Who I am
Hi, I'm Kevin. I grew up in a small village in the Groene Hart, lived in Leiden as a student, moved to Amsterdam for work, moved in with Doortje, started an IT company, and when we had two amazing daughters, we moved to the beautiful town of Weesp in 2018. It really feels like home.
At De Vechtclub
…I mostly work behind the scenes. Building this website, making marketing plans, booking trial classes, and so on. In front of the scenes, I teach three early-morning bag work classes during the week, so I might be the one handing you your gloves at eight or nine in the morning. Expect a tough workout, with plenty of encouragement to push just a little harder. But unless the assignment is to smash away like a brute, which does happen, I'll always try to sharpen your technique too. Better five good kicks than twenty bad ones. Next week, we'll make it six :) See you on the mat!
My kickboxing journey
…started 16 years ago at Kops Gym. For eight years, I trained there under Jamal Karrouche, the trainer of Levi Rigters, who was also at Kops at the time. I was already 27, so I got a pretty late start, but I was all in from day one. I helped a Kops training buddy and his girlfriend set up their own gym: Eastbound, where I taught for three years. They grew from a basement into bag work classes with 40 people in Amsterdam-Oost. Then I moved and trained at several places in Weesp, followed by another two years at Vos Gym Amsterdam under Ivan Hippolyte and Jascha Hausel. At 40, I fought and won a match under their banner, a bucket list item for me. After that, I was ready for a new athletic challenge and in 2024, I used ClassPass to take classes at as many different gyms as possible. I was curious to see how other trainers taught and wanted to fine-tune my own technique, because every trainer notices something different. I ended up visiting more than 20, but three gyms stood head and shoulders above the rest: Ettaki Gym by Oussama Ettaki for the toughest workout, Gym Royale by Paul Lamoth for the most refined technical instruction, and Spally's by Leroy Spalburg for a great combination of the two. I still love training at all three. At the same time, starting in 2022, I taught at the Weesp location of The Kickboxing Society, the chain founded by Rico Verhoeven, where I was trained by his coach Dennis Krauweel. When the chain left Weesp in 2026, Remy and I took over the location, gave it our own spin, and gave it a new name: De Vechtclub.
