UWE Kickboxing and Muay Thai has something to offer to everyone; at UKAM you can improve your fitness, learn new skills and self-defence, fight competitively or just make new friends at our socials!
UWE Kickboxing & Muay Thai is a combat sports club that offers a variety of activities and opportunities. We offer sessions that target general fitness, core strength and conditioning, and combat technique. At its core, we are a full contact sports club which encourages and helps build personal confidence and wellbeing. Our members range from absolute beginners up to those who compete at a semi-professional level.
As the current back-to-back UWE Club of the Year for 2024-2025 and previously 2023-2024, we have had an immense amount of success over the last few years with our biggest and most successful UWE fight night hosted in November 2024. We have also become a staple contender at the MTGB University Championships after being invited in 2024 and 2025 to compete, placing 1st in terms of points in 2024 and 3rd overall in 2025, competing against 22 other University Muay Thai clubs. In 2025 we had over 30 fighters representing team UWE and UKAM in a multitude of University fight nights across the country, as we strive to increase our formidable fight team, maybe you could be our next fighter?
In the last year, we have hosted three large scale Muay Thai Interclubs, inviting several high-profile clubs across the South-West such as the University of Bristol, University of Bath and Plymouth, with a combined 150 participants matched up in sparring bouts of all abilities. We aspire to inspire, and continue to host events for our members to participate and fully emerse themselves in the culture of the club and further encourage them to compete on every possible event.
With the adoption of Safe-Space sessions and Women-only sessions, there is a class for everyone to join and feel welcomed into the UKAM community.
As the third biggest sports club at UWE and the largest combat sports club, we recruited 200 members in the previous year after a successful promotion at the annual UWE Freshers Fair on Frenchay Campus, this year we are looking to beat that record so come and join - we are hosting 2 weeks of Free "Give-it-a-Go" taster sessions for anyone, and everyone to attend for free, no membership required between Wednesday 17th September and Sunday 5th October, or come along and speak to us at freshers Fair on Wednesday 24th September !!
To sign up to this year (2025/2026) free taster sessions - please follow the link below;
https://forms.gle/hdQ4YwTuqHE5f95H7
UWE Annual Sports Awards achievments and nominations:
UKAM also won most improved club and became best club runner-up in 2012-2013
If that alone doesn't convince you to join UKAM, we have coaches who are international professional fighters who know all the tricks of the trade and our Wednesday coach is the current UK LFN Champion and ranked 6th in the UK . So what are you waiting for? Join UWE's reigning Club of the Year and get fit, make friends, and learn how to fight and defend yourself.
Generally speaking our sessions consist of a mixture of running and circuit training to develop strength and stamina, dynamic and static stretching to improve flexibility needed for high kicks! Pad and bag work outs to experience the power of techniques and sparring to put all of this into practice!
Here are UKAM we pride ourselves on giving our members the platform to showcase their incredible talent and ability at our own UKAM and UWE Fight Night traditionally hosted at the end of November. Furthermore, with a multitude of Fight shows against University Muay Thai clubs notably around the South-West but also across the country as well as at the Muay Thai Great Britain University Championships which is a national competition with 3 categories - British Open; for the more experienced fighters, British Novice; for fighters with at least one fights worth of experience and a new freshers category which looks to give newcomers to the sport their first taste of combat in the ring. All fights tend to be under the N-class ruling of 16Oz gloves, Shingaurds and 3x2 minute rounds - however there are opportunities for adventurous fighters looking to test their skill with elbow-pad bouts and 10Oz gloves.
Some loose fitting clothes for the first couple of sessions and a decent bottle of water will do you fine! We have spare gloves and shin guards at the club to practice in however you may prefer to use your own kit instead.
When using gloves we suggest using wraps especially if you have previously injured your wrists/hands or are prone to such injuries since they are common in the sport, even in training!
If you want to bring your own equipment, typically we recommend 16oz gloves to train with which offers enough protection for padwork, bagwork and sparring. For females and males of lighter weight, we suggest 14oz as they are often a better fit.
With shin guards, we suggest a pair that will adequately protect your shins and instep (top of the foot) based on the level of conditioning you have as shins, knees and and elbows clashing will be common when checking kicks.
For sparring, you must use a gum shield along with aforementioned protective gear.
PLEASE ensure that your fingernails and toenails are trimmed short and that piercings and jewellery are removed prior to training.
All sessions are mixed gender and ability, so anyone is welcome to attend any sessions!
Sessions may be subject to change - regular updates will be posted on our Instagram stories.
Wednesday
15:30 - 17:30
Combat Warriors gym, Easton
Thursday
20:00 - 22:00
SU Activity Studio, UWE Students' Union, Frenchay Campus
Friday
20:30 - 22:30
Centre for Sport, Frenchay Campus
Saturday
16:00 - 18:00
Sunday
16:30 - 18:30
The membership is £36.00 annually to cover the cost of coaching, insurance, and paperwork on the University side of things. We then offer 10 session bulk cards through our SU webpage for £20 (just £2 a session!).
You will also need to purchase a mandatory Sports Fee along with membership. These along with any future club-related purchases can be found on this site. If you are a potential new member wishing to try things out before committing, you are welcome to come to any one of our sessions for free to test us out. Just message one of the committee or either of the UKAM social media platforms/groups.
At UKAM we're not just about fighting. We run numerous social events throughout the year which will give you lot the chance to apologise for kicking each other in the head, and to have a good laugh! A variety of themes and venues will keep you on your toes and introduce you to the best of Bristol nightlife, with the best of people! Follow our social medias below to keep up to date with planned socials and more:
https://www.instagram.com/uwe_ukam/
All enquiries can be made by messaging our Instagram or speaking to a club committee member
Code of Practise