My name is Leroy Spalburg and I had my first encounter with kickboxing in the late nineties. Ever since that first time, I have become addicted to this beautiful and versatile sport. I soon became fascinated by the history of kickboxing, the many different styles it has and the high level at which many Dutch kickboxing gyms operate. Where most people strive to become fighters and get into the ring, I mostly enjoy training other people and teaching them what I know. It is my own personal challenge to learn as many techniques as possible. After a start at Vos Gym Amsterdam, I soon started to look beyond my own gym and started training at other gyms to. And in 2008 (Phuket) and 2016 (Koh Samui), I went to Thailand to learn the Thai way of training and develop myself further.
Maybe I should pursue this…
After my first trip to Thailand, a busy job and even busier social life meant that I had less time to invest in kickboxing. But regardless of how busy I got, I always found myself back in the gym after some time. It is around this time that I started to train with friends and that I started to notice how much I loved teaching them everything that I had learned over the years. But even though I was very passionate about kickboxing, I still mostly considered it a nice hobby.
The switch...
After a successful career where I learned a lot about directing, managing and coaching people, I finally ran into an opportunity. I have always known that office jobs would not make me happy in the long run and I realised that I wanted to use my coaching skills and passion for kickboxing for something else. So, after my second trip to Thailand I decided to follow my dream: training other people. And that is how Spallys was born.
