Ciaran has won his second British Title and this time the ICO K1 title against Darren Yendall.

The fight was in Redcar in front of a vociferous crowd cheering on the fighters.

Darren had very strong punches and it was clear from the start that Ciaran would have to keep his wits about him so as to avoid one of those big punches landing. This he did and began to land heavy low kicks on Darren’s lead leg. This took its toll and by the end of the first round it was apparent that the leg was severely weakened.

Darren attacked straight away in the second but Ciaran had a tight guard and soon began to land the low kick again. With his opponent worried about defending the leg Ciaran saw other opportunities to attack and landed punches high kicks and knees until the end of the round.

The third round was almost exclusively one way traffic with Ciaran absolutely dominant clearly taking the fight.

Well done!!

Already in May, a new King, two new bags at the gym, and lots of fights for our athletes to look forward to!!

The year started with lots of new members joining up and starting their journey of fitness and improvement within our club. Meanwhile Ciaran, Nathaniel, and Jack followed Craig to Thailand to train at Tiger Muay Thai and Sinbi Gym.

All of their training went well with them all making great improvements in fitness and skill. Ciaran fought first winning against a thai opponent, and then Nathaniel won three fights on consecutive weekends!! The second fight against a thai opponent with over 100 fights to his name, and the third against an american who featured in Dana White’s contender series.

Back at home we welcomed Sarah Gibbs onto our full time coaching team. She has been training with us for over 25 years and as a former teacher has all the background knowledge to support excellent coaching. She specialises in working with juniors and ladies, and as a former British Champion knows what it takes to get to this level. She also has helped deliver my Self Defence courses and works with some of her clients on developing skill and knowledge in this area.

We now have myself, Ciaran, Nathaniel, Craig, Sarah, and Jack, all delivering top quality coaching at the Skipton Road gym. We have never had this many coaches before and the level of coaching in all aspects of MMA and Muay Thai the highest it has ever been.

Looking forward we have Ciaran & Nathaniel (June 3rd Newcastle), Henry (May 13th Leeds), Joe (May 27th Sheffield), all looking forward to their fights, and on a footnote well done to Freddie for his win on MTGP in London.

For tickets to any of the fights get in touch with me or the fighters.

See you at the gym!

Its been a while since my last post but we have been extremely busy since restarting classes. We have had many new starters who are enjoying their progress during our regular and private sessions, whilst our existing members have completed gradings, interclubs, and competitions.

This weekend we have Ciaran and Nathaniel fighting at the Magna Centre on the KGP show. This promotion is one of the biggest with links to One Championship and will be a great showcase for our fighters who will be facing good opponents. I’ll post again with results.

At the gym we have continued to add to our excellent gym equipment including a new bag station, new ring floor cover, Bulgarian Bags, and Resistance Bands. We have also added our original catch phrase to the top of the wall..”Positive Thoughts Positive Actions”! Those of you who still have our tshirts from 25 years ago will know this well!

We have started to do a 4 week Beginner Course for new starters which has proved very popular. The next one starts on Friday 30th September at 8.15pm so sign up now via the website if you’d like to join us.

See you soon!

We are delighted to announce we will be starting to deliver one to one training sessions from August 1st! Things will be a little bit different due to the Covid threat but payments can now be made in advance via the new website shop! Get in touch soon to book your session.

We have a new automatic hand sanitizing station in the hallway, as well as hand wipes to sanitize any equipment used during the sessions. Half an hour will be left in between sessions to clean equipment and floor etc, and the air conditioning unit which will keep fresh air running through the gym. We have face shields for the coaches and there is a maximum of 4 people in the gym at one time.

As well as one to ones we are very close to being able to start an outdoor fitness session which will be on a Wednesday night. Just waiting for the final go ahead from the venue, and if demand is great enough we will look at another night too.

It’ll be great to get back in the gym helping you all achieve your goals!

Just over a two weeks ago we got the devastating news of the sudden passing away of Grand Master Kevin Lloyd. Along with Grand Master Woody he was one of the pioneers of amateur Muay Thai and Muay Boran in the UK. He headed the England Muay Thai Federation and held many senior positions in Muay Thai and Muay Boran governing bodies including the Kru Muay Thai Association and World Muay Thai Organisation.

He ran many seminars around the World as well as working closely with our Head Coach Pierre Mahon. He has known Pierre for 25 years, and as well as grading many of our members and instructors, he recommended Pierre for his 14th Khan Master which was awarded by Grand Master Woody from the Kru Muay Thai Association.

