Cade London
This review was a long time coming! Earlier this month I visited Urban Boxing DC while on a business trip in town. I was staying over at the Fairmont, which is literally a block and a half away from this place, along with a bunch of other convenient hotels downtown. I’ve been training muay thai for about 10 years, and have reached an age where the gas tank isn’t as full as it used to be, and it takes me longer than I want to admit to heal up from normal training injuries. That is to say, I live in both the “too old to deal with egos” world and the “been around long enough to appreciate a great gym” world. That said, here’s my review of Urban Boxing DC:
1) Convenience: Incredibly convenient if you’re staying near foggy bottom. The gym has a really convenient schedule of classes that range from beginner cardio classes to moderate/hard sparring classes, all peppered throughout the week. If you’re strictly aiming to go the nak muay route, the boxing classes may not be your jam. But otherwise, it’s fantastic. 4.5/5
2) Customer Service: I can’t say enough about how impressed I am by the customer service of this place; a perfect score doesn’t do it justice. Before I came into town, I called the gym and asked about options to train just for the week I was there. The guy who runs the place picked up and asked me a few questions about my experience and what I was looking for. He said they have folks come from out of town often, and keep spare gloves and shinpads available to folks who drop in. All you need to bring are your own wraps, and even those you can just buy there. They have a 5-day pass which was reasonably priced, and you could take as many classes as you want in a day.
In my case, I only was able to actually train for 3 of the 5 days, due to my meetings schedule. When I shared this with the gym’s owner, he was like “dude, I’ll cut you a deal” and I got a 3-day pass plus a 1-on-1 coaching session with their muay thai coach. I was floored by how flexible and accommodating he was. Easily 5/5.
3) Training Quality: Starting with the disclaimer that training quality is, to some extent subjective, I was overall pleased with my experience. The beginners’ classes don’t have you working with each other, but rather doing almost entirely heavy bag work, repeating combos and doing calisthenics between “rounds”. If you’re looking for a workout, it’s amazing. If you’re looking for a chance to get padwork in, not so much.
The advanced class was a lot more engaging. I did the Level 2 kickboxing class and it was well paced work in pairs throwing combo for combo, before ending with free sparring rounds. The folks in the class were polite, and the free sparring was controlled.
What I really enjoyed though was my 1-on-1 with Christian Brown, the muay thai coach they have on staff. Christian trains in Thailand and had a TON of insight to share. Where I’m a muay khao fighter, I often struggle with zone 2 forward pressure, especially in a kickboxing ruleset where you can’t clinch or use elbows. Christian had me working on long knees combined with really clever hand traps that I’d not seen before, and it’s proved effective in my sparring since. Overall, I’d give this a 4.5/5.
And that’s my review! The community in the gym is fantastic, and I’d recommend this place to anyone visiting DC, or anyone living in Foggy Bottom who’s looking for a great local gym to workout and train in.
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Posted 2 years ago
