Our Team

• Tahir Ahmad has certainly built for himself a great reputation within the world of Self Defence and Martial Arts.
• His meteoric rise within the previous Self Defence organisation that he belonged to, was never seen before nor was ever matched.
• He built the largest and fastest growing franchise / club globally within the previous organisation.
• Held ‘Franchisee of the Year’ for 7 consecutive years.
• Was winner of the NEST Award for ‘Business Growth 2018’.
• Has worked with Police and Military personnel and those looking to travel to ‘danger zones’ in various parts of the World.
• Worked in the Bollywood movie industry.
• Pioneered and has built a large portfolio of Schools, Businesses and various Organisations with whom he regularly works with, providing bespoke Self Defence training.
• Provides online training to people across the world.
• Has touched the lives of tens of thousands of people over the years with his empowering training methods.
• And will now take things to a whole new level with his own brand – Unleash Self Defence.
• FAA Level 3 Award in Activity First Aid and Level 3 Award in Combat Training First Aid.
• BA Business Administration.

His story – Martial Arts has always been Tahir’s passion from a very young age. Here is his fascinating story:

Like many children, Tahir was also bullied throughout his early years from the age of 4. At the age of 11, he finally got the opportunity to start his Martial Arts journey and very quickly, the bullying stopped.

Like most people growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, he started training in Karate and soon became known as the ‘Karate Kid’ within his school, as well as competing in and winning several Karate tournaments. His new found fame and confidence naturally made him very popular.

However, he never forgot what it felt like being bullied himself and simply could not tolerate seeing anyone else in that same situation. This led to him often standing up for other kids, even if it meant going up against other popular kids. His popularity, confidence and strength became a positive influence in helping others.

A realistic wakeup call – Tahir had already achieved his Brown Belt in Karate with only a year left before getting his Black Belt. Unfortunately, at the age of 19, he was attacked on the street by a 6 foot soldier in Aldershot (home of the British Army). There was a brief brawl, and thankfully no real harm was done. But this proved to be a rude awakening for Tahir, who quickly came to the realisation that Karate isn’t effective for real life scenarios, and that his confidence was in fact based on fantasy rather than reality.

He was now in a dilemma. Should he feed his ego and continue his Karate training for another year so that he can finally call himself a ‘Black Belt’ or should he quit Karate altogether and look for something more street effective? At the end of the day, is it your belt or your actual skills that will truly save you?

Understanding that the real purpose of learning a martial art is not for a belt or some ego trip but rather to learn how to effectively defend oneself and one’s loved ones, Tahir left Karate and over the next 11 years, trained in Muay Thai and Western Boxing under the British Champion at the time. Despite finding these systems to be more effective, Tahir still found himself not satisfied when asking the same question “is this really designed for real life?”.

Reality Based training – Looking into and trying various other styles, Tahir’s search eventually led him to Defence Lab which he found to be the most realistic when it came to real life scenarios. He eventually achieved his Black Grade and continued to train with the Founder and the top team for many years. However, he began to find certain flaws within this system too which he was then able to address in his own system – Unleash Self Defence, greatly improving both the journey and the experience of the student.

Parent of 3 children – Being a parent of 3 children has given Tahir valuable experience, as well as, understanding first-hand what other parents will go through in raising their children in today’s world and the challenges that they are to face. This in turn allows Tahir to also offer real and practical solutions .

All 3 of his children have been training with him from an early age and have been taught how to effectively deal with bullies, ensuring that they would never have to suffer like Tahir did as a child. Of course, the bullies certainly tried with his children, but they were quickly put in their place, thereby proving the tactics taught by Tahir were efficient and effective. And it is these very same tactics that are now taught to all students at Unleash Self Defence.

Tahir’s ethos – It’s a fusion of the old ways mixing with the new ways. Refusing to be held back by out-dated techniques and always quick to adopt the best practices of the time, yet Tahir still strongly believes in the traditional values of honesty, loyalty, integrity, discipline and strength of character….. attributes which he aims to pass onto each student at Unleash Self Defence.

Tahir’s personality – Tahir is very out-going and friendly, and always makes his students feel very welcomed and part of the ‘Unleash Family’. He believes that the training should always be fun and enjoyable whilst at the same time maintaining the seriousness of what is being taught. The key to Tahir’s success is that his training is always insightful and inspirational, never failing to leave his students feeling moved and empowered. Tahir now wishes to replicate this same type of teaching style amongst all Instructors within Unleash Self Defence.