Travis Gorrell is the owner and head coach of Victory Muay Thai. As a child, he loved watching Bruce Lee movies with his mother, who is originally from Thailand, so she put him into training. His study of martial arts began at the age of five, which makes him a practitioner of martial arts for 38 years at the time of founding VMT in 2022. Coach Travis earned his 3rd Dan (black belt) in Moo Duk Kwan Tang Soo Do from the late Grandmaster Jae Joon Kim, who was the Chief Master Instructor of Korean, U.S., and Vietnamese Special Forces in Vietnam. Grandmaster Kim passed along a piece of wisdom when Coach Travis earned his first black belt by saying, “Now the real learning begins.”

As a teenager, Coach Travis competed in the United States and abroad. Eventually he could no longer fight other competitors in his age bracket, so he was matched against adult men in the lightweight division by the time he was 14 years old. Because of his passion for martial arts, Coach Travis went on to learn various styles, including an introduction to Muay Thai in Thailand and France. His passion for teaching youth, and his desire for the next generation to realize their God-given purpose and value, are what led him to open Victory Muay Thai.

Coach Travis resides in Valrico with his wife, Allison, whom he met while they were both training at Tampa Muay Thai in South Tampa. The couple has two young children who will get to make many of their own choices in life, however, whether or not to train in martial arts is not one of them.

Allison discovered Muay Thai as an adult while looking for a way to exercise outside of a big box gym setting. A fan of boxing and combat sports since youth, she decided to give it a try and fell in love from day one. After training for a year at Tampa Muay Thai, she competed in her first amateur bout during the 2008 IKF World Classic Amateur Kickboxing Championships in Orlando. The following year she journeyed to Thailand where she spent a month training at Fairtex, one of the most well-known gyms throughout the Muay Thai community. In the summer of 2010 she returned to Thailand, this time competing in a professional Muay Thai fight at Tepprasit Boxing Stadium in Pattaya.

Back in Florida and a few more amateur fights later, Allison and Travis met while training. Muay Thai was eventually replaced by motherhood, and training took a back seat until Victory Muay Thai became a reality in 2022. Allison handles marketing and business operations for the gym while also assisting with coaching. She loves sharing the art of Muay Thai with others, especially the feelings of empowerment and confidence it can provide for women.