Ep 7: Mark Pease (Part 1), From grassroots Aussie Muay Thai to modern fighter psychology

He is the founder of Australia’s first Muay Thai Gym and is still going strong - Mark Pease of Strikeforce on the Gold Coast has almost 40 years of unwavering dedication to the sport, along with a global reputation as one of Australia’s most respected trainers.

From training himself with mates, to years of immersion in Thailand, and now blending traditional Muay Thai techniques with cutting-edge sports science earned through his Sports Coaching degree where he majored in Sports Psychology; His fighters are not just physically ready—they are mentally conditioned to thrive.

Mark’s contributions to Muay Thai have been instrumental in shaping Australia’s golden era of the sport. His deep understanding of Muay Thai’s cultural roots and his innovative approach to training has twice earned Strikeforce Gym the Aus Muaythai Gym of the Year award (2022, 2023). Mark’s impressive roster of world-class athletes speaks volumes about his impact on the sport:

• Ben 'Pixie' Burton: IMTPO Welterweight World Champion

• Aaron 'TS2' Leigh: IMTPO and WKBF Bantamweight World Champion

• Taneira Terry: WKBF Super Welterweight World Champion

• Chadd 'Shark' Collins: WMC, WMO, two-time WBC Super Lightweight World Champion, and RISE 65kg World Champion (Japan)

• Jayden Eynaud: WBC and two-time WMC Cruiserweight World Champion

• Jaga Chan: XFC Muay Thai 65kg World Champion

Individually, Mark was honoured with the WKBF Hall of Fame award in 2018, recognising his lifelong contributions to Muay Thai.

Part one of Shannon F16 Forrester’s podcast interview offers a glimpse into Mark’s mind and his journey in the fight scene. He opens up about the challenges of early training, some personal challenges including the influence of a devastating car accident on his path, and his transition from fighting to coaching with a focus on sports psychology.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Shannon (00:00)

Welcome to Fight Scene with F-16, where we talk to legendary fighters and trainers across Australasia. They share some of their wisdom, experiences, and stories about being in the fight game. Today, I'm honored to have our guest Mark Pease, founder and trainer at Strikeforce Gym on the Gold Coast,

The first Muay Thai gym in Australia, longest serving Muay Thai gym. Mark's been around the game for up to 40 years. Yeah, so he's going to have a lot of interesting stuff for us to hear.

What have been up to?

Mark Pease (00:55)

Mate, just training and that's really about all I do man In the last few years, sort of kicked some more goals again. After COVID, everything sort of opened right up and we're getting chances in Russia just recently, Japan, America, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, so it's flown all over the world. So, been very, very busy. as you've probably seen, we've probably got some of the, I've been lucky because I've got some of the best fighters in well, I'd say Australia, some of the guys in their weight divisions are best in the world. Pretty lucky. Been very lucky.

Shannon (01:26)

Yeah,  it's awesome.

So to start off with, you know, my history with, with you guys that, started when I moved up from Victoria to the Gold Coast in 93. Yeah, 1993. And I was out in the back of Nerang and I seen a poster, down at Mermaid Beach And I came down there and trained down there in the little beach, beach shack gym down there. Anyway because I live closer to Southport and I I met another trainer and ended up going over and training over there I was doing a bit of maths, so that's like 35, maybe even you might've even had the gym for like 40 years, Mark?

Mark Pease (02:17)

it'll be in 88 it'll be 40 years. I still look 21, man. I've got a filter on here so don't worry. It's a filter. No, it's a long time. You know, as I said, it's man, I just, it just goes so quick Shannon you probably realize that as well.

Shannon (02:21)

Far out. Yeah. So where did it all start for you, Mark? so let's go even, like I know, like I came through the Zendokai as well, and yourself came through Zendokai Karate. You know, so is that where it all started for you, the martial arts?

