Dr Brian Duncan
Episode 250
13 NOV 2023
He owns and coaches at a mixed martial arts gym and runs an acupuncture sports medicine clinic. He has been training in martial arts for 30 years, having started in karate and gotten his black belt in Koei Kan Karate at just 14 years old. He eventually trained in Wing Chun and practiced and taught it for ten years and got a black belt in it as well. Along the way he dabbled in different martial arts like Kendo, freestyle wrestling, Judo, and others, eventually finding his way into the world of MMA. He is now a fifth-degree black belt in SGC Karate and Kickboxing and a blue belt in BJJ. He is a convert to the faith and recently started a line of Catholic themed athletic clothing called Catholic Fightwear.
Notable guest quotes:
“I started playing sports, well, specifically doing martial arts, when I was about four (years old)… There was a guy at our church that ran a karate school, so they got me into that, and I’ve done that ever since. I also played some baseball as a kid and soccer. I actually did soccer all the way through high school and was on the varsity team as a goalie.”
“I always had a dream since I was about ten years old that I wanted to run a Dojo, but in between there I actually had set out to be a pastor.”
“I started a gym, and it has been going pretty well and I’ve seen God’s providence where I had a friend of mine come in who wanted to invest in it and kind of become a co-owner and so we’re actually building up the MMA gym… God just keeps providing.”
“My whole conversion was probably a good decade-long journey.”
“I went to a Bible school briefly, which is kind of like a seminary. They’ll call ‘em Bible Institutes… and I began to study Biblical languages.”
“I got myself a Catholic Catechism because I wanted to know exactly what the church taught and not just give my version of it or what I’d heard from other people.”
“I found that I couldn’t really deny Catholic teaching anymore and I couldn’t argue against it because I was agreeing with it.”
“I’d been reading some theology from, like, Thomas Aquinas. St. Francis de Sales was huge in my conversion.”
“Even to this day, people ask (my wife), ‘Why did you convert?’ And she’ll just say things like, ‘Because I trust my husband. God put him there and I’ve trusted him so far and I just know he won’t mislead me’.”
“I found that through coaching I can help other people build their confidence. I can help other people just affect their lives in positive ways. And that to me has been far more powerful to me as a person than being a champion myself.”
“Coaching is so much more enriching to me than being a competitor because when I’m a competitor I lift myself up, but when I’m a coach I get to lift up an innumerable amount of people.”
Related link:
