Secret Lives: Analyst by day, kickboxer by night

Chris Kite, senior data analyst for the OhioHealth supply chain, is more than just a numbers guy. For almost six years, Chris has been teaching people to jab, sweep and kick their way to better health as a kickboxing instructor in Dublin.

The 30-year-old got hooked on the sport after joining a kickboxing and martial arts gym several years ago. He’d tried other forms of exercise, such as running and lifting weights, but always got bored.

Kickboxing was different, he says.

“I was constantly learning something new. The classes were high energy, high impact, just a lot of fun,” Chris says. “I walked in the door as a 130-pound stick, and within the first year and a half, put on 35 pounds of muscle. It completely changed who I was.”

Six months after he began the classes, one of the gym’s owners approached Chris to ask if he wanted to teach.

“My jaw hit the floor,” Chris recalls. “I didn’t believe what I was hearing.” After some in-house training, Chris became a kickboxing instructor. He also worked to become a Level 3 Krav Maga Alliance-certified instructor, having traveled to schools around the country to receive training and certification. Krav Maga is the official defense tactics system of the Israeli Defense Force.

Chris now teaches several times a week. He says he’s become a confident instructor and presenter, both at the gym and in his day job. Best of all, he says, “I get to do what I love.”

Secret Lives is an ongoing series that shares the unusual past careers and unique hobbies of OhioHealth associates, physicians, and volunteers.