COACH/FOUNDER: STEVE BROOME

I first heard of Muay Thai from a friend and went with him to our local club. It was called Petch Yin Dee and was run by a man called Nic Hewitson.

He claimed to be a former undefeated world champion. I was impressed and couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have such a good club in my home town.

I trained for a couple of years taking gradings along the way also travelling to seminars assisting Nic teach. A year or two later he emigrated to America leaving myself and a few of the senior members to take over the running of the club.

At this point I decided to travel to Thailand first to the North and then Fairtex Bangkok, It was there I  developed my understanding of the sport and a whole new way of training. I suppose this is where my suspicions started, I realised we were missing some serious elements of Muay Thai and upon my return I started to look elsewhere. I found a gym in Rugeley and travelled over a few nights a week, training alongside some of the Country’s top fighters.

A few years later I was horrified to read an exposé on my former Kru outing him as a fraud, his claims of 150 undefeated Thai fights were fabricated with no one ever seeing him fight on a UK show. Unfortunately due to travelling I had returned to  the rebranded club who were following the same path exaggerating their authenticity.

I decided to leave and set up my own gym, I went back to train with Tony in Rugeley and qualified as a judge.

My hard work has paid off, we have a good stable of fighters competing and are the only gym in Telford recognised by the United Kingdom Muay Thai Federation and the English Muay Thai Federation.

I am grateful that I have seen both sides of Muay Thai, It has made me more determined to get the best for my students.