A few years ago I was booked in for hip surgery. Today I coach the method that got me out of it. One of the coaches I certified alongside, Viktor Nikolovski, lives on almost the exact opposite side of the planet, in Syracuse, New York.
This is the short version of how Functional Patterns found me, why I stopped chasing symptoms and started retraining movement, and how a certification course full of strangers turned into a friendship with a coach on the other side of the world.
A surgery date I never wanted
For two years I was in hip pain every single day. I'd done everything "right" (months with physiotherapists, podiatrists, and chiropractors), and by late 2021 my physio was preparing me for surgery. I was an active triathlete with an Ironman finish who loved Olympic weightlifting; this wasn't the body I recognised.
Every approach treated the hip as a part to fix: a muscle to strengthen, a joint to mobilise. None of them asked the bigger question: how is this hip actually supposed to move, load, and behave inside a whole human walking around all day?
Functional Patterns did ask that question. Instead of chasing the spot that hurt, I retrained the inputs (how I stood, breathed, walked, and loaded), and the hip finally had a reason to feel different. I got out of pain and back to living, and I never had the surgery.
Two strangers, 16,000km apart
When I signed up for the Human Biomechanics Specialist course (the HBS1), Viktor and I arranged shared accommodation for it before we'd even met, then met in person in California just before it started. He was born and raised in the US, me in Australia. About as far apart as two people can start.
We both went through the HBS2 course at the same time and were delighted to be doing it together, then went home to opposite sides of the world: Viktor to Syracuse, me to Melbourne, about 16,000 kilometres apart. Here's what stuck with me: we weren't quietly adapting the method to suit local tastes. We teach the same thing, the same way, because it works the same way everywhere.
Wherever you are on the map (Syracuse or Melbourne), gravity pulls the same way and your gait cycle runs the same way. Viktor now runs Syracuse Biomechanics, teaching the same method a hemisphere away.
Why the world is catching on
Functional Patterns didn't grow out of one gym or one charismatic trainer. It's certified practitioners all over the world: people who flew in from different countries to the same courses (that's literally how Viktor and I met), learned the same system, went home to completely different populations, and got the same kinds of results.
When a method only works for one gifted coach in one place, that's a personality. When it works in Melbourne and Syracuse and everywhere else the courses land, that's a method: something repeatable, built on principles rather than marketing.
I changed how I work because I watched this do things nothing in my old toolkit could, for me first, then for my clients. I think it points to a real shift in how we train: away from chasing symptoms, toward treating the body as the connected system it actually is.
You don't have to take our word for it.
The fastest way to understand Functional Patterns is to feel it. You don't have to take the word of two coaches on opposite sides of the world. You can try it, feel the difference in a session or two, and decide for yourself.
If you're near Syracuse, that's where Viktor comes in: start with him at Syracuse Biomechanics. If you're in Melbourne, I'm a short search away. Either way, the invitation's the same: come and try it for yourself.