Who are the best trainers in kickboxing?

This is a good question, I would like to piggy back on it and ask:

Who are the best current coaches for muay thai/kickboxing in the US?
Eric Haycraft in Louisville is one of the best IMO.
 


trained under Harinck and loved it

also trained with Hoost and he turned out to be a super nice guy
 
Thom Harinck of Chakuriki and Jan Plans and Manaart of Mejiro are the best.
 
Diesel from FA Group

He brought up Petchboonchu who went on to become the most angularly decorated fighter or all time.

He even won the award in Thailand for "Trainer of the "Year back in 2014
 
This thread deserves a boost since the last comment is 3 years old. It seems that Mike`s Gym is the most popular out there. If I am correct, his first gym burned down due to a fire and later it was rebuilt or he relocated. The new gym is really big and modern in my view, it means that he invested a lot of money in it. Also he merged with Vos Gym. Now, it is a big business: BJJ, boxing, kick boxing, weight training you name it. I believe Melvin Manhoef works with him. Mike also wrote an autobiography about himself. It was promoted till recently. I wonder why he is not regarded as one of the best trainers in this forum? He trained Saki, Badr, Manhoef, Groenhart etc.
P.S. Is it true that Groenhart does not train there anymore??

Another interesting gym is the Bonjasky Academy. He opened his second Gym in the Netherlands. He invested a lot of money also. However, while he may be a good trainer (?), the other guys who are training there are very young and presumably lack experience. Also, Bonjasky was never able to com up with a realy good fighter after Danio Ilunga. His guy also lost big time in Romania against Gafencu. His team did win though against team Morosanu in a gala in Romania.

I respect Tom Harinck very much. He can be considered one of the founding father of dutch kickboxing, which became the standard European style of kickboxing. I`ve heard that he opened some Gyms in Germany under the name of Chakuriki, as a franchise. He is getting old unfortunately, he passed 70, so at this point I don`t know how long will stay in the business. Does he still train? His former student, Peter Aerts also opened a gym. He still has contacts in Japan and he promotes his students there. I am not aware of any major win by his pupils...
 
I wonder why he is not regarded as one of the best trainers in this forum?
Most of us think he ruined the fighters that he trained by making them simplistic head hunting bumswingers just going for the KO with their hands and taking away their versatility.
 
Hmmm... I`m not sure I agree with that. Look at his most popular pupil, Hari. He sort of revolutionized (maybe it is not the best word) K-1 by having a very aggressive style, based primarily on handwork. And yet one of his favorite move is/was the Leko buster. He TKO-d Overeem with a kick in their second fight (after a punch knockdown). Groenhart is very active with his legs also. But returning to Badr, he is a fighter with a good level changing abilities. Just look at the second fight with Gerges. He won the fight due to his punches in the stomach. Otherwise Hesdy would have won imo.

The aggressive hand technique was also used by Saki. I must admit, I was very impressed by him especially in the second fight against Daniel Ghita when he TKO-d him with an insane 7-8 punch combination. The thing is, aggressive technique will prevail in most cases against technical fighters (like Hoost for example) if the aggressive fighter is well trained and has a good fighting I.Q.
 
When I used to fight years ago, I almost always was in the locker room with Lucien for some reason. He used to be the man and had Spong as his main pupil.

I believe his gym one day burnt down but I haven't heard much of him lately. Whatever happened to him?
 
What about Rico`s trainer, Denis Krauweel?
 
This thread deserves a boost since the last comment is 3 years old. It seems that Mike`s Gym is the most popular out there. If I am correct, his first gym burned down due to a fire and later it was rebuilt or he relocated. The new gym is really big and modern in my view, it means that he invested a lot of money in it. Also he merged with Vos Gym. Now, it is a big business: BJJ, boxing, kick boxing, weight training you name it. I believe Melvin Manhoef works with him. Mike also wrote an autobiography about himself. It was promoted till recently. I wonder why he is not regarded as one of the best trainers in this forum? He trained Saki, Badr, Manhoef, Groenhart etc.
P.S. Is it true that Groenhart does not train there anymore??

Another interesting gym is the Bonjasky Academy. He opened his second Gym in the Netherlands. He invested a lot of money also. However, while he may be a good trainer (?), the other guys who are training there are very young and presumably lack experience. Also, Bonjasky was never able to com up with a realy good fighter after Danio Ilunga. His guy also lost big time in Romania against Gafencu. His team did win though against team Morosanu in a gala in Romania.

I respect Tom Harinck very much. He can be considered one of the founding father of dutch kickboxing, which became the standard European style of kickboxing. I`ve heard that he opened some Gyms in Germany under the name of Chakuriki, as a franchise. He is getting old unfortunately, he passed 70, so at this point I don`t know how long will stay in the business. Does he still train? His former student, Peter Aerts also opened a gym. He still has contacts in Japan and he promotes his students there. I am not aware of any major win by his pupils...

Bonjasky"s and Aerts" pupils were losing big in Romania to guys like Gafencu and Cozmâncă. I think of Hoost also. Not sure why they"re not producing anything. I think Schilt also trains if I"m not wrong.

One of most known and rising coach in the Netherlands now is Mikael Polanen. He launched Khbabez and Eersel at ARJ Trainingen, also acquired Londt and Cătinaș now. It seems that many want to work with him. Hasan Toy and Marco Pique are also there. This Polanen is co-promoter in Romania for Golden Fighter Championship, kind of 4th promotion as level of importance in the country but 1st tier in Romania alongside another 3 (DYNAMITE, COLLOSEUM and Oss Fighters - all that split from the dissolution of the SUPERKOMBAT).

