Brian Martin Gallacher, Scottish Hit Squad, Head Coach interview
Scottish Hit Squad head coach, Brian Martin Gallacher has been busy behind the scenes prepping Scotland’s newest breakout star in the UFC, Paul Craig, Don recently had a chat with him about his background, the gym and the future of Scottish mixed martial arts.
Why don’t you give our readers and introduction yourself?
Brian Martin Gallacher head coach at Scottish hit squad MMA
What is your Martial Arts background?
I started competing amateur boxing 17 years ago. 2 years later I got my first taste of coaching as teenager taking a boxing class before my training. Then got into Muay Thai, jiu-jitsu, wrestling and mma.
For people that don’t know anything about you or the gym. What made you become an MMA coach?
As I said in the last question I had started coaching early. I joined an mma gym and was coaching there but I had my own ideas and training concepts. So, I opened up the hit squad and started building my own team.
It has been a busy few months at the gym, with Paul debuting in the UFC, Chris at ACB, having Mark Godbeer through training as well as local shows. How have you coped with the heavy schedule?
Before I was full time coaching I was in engineering training and coaching at the same time. So, working long hours is normal for me. Working with guys like Paul, Mark and Chris and being involved with UFC is big motivation. It’s easy haha.
How much do your team and staff help out?
We are an orchestra we all work together everybody plays their part.
You travelled over to the states with Paul for his UFC debut recently, how was that experience as a whole?
We went and had a good time we wanted to experience as much of the west coast as possible while we were out there. It was a cool feeling walking out in the golden one centre but as soon as the fight started I could have been at ffc or ontop. It was just another fight. Then afterwards there was a bigger sense of accomplishment, super happy for Paul.
Your next trip away with Paul will be Vegas for UFC 209, how are preparations going for that?
Mark was planning on coming up to the gym before Paul got matched. So when Paul got matched it felt right. Both guys have been ticking over Christmas but this was the first official week of camp and it couldn’t have went better. Time to put in the hours.
Out with the UFC coming to Glasgow and Scottish fighters getting a UFC contract what do you think are the biggest changes to Scottish MMA in the past 5 years (good or bad)?
Let’s focus on the positives. The level of training throughout the whole of Scotland has improved there is more than one or two teams now we have top guys coming from all corners of Scotland.
Where do you see Scottish MMA in another 5 years?
I see Scotland having a UFC champion hopefully multiple champions
Can you describe the character or ethos of the gym in one word or phrase?
How do I say family without saying family.
Shout out to the coaches James Gallacher, Marcos Nardini, Lawrence Murphy, Steven Houston, David McDonald, Andrew Cameron and to booster fight wear as they are hooking me up with cool shit.
Follow Brian @CoatbridgeMMA
