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Interview with Tom Sheppard |
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What other hobbies / sports have you done? Going back to college days, I played X-country, cricket, rugby, waterpolo at various representative levels. These days Kickboxing hogs all my sports time (especially when doing stupid morning runs for fight training) so I stick to cards and gambling and music gigs on the side. When did you start training at VUW? 2003. Initially I took it up just for self defence and thinks sort of grew from there. Now I’m a total junkie. What was your first session like? Don’t have a recollection of my very first training. But I do remember having extremely sore shins the next day when I jumped outta bed. Being unable to hold my head up in a lecture theatre due to the previous nights grappling session is also a vivd memory. Why do you train / still train? Constant dissatisfaction with my performance in the ring forces me to have to jump back in. I am eagerly awaiting the day when I can convert my skills at training to the ring at no compromise. Also, I’m close to 10 fights, and lifetime membership! What is your favourite thing about training / VUW? In short, VUW has a great bunch of people to train with. A lot of kickboxers you meet turn out to be right knobs or munters, but the VUW crew are quite an intelligent bunch, and damn good value when on the gas. I couldn’t imagine training in an environment where I didn’t enjoy the company I was training with. Lastly, we’ve got a pretty good coaching team in Mark and Jonny, and with all the knowledge we are getting from the Master Tan seminars of late this club is only gonna get better and better. What is your biggest achievement? The next fight you have generally supersedes the other in terms of difficulty, so I would have to say my most recent fight – even though it was a very sub-par performance from me. I’m more of the philosophy that it’s not what titles you hold but who you have fought that determines the quality of the fighter. On a lighter note, I’ve amazed myself at how I’ve attended some morning weekend trainings on so little sleep and with large quantities of alcohol still pulsing through the blood stream. Scrumpies up! What is the best thing that happened to you since you started training? I’d have to be cheesy and say my 6 pack. What is your fight record / titles (if any)? 7f 5w 2 l . Nth Island middleweight title What are your goals at VUW? Ultimately, a fight at Lumpini or Ratchadonoen would make my day. It takes quite a bit for a foreigner to earn the respect of the thai’s over there, and I’d love to develop my skills to the point where I could fly over there and take it to them. Shorter term goals would be to break into the Aussie fight scene, and give Callan one more elbow scar before he takes off!
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