I spoke to Ellie Harbinson, a boxer, ex-cage fighter and now personal trainer. She is a fighter who has had an impressive start to her career. She started cage fighting from the age of 10 and 10 years on, her career is progressing astronomically.
Ellie, a 20-year-old cage fighter turned boxer is fighting out of Firewalker Fitness in Wolverhampton. She has had an excellent, quite illustrious start to her career. The Brit has represented GB in Kickboxing, holds 9 titles (those being Midland and British) and is also a 2-time World Champion. A quite amazing CV for somebody who is just 20 years of age and she shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
I asked Harbinson about how her career in kickboxing began and she informed me:
“My mom got me into cage fighting when I was 10 years old then I went from that to sport karate, Thai boxing and kickboxing and now boxing”
Her mother saw and recognized her talent and so, she began fighting from a young age. The English prodigy saw a passion for fighting and moved from strength to strength fighting under different coaches, out of different gyms, and applying different styles of fighting to her skill set. Ellie has an Instagram page with 6,000 followers where she showcases her experiences, titles, daily life and of course, her undeniable ability. Oh, and we can’t forget the adorable pictures of her pet dog!
Ellie also outlined the importance of motivation within the sport of fighting – insisting:
“you have to have self-motivation to step up and fight”
Motivation comes from the desire of winning, being hungry for success is what fuels everybody, from students, to office workers, to kickboxers like Ellie and all athletes around the world. Being willing to make sacrifices and recovering from setbacks all make an athlete and kickboxing is no different. You may get knocked down, lose fights and spars or even have times where you feel as though you are not good enough for the sport. Just remember, perseverance is key.
When asked if she had any advice for anybody starting out in kickboxing, Ellie Harbinson said:
“I’d tell them to go for it! Train hard, work smart and you can go as far as you want to. It takes a lot of hard work and a lot missed nights out but it’s all worth it when your hand is raised at the end of a fight.”
Now, a year on, Ellie looks back on her fighting days and misses them, she cannot fight much or to the gym as much as she would have liked:
“nothing has really happened since speaking to you unfortunately as I’ve been suffering with my health for a year now.”
However, this setback did not get Ellie down, she has now started online Personal Training sessions and regularly hosts Instagram live shows where her 7,000 followers can join in working out with her and she also has 1-to-1 sessions to help others get to where they need to be physically. She is now qualified in PT and Sports and spoke about this by saying:
“yeah, it feels surreal teaching other people after being taught so much about sport my whole life. It is a good feeling to help people reach their fitness goals and see how far they can get.”
“the journey I enter with people is amazing, they go from being unhappy with what they look like to confident and happy, this for me is the best thing.”
Ellie is also currently studying at university and hopes her Personal Trainer background can help land her the job she has always dreamed of; a PE Teacher.
“I hope this training and coaching all pays off as one day I dream of becoming a PE Teacher.”