MEET THE TEAM
Liam Tamejen Gillespie
Liam is our Cape Town gym manager. He is a trained professional dancer based in Cape Town and has been dancing, performing and choreographing for 6 years. He has also been boxing since 2016.
His choreography and performance background has taken him around the world. Some notable achievements are working on choreography and performing in the hit Netflix movie The Kissing Booth and working with Tailormade group for Nedbank Cup and Disney Plus.
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As someone whose entire professional career has been dedicated to staying in peak physical condition for his craft, Liam has enjoyed the transition into coaching and growing his understanding of the human body.
Liam heads up the team and the space in Cape Town, and is looking forward to seeing you in the gym. Although he is very much involved in the behind the scenes of The Fort CT, he isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and can often be found taking a client for a conditioning session or in the boxing ring holding pads.
Max du Toit
Max is one of our excellent boxing coaches (Cape Town Fort) and just an all round awesome human being.
Education:
School of Hard Knocks.
Why I got involved in the industry:
My best friend and I were trying to balance out the fact that we were in drama school and spent most of our days in tights. And then, like everyone, we got hooked (no pun intended).
Particular field of expertise:
Boxing I guess. I’d say I favour the conditioning & fitness around boxing more, purely because it’s the only kind of exercise that I ever found enjoyable. But the technical side of boxing is fast becoming an obsession the more I learn.
Experience:
Max has been boxing since 2012.
Highlights of the job :
Sounds cliché, but mostly when people tell me how much boxing has become a necessity in their week, not for the physical health, but the mental. Never gets old hearing I help make people happy.
Nickname: No-one would dare. You shall address me as Max or Coach.
Hobbies: Doom scrolling, keeping the voices at bay, Mall Santa, Being a fucking legend, surfing.
Tayla Faulmann
Tayla is highly qualified with a BSc Sport Science, BSc Hons Physiology and MSc Neuromuscular Physiology. She has 9 years coaching experience in fitness/sport and 5 years experience in clinical physical therapy.
She has always been intrigued and fascinated by what the human body is capable of. Working with a wide array of individuals with training objectives - that range from learning how to walk pain free, to optimising peak performance - has allowed her to explore and put the theory into practice.
She specialises in sport-specific strength and conditioning, Integrative Neuromuscular Training, Barbell-based training (weightlifting/power lifting) and rehab/prehab
A few of her career highlights include:
Protea colours in Surf Lifesaving (2019)
Graduating with a Master's Cum Laude (2018)
Presented skeletal muscle research at Symposium in Slovenia (2017)
Tayla Faulmann
Simon Sender
​Simon Sender, affectionately known as ‘The Birmingham Bliksem’ in homage to his hometown, Birmingham, England, has immersed himself in the world of fitness and combat sports for over two decades.
His journey commenced with Wing Chun Kung Fu and Tai Chi as a student in London under Sifu Andrew Sofos, sparking a lifelong passion.
Boxing soon became another love, captivating Simon with its physical demands and the pursuit of self-improvement it embodies.
For Simon, personal training is more than just physical transformation; it's a visceral commitment to progress measured in sweat and incremental gains in speed, strength, and power.
His expertise lies in fitness coaching, particularly specializing in boxing. Despite starting late in his late 20s, Simon competed as an amateur, accumulating a commendable record of 7 wins, 2 losses, and 1 draw across 10 fights.
Simon balances his athletic pursuits with hobbies such as running, reading, history podcasts, hiking and cold swims.