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Another good coach now is Andrey Gridin of Chinuk Gym/Gridin Gym from Minsk, Belarus. This guy brought many times guys at Superkombat. From Igor Bugaenko who reached #3 in the middleweight division to Roman Kryklia and Zabit Samedov. Fighting outside Romania was Chingiz Allazov. Not sure though Samedov was under him or under another coach there at Chinuk. But Chinuk Gym is one of the greatest gyms in Eastern Europe. Others are at Odessa, Ukraine from where Zhuravlev comes, and Scorpions Iași in Romania (where there is a great crew, from Moroșanu and Ciobanu, to Cozmâncă, Lambagiu, Lătescu and Năstase, but Chinuk Gym is very international and the level of sparring is better; still, Scorpions is growing but Chinuk was also growing). Before in Chinuk were also Ignashov, Gur, Magomed Magomedov, Akhramenko or Bessmertny. And others.

gridin.jpg


What about Rico`s trainer, Denis Krauweel?

I don"t like his work with Adegbuyi. At Superpro also trains Arnaldo Silva. Besides they only have Dexter Suisse.

Whoever the big, fat Chinese guy is who works as the trainer at Da Dongxiang gym. I think pretty much every notable Chinese kickboxer has come from there; QJL and Wei Rui both did.

I think China has a NT. He should be the head of the squad.
 
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Sometimes you must also have the talent. And to form a great crew.

Other good coaches and already known are also Ivan Hippolyte (Vos Gym, brought the Spaniards Jorge Loren and especially the lesser talent Frank Munoz to great achievements, has also trained Gerges, Khamal, Rozenstruik, Stevelmans, etc). Andre Mannart, even Rayen Simson. And I think Lucien Carbin at least has associated his name with one of the greatest kickboxers. Not sure how many did he form, but probably many also. He is at the level of Harinck. Probably Thom Harinck is one of the greatest if not the greatest.

Hmmm... I`m not sure I agree with that. Look at his most popular pupil, Hari. He sort of revolutionized (maybe it is not the best word) K-1 by having a very aggressive style, based primarily on handwork. And yet one of his favorite move is/was the Leko buster. He TKO-d Overeem with a kick in their second fight (after a punch knockdown). Groenhart is very active with his legs also. But returning to Badr, he is a fighter with a good level changing abilities. Just look at the second fight with Gerges. He won the fight due to his punches in the stomach. Otherwise Hesdy would have won imo.

The aggressive hand technique was also used by Saki. I must admit, I was very impressed by him especially in the second fight against Daniel Ghita when he TKO-d him with an insane 7-8 punch combination. The thing is, aggressive technique will prevail in most cases against technical fighters (like Hoost for example) if the aggressive fighter is well trained and has a good fighting I.Q.

Kickboxing is changed plus has been changed since about 2-3 decades ago already. Sure he had great results with Badr Hari and even Murthel Groenhart, but many experts have blamed him for not so technical style. Mihai Constantin of Scorpions here, even though a former boxing coach, also has this limit. You can"t just go forward. Look at Ruben Stoia (boxing coach), he did great work with Gafencu in terms of boxing. In the Netherlands I guess they have written books, and they have added stuff now since decades. Mike is a great coach but he is probably not the best. Or at least not yet. I think he was a bartender before?! I read that somewhere.

Plus Badr and others were associated to doping and syringes, injections.

Kickboxing is both hands and legs, not just hands, and technical boxing. Plus tactics of course.

What I saw live, there were Harinck"s leg kicks and the determination with which Carbin"s athletes hit (they were more technical than in Mike"s Gym, even though not sure the most technical). But stuff that I liked and I would borrow them if I woul be a coach. And if you think the level of sparring at Mike Passenier is high, then see Carbin"s factory that is insane. Or at least when they used to have a great crew.

The aggressive hand technique was also used by Saki. I must admit, I was very impressed by him especially in the second fight against Daniel Ghita when he TKO-d him with an insane 7-8 punch combination. The thing is, aggressive technique will prevail in most cases against technical fighters (like Hoost for example) if the aggressive fighter is well trained and has a good fighting I.Q.

Against an injured Ghiță. And Saki was a special case. Maybe with some reach would have beaten most of the elite.
 
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Did Ghita realy injured himself in the fall? I had always the impression that it was a trick to fool Saki to use his kicks rather than his punches (which were blazing fast and were a real danger against a slower Ghita) or to expose himself more. Saki did kick for three times consecutively his arm without any perceivable damage...
 
Ghiță got injured badly, just look at his hand! And the Dutch clown Ubeda not only does not disqualify Saki according to the rules (illegal sweep, non-kickboxing procedure), but also counts Ghiță. The most retarded referee, he and the Moroccan from the former It"s Showtime promotion! And Glory were awful, this mistake should have turned the fight into a No Contest, not just to fire Ubeda. Ubeda destroyed Ghiță vs. Schilt, Ghiță vs. Saki and several matches in the Netherlands (with the Moroccan also).

Cezar Gheorghe is a god compared to these bums. I fact, these 2 clowns acted intentionally like this every time.

Remember the Turk complaining about the American referee counting him wrongly against Rico, when he probably did it deliberately.

Ghiță was stupid to take the punishment or maybe he was brave. No idea. I would have given up instead of Daniel, then I would have contested the decision.
 
Seiichi Furukawa (Power of Dream) won K-1 trainer of the year last year.

Was thinking of him, couldn't remember his name. He's got Takei, Egawa and Sasaki Junki under his wing. Karinian recently switched to POD and watch for Nakano Kota, who will take on Sasaki Daizo for the KRUSH 65 kg title in a few weeks. IMHO he has what it takes to be a star.
 
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