Lee Matthews
Lee Matthews (born December 3, 1976) is a British armed forces paratrooper, businessman and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of British Military Martial Arts, the largest chain of martial arts centres in the United Kingdom, and Kicksport, an online retailer of martial arts equipment. [1]
Contents
Early Life
Lee Matthews was born on December 3, 1976 at the Wrekin Hospital in Telford, United Kingdom.
Career
Martial Arts
Lee was engaged in martial arts at the age of 8, he started with jujitsu and did for a few years before beginning Gar Kung Fu when he gradually became involved in competition. He moved around England frequently as a child, living in London for a while, back to Telford, then on to Oxford where he attended several local clubs, gaining various experience in many different styles.
At age 15, his family came back to Telford from Oxford, it was then he began full time training at a full contact karate club (ECKA), under karate instructor Logan Easy. It was at this point things became more intense and he started competing more frequently. He won the nationals in points and full contact at age 16.
He moved on to Groningen in Holland with the WKA and won a Junior World title. He was constantly involved in competitions until he joined the British Army at 18. While he was doing his basic training in the first year in the Army, he could only train by himself. At 19, he joined a local full contact kicking club in Dover and started competing and training with them.
At the age of 21, he began training with the Winsper family from Kidderminster. He travelled up from Dover to the Midlands every Friday afternoon, while still serving in the army. The journey used to take 5-6 hours, depending on traffic. After training, he would go to his home town in Telford for the weekend. On Sundays he normally fought or did squad training, then drove back to Dover in the evening or early hours of Monday morning.
He left the Army at age 25 and created a martial arts school, which has now become his organisation - British Military Martial Arts. Over the span of 10 years, he has competed internationally after leaving the army and represented WAKO GB most years at the European and World championships.
He was 10x WAKO British Champion, 2 x WAKO pro European champion, as well as winning multiple World cups and international events. Lee was WAKO World team champion, WKA Junior world champion and WMKF full contact points World champion. He retired from fighting at age 35. [2]
Parachute Regiment
Lee joined the Parachute Regiment at age 18 on December 5th, 1994. He passed the Army’s notorious P Copy (Pre Parachute selection in Catterick) in the early summer of 1995. He passed basic training in July 1995 and got posted to 3 Para after summer leave. He started off in B company, then on to HQ company. After that, he was transferred to a support company, when he was trained as a mortar man and served with the notorious 3 Para mortars.
While in 3 Para he served on operations in Northern Ireland in 1997, in the Ardon in Derry and at the Maze prison. He also served in the Nato liberating of Kosovo in 1999. During this time, he also went to various other countries including Canada twice and Norway 3 times, while on the AMLF roll while 3 para were situated in Dover for 5 years.
He went on to become a physical training instructor and qualified as a junior NCO. For his last couple of years in the Army, he was based with 3 Para recruiting team in Lichfield as their PTI. He was also a PTI for the Parachute Regiment recruits in Phase 1 training, which was also based out of ATR Lichfield in early 2000 while he was there. This location was just 40 minutes away from his hometown of Telford, so it was an ideal spot for his resettlement since he was leaving the Army to set up his own business. He left the Army officially in 2001.
British Military Martial Arts School
Lee created his martial arts franchise, British Military Martial Arts in 2001 while he was in his last few months of army resettlement. The franchise was successful and grew into a full time martial arts centre within a year of leaving the army.
The full time martial arts centre in Tweedale in Telford, is now the company Headquarters and Lee has been able to grow the organisation to over 100 independent locations, with 18 of these being full time centres. The company is still growing and is currently the biggest chain of martial arts centres in the United Kingdom. [3]