Mark Pease (02:45)

Yeah. Yep. Well, I'm from Melbourne originally when I was in high school. I lived in a place called in Croydon. So I was in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne and Kempo Karate started in the local high school up there. And we started going up there, me and a couple of mates for a while. And then Zendokai moved down the little bit further down the road with a very famous instructor by the name of Richard Norton.

Everybody was doing like bodyguard work for like big bands like Fleetwood Mac and Linda Ronstadt so like really famous like 70s and 80s and most kids might not know who we're talking about there but that they were really big bands in the 70s and 80s and he was their security so we all went down there and started training down there and then moved up to Queensland and continued my Zendo Kai path at Mermaid Beach. And then I was in Zendo Kai for quite a while. So probably a good 10, 11 years, So we went with my instructor at the time, Peter Nielsen, And we went and watched a kickboxing, but it was above the waist kickboxing. And it was Tony Quinn versus Gary Pederson. Now both those guys were pretty famous blokes back in the day.

And Gary Patterson, real famous.

Shannon (04:11)

Was he, were they heavy weights?

Mark Pease

So, and also, no, I'm pretty sure they're middleweights at that stage. They're probably heavyweights now. We're watching this match and it was like, it was next level, like the intensity of being in the ring and these guys just going hammer and tongs on each other. I looked at him and I said, I want to do this. He says, well, I can't teach you this. So that's where my, thought pattern was I've gotta try and get something a little bit different. At the time, Stephen Rosten was training with me. Karate, he was only, I think he was about 14 at the time. He was only a kid. So he was training and then a couple others came on as well and I said, look, one night a week, we will just do our own stuff and so we hooked up at, I think it was Miami High School, we hired a room out. We took kick shields down and we started throwing punches and kicks trying to make it emulate more on a kickboxer. And to be honest, man, we had no idea, realistically. We knew how, you know, I was a black belt, Stephen was a junior black belt, and we knew we could sort of kick and punch, but there was no real footwork, patterns, all that sort of stuff. And I could see, like, when the boxers got in close to the kickboxers, they could really do a lot more damage. They had better footwork and stuff.

And then I was pretty lucky because the guy by name of Mark Simpson, Pommie, they called him. He was from WA, but he was also a, I think he was an English boxing Champion, amateur. So he had really good hands and he sort of came across on the paths across from WA. And when he started coming, he said, wouldn't mind workin with you blokes, I said, I'll do you a deal. I'll show you how to kick. You show us footwork and hands. then it sort of took us back then, I think the only thing we could do, I'm not sure if you remember that they had mat systems, like guys like Dominic Delaney, Steven Vick, all that, and Ian Jacobs used to do them as well. They'd have a team of five people, but one had to be a girl. And they'd be on the mats and be like open sparring. we didn't do too bad at that, but.the ring scenario was going quite well at the stage. So we decided then that we wanted to do the ring sport more so than on the mat sport. So we copped a couple of losses at first off, but then once we started to understand the hands a little bit better and the footwork and how to move out of the pocket rather than staying there and getting bashed, we started doing quite well, especially Steven. Steven did really, really well. As you know, he was the first Australian to beat a Thai in Australia at the time.

And he was only a school kid at the time too. Like he was, I think he was 16 when he beat this Thai So he was no slouch but he was just, he had good basics, but he was just so strong, you know, and he didn't know when to either go down or stay down. And that's how that all started, man. That's the grassroots of it.

I was an average, probably slightly above average. I was never really that good because I wasn't trained. I was trained by myself and my mates in the gym. But from my mistakes, I passed down to ok you can't do that. That's gonna get hurt. You're have to start learning this way. And I realized probably in about, I think it was about 80, no 97, 98 or somewhere around there. We went to Thailand for about the third time. Man, I'm getting better results with my fighters than I am with me.

