John McGrath

John McGrath is an Irish rower, vegetarian, high-performance motivational speaker, sports conditioning coach, gym owner, Cross-Fit enthusiast, multiple black belt holder in five styles of martial arts and one of the world’s last performing strongmen.

John has a proven method for unlocking greatness. Through sheer force and control of his mind he’s been able to perform feats deemed to be impossible, earning him the moniker - The Last Strongman of Africa. In that same vein he’s been able to coach and impact athletes and business people alike - demolishing self-confining mental boundaries, propelling clients out from lethargic mediocrity and onto claiming excellence for themselves.

He is available for speaking engagements, team building events as well as one-on-one coaching sessions. He can work with you to help you to achieve performance and business excellence, motivate your staff and customers, inspire you and change how you view yourself within a few minutes.

John believes that everyone has genius - it’s his purpose to help unlock it. Essentially everyone is born to do something at a world class level. His vision and motivation that keeps him going is his aim of positively impacting a million people in his lifetime.

He has inspired many through his unique approach to motivational and performance coaching, working mainly with athletes and industry leaders in South Africa, which he now calls his home.

He recently received recognition for mentoring South African long-jumper and Rio Olympics silver medalist, Luvo Manyonga. Luvo’s journey to the medals podium has been fraught with drama and heartache. Addicted to methamphetamine but bursting with natural sporting talent, John worked with Luvo to get him back on track and change his life for the better.

Motivational Speaking

John’s blend of motivational speaking includes snippets of his childhood and sporting career and his unassailable belief and conviction in excellence.

The key to unlocking this excellence lies in making the choice to willingly submit to the intense transformational forging of ruthless, goal-focused discipline to strengthen and sharpen both body and mind, from the inside out.

The corporate world can be directly likened to the world of sport, where the very same foundational principles of high performance as an athlete and team apply to achieving business excellence as an individual and company.

Corporate Motivation​

John’s corporate training and motivation draw on his unique philosophy and modus operandi of forging elite corporate fitness through building inner and outer strength in a way which is effective, sustainable and individualised; by employing our unique abilities, acquiring new, advanced skills, and daily working with tenacity, commitment, passion and endurance.

He lays down this powerful blueprint for corporates in team-building scenarios and key-note talks, igniting within us with the spark to set our vision aflame and light the winning way forward for ourselves, our employees and clients – equipping us with the guaranteed knowledge on which progress, success and excellence is built and achieved.

Africa's last performing strongman

Man’s existential obsession with those who possess extraordinary strength is an ancient and persistent one. Harnessing of the power of the mind has always intrigued John and he’s been fascinated with the ‘Old Time Strongmen’ and the intriguing Victorian phenomenon of ‘Vaudeville’ – a bohemian theatrical genre of extreme, bizarre and exotic ‘variety entertainment’.

This consisted of the performance of feats of strength by famed Strongmen along with contortionists, bearded ladies, burlesque, comics, trapeze artists, magicians, fire eaters and musicians.

John has demonstrated incredible and hard-core feats of strength through harnessing the power of his mind. He bends thick iron bars using his teeth and arms, tears telephone directories and packs of cards in half as well as other feats of strength using weights and his brute strength and perseverance.

Approach and principles

His work with organisations and individuals involves the application of the martial arts principles such as respect, discipline, hard work, sacrifice, patience, self discovery, dedication and humility - all aspects he’s employed during his sporting and mental feats.

Personal ongoing development and achievement requires relentless discipline, deep study, heart and dedication with self-discovery emerging along the path. He practices what he preaches.

One of a series of success tools John uses is goal-setting which he bases on the belting system of martial arts where the ultimate goal is divided into smaller, realistically achievable goals. Another martial arts concept John demonstrates through the ‘breaking arts’ is the breaking of barriers – particularly the fear-based, self-limiting beliefs that hold us back from achieving our authentic potential.