GMK left a lasting legacy in the world of Muay Thai which he can be very proud of.

Our thoughts are with his wife Jess and the rest of his family, and everyone at Siam Camp past and present.

From the day we opened our doors after the Christmas break, unprecedented numbers of trainees were embarking on their  journeys with Kao Loi!  It was a very exciting time with both our Participation base increasing and our Performers making significant improvements to their skill levels.

We also had a growing number of volunteers helping to develop our juniors. Many thanks go to Gareth, Damian, Oliver, Ciaran, Craig, Sarah, Fraser, Mike, Paul, and Jack who have all been a great help in this regard. It was plain to see that with this extra help the juniors were all improving quickly.

Ciaran was our only athlete to compete in the first quarter of the year taking a terrific stoppage win in a K1 bout in London against a very strong opponent from the Knowlesy Academy. The local fighter started very strongly but Ciaran began to break him down using front kicks and sharp boxing. By the middle of the second round the writing was on the wall when Ciaran landed a heavy roundhouse to the head followed by jump knee and heavy body shot. This set up the finish which came via a front kick to the face dropping his opponent for the count.

In April 3 of our fighters, Ciaran, Craig, and Nathaniel were due to compete but…Lockdown!

So now it seems that both Participation level and Performers will not be able to train until further notice.

We are hoping that the situation will improve sooner rather than later and we are already working on ways that we can make access to the gym as safe as possible when the government give the go ahead.

In the early days of the lockdown I put lots of posts on the Kao Loi Facebook page with stars of Muay Thai in action, exercises to do at home, amazing sports stories, and videos of Blue training at home! If you haven’t seen them already please like the page and scroll back through them.

Making the most of the lockdown, all of our volunteers have completed an online Safeguarding and Protecting children course, and we are looking for more opportunities for continuing professional developmental learning.

Also I have been making a teaching video series that can be used at home by people interested in Muay Thai Grading. The picture at the top shows the Grade levels and working from level 1 upwards has been a very rewarding process for me which I would recommend to anyone interested in Muay Thai or Boran. For more information please see our websites page on Grading

To get going on this most rewarding path, please contact me here.

Hopefully we will all be able to meet up soon and in the meantime stay safe and do what you can to keep fit.

Well in short…It’s been busy!!

Our First Timers sessions have been attended by many people throughout the year. Most have been coming along to see what we get up to, and others have become regular members who have committed themselves to a path of learning and self improvement within the club.

Continue reading 2019 Review →

Welcome to 2019 and I hope you’ve all had as good a Christmas with your families as I did!

It’s going to be another busy year at Kao Loi! We are delighted to again have the support of our sponsors K9 Patrol for the coming year. Many thanks to Lee and Kate for their ongoing support.

Classes and personal training sessions restart on Monday 7th January, starting with Juniors at 5pm, Fat Buster at 6pm, Pad Blaster at 7.10pm, followed by Sparring and no gi rolling at 8.10pm. Something for everyone!

If you’d like to book a personal session please get in touch.

We have already matched most of our fight team in February and March. Ciaran fights pro K1 in Warrington on February 17th, and we hope also to get Nathaniel matched on the same show. Then Harry and Craig both fight pro MMA on the Almighty Fighting Championships in Leeds on 23rd March. They are sure to be excellent events so get in touch if you’d like to reserve tickets.

I look forward to seeing you on Monday and once again..Happy New Year!

Our fight team has had an exciting first half of the year with more great nights for the club coming up.

Ciaran Smith has represented the club twice, winning in York, and then on the highest of stages fighting on the undercard of Glory 54 in Birmingham. Ciaran acquitted himself well but lost on points but learnt a lot from the fight.

Craig Skelton has fought twice on the Almighty Fighting Championship and registered two first round stoppages. He will now make his professional debut in November.

Jason Roberts made his fight debut during his 6 month training trip to Thailand. He could not get an amateur MMA fight so took a Thai fight against an experienced Thai fighter. He competed well but then received a blow to the eye which restricted his vision and had to retire.

Harry Ettridge has been training in LA with Uriah Faber at Team Alpha Male, and on his return made his pro debut on the same AFC bill as Craig. He also won after his opponents corner pulled their fighter out after the first round. He will be back in action soon and is looking forward to returning to LA for another training camp.