Charles Curley was recruited by CKC about a year ago when his employer shut down. We caught up with Chuck to learn more about his background, and why he enjoys coaching at Carlsbad Kickboxing Club.

The Pensacola, Florida-native, who many know as CKC’s boxing coach, has lived all over from Florida to Oahu, Hawaii to Imperial Beach, CA. He moved to Carlsbad in 2007 with his wife Cindy and two children—Skylar, 11, and Chase, 8 (who are both heavily into traditional Japanese karate) and also train in muay thai at CKC.

He played baseball as a kid for about seven years and grew up surfing and skateboarding as well. While surfing was a fun pastime, skateboarding was a major focus from about 10-15 years old—even ending up being a sponsored amateur skateboarder for halfpipe. But during high school, he lost interest in skateboarding played varsity football and track. Another passion of his is snowboarding. While a late starter (at 20 years old), he ended up competing in the United States Amateur Snowboard Association in halfpipe for 6 years.

On the professional front, Chuck attended San Diego State University and graduated with a degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in athletic training and has worked as an athletic trainer and as a chiropractic assistant doing passive therapies. He got into training muay thai when the gym he attended had it. He he trained in boxing and kickboxing and the gym sold to another corporation the fighting classes were discontinued and the facility still allowed people to train, but on their own without an instructor. 

“I would go in and train and a few of the previous students would come in and follow a program that I would put together,” he says. That is where his coaching began. He then attended a Martial Arts gym that specialized in kickboxing and boxing and after a few years of training there, he was invited to start teaching classes. “That’s when I really started to come into my own as far as an instructor. I was thriving with the help of the other trainers at coming up with classes that were high intensity, informative, challenging, and a little bit fun.”

The thing he says he enjoys most about coaching at Carlsbad Kickboxing Club is the interaction with the members. “I love that they come to class ready to learn and train hard,” he says. “If I can instruct them in a way that when class is over they feel that they learned something, got a great workout, and had fun, then I feel ‘mission accomplished.’ There’s an energy that’s indescribable whether you have 10 or 40 members working to their max ability and enjoying every second of it.”

As for CKC specifically, the thing he likes best is that the owners, instructors, and the entire staff feel like one big family. “There’s a level of respect that a lot of other fight gyms don’t have. No big egos here, regardless of experience. Just everybody doing their part to make this place the absolute best it can be.”