Recently, strength and conditioning coach, Robert Decillis took time from his busy schedule to write a blog post for us.

Robert is a father, husband, MMA coach and is truly BORN STRONGER! Check out his blog at www.combattrainer.com and or follow him @combattrainer.
 

You always hear people saying that they want to live their dream. Whatever that dream may be many people strive for it.  Some are successful and some unfortunately fail to live that dream.

My dream is to open a sports performance facility and train professional and amateur mixed martial artist. This journey started a few years ago, when I began my martial arts training in the disciplines of Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I was able to hit the training hard everyday and improvements were made in both my ground and stand-up game. I was enjoying myself very much. At the same time I was training in martial arts I was also studying to become a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist under the NSCA. Having to self-teach myself to pass the test took about six months but I accomplished what I set out to do.

Being around the fight game constantly, I began to naturally train the fighters that competed in our gym. I also had the opportunity to teach a conditioning class on Saturday afternoons to members of the gym. Then I got my break when I was asked to help train a fighter from the New York Pit Bulls of the IFL.
 
But as soon as things began going the way I wanted I had a falling out with the school I attended ‘cause I did not see eye to eye with the direction they were going. So with no hard feelings I left the school and my martial arts training was put on hold for about two years.

So what did I do for those two years? I honed my skills as a strength and conditioning coach. Coaching many different athletes from the ages eight to twenty. In the two years I was missing from martial arts I grew tremendously as a coach. The dream of opening my own facility was growing more and more inside me. All of this is going on while planning a wedding and working a full time job as an American History teacher.

Right after getting married, in a blink of an eye, I also became a father to a beautiful baby girl. For some becoming a husband and a father can put a stop to living the dream they set out to accomplish. However, there is no stopping me from achieving my dream. Being a coach I love competition. I love being the best at what I do. I take that sense of competition and being the best with me into being the best husband I can be, the best father for my little girl and still be the best strength and conditioning coach for MMA fighters and athletes. 

Week in and week out it’s a juggling act from having to train myself, to working a full time job teaching, getting my amateur fighters stronger, running my website and, most important, spending time with my family. I am going after my dream full throttle but it is never at the expense of not seeing my family. If I need to shoot videos for my website I make it a family event, with my wife holding the camera and my daughter running around the field and sometimes in the shot. But that is what the dream is about, the dream is longer for myself, the dream is for my entire family, for my daughter so she can have a better life and know what it is like to achieve a dream. I want to show her by example. I do not want to be a “do as I say not as I do” parent. How can I tell her to go for her dreams if I never go for mine? 

So I am taking my amateur mixed martial arts fighters, my family and my teaching gig, for the time being, and making it all work on my journey to achieving the dream of one day opening my own sports performance facility. This facility will not only make my athletes perform better but will also help them achieve their dreams as well.