Popular kickboxing club searching for new home
More than 100 members regularly use fighting facilities
A popular club which has been running for nearly 20 years is in desperate need of a new home. Demons Kickboxing in Maidstone have been frantically searching for a new site to use for more than a year.
It used to have premises above the Bathstore in Tonbridge Road, leading out of the town centre one-way system.
But when the company moved out in September 2021, the landlords sold the building and the team were given six months’ notice before being forced to leave on March 31 last year. Founder and chief instructor Denise Elliott started the club back in 2004 at the town’s leisure centre, with only 52 students and 10 sets of pads and gloves. It now has a dedicated group of more than 100 members, but the 63-year-old is still looking for a permanent home.
She said: “I’ve got girls who have been with me since they were 19 and they are now in their 30s.
“They tell me ‘this saves me, I come in and beat the crap out of these bags and go home feeling like a better person’.
“I’m now teaching children whose mums and dads I taught all those years ago. We are just a big family.”
The club holds “Little Demons” classes for children aged five to eight and “Cadet Demons” from ages nine to 13. They also have adult lessons as
well as ladies’ cardio kickboxing. Over the past months Denise has been struggling to find a permanent venue to operate from. She said: “At the beginning the anxiety level was unbelievable, because I felt so responsible for these kids.
“Not just kids, but adults too.
I’ve walked the streets and put letters through countless doors and empty-looking buildings. “There’s been a massive increase in prices too. I don’t blame people, they have had two years without business.
“The council tried to help, but it seemed like none of them could make a definite decision.” The mum-of-two says she was ignored by a number of estate agents and attempted to contact Tru Gym – who previously occupied a large space in the Broadway Shopping Centre – which “would be ideal” for the club. Now the group is temporarily holding a small number of sessions at Park Way Primary School in Park Way, Maidstone, a couple of days a week. However, their facilities aren’t big enough and cannot hold any of the equipment.
“I’ve got a full gym in my garage that my husband and I spent three weeks cleaning out,” Denise said.
If you have a venue in Maidstone that could be used for classes, please contact Denise via demonskickboxing@outlook.com