Issue 039

July 2008

When you break it down, the world of MMA is a simple one. Two combatants enter the ring, but only one will leave, arms raised, as the victor. And like most individual sports it’s an environment dominated by stars. But behind every great fighter stands a great trainer.  

For years, Shawn Tompkins has played that role, cultivating and training top-level talent while managing to fly below the radar. After last year though - when he helped Dan Henderson to the Pride Fighting Championships 205lb title, became a team coach in the IFL and was named as one of the gym managers at Xtreme Couture’s home base in Las Vegas - it will be nearly impossible for the Canadian to maintain his anonymity. 

For Tompkins, his climb up the ladder has been a memorable one and he knows that the best acknowledgment comes from the fighters he works with. “I’m very happy with where I’ve gone and where I’ve been,” he says. “Ultimately, every fighter I train, I want to make them a champion or at least reach the goals that they (have). I’m a very unselfish person and that’s really what I look towards. When I have a new fighter that brings me on as their coach, I have one thing in mind and that’s bringing out the highest potential in them.”

While he may seem like a relatively fresh face on the global scene, Tompkins has been bred for success in the business. He got started in martial arts at the ripe age of six and was a three-time world karate champion by the time he was 16. 

After that though, he set his sights on training others. “At eighteen years of age, I decided that my dream was always to run a martial arts school,” he says. 

Tompkins went to a weightlifting gym in his hometown of Tillsonburg, Ontario and, on what used to be an aerobics floor, opened Tompkins Karate Academy. That facility would lay the foundation for his future triumphs, seeing him eventually change the gym to Team Tompkins, a full-service MMA facility, complete with a small roster of fighters.

While he is very much a self made man, relying on his own determination to lead him into new chapters of his life, Tompkins couldn’t have made it where he is without the help of some others. “I think first and foremost everybody knows my connection with Bas Rutten. He’s been like a father to me in the sport and in my life,” he says. “As far as studying kickboxing and taking kickboxing and transforming it into my own system of mixed martial arts, I owe everything to him.”

He also credits Dan Henderson and Randy Couture for helping him take the next step. Henderson for helping him put his name on the map and Couture for giving him the chance to make working with elite-level talent his everyday job. “I make my home here in Las Vegas and, I believe, train some of the best fighters in the world,” he says. “Randy really just gave me a home and a facility to be able to continue to do what it is I love.” But even with all that he’s done in the sport and considering the fighters he’s worked with, Tompkins refuses to ignore his roots. “I will always have my Team Tompkins gym,” he says. “I’m very fortunate, bringing up fighters like Chris Horodecki, Sam Stout and Mark Hominick. They take care of the gym when they’re not in Las Vegas training for their camps.”

While his work is truly a labour of love, the large variety of fighters he works with can provide some challenges. He says that sometimes it can be difficult to change gears between fighters and still be able to push them to reach their peak. “The toughest component is the idea that every fighter I train has something different in their life,” he says. “They’re all at different emotional standpoints in their lives, they’re different ages, they’ve got different experience levels. So really, it’s just being able to go from training one fighter one hour to another the next and meeting all their needs; physically, mentally and emotionally.”  

With such a distinguished training career on the go and considering he hasn’t fought since late 2001 (holding a less than stellar 0-4 pro MMA record), you would expect Tompkins to cease all talk of fighting again, but he still has the itch to compete. The problem is, he’s been too busy training others to think about fighting himself. “Right now at the moment, I’m training 28 professional fighters for fights,” he says. “Now for myself, I believe that I’m at a physical level that I can be competing right now and my game has gotten a lot better obviously, training with some of the good fighters in the world. Now whether I actually take that step and have the right opportunity, we’ll see in this next year when things kind of settle down for me.”

Despite the hectic schedule, the rest of this year should be a big one for Tompkins. He’s set to be married to his long-term girlfriend (Emilie, the sister of Sam Stout) this summer. And even if the lack of time doesn’t permit him to compete again, at least in Xtreme Couture he has a place where he can continue to ply his trade and cement his status as one of the best trainers in the game.