I'm gonna be, I feel I'm gonna be better as a coach. So I knew then, you know, if I had've been greedy, I could have stayed there and done it myself. And probably, who knows what may have happened, but I felt then it was guys like Steven Rosten and Pixie was coming through. Danny Derdowski was there, Aaron Warren. thinking, hang on, these guys are getting me fights. We're going interstate, you know. And now we're getting asked to go overseas, you know. Why would I wanna hold them back?

For the sake of me trying to maybe get a trophy, a little bigger trophy or fighting in other countries. So it was a pretty good decision, I feel, to step back as a coach and then just take it on board and forget my training and just train with them. Yeah.

Shannon (08:10)

Yeah, yeah put Put it into others

And tell us a bit about your childhood, like growing up, what made you, you sort of, touched on it before, but what got you into martial arts?

Mark Pease (08:27)

Okay, well my dad, grew up, obviously grew up Melbourne in the outer suburbs towards the Dandenong's there, so was a little bit sort of country, but the end of the line, most railway stations Croydon. But my dad trained with Tino Cebrano in Goju Kai And I was sort of always interested because of what he was doing. yeah, well, I said I got two brothers and they were, you know, like we had met good childhood like that. you know, was like didn't have PlayStations back then. You didn't have mobile phones. You had one TV with four channels. So you stayed out till the lights came on in the street and you had to go home. That was your calling card or someone, as you probably know, you know. So we had a really good childhood down there.

We good friends, had motorbikes and all that sort of stuff as well. So there was no real, I didn't have any real bad elements towards it. My brother started getting into a little bit gang orientated stuff back then. And then my parents decided they're gonna move up to Queensland. So before it sort of got hold of him a little bit more, we moved up here into Queensland. So I think that was all nullified straight away. So we went from suburbs of Melbourne to being four houses back from a surf beach at Mermaid Beach. So, would you want to do anything else? I'm thinking, was good, really good.

Shannon (09:46)

Beautiful. Yeah. It's, it's funny. Like the Gold Coast, you know, such a beautiful place and you got, you got the beach and like the surf, the surf lifestyle, such a big thing here. But you know, like the Muay Thai and the kickboxing, it's so, it's such a, you know, like when you get into it, you know, like we had like us, you know, on the Gold Coast, we had all this beautiful beach and stuff and we want to go and smash ourselves and, and train in the gym, you know, like six days a week. It's like. all right but that's sort of the way the way it is.

Do you think your upbringing or other personal experiences in your life shaped your approach to the sport?

Mark Pease (10:25)

I had a pretty bad car accident when I was 18 and went under a truck and come out and broke L4 and L5, compacted those quite badly, broke my hip, broke my foot, broke my chest bone, ruptured my spleen, broke top and bottom jaw. And I was in hospital for quite a while. And then when I ended up moving up, & up for rehabilitation. And back then, rehabilitation was you go to a physio once or twice a week. And they were all, all of them said, know, your sporting days are done, you won't be able to, you have to learn how to walk again properly, you're gonna do sport again, things like that. And as soon as you get told something like that, you're not gonna be able to do this ever again. So I couldn't play football. So I played soccer up here and played football. And then virtually as soon as I could walk, was back, at it

Don't get me wrong, I still get back pain from time to time, when I got told that I couldn't do anything, I was determined to show that I could because I've seen too many people, and you probably would have seen this as well, they get told, okay, that's it, that's it, it's over. Okay, so you're sitting in a chair for rest of your life, and why not give it a shot, give it a crack. I mean, it's my life, if I can't sort of do anything with it, I would be very, very disappointed. So I think that sort of helped shape the fighting  side of things. I mean, I always really enjoyed the martial arts. Look, as I said, I still enjoy the Karate side of things. And, you know, I put a quote up on my board yesterday, "In total chaos, there's always an opportunity". So look for that opportunity, Sun Tzu martial arts thing. So I put that quote up on my board because I believe that, you know. So all these things sort of, yeah, I do believe that sort of car accident sort of helped keep me ground towards what I really, really wanted to do and that's what I wanted to pursue. And then I'm being told that I couldn't do it. I was more determined to do it and prove people wrong. So, and I think I've done that now, so I'm pretty happy with that.

