Hi, I’m Al Steele.

I’m the owner and creator of Steelknuckle.com and The Complete Guide To Street Self Defense.

I started training in Martial Arts way back in 1997 as a way of getting fit and learning some Self Defense. I had quite a talent for Tae Kwon Do, in particular competition fighting. Soon I had won 4 National TKD Competitions, 2 Freestyle Martial arts Competitions and began an intensive 4 year training program for the 2004 Olympics.

I left High School with average grades, a short temper and a lot of broken promises from my instructors. Instead of going off to College/University with the rest of my buddies, I kept on with the dream that Martial Arts promised.

As I began to realise that competition fighting was dead, I started to think about becoming an instructor for Self Defense. That’s when I had to bite the bullet and face up to the fact that the way Self Defense was taught just wasn’t going to deliver what people needed or wanted.

I quit martial arts for good and started to work on what I saw as the Missing Pieces of Real Combat and Street Self Defense. Everybody raised their eyebrows at me when I quit competitive fighting, saying: “Al, you’re throwing away something you have a great talent for and you have put a lot of work into”

But when I really got down to finding out “what really works” for Self Defense rather than just looks good, people said how refreshing it was to learn things they felt confident about.

A year later, I decided to take one last shot at competition fighting by entering the National Freestyle Competition. Yeah, after all the bad things I said about it, it does seem a little strange. But I guess I had to find some closure to help me move forward with my own stuff. Training on my own sure paid off, not only was I a happier person, but I stormed through 9 fights to earn my first title as a free agent.

Whilst working on my program, I completed a BSc Honors in Applied Computing at College, started my own business and met loads of great people along the way who helped me make Steelknuckle what it is today.

It seemed like a real long shot, but quitting martial arts for real Self Defense was the best decision I ever made!

In 2005 Steelknuckle was acknoiwledged by the ISCQC as a certified program, and in 2007 I became the Vice President of FAST USA, an organization committed to researching and understanding the effects of Adrenal Stress.

I now write and consult for several online magazines on Self-Defense, Personal Safety and Crime Prevention. I also consult, teach and train some of the biggest stars in Sport and Movies, but even with my packed schedule I still make time for my own students.