Having worked as a doorman all over the city, Mark Leonard is well aware of the need for self-defence. However, if it's not just a way to defend yourself you are after, different martial arts could provide a great alternative to the gym, he tells Marie Madden.

Since taking up martial arts over 14 years ago, Mark Leonard has strived to find a sport that offers both a good workout and practical defence techniques. His search has proved fruitful and he now trains people of all ages at his Point Blank Gym in Parkmore.

Mark's initial interest in martial arts began in 1994, when he saw a demonstration from the Tae Kwon Do club at NUI, Galway. Thinking that it "looked cool", he went down to the next training session and ended up training with the club regularly, becoming the first ever NUI, Galway student to be awarded a black belt in 1997.

However, from his experience as a doorman, Mark soon realised that there were limitations to how practical his martial arts knowledge could be and decided to start cross training in other styles. After attending a few training sessions with John Kavanagh at the SBG Ireland gym in Dublin, Mark was bitten by the mixed martial arts bug and decided to learn more about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a martial art and combat sport that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting.

"I found that in a lot of traditional martial arts, including Tae Kwon Do, that even after training for a long time I didn't have all the answers. The techniques that I had learned only covered certain situations and, if your Plan A didn't work, you didn't have a Plan B. With mixed martial arts, you always have a fallback."

From the time he began training in MMA, it had always been Mark's aim to set up his own gym and in September 2006, he did just that. Point Blank Gym is located in the Racecourse Business Park in Parkmore and offers classes in mixed martial arts for children, teenagers, adult beginners and intermediates.

While a number of fighters from the gym have taken the next step to competing in mixed martial arts and have been hugely successful on the national stage, Mark actively encourages anyone with an interest to come to the gym and try it out for themselves.

"Casual practitioners aren't only encouraged to train with us, they are the bread and butter of the club. When most people think about MMA, they think of fighting in a cage and what they have seen on television, but the reality is that only about one per cent of people who train with us actually compete. There are so many benefits to be gained from training in this type of an environment, such as cardiovascular fitness and muscle endurance, all in one session."

According to Mark, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) is one of the most practical and useful methods of self-defence, as it isn't based on physical strength.