to compete and win Gold in Belgium for the International Open Championships. Silver in the Mexican Grand Prix as well as many other domestic successes.
Winning a Sports Scholarship from the Waterford Institute of Technology afforded him the opportunity to study Sport Management and Science, a tool he would go on to use as throughout his career.
Despite a career ending back injury at age 25, closing the chapter on his rowing career, John’s journey led him to new heights in his career. Going on a pilgrimage between the East and the West, studying self-mastery and the potent power of the mind he was student under DoJunim Ji (Bruce’s Lee’s Teacher’s) earning a black Belt in Hapkido and four other styles of Martial Arts. At age 39 he represented his home country Ireland, in the European Kickboxing Championships in Macedonia, securing a spot in the semifinals.
His life story is about the beauty in the journey, and not the destination. John’s work with individuals and organizations involves the application of discipline, hard work, sacrifice, patience, humility, and respect. Qualities he too learned during his martial arts career.
Some of his other success tools include:
- goal setting which he uses based on the belting system of martial arts where the goal is divided into smaller, realistically achievable goals.
- “Breaking arts” is the breaking of barriers, particularly fear based and self-limiting belies that hold us back from achieving our true potential.
And then there is John’s fascination with the “Old Time Strongmen” and the intriguing Victorian phenomenon of “Vaudeville”, a bohemian theatrical genre of extreme, bizarre, and exotic variety entertainment which strung together the performance of feats of strength by the genre’s famed Strongmen. Performing superhuman acts of strength, like lifting weights, anchors, barrels, people, bending thick iron bars, horseshoes, and thick slabs of wood. The parallelism between the principles and philosophy of the East’s Martial Arts and the West’s Strongmen expresses the universal human need for inner and outer strength, which we can each attain if we choose to. By applying these principles to his own life and helping other’s do the same, John undeniably demonstrates that his forging together of the martial arts and Strongmen principles is a unique but universally applicable way to live, believing that this is a powerful blueprint on which we can rebuild ourselves, our bodies, and businesses to effect incredible change and brilliance.
Practicing these feats of strength, John has gone on to become a World Record Holder, featuring as a Ripley’s Cartoon Character and performed at the Ripley’s New York’s show in Times Square and Coney Island at the Old Times Strongmen Festival. John’s media appearance’s include Fox News in the United States The Expresso Morning Show in South Africa and many others. His Strongmen Performances has been done from as East as Pakistan to as West as Colorado and countries in between.
Performing these feats truly sets his soul on fire, as he stands as the last Strongmen in Africa performing these feats of strengths today.
