Mejiro Gym

Amsterdam city: highly respected gym where such standouts like Rob Kaman (1982 World kickboxing champion), Andre Brilleman, El Guebli, Moustafa Jamali, Andre Manaart, Bertje van Os and many other champions used to train. The second generation of the present and future title-holders were Mustafa Yamali, Tom van de Berg, Andre Mannaart, Nina van Roeden, Leo de Snoo, Iwan Grando, Paul Lamoth and Bob Schreiber.

On his visit to Japan in 1975, Jan Plas, founder of Mejiro Gym Amsterdam, met with sensei Kurosaki at his dojo in Tokyo. The dojo of Kurosaki was situated in the "Mejiro" district so this is where the name originated from. Jan Plas, impressed by the level of skill at Mejiro Gym Tokyo, decided to stay and train with famous champions like Fujiwara and Shima. 1978 was the year when Mejiro Gym opened op its doors in a separate own building.

Over the last years of the 20-th century Andre Mannaart (WKA, WPKL and ISKA world champion) got the ties of the gym in his hands. Under his constant tutelage a new wave of athletes was born and raised. Think Remy Bonjaski, Rodney Faverus, Andy Souwer, Rogier van der Heijden, Freek Ezechiëls, Lorentz Bults and Donald Brenner. Moreover Peter Aerts with his Team Aerts are pretty frequent guests here.

The photos were made in the summer period of the vacation which is the reason why regular training time is cut from 4 to 2 hours. The session is guided by Rogier “Pengo” van der Heijden. Scheduled are warm-up, bag work, gradual speeding-up, combinations, technique and sparring.

Official site: http://www.mejirogym.nl/