Coach Dakota Smith is a Missouri native who moved to the Bay Area in 2017. He got his start teaching Martial Arts in 2015 as a Marine Corps Martial Arts Instructor. After leaving the Marines in 2017 he moved from North Carolina to San Jose where he started training, fighting, and eventually teaching Muay Thai at a local gym.

Dakota has trained in Duane Ludwig’s “Bang Muay Thai” system and was promoted to the rank of purple belt by Sensei Ludwig. In 2020 he started developing his own unique striking system which would eventually become the Western Muay Thai System.

Dakota puts in a lot of effort to carefully cater to the unique requirements of each student as they all possess different levels of ability, athletic qualities, and learning styles. Dakota firmly believes that a skilled instructor is one who can identify these differences and modify their teaching approach accordingly.