Tommy began his studies of martial arts at the age of 11. He trained in various arts on and off until he settled in Shotokan karate about 27 years ago. During that time he also began training in Kyokushin karate, which is a traditional Japanese style that fights with bare knuckle full contact. The rules of Kyokushin allowed for low kicks and knees. Kicks and knees to the head are allowed but punches to the head and face are not. For the last 11 years, Tommy has trained in both Shotokan and Kyokushin karate. His heart was mostly in Kyokushin, but he had certain obligations in Shotokan such as teaching classes and giving seminars. His training was evolving at a high rate and moving further from traditional methods. He always geared what he did toward the street and self defense and believed that just being a good all around fighter would take care of that. This comes from his experiences as a street fighter.

MMA became the realization of his thoughts and so his training headed in that direction. However, he could not find a place to train that worked with his crazy schedule. This caused him to begin training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to at least have something to add to his standup. He only trained in BJJ for about 7 months and at the same time kept up his Kyokushin training. As of March 2007, he officially gave up teaching as well as Shotokan and continued to evolve his training methods while at the same time keeping up his Kyokushin training and fighting. He turned 51 in 2008 and felt he still had something left. He decided also that his Kyokushin training left a gaping hole in his fighting due to the “no punches to the head/face” rule. He set out to rectify this and enhance his experience. He finally settled into MMA to round out his experience before finally closing the door on his training and retiring.