World Class Striking: Our kickboxing coaches have been coached and trained extensively for years under world renowned Muay Thai trainer Master Toddy from Thailand and arguably one of the best kickboxers of all time Rob Kaman from Holland. Our coaches have learned from the best and have applied it successfully in their instruction of students in both Muay Thai and Dutch Style Kickboxing.

Mediocre Striking: A lot of the so called Kickboxing gyms have aerobic class punch and kick the air style kickboxing. However, their striking is often mediocre at best. They never really learn how to strike in a live situation which makes them a non-qualified coach and then they pass it on to you!

A Structured Beginner's Only Course: When you start out at AMA, you will be going through a special beginner's only course. In this class, you will be learning from an organized curriculum that balances striking, blocking, footwork, head movement, pad work, and flexibility. The classes are designed to work at a pace that beginner's can absorb. The beginner's class also takes into account that you may be totally out of shape - one of its principal designs is to get you into good shape and allow you to train harder in the next level.

Thrown to the Wolves: Many kickboxing programs mix you in with the regular class on your first day! Just think about it... how can someone teach a class of people who have been training for two to three years... and then teach you your first class at the same time? That is like getting a calculus and algebra class in one room and trying to teach both at the same time! Either the advanced guys are missing out or the beginners are missing out…

Student Safety: A common misconception about kickboxing training is that to learn effective kickboxing, you have to get into wild and crazy sparring matches. FALSE. At AMA, most of our students have families and jobs and can't afford to leave the gym with black eyes! The sparring that is done at AMA is optional and is done with utmost control. The idea is to train smart and have fun.

Brawling Time!: Many Kickboxing schools have this misconception that the only way to learn how to fight is to put on boxing gloves and swing for the fences. This is not true... and actually can be counter-productive, besides dangerous. Many gyms also lack the technique to spar with control and spar hard to compensate for their lack of technique. Brawling during training proves nothing and only hinders the learning process and injures people.

Great Customer Service: Above anything, this is what we take the most pride in. Our goal is to go above and beyond what you would expect from us. We are constantly trying to find new ways to please our students. It is hard to explain this because it is really the little things that makes our customer service stand out... you will notice it just from the way our staff will greet you when you arrive!

Customer Service?: The question mark is more fitting because most martial arts schools don't seem to even know what customer service is! Most schools have NO customer service. Egos, bad attitudes, and insecurities fuel bad customer service.

Clean Facility: Absolute Martial Arts is one of a kind. A 3,600 square foot facility with a large mat area. Plus, we are the cleanest school in St Louis- we disinfect our mats everyday with hospital grade disinfectant. We are one of the only gyms in St Louis that takes mat cleaning seriously.

Inadequate or Dirty and small Facility: You need high QUALITY mats. Most schools have such small mat areas that you can't even start training on your feet, and even with their small mat area they are never clean... most gyms don't clean them! Some gyms that clean their mats only wipe them down with a wet towel, and without disinfectants! The gym needs to be sanitary for your health.

Personalized Introductory Lesson: At AMA, we initially have you go through a private lesson with one of our certified Muay Thai instructors. They make sure that you have a good understanding of the techniques and moves that are involved in kickboxing, while going at a comfortable pace for yourself. This also helps you, as a new student, get acclimated into the actual group class.

No Personalized Lesson: Most schools just have you jump into the class and let you fend for yourself in terms of learning the moves. A lot of the kickboxing schools out there do not have the patience, nor want to spend the time with new students.