About Bradley Lloyd

For a complete bio - including my professional certifications and my unique approach to fitness - simply give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

Hello, my name is Bradley Lloyd.

I am an 18 year veteran of the United States Army. I was in the Army from June of 1997 to October of 2015. In the Army I learned the standards on how to be physically fit and how to maintain self-discipline in the face of adversity. The Army helped ignite my passion for martial arts and instruction. In the Army (1997), I was stationed in Germany where I met my roommate, Shawn Pretat. He is the owner and founder of TOSS Academy in Bentonville, Arkansas. In the Army I was involved with instruction by training soldiers in tasks that they struggled in. I always practiced martial arts or played sports for fun. At the age of seven I enrolled in my first karate and judo class and was hooked for life. In Judo we practiced throws and in karate we learned the proper forms or kata. In my spare time my brother and I would always watch Bruce Lee and martial arts movies. We learned Kung Fu and Jeet Kune Do movements pretty fast by watching these movies and copying the martial artists’ physical moves that they performed on screen. At the age of nine I took a Tae Kwon Do class and was first introduced to playing basketball to help improve the ability of martial artists.

When I couldn’t afford to take a real martial arts class my friends and I would make our own training arena in our backyard to practice. We would watch more martial arts movies and play lots of fighting video games. I learned wrestling from my friends and from my stepdad who would always wrestle me to the ground for fun. At the playground in elementary school I always loved to play soccer, kickball, and basketball. I learned that you have to be fit if you want to practice martial arts. Even before I joined the Army my best friend in middle school introduced me to weightlifting to help keep the body in shape. In middle school I played basketball on the junior varsity team for 1 year and we made it to the district championships for Meridian Middle School but unfortunately we lost because the school we played for the championships had the better team (Coach Farnsworth was one of the best coaches I have had). After that I wanted to become a better basketball player so I enrolled in two basketball camps. One at Highland High School in Pocatello, Idaho and the other at Centennial High School in Boise, Idaho.

Now it is time to explain why I mentioned Shawn Pretat of TOSS Academy in the first paragraph. When I was deployed to Kuwait in 2012 I was frustrated and didn’t know what I wanted to do when I returned to civilian life. I went to a recreational building and saw a form saying that they taught Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in the building.The name on the form was Shawn Pretat. That triggered my memory because my roommate in Germany had the same name. I took a risk and emailed the instructor. Shockingly it was the same person. We reminisced about how he would brag about doing United Fighting Championships and that no one believed him. In 1999 when our unit deployed to Kosovo he trained in Samba with the Russian military. He then said that when he got back to the United States he started teaching Army Combatives to his fellow soldiers. When he retired from the Army he moved to Arkansas and started TOSS Academy. My fighting style is different from Shawn’s, it is mostly stand up fighting but also involves groundwork. I am certified by the International Sports Sciences Association as a Kickboxing Instructor. I also loved watching movies with Jean Claude Van-Damme especially “Kickboxer” and “Bloodsport”. I have two yellow belts in Tae Kwon Do from Tiger Lim’s Tae Kwon Do of Killeen, Texas and Won’s Martial Arts of Columbus, Georgia. I have experience training in Wing Chun Gung Fu for 3 months in Redmond, WA. I have experience with Jeet Kune Do by practicing the moves that Bruce Lee recommends in the “Tao of Jeet Kune Do.” I trained in Hwa Rang Do for 4 months. My office library is full of martial arts training manuals. I trained in Escrima when I was in the army. My specialty when I was learning Tae Kwon Do was weapons training.

In addition to martial arts I also trained and participating in running marathons when I was deployed to Kuwait in 2012. I participated in 5k runs every week and I was in Kuwait for 8 months. I ran a 10-miler and I ran a half-marathon. I had to work out to get ready for these races. I worked out on the stair master every other day for an hour. I participated in a Psycho Stair Stepper competition and won second place. I lifted weights and trained my mind. This is all the experience I have with physical fitness and martial arts. This is in addition to all the physical fitness tests and diagnostics that I had to perform in the Army. In addition to me being a Certified Kickboxing Instructor, I am a Certified Personal Trainer and Yoga Instructor (I forgot to mention I practice Yoga to help me with my flexibility in martial arts).

I hope to use the experience and knowledge I have acquired from my 45 years of life and from my 18 year service in the United States Army to better help train my clients in physical fitness and martial arts. What I love about fitness and martial arts is that it teaches people the concept of resilience (bouncing back when life hits you like a ton of bricks). In the Army, I learned all about resilience. This is what I will provide for my clients. When they train I will help them when they feel like giving up. The two greatest lessons I learned in life are from two quotes. The first is from Spencer Johnson, “Be in the Present, Learn from the Past, and Plan for the Future.” The second I learned when I was training for marathons in Kuwait, “Dear God: Grant me the serenity to change the things I can, accept the things I can’t, and the wisdom to know the difference. For now all training will be done virtually on the internet, I will post my workout sessions and anything fitness or martial arts related on the page. I especially love a quote from the Bible, 2 Timothy, Chapter 1, Verse 7: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.