What is Brutal Training?

Brutal Training is dedicated to all those that dare to question and aren’t afraid of the answers they may find.

Brutal Training is essentially a melting pot of ideas and opinions aimed to provide useful information for the physical, mental and spiritual development of the athlete and punter alike.

This web site evolved out of the need to provide the ever increasing number of athletes that train with Brutal coaches a reference that they can refer to and be referred to as they develop.

Who is Brutal - The Trainers

Chris Burns

Dr. Burns or ‘The Unit’ as he is also known is a pro beach volleyball player and president of Beach Volleyball Victoria. Chris is renowned as one of the fastest defenders on the Australian Beach Volleyball tour. Outside of playing, Chris is also one of Victoria’s top beach volleyball coaches. The Unit is famous for the savagery of the beatings he delivers at Wednesday’s Dynamic Athletic Training (DAT) sessions.

Burnsy contributes regularly to this site as the author of Mind Games and various articles throughout. You’ll find many a Burnsy beating in Building he Beast or Snakes & Ladders.

Although Chris is a specialist beach volleyball coach he also trains athletes and punters alike in general fitness, explosive power development and jumping ability. Chris played a significant role in helping prepare Haydn for the Australian Long Drive (golf) titles.

For any information regarding coaching and/or services he provides feel free to Private Messenger Chris on the Brutal forum or contact him through the site on contacts@brutaltraining.com.

“The Unit is responsible for holding the Brutal ship together. He is the only one of us that maintains a truly ‘big picture mentality’. We often discuss philosophy when training and I am intrigued by his insights as he ventures further down the rabbit-hole. Dr. Burns offers a lot as a coach both in terms of physical and technical development but also in terms of building the confidence of his clients.” H

Haydn Ellis

The founder of Brutal Training, H is a self-styled super performance coach that specialises in getting the best performances out of athletes when it counts most, game day. His obsession with the discovery and application of the universal principles behind ultimate performance has provided the opportunity to work with athletes from a variety of disciplines.

H predominantly works with professional and high level amateur athletes but has worked with businessmen and musicians alike in developing what he calls ideal ‘frame of mind’. His goal is to firstly turn players into athletes through physical, technical and strategic development but then to turn athletes into warriors through development of that intangible of intangibles, spirit.

He has and continues to work with fighters and martial artists, football players from various codes (including Gaelic, AFL, NRL and Union), golfers, beach volleyball players, kayakers, tennis players, yoga instructors and coaching the coaches of various sports. He works with athletes both in person and online.

Haydn can be contacted via the forum or through email at contacts@brutaltraining.com.

'H is a living example of a true warrior, he demonstrates through both his actions and his words what correct function and spirit mean. H's understanding of 'the truth'  is exceptional and has taught me more about truth, courage, friendship, and life more than any other person'
David Kelso

David Kelso

Based in Scotland, Kelso is the founder of Brutal Europe (www.brutaleurope.blogspot.com). Kelso has years of experience in all manner of training methodologies and sporting pursuits including, Hand balancing, gymnastics, martial arts, MMA,  contortion, Parkour, military experience and other performance arts.

Kelso regularly contributes to this site with his articles entitled Lion’s Den and Lion’s Roar.

Kelso is a ‘strength and conditioning’ expert and not only writes for Brutal but has articles posted on credible sites including Underground Strength Coach.

Kelso provides training services including general fitness, Brutal training sessions, bodyweight and underground strength training, flexibility training, jungle training, nutrition and philosophical study for a wide a variety of athletes from martial artists to Hockey players, and members of the public to security personnel.

Kelso can be contacted through PM on the Brutal forum or through email at contacts@brutaltraining.com.

“DK has been nothing but a blessing to Brutal Training. He has provided us with enormous insight, wisdom and experience and continues to do so via his articles, web site and posts on the forum. Kelso is incredibly gifted physically, spiritually aware and far beyond driven in terms of self-exploration and understanding. I have learnt a great deal about life, training and courage from the ‘little lion’.” H

Ben Newton

‘Frank’ is the co-owner of Spike WebDesign (www.spikewebdesign.com.au) and is the creative mastermind behind the Brutal web site and all of Brutal’s creative productions. He is also a pro beach volleyball player in his own right. Ben recently won the inaugural King of the Beach Moomba Festival tournament in Melbourne beating all on-comers from both Victoria and interstate.

With a lengthy career in basketball and a nickname of ‘jumpin’ Ben provides his clients with a wealth of experience in the explosive power arena, in particular jump height and hang time. Frank also trains beach volleyball players and runs DAT sessions.

For any information regarding coaching and/or services he provides feel free to Private Messenger Ben on the Brutal forum or contact him through the site on contacts@brutaltraining.com.

