The Birth of 3.0
June 8th, 2023
The Birth of 3.0
It’s pretty simple actually, I've always just loved being in the gym. From the day I walked into my first martial arts class as a young boy, I knew that there was something about the pursuit of mental and physical excellence that I was driven by. It drove me in a way that nothing else had ever done before, or since!
I was fortunate enough to spend my formative years in an amazing environment, filled with dedicated athletes both amateur and professional, and I couldn’t get enough. I was never the most gifted athlete. I couldn’t run the fastest or jump the highest, but I’m smart enough to know when to listen and learn every possible detail, and determined/stubborn/competitive enough to always make sure I was the hardest worker in the room. It was obviously a good strategy because by the age of 12 I already had a black belt on my resume, and was training 3-4 hours a day, 6 days a week, in 3 different styles of martial arts, after I nagged my instructor into foregoing his age requirement so I could do all the adults classes as well. Before he said yes, I stood at the back of the gym practicing on my own, copying what the adults were doing, or doing fitness work, or lifting weights, or stretching. If I refused to leave, and showed him how dedicated I was, he might as well let me train, right? I must have annoyed the shit out of him, but it worked out alright in the end, because by 13 I was teaching most of the classes for him.
Even at that age I loved the chance to communicate and convey ideas and techniques about this craft that I was so unbelievably passionate about. I simply couldn’t get enough. Being at training was all I could think about. Thankfully I’ve always comfortably been a straight A student at school, so my parents never had any leverage to curtail my comprehensive training schedule. By 15 I had already achieved multiple senior black belts, and was boxing competitively. I was the primary pad holder for the fighters in the gym, not to mention the sparring partner for pretty much everyone. I regularly got the shit kicked out of me by talented adult fighters, and I demanded nothing less. I knew I was learning, and it was making me better. I was addicted to the progress.
It was around this time that I realized that this was how I wanted to spend my life.
When I was 15 I had a vision that one day I would own my dream gym. A sanctuary that existed independent of the rest of the world, filled with every bit of equipment that I needed to be the best athlete I could be. A compound where I could go to war with myself every day, surrounded by athletes who fought the good fight alongside me. A place where nothing else existed, no politics, no dramas, no false pretenses. The only thing that matters within these four walls is the struggle, so shut the fuck up and train. For over 20 years, and I admit that it’s been somewhat self serving, what I’ve done is built a gym that I wanted to train at. The culture, the equipment, the training, my logic has always been that if I create a place that I love, then other people that think like me will love it too. Thankfully I have been right about that, and its allowed me to share my passion with literally hundreds and hundreds of like minded individuals. My gyms have never suited everyone, but for the people that identify with my mindset, it couldn't be a better fit.
ThreePointZero is my dream come true. The path has been long and challenging, but unlike Kickfit Lifestyle Solutions, where I ran for 13 years in Dandenong, or PTC Rowville where I ran for 8 more years, opening this facility truly felt like the destination, not the journey. I feel like I’ve spent the last 21 years building houses, but at ThreePointZero, I have built a home.
Yours in strength,
Dan America