K2 Boxing

If I could give this place 0 stars I would.
DO NOT GO THERE! YOU WILL BE WASTING YOUR MONEY.
First of all… they are extremely overpriced we are talking 400 – 600 bucks just starting out.
Second their «coaches» seem more like washed up old fighters that are more interested in watching fight videos than actually teaching people to box. My first day out the first thing they told me was «Oh you need to buy hand wraps, so you cant train.» Which is fine, but couldn’t someone have told me that since I am a newbie? Moreover, I was shadow boxing (at the request of the coach) and no one ever bothered to explain to me how the lights and tones work and that they signal for rests. I must have shadow boxed for a half hour straight as the so called boxing coach flirted with some girl who was like 40 years younger than him. Finally when I was exhausted and could not shadow box anymore he mocked me and then explained what those tones were about. Totally unprofessional!
Third, FACILITIES or should I say LACK THEREOF! There is ONE yes ONE damn shower… and its small like a closet. Moreover, the so called locker room looks like a whole they dug out and shoved some SMALL sized lockers in. How the hell can you store all your equipment in there?! The fitness and MMA area is so cluttered that you are undoubtedly going to trip over things, and the cardio equipment is old and barely works.
Just don’t go there. The worst money I have ever spent AND THATS SAYING SOMETHING.

I wanted to write this review because I noticed the extremely low rating of this place on Unilocal and feel that it is totally inaccurate. This place has really turned around under new management in recent months and is continuing to do so.
First of all, about me: I’m an active competing amateur boxer in NYC and have trained at other gyms in NYC, including Mendez and Kingsway Boxing (both also very excellent clubs). I started training at K-​2 for two reasons: The location and the price.
I live in Sunnyside and this is the closest legit gym to my house. LA Boxing in Astoria is more of a fitness-​club, but if you’re looking for a real boxing/​MMA gym in the Sunnyside area, this is your place. The gym dues are extremely reasonable, with greater discounts available for the longer membership terms you opt for. I’ll tell you that I pay less than half of what I paid at Mendez for a full membership at K2.
I don’t know much about MMA (though the MMA trainer looks legit), so I’ll rep the two boxing coaches:
Eddie is a long-​time amateur coach, having trained many successful NYC fighters as amateurs, including the Bklyn-​based Welterweight titleist Paulie Malignaggi. He is an diligent and optimistically encouraging coach who looks out for his fighters, goes out of his way to set up competitive sparring sessions with other gyms, and happily works focus pads with anyone who wants it.
Lennox is an extremely accomplished former professional fighter, who actually fought Aaron Pryor for the Junior Welterweight world title. He is a boxing sage, who can correctly analyze the strengths and weaknesses in any fighter and help him or her to take their boxing game up to the next level.
As for the fighters, the gym is really coming into it’s own as a competitive amateur club, with members recently winning belts in NYC-​based tournaments such as the NY Metros Tournament and the New York Boxing Tournament. Sparring sessions at the gym occur at least two or three times a week and this will only increase as more fighters prepare for the upcoming Golden Gloves.
The facility itself has everything you need for boxing training. A practice ring, an MMA half-​cage, a number of treadmills, cardio machines, a rowing machine, free weights, etc. Bathrooms work, showers are clean, locker rooms aren’t cluttered, honestly what else could you expect?
K2 is a really good boxing gym and with the value you get for your membership, it’s an easy 5-​star rating.

A little about me:
I’ve trained in boxing for 3 years, some judo for 2 years, Brazilian Jui-​jitsu for 3 years very seriously, MMA off and on for about 1 year, some wrestling here and there, and Karate for 4 years when I was young.
First of all, this gym is dangerous. The heavy bags are improperly mounted in a homemade metal cage that was haphazardly welded together. The metal frame seemed ready to snap at any moment, meaning a sharp piece of steel would spring down on whoever was hitting the bag. The bags themselves were mounted off-​center so they would swing and wobble wildly when hit. Aside from messing up rhythm, anyone who has boxed knows this could easily cause a fighter to break their hand.
The wrestling mats are too small and slip and move around while you are trying to grapple on them. Wrestling/​grappling/​MMA is already a dangerous sport. I have separated my shoulder, broken my hand, and broken my foot on mats that were properly set up. So imagine how dangerous improper mats are.
The padding on the walls actually has metal bolts sticking out of it. I’m not making this up. So lets say you go for a double leg takedown and drive your opponent into the wall… oh, sorry, now your training partner needs to go to the hospital to get stitches in his back (or worse, his face) where he got torn open. I guess you’ll have to find a new training partner now.
The boxing ring is a joke. It’s not a full size regulation ring, it’s a tiny, maybe half-​sized ring. I felt like an adult trying to ride a child’s bicycle when I was sparring in there. Sparring outside the pathetic little ring is super scary because there are weights and pieces of equipment everywhere to trip over or, god forbid your sparring partner accidentally drops you, you can split your head open.
Oh, and speaking of sparring, don’t expect to be doing any of that at K2. I went there several times, and never saw anyone else sparring
besides myself and my partner.
Notice that in the photos, there are no pictures of the ring, the heavy bags, or the wrestling mats. No doubt, the owner deliberately left them out.
It’s clear the owner of K2 never boxed or grappled, and doesn’t know the first thing about boxing, wrestling, or any other martial art. I would love to go a few rounds with him. We could even do it inside his little ring.

I went to to this gym for 3 months– I paid for a 4 month contract upfront but my time there was unproductive that I decided to just find another gym.
K2 offers two types of scenarios: group sessions (which focuses on conditioning), or semi-​private classes, which I signed up for (I was told this included an hour of indiviual work time a day — either pad work done with a trainer or you will always being coached on the bag) — however this is not the case most days. The first week you start there they will work you hard (pad work) but after that you won’t get much technique nor instruction. It doesn’t seem that the trainers care about making you improve — which is probably a result of them not being the owners of the gym and therefore have no vested interest. Two months into it, I even complained to the manager about what was happening and nothing changed.
Most of the equipment they have here (heavy bags, double end and speed bags) are old — this includes jumpropes and situp mats, so I brought my own jump rope and situp mat to have something to use…