Lyle Gawley is a leading light for mixed martial arts

“Well, I started off whenever I was a kid,” Gawley explained. “I'd done a bit of karate and kickboxing, and always had an interest from a young age.

"Then when I was 16, I wanted to get back into the martial arts again. And the only one I could find locally was jiu jitsu just at the time. So I went round to the class and I tried it.

"I loved it. It just seemed so much more practical than before. You know, some of the first things I learned was self defence against people grabbing you in different ways. How to escape rather than just doing punching and kicking.

"So, it was the self-defence side of it that had really interested me. And that's what I kept wanting to learn more of and learn more of. There seemed to be such a variety of things you can do in jiu-jitsu compared to other things.

"And then from that, as time went on, and I stuck at jiu jitsu, I went through the belts. You start to learn more and more.

"There's Japanese Ju Jitsu and then there's Brazilian too. So I do both. It's like a broad-spectrum martial art, where you'll do some striking, you'll do some grappling, you'll do some self-defence, you'll do some traditional stuff as well. You get to experience a lot of different things.”

Gawley began his journey in the sport at the age of 16 with classes in the forum before moving on to Belfast to study at university. During his time up in the city, he trained under national coach David Tony: “Whenever I started, whenever I moved to Belfast as a student in 1995 and started training under him, he was very good at motivating me.

"And he certainly set a good example. He was constantly developing things within our organization, and we always looked up towards the coaches and be good students.

"He always wanted to develop, you know, the whole organization, and constantly bring people along, he just wanted to get the best out of people.

"He wouldn't just teach certain things and be stuck in a rut. It was constantly, always trying to develop new ways of doing things, which is a good sort of mindset to have.” 

He added: “I just always loved to train, the physical training and learning, it was the self-defence I really wanted to get to get into, first of all. I just really wanted to be able to defend myself.

"So jiu-jitsu just sort of seemed to cover that really, really well. But then, as I started getting into it, I was always the youngest one in the class, because I was 16 and went into the adult class, and everybody was older than me, so it was a bit of a challenge, to try and train with these guys. There’s the physical side of it, but also the mental side of it.

"Whenever you're training, it can be so technical. There’s so much to learn whenever you're in the class, that's all you're focused on, and everything else that's happening outside the class, whether you've got, stress or work issues or studying, and if you're younger, you've got school or whatever, all that just gets put to the side and you focus on what you're doing, because you've got so much to concentrate on, so much to learn. And so, it can be very addictive.” 

The 47-year-old began coaching at a young age and has been taking classes full-time now for the last 20 years.

“One of the big things I noticed early on in coaching, is you learn so much more yourself whenever you coach other people,” he continued.

“You have to analyse techniques, and you have to prove your skills and have a deeper understanding of everything that you're doing, to be able to pass that on to somebody else and help somebody through learning techniques. So, it gave me a deeper understanding of what I was doing myself.”

Gawley opened his own gym to take classes in Lisnaskea at the end of last year, after 20 years in Castle Park, he expressed his gratitude to its workers for their hospitality, but added opening his own dojo was a dream come true.

“I spent two months getting it set up, making sure everything was just the way I wanted it,” he continued.

“We opened after Christmas in the new place and it's fantastic having a place there where all the equipment's there, it's all setup, ready to go, and all the students just moved straight from one to the other and just continued on.

"We have new people starting all the time. I want to make sure that the students, that are there, get the attention that they need, especially in the kid's classes.”

The Enniskillen native has had a number of proud achievements over the years including being appointed as the Ireland representative of the World Organisation of Self-Defence, which has included taking self-defence classes in Rome.

When asked to list some of his key moments, he replied: “Whenever I got my black belt in Japanese Ju Jitsu for the first time, it was a big thing, I was only 19.

"I remember I had been aiming towards getting it and I was ready to do it, and then I was told I wasn’t able to do it because of timescales of training between belts.

"I was just short of the minimum amount of time needed, I was all geared up and ready to go at the side of the mats. I was slightly under the time and was told I couldn’t do it. I was so annoyed.

"It was good at the same time because it was a bit of a knock to my training and my confidence. I was encouraged to keep going and the next time I was told I could go for it and I did it and passed. Getting that was a big thing after taking that knock.”

Gawley also cited getting his black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, many years later, after being surprised with the presentation by his coach as another standout achievement.

Despite martial arts being one of the county's lesser-practiced sports, Gawley has noticed its growth over the years and encourages people of all ages to take part no matter if they have never tried their hand at it before.

“People like the idea of doing a martial art. It's not for everybody, but for a lot of people, it’s something they want to explore as well and it’s good to provide an outlet for that need.

"If people want to either defend themselves or some people will start just for a social thing, or they start as just a physical activity to get more fit, more active. Maybe some go to the gym and they don’t suit it, they don’t enjoy it.

"Team sports maybe won't suit people. Whereas jiu jitsu, it's very, very different. There's, like I said before, there's a massive sort of technical side to it, where it really engages your brain as well as your body.

"There's also the sense of achievement, where you're working through belts. It's a very mental game as well as physical. That's why I think it appeals to people.”