KC Muay Thai

I first heard about KC from a friend out here, I told him I was thinking about switching gym and he said his mate was training at a new place close to where I worked. I thought it was strange that I hadn’t heard about it before but he guaranteed me the training was top notch.

The gym is run by Kevin and Chun hence the name. It was recently opened over the summer and is just 5 minutes down Hang Dong. When I first arrived I thought the place was great but that I should hold out on writing a review until I had spent more time there, well now I’ve been here a few months and let me tell you this place doesn’t disappoint.

The people

Kevin is a sound bloke from Essex, he’s been involved in muay thai for quite awhile and has spent a considerable amount of time training in Thailand. A few year’s ago he opened his own gym in Spain and had Chun come from Thailand to teach at it. Unfortunately, there was a lot of time involved in sorting out a work permit and it took the better part of a year before he actually made it over. It was then Kev realized “fuck, opening a gym in Thailand would probably be heaps easier” and so KC was born.

Chun is a concentrated ball of energy and enthusiasm. He’s worked abroad so much it’s hard to detect his Thai accent when he speaks English. This guy is exceptionally motivated about running his gym. He’s constantly looking for ways to improve it. After most sessions he will ask how your training/trainer was, if there is anything you wanted to know. He’ll urge you to come to him with any concerns or requests. It’s refreshing.

I have been working mostly with him as I found we work well together. He is an unrelenting little monster on the pads and while sparring. He has a pleasant habit of calling out what he does while sparring, for example “Teep” followed by his foot being planted firmly between your gallbladder and stomach.

The Gym

All the equipment is brand spanking, fresh leather smelling, new, as is the entire gym actually. Its a large open air facility, all the floors are lined with mats, there’s plenty of bags for everyone, a good selection of weights, heaps of big fat ropes. Also, the gym offers accommodation and meals for fairly decent price.

The training

The biggest difference I noticed with the training here is the structure, sessions start when they are scheduled and you get worked until they finish. They generally last between 2 to 2.5 hours and one thing I absolutely love is that there is sparring and clinching every day without fail, although this can lead to a little wear and tear on the face and legs. I’m pretty sure I have been sporting some form of black eye ever since I started here.

Chun runs every session. He energetically paces the gym with a stopwatch swinging from his neck. There is a structure to each session that and he’ll make sure your not slacking off for any of it. He’ll shadow box beside you encouraging you, showing you things you can try or do differently.

Each session is composed of roughly a 4km run, 15 minutes of skipping, 3 rounds of shadow boxing, sparring (this alternates between western and Thai boxing each day), pad work, bag work and finished up with clinching. Though this does change, some days you’ll be made spar more or your trainer will focus on specific techniques with you. But whats important is that there’s a steady level of intensity maintained in the gym throughout each session. There is no hanging out by the water cooler or chatting with your mates. The session is run by the clock so the only breaks you get are those between each interval.

The trainers are a good bunch of genuine guys. When I first got there I did pads with each of them and found that they each had there own styles to offer. Doi and Det are pretty big so they tend to work with the larger guys here. Kev spends a lot of his time focusing on the Thais while Chun floats between everyone.

What I think sets this gym apart from others is the hunger of those that run it to make it a success. As it’s only starting out everyone involved is trying hard to build its reputation. I like that Chun and Kev seem to have merged the high  standard of training at a Thai gym with the efficiencies of a western one. By this I mean the structure, it is not a matter of showing up getting your time on the pads and then figuring the rest out yourself, you are made work throughout each session. Once skipping is finished you have wraps thrust at you while being constantly urged into the ring to start shadow boxing, there is no  sitting around until the work is finished. It seems like Chai Yai and Lanna have had a monopoly in Chiang Mai for many years but I think KC is going to start making a big dent in that over the next few years. The people are genuine, the training is consistent and the quality of the fighter is high. If your in Chiang Mai the place is certainly worth checking out.

Born in Australia, training in martial arts since the age of 9. My first trip to Thailand was back in 2007. Since then i have made numerous visits back to the "land of smiles" to feed my addiction of Muay Thai. During the month of November in 2010 i had to decide between working a 9 to 5 job back home for the rest of my life, or sell all my worldly possessions and move to Thailand to live and train for the next few years. Thankfully i chose the latter. I now spend my time training Muay Thai, meeting new and interesting circles of people, sipping coconuts under palm trees on the beach and measuring the cost of everything on how much Pad Thai i could buy with that money.

Mike (Admin)

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