Elite MMA Shirt Club: August
Elite MMA Shirt Club is an exclusive service, offering its members a unique tee from a prominent MMA gym worldwide.
Elite MMA Shirt Club is an exclusive service, offering its members a unique tee from a prominent MMA gym worldwide. Their goal when starting the Elite club was not to be another t-shirt gimmick, but a company for true fans that appreciate where the sport came from. The fighters that grace the octagon don’t just decide one day to be a fighter. It all begins in a gym.
ELITE MMA SHIRT CLUB (FEATURED GYM OF THE MONTH – August 2014)
We are proud to feature our first MMA gym from Coconut Creek, Florida, Strike Gym! Coconut Creek, the Butterfly Capital of the World, is a well-planned city with a unique environmental consciousness nestled between Miami and Palm Beach. Spotlighted as one of the Best Cities to Live in America by Money Magazine, Coconut Creek is home to 55,000 residents and supports a diverse, growing business community. This is what drew owner Chris Holloway to move to the US in 1998 from South Africa.
According to Chris he has always had a love for contact sports. During our interview with Chris he stated I always had a passion for the old school sport of boxing and loved watching the 80’s & 90’s greats like Holyfield, Hagler, Tyson, Leonard, Spinks and others. Shortly after moving to Deerfield Beach around 2001, I joined a small boxing / fitness gym where I saw that the members were not your typical ‘boxing gym’ clients. There were a few great fighters and some up and coming fighters but a large percentage were just everyday people wanting to do a different kind of fitness routine, something average gyms didn’t offer.
He went on to say, As a business man with both a successful advertising, marketing and internet business and a large distribution company, I knew the pitfalls of business and how to professionally setup, start and run a business for the long haul. I contacted the very best trainers and coaches from these past facilities and asked them if they wanted to be part of a new type of gym. I was able to secure a good lease on an old blockbuster store. We stripped it out and completely built out the first Strike Gym in a 7500 square foot location in Coconut Creek.
Chris knew that his biggest investment was going to be trainers and coaches so he hired only the very best, and paid a lot more than the going rate at gyms. Along with good trainers you need good programs so he meticulously planned each class and developed his own fitness classes called Strike Fight Conditioning (SFC). This is a mixture of boxing, mma and boot camp conditioning.
After only 18 months he outgrew his first facility. As Chris stated It was a huge success and we were attracting more and higher end clientele who loved the fact that they could train like pros and see real results. As one Strike Gym student reported, he loves Strike Gym because from the moment he wraps his hands (the correct way as taught by our pros), he feels like a bad ass. There is no attitude, no posers, no meat heads, the classes are just hard and tough and when you are done, you really feel like you accomplished something.
In September of 2013 Chris bought his way out of his lease and moved up to a 14,000 square foot location on the border of Parkland, Coconut Creek and Boca Raton. The new location is phenomenal, there is a massive 40 foot high skylight, a 4,000 Square foot workout mat for classes with all the latest workout accessories. Further in you see a 2,200 square foot workout room with floating floor, for kids martial arts, Zumba and some specialty classes. Also located within the new location is a 1600 square foot JiuJitsu caged area for training and 20 foot MMA cage. Along with all the above equipment he added a Parkour / Free Running room, where students are taught all new Parkour programs run by American Ninja Warrior veteran, Blake ’Thor’ Barrett.
Chris credits a lot of his success to his trainers and stated, Our Amazing staff includes Mark Sinopoli, 3 time US and 3 time Canadian Kickboxing Champion, and Cory Spinks, 5 time world boxing champion and son of the legendary Leon Spinks & Nephew of Michael Spinks. Also, Johnny ‘JSizzle Schulz, Masters Boxing Campion, Andre Drummond, highly respected sports specific conditioning coach and Caroline ‘Bubbles’, US Marine Core Trainer. Also on staff if Alfio Colin, US Army Drill Instructor and FAU Exercise Science & Health graduate (doing his Masters), Master Zumba instructor Elsa Vasquez and American Parkour Academy Ambassador and American Ninja Warrior veteran Blake ‘Thor’ Barrett.
As for MMA training they also have professional fighters like Vitor Belfort at their facility training regularly. They also have MMA & wrestling teams that compete on a regular basis.
Besides being a USA Taekwondo Sanctioned Training Facility, Host of Fight Time Promotions, Amateur MMA Tournament and voted best Overall Gym in All South Florida by Local 10 News, Strike Gym has been selected as the location for the Ringside Masters Championship in November 2014. Chris stated We expect over a 100 fighters from all over the world to come compete in this over 35 year old Masters Tournament backed by Ringside boxing.
For more information on the gym follow the links below.
ABOUT US
Elite MMA Shirt Club will reveal a new shirt each month from a top level MMA gym that you may have heard about or may know nothing about at all. You receive the tee, and during the month Elite MMA Shirt Club hopes to educate on the back story of that MMA gym.