“Frank can not only be described as an incredible athlete but more importantly as a ferocious competitor. When the whole Brutal Training concept started to become overwhelming, it was Frank and the Unit that stood up and offered their help. Frank spends hours developing our site and works for next to nothing. Aside from the web site stuff and professional sporting career he is also becoming a well-rounded physical and technical coach of athletes and punters alike.” H

Adam Regan

Adam was one of the first to begin training Brutal specifically for the biggest, toughest game of all, life. With an interest predominantly in training for training’s sake and a fascination with the human condition Adam has trained in all facets of Brutal from physical beatings to the rabbit-hole of awareness training. A gifted musician, Ads has provided some of the background music to the Brutal movies. He is Brutal’s profile in issue 17 of Shitfighter.

His training philosophy involves guiding people ‘by any unbiased means possible’ on their own evolutionary journey of self discovery and fulfilment by way of truth from experience. He also stresses that no person or teaching is your answer, but rather a source of guidance on your journey of personal discovery. He believes you must constantly research, experiment and experience your own truths.

Adam is training people out of Newcastle in NSW, Australia. He currently trains defence force personnel in explosive power, strength & conditioning as well as awareness training. If you are based in Newcastle and want to train with one of Brutal’s toughest exponents, contact Adam, either via this web site or through brutal_newcastle@hotmail.com.

“Adam is one of the toughest guys I’ve ever trained. It is toughness without ego. Ad’s is a natural leader and one of the most sincere guys you’ll ever meet. Adam’s comprehension of self through awareness training has been startling. Anyone that has the opportunity to train with him can consider themselves very fortunate.” H

Jerry Hamill
Jerry is a 36 year old Operations Manager, part time trainer and sports coach. He began Brutal Training’s DAT sessions in 2007 and quickly developed into one of the toughest contributors both in the physical training drills and in particular his ‘give it all’ attitude to the Desperation Drill.

Jerry was originally from the cold depths of Northern Ireland and spent over 10 years in the UK, Middle East and Eastern Europe before coming to Australia 8 years ago. His career includes time in the Police and Military in various roles. Jerry is a qualified PTI . He specialised in limitation training and large groups in all facets of fitness and currently runs his own women's boot camp three days a week. He also coaches men's and women's Basketball teams at various levels.  

What’s he like?
I have a reputation for getting in between your ears and driving the best in mental strength whether it be a group or an individual. Limitation training exists and continues to exist because there is no limitation. I must be one of very few people who do it because a lot of people do not like doing it because it is sooooo damn hard, mentally and physically. Past experience has given me the benefits of developing these strengths within people and sometimes it’s an amazing journey to see people grow with it.

Personally I’m a nice guy, I don’t want to bite your head off and spit in the hole, I’d rather have some fun and hard work in a session than the mundane repetitive bullshit some people come up with. I can’t train with anyone who can’t have a bit of fun energy and enthusiasm, it wears me down. That’s where Brutal’s DAT sessions attracted me and why I’ve taken the opportunity to come forward and be a Brutal Trainer along with the team.

Philosophy and approach to life
If  I was a cat I’d  be dead as my nine lives were up years ago. Each day is precious to me and I do not waste it. If I do I’ve missed something and lost the opportunity to experience something, even if it’s making someone laugh for twenty seconds.  I’m obsessed with my training and training others and put a lot of care into doing it so people get the most out of it. Dare I run a crap session?????? No. If I do, have your money back please and smack me around the head with a wet fish.

What do I love???
Besides my girlfriend and three gorgeous boys ???- the look of satisfaction on someone’s face when they are totally satisfied they have given their all and their eyes sparkle with the youthfulness of a puppy dog.

Kanishka Fernando
Kanishka ‘Donut Boy’ is a full-time personal trainer and physical trainer to individual athletes and sporting teams. He is also a dedicated practitioner of the fighting arts with skills in boxing, kick boxing and Muay Thai. He trains out of the Kimekai gym in Highett, Melbourne. In addition he trains in Kentokan karate as a means of improving his sport fighting skills.

Kanishka specialises in explosive power development, body building and conditioning. He has played rugby union at a high level and has trained players and teams in the sport. He has also trained hockey teams and held conditioning classes for fighters. In addition Kanishka is highly skilled at pad work and offers specialised training sessions with a strong emphasis on fighting skills.

As an authorised Brutal trainer Kanishka runs Brutal group training sessions including work with Brutal’s ‘Desperation Drill’. For more information email us at contacts@brutaltraining.com.

“Donut Boy has the single most important ingredient required to succeed – perseverance. Since I started training him he has lost 23kg and has become a physical powerhouse. His success is due to the fact that he trains on his own grinding out thousands of repetitions. He has gone from having no knowledge of the fighting arts to become a skilled fighter in only a short time. Donut Boy walks the walks. He isn’t going to lean on the treadmill and think about lunch while you run. He is going to give you a beating and turn you into a warrior. And if you get the chance ask him why he is called Donut Boy.” - H