By Coach Kevin Kearns

No way you were that guy in the hood that sucked at everything.” My response … “That is correct and it’s the past.”

Now I’m not going to say my childhood was all bad and I had it worse than any other kid. That is a matter of perspective. Most of it was good, but when it came to sports that was another matter. There was an inherent fear inside me every time my neighborhood “friends” gathered at the local school yard to play baseball or football. God forbid if we ever played basketball or hockey. I looked like a reject from the days of Sparta.

Yes, that is correct, the guy who worked with 15 Pro UFC fighters, pioneered MMA conditioning techniques, published his own MMA fitness DVD series and still writes for Fighters Only was a born loser. How do I know that?

The daily glares I received from my “friends.” As they say over here, “The proof was in the pudding.” I barely got on base when I played baseball and forget about catching a fly ball. No way! In football, I was ham-fisted when catching or throwing the ball. The only sport I had half a chance of playing was softball because the ball was so big. It was not my fault, I know that now I was just a step behind everyone else, slower to develop. I’m sure you either know this kid or were this kid, the one who was a little less coordinated and less athletic than everyone else. This led to endless bullying by my “friends” in the neighborhood. The problem was my whole world was that neighborhood. I had nowhere to escape.

You can read the rest of this compelling and inspirational story in this FREE DOWNLOAD of Fitness Trainer magazine.

You can read Coach Kevin Kearns’ very compelling story of overcoming bullies and a life without a father, turning to martial arts and physical fitness… to become one of the top-rated MMA fitness trainers and a hero to school children across the countries through his Keep Kids Strong programs. All this, his story and anti-bully program for kids, parents and teachers, are in his new book, Always Picked Last.