Shannon (12:27)

Yeah. Mark, you know, like you've been around, you know, like before I was around and I've come and gone in the sport many times and you've been consistent, you know, and, you know, when you made that decision, like to think about other people and start training the other ones coming through, like, it's not easy. Like I've, I've come back into it sort of as a trainer now and it,

There's a lot, there's a lot to being a trainer. Hey, you know, it's like.

Mark Pease (13:04)

Mate, I could talk about being a trainer for days, man. Like in the early days, was still what I learned. What I learned in Thailand, I'd bring back and implement there. I'd watch videos. You did as well, man. know everybody did. We watched videos, read books, we'd studied other people. And back then from probably, I know the early 90s through to the early 2000s, it was probably the way that you could do things like that. And then social media got on board a little bit, you know, with Facebook and MySpace back then. So back in the early days, I found it quite easy to train fighters, but then, in like probably the last, I don't know, 10 to 12 years, it got a lot harder. And like I've done a CERT III and IV in Fitness, CERT III and IV in Sports Coaching. I had a gentleman tell me, goes, Peasy if you ever want to do a Bachelor of Sports, Coaching with Sporting Psychology as one of your majors, he said, I can get you in. I thought, I've got get you in, it's nothing to do that. And then had one of my fighters, and he's having a good fight now, and he was fighting Frank Georgie, right? And he was doing, my boy was doing really, really good with Frank Georgie. then it was Evan Morris. Yeah, and he was doing really, really good. And then the fourth round, he sort of, he must have got hit or and he just virtually stopped and let Frankie continue hitting him. I'm thinking, hang on, you're doing that? And he's come back at the end of that round and I'll give him a verbal sprayin. Come on, mate, pick it up, let's go. What are you doing? What are you doing? So back then you could do that. And then in the fifth round, he virtually just stopped and let Frankie sort of do what he did. And at the end of the fight, he's come to me and he goes, why would I continue to fight? And he said, I've got belted by him. I come back to the corner I get belted by you verbally. And I thought, hang on. Hang on, things have got to change. So I decided to go and do, believe it or not, I went and did a Bachelor of Sports Coaching at the University of Queensland,  to understand more about the modern athletes, because they're athletes, man. I'm a Professional Coach. A lot of these guys are Professional Athletes, and some of them do it full-time. So I can be accountable to all these people. So with the psychology side of things, I learned things, man, that I'd never even knew existed about. Not only myself, but other people as well and how to get through to other people, you know.

Shannon (15:28)

Yeah, that's yeah, something I, you know, since I've been training a few guys and coming back in the sport, like holding my tongue, like, not yelling out like I always remember you, Mark, like at the fight shows, you'd be banging on the mat. What the What the? What the? It's like, I'd crack up laughing, eh? But now I'm like, it's me, it's the one. Yeah.

Mark Pease (15:51)

Yeah, well you gotta understand, you gotta know who to hug and who to slap. I tend to do a questionnaire for all my fighters and give it to them. And that's just asking certain questions so I know a little bit more about them, how they like to have instructions delivered to them in the corner no matter what the situation being. A lot of them said to me, if it needs to be assertive and hard, give it to me. But then was a couple that said, no, no, like clear and concise and controlled. I don't like yelling. Do you know what I mean? I don't like confrontation. I had to understand that so to get the best out of the fighter and athletes, you know? So I believe it's worked. And I think now a lot of people are now starting to do things like that as a coach because there's no real criteria to be a Muay Thai Coach. You can have one fight, go and open up your own gym and train people. if you've got a good marketing package, people might believe, this is the real deal, you know? So unfortunately, there is no criteria, but I believe that

The quality will always overrun the quantity in the end.

END PART 1