Why we’re called The Clinic
Muay Thai is a martial art that is great for your mental and physical health as well as a highly entertaining sport. That said, let’s not kid ourselves either. At its core, it is violent. We are learning how to HURT another human. So why would we name our gym after a place of healing?
To answer that I need to remind you of my name and of my sense of humor that hasn’t changed since I was a teenager. My name is Dustin Ward. That last name is important. When I was growing up, I used to tell my friends that I would name my kids Trauma, Maternity, Psychiatric, etc. I thought it was funny having names that were always hospital wings (Psychiatric Ward). Well, I never did have kids but was planning to open a gym that would be my baby.
I needed a name for the gym, and the first idea I had was The Trauma Ward. I thought it sounded cool, showed that I plan to produce tough fighters, etc. But, believe it or not, I’m aware enough to realize that was terrible marketing. It makes it sound like anyone who trains here is going to get hurt. And that’s not the intention at all. I pride myself in running a gym that’s as safe as a gym can be. There are always risks, but, heck, you can twist your ankle playing pickleball. After vetoing The Trauma Ward, I thought about calling it The Psych Ward because you gotta be a little crazy to train Muay Thai, Plus, gyms frequently have padded walls. However, I knew I could run into the same marketing problems and felt insensitive to those truly battling mental health problems.
This was driving me crazy as I wanted a name that matched my personality but was also very marketable. Then my wife, Meg, said something that made the answer simple. She just suggested naming it something simple and then calling parts of the gym these silly names—like calling the ring the Trauma Ward and the heavy bag area the Psych Ward. Honestly, about one minute after she said that it all came together. I realized I could call it The Clinic. It’s a quick simple name that can become recognizable as it builds. It was safe from scrutiny. I almost instantly imagined the logo, thinking about the caduceus (medical symbol with the staff and two snakes) combined with a Mongkol. Within minutes I thought of the tagline: “Others put on a show. We put on a clinic.” Ideas just flowed, some of which we haven’t even done yet (but will in the future😁).
When you stop in The Clinic, you’ll see the rooms are named after hospital wards (Rehabilitation Ward, Trauma Ward, Psych Ward, Respiratory Ward). That’s just my goofy sense of humor. Plus it was fun having the placards made. I ensured I got the type of scale you’d see at a doctor’s office with the height measurement and everything instead of a simple digital scale. Our first batch of shirts has a prescription pad for the artwork. It’s all just used for fun branding at this point.
And going back to that first point I made: even though at its core Muay Thai teaches violence and the destruction of someone else’s body, just training Muay Thai is good for everyone’s health. We move, do resistance training, sweat, get our heart rate up, laugh, hit the pads so hard we no longer think about how annoyed we are with our boss dropping a new work item on our desk five minutes before the end of our shift on a Friday, etc. Apples are overrated. Training Muay Thai at The Clinic each day keeps the doctor away.
