Most nights, Sweet Z’s Gym in KCK is full of chatter and the slap-slap of gloves hitting bags and mitts. It’s a deep, rectangular room with a poured concrete floor, some punching bags along the wall, and a little ring in the center.
Scan the gym, and you’ll probably see the owner and trainer, Zach Brunner, talking with a student one on one. If it’s an experienced boxer, Brunner might be going over feints and footwork; if it’s a newcomer, he might be telling them the exact minute they’ll get tired during warmups.
Coach Brunner likes teaching. Before he started competing in martial arts in the mid-’90s, he was an art teacher. He’s been teaching boxing since 1999—at first, appropriately enough, from the lawn of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
“Originally, I taught people for the sole purpose of sparring and self-defense,” he says. “We didn’t have much in the way of equipment, and it hadn’t dawned on me that I was creating a workout, and that people would be drawn to that aspect of boxing as well.”
After the Nelson, he took his coaching practice to inactive construction sites, then Loose Park, then the corner of a weightlifting gym in the River Market, and eventually, an outbuilding at his home. He opened at his current location in 2009 and teaches boxing full time today.
Group classes at Sweet Z’s start like most sports practices do: mingling, a word from coach, then warmups. Brunner and the students go through four exercises—say wall sits, straight-arm planks, jumping jacks, and sit-ups—with each timed at three minutes to mimic a boxing match’s rounds. Newcomers might be amazed when they lose strength just when Brunner said they would—and that, with his warning, it wasn’t as miserable.
“In my experience, it’s definitely not common for coaches or staff to check in on or take an active interest in students. The exception would be for a future prospect or a professional contender,” says Brunner. “All of my students are important to me, and I want to help them through whatever journey boxing takes them.”
These classes are a mix of skill levels. Some students are experienced boxers fine tuning their skills, and others are martial artists from other disciplines looking to improve their standup game. Many of the students are there to stay sharp in self-defense and to enjoy the community they’ve found at Sweet Z’s.
After warmups, beginners often link up with veterans. They’ll strap on the gloves—either their own or a community pair—and start more three-minute drills. The most basic drills are throwing and building on punch combinations against handheld mitts: a round of one-twos (a jab, then a cross), a round of one-two-three-fours, and so on. All the while, the veteran might poke and prod with their mitts to encourage defense, give tips on breathing and footwork, or just hype their partner up. Then the beginner will put on the mitts and let the veteran throw.
As boxers advance, their drills might change. You might see two boxers, both wearing mouth guards and gloves, throwing scripted combos in the ring. But they’ll periodically spar—that is, trade punches without a script. Brunner calls this the Flash Drill, and it means soon, they’ll be ready to spar full-on.
You could get there, too, but never before you’re ready. Brunner overcommunicates and keeps nothing a mystery. He doesn’t shield his students from uncomfortable situations—getting winded while boxing is inevitable—but he prepares them for that uncomfortability so they know it when they see it. Then push through.
Sweet Z’s Gym is open Monday to Thursday and Saturday. Group classes (6:30 p.m. during the week and 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays) cost $20 per class. A monthly membership costs $80 and gets you unlimited access to classes and weekday open gyms 30 minutes prior to class.