Nobody comes close.

It's as simple as that. Nobody comes close. Of all the people I've trained with over the years, Tomaz Barada has been the best of them.

Not only has this man won everything there is to win on the ITF Taekwon-Do circuit, he was also untouchable on the WAKO kickboxing circuit. He has a pro kickboxing record of 84 wins - 0 losses. He retired undefeated.

I had the opportunity of visiting his trophy gallery in Slovenia in 2008. A splendid sight indeed. You could have mistaken it for a trophy store.

The word retired however is probably a misnomer. When you retire, you normally pack things up and go off to have yourself a nice life, fishing, gardening etc. Not Barada, while he has retired from competing, he is still very much at the heart of the ITF competition circuit and the WAKO kickboxing also. He teaches everyday, he trains everyday, he has several world champions training under him, and no doubt several more to come.

All of that, and he's the most approachable, down to earth kind of guy you could ever meet. Every time I've trained with him he has something new to offer. A new skill, a new drill, a new conditioning exercise, always something new. As a coach myself, learning new skills and passing them on is the key to future success.

The sessions themselves were intense. After the Saturday sessions I thought I would never make it through the Sunday, but I did. Even some of the younger ones weren't able for it, this mindset wasn't for packing it in.

I was happy enough with the fitness levels, although the left leg was a bit stiff. That hall we have is an ice box. It doesn't help at all. You could hang sides of bacon in it and they'd be fine there for months. I'll have to do something about it, I can't train in the freezing cold. Fair enough you warm up, but my left hip flexor only needs 30 seconds to cool down and then it's a nightmare to get going again!

Tomaz is back in January, he's doing a session for Ian Kingston in Cork. We'll be travelling down for that. Then the Slovenia trip in May. I'm looking forward to that already.