The Institute Muay Thai Keansburg, New Jersey The Institute Muay Thai Mike Burke 45 Car Ave Keansburg, New Jersey The Institute Muay Thai Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Teaminstitute/ The Institute Muay Thai's official website https://www.theinstitutemuaythai.com/ The Institute Muay Thai's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theinstitutemuaythaigym/?hl=en We have been training fighters for 5 years. We've only been in our facility since Jan of 2017. We were subleasing space in other gyms, wrestling gyms, boxing gyms, mma gyms for years. Its great to finally have our own Head Quarters now. We are first and foremost a Muay Thai Gym. Though we have expanded and added to the schedule, a boxing program, spearheaded by local pro boxing standout, Hakim Bryant. We started a wrestling club called Bayshore Wrestling Club, that is ran by Coaches who specialize in wrestling, such as Johnny Pecyna and Mat Rosner. One of our top fighters, Malcolm Hill is a very well schooled S&C trainer, he leads our strength and conditioning program, and he is doing a hell of a job! Malcolm also really goes out of his way to help teach the next generation of fighters, he is going to be an amazing head coach when hes done fighting. (hopefully will be fighting for a very long time) We have our sights set on starting a jujitsu program in early 2018. I am very stoked about that. Our Instructors are as follows Muay Thai Mike Burke Frank Wells Eric Jung Both Frank and Eric are very successful ammy fighters. Eric is the current USMTA 160lb full rules champ, and I think will be a very complete pro as soon as he wants to make that jump. Eric is an amazing talent, very technical. Frank is the former Warriors Cup 155lb champ, and 2016 WKA USA Team member, competing at worlds. (And by the time this interview goes to print Frank might hold 2 more belts! He is staying busy) Frank will be a very successful ro in both Muay Thai and MMA Malcom Hill is our strength and Conditioning Coach and widely considered one of the best 140lb fighters on the East Coast. He will be an incredible pro. The origins of the gym. We started as a group of rag tag novices renting mat space of local gyms. I spent every waking minute trying to become the best coach I could. I had amazing mentors, John Potenza of Modern Martial Arts, and Chris Tran of Weapons9 Muay Thai. Those two guys really helped in my coaching development. The Institute became official when we started putting guys on shows like Friday Night Fights and The Warriors Cup. And competing in national and world tournaments sanctioned by WKA! New guys/gals started joining the team after our initial success, and we never looked back. I still consider us in our infancy stage right now. We opened our own gym just 8 months ago, and none of our home grown fighters are even pro yet. So Looking at it from that perspective, we have such amazing potential, to be a major force on the scene in the next 5 years. Top Fighters : I mentioned three of our top guys earlier. But we have a really stacked team. Most started with us, never having really trained or fought anywhere before and some experienced fighters have joined the family throughout the years. Three of our standout veteran fighters, Chris Berrocal, Nicole Richusa, and John Esposito are such vital parts of this team. Not only are they extremely talented fighters, they are great leaders. They provide leadership and mentoring to the younger guys/gals, #TeamNextGen, that you can only get from people who have been in the ring as much as they have. Chris and Nichole both relocated and joined up with us from other teams a couple years ago. They were both very well trained, and we were very lucky they chose us to call home. I am leaving out so many good, talented fighters we have. Training Methods: Lots of pain, mixed in with some archaic torture practices, sprinkled with lots of love. I think that sums up our method of training. What makes our gym unique? Everything I want to say sounds so cliche, family, bonds, love, team, all the things that every other gym owner would say. But The one thing that I think truly stands out in our gym, how much every single person truly cares about the success of the fight team, the fitness enthusiasts, the kids, just the program as a whole! We have had some bumps in the road, but experience in life has shown me, as long as you are working hard, with integrity, you will attract the right people and be surrounded by like minded individuals. And that's what this team is ultimately about, moving together in the right direction, with one common goal, TOTAL DOMINATION. I just want to say thank you to all the members of The Institute Gym. Whether you are in the Ladies Only Fitness program, Little Guy Muay Thai, or if you are in the 6pm fitness classes grinding out every day trying to lose weight, or crush other fitness goals. Every single person that walks through that door every day, makes us who we are! Our fight team gets all the attention, but EVERY member of this gym is equally as important to the culture we have created. Thank you, I love you guys! past gyms