From CLEO journalist to Muay Thai Gym owner- interview with jai founder su-lin
What does Muay Thai feel like - physically, emotionally?
If Muay Thai was embodied by an animal, it would be a big cat.
Graceful and elegant, but at the same time untamed and lethal. Watch a skilled Muay Thai fighter work the pads and you’ll witness blows which are both beautiful and devastating. There’s a rhythm to the movement of Muay Thai and on a good training day, I feel like I'm dancing, and kicking ass at the same time.
Getting hit can sting, but controlled sparring isn’t really violent, and your body gets conditioned and can actually crave a little impact.
How long does that feeling last?
Depends how hard you get hit! Joking! It’s actually very safe if you don’t fight, and I didn’t fight for three years. After training for a while, I started to notice physical and mental changes. I was more alert and energetic - I’d race up instead of walking up stairs. I got a heck of a lot stronger. My friends noticed the change too – during nights out, they’d joke that I was their bodyguard and many asked to join me at training. I was working in media in Singapore at the time, and my colleagues in the beauty, fashion and entertainment industries swapped their ballet and yoga lessons for a go at Muay Thai.
Word got around and models, musicians and office workers started asking me where they should train. I’d always thought it was more for the “hard-core”, but I started to realise that when taught safely, this could be a sport that could benefit a lot of people.
While kicking and punching things makes you strong, the reason I got such good results was because I found it so fun and exciting. Finding something you enjoy is the key to getting continued results in any fitness regime. I’d found something that made exercise a social activity more than a chore. Training with friends was a bonus, and I’d joke that burning 800 calories an hour gave us more leeway to eat more afterwards. If Muay Thai was a drug, I was definitely addicted.
When you finish training or a competition, is it a relief or do you want to keep going?
There are people who train to fight and others who train because they love the feeling. I fit into the second category. Fighting is a great way to test my skills, but at the end of the day, I’m an introvert who would rather train and compete under the radar.
Don't get me wrong, stepping into the ring and having your hand raised at the end feels incredible, but to me, it's the buzz that comes from hitting and kicking pads which keeps me strapping on those gloves.
What does it do to the mind, body and spirit?
I grew up doing tae kwon do and loved it, but it wasn't until I started training Muay Thai that I actually felt like I could hurt someone. Disclaimer- I've never been in a fight outside the ring. That said, being a teen who liked to challenge authority, I've probably come close. Training to fight actually made me more chilled. I mean, why start a fight with someone who has no fight training? It's better sportsmanship to bite your tongue, or just turn away. When I first started out, I thought I was pretty bad-ass but you also learn pretty quickly where you sit in the food chain. Having a 12-year old Thai kid floor you in sparring makes you realise that there are plenty of people out there who are better (and possibly smaller) than you. (Many Thai fighters start fighting professionally at 7.) At the same time, it has given me the confidence to be able to hold my head up when I walk into a new gym (or anywhere unfamiliar). A Muay Thai mantra which embodies this is: "Respect all, fear none."
What do you need to be able to do this – both mentally and physically?
Not everyone can (or wants) to be a fighter. But almost anyone can do Muay Thai (we've trained students from five to 70). The beauty is that you can get the full physical and mental benefits of it without having to actually hit someone (or get hit).
Had a bad day at work?
Argued with your partner?
Kicking, elbowing and punching a bag for an hour can make your tensions melt and your worries seem less significant. I didn't fight until three years into starting Muay Thai and never got bored. That said, you can “tap” a pad, or you can really HIT a pad. Some people train for years without exerting their full power potential. When I help them unleash that, you can see their eyes light up when they hit the sweet spot on the pads or bag. I feel their joy.
Is there a regime to follow before a competition?
Before opening a gym, I felt it was essential to live the fighter’s life - in the home of Muay Thai - Thailand. I quit my job, packed my belongings and moved to a camp in Chiang Mai.
Firstly, because there were more opportunities for females to fight in Chiang Mai.
Secondly, because it was one of the only Muay Thai camps with a website in English.
I arrived on my own, only to find I was the only female at the camp. I lived opposite the camp in a room with a mattress on the floor, a squat toilet and a hose for a shower. It was luxurious compared to the other 12 Thai fighters and trainers who shared one room and bathroom upstairs and at the time made as little as 7,000 baht a month (food and lodging was provided).
Six days a week, I’d go running at 6am and then train at the camp until 9am. Training consisted of a mixture of shadow boxing, bag-work, about five rounds on the pads with a trainer, sparring and clinch work (grappling) with other students and trainers and end with conditioning.
After training, I drag myself across the road, wash my gear while showering, gulp down a packet of chocolate milk, then then pass out. Then I’d repeat the process, at 3pm in the sweltering afternoon heat.
It sounds repetitive, but it was a program designed for full-time fighters.
Nowadays, training for an hour two to three times a week for is all that’s required to gain benefits (and still have a life outside of training!).
What steps do you have to take to prevent injury and take care of your well-being?
My trainers couldn’t speak much English and the other foreign fighters didn’t really know what to make of the lone female at the camp, so I was pretty much on my own at the start.
For the first month I didn’t miss a single session but I learned pretty quickly, that to get the most out of your sessions, you have to spend time recovering.
This meant eating properly after training and skipping a session if my body told me it needed it.
When I was training for a fight and cutting weight, it's easy to over-train and under eat. Muay Thai burns 800 calories an hour, and while it doesn't give you an excuse to pig out, it does mean that you can and must eat enough to ensure your body is fuelled and can recover. Not having enough recovery time is also another way to increase your chance of injuries. A lot of fighters are proud of training hard 7 days. Training smart is the only way to have a long and enjoyable athletic journey.
Having social contact is also important for your mental well-being. Skyping with friends and family helped, but after a few weeks, I started to miss real-life interaction outside of kicking and punching people.
Luckily, as I was training more with the other fighters, we started developing a mutual respect for each other. Their initial reluctance to talk to me was because they thought was just there for a fun – not to train seriously. After a few weeks they realised I was the “hardest working fighter on the camp”. I now had the “privilege” of being one of the boys. Which meant they also trained seriously with me. One of “the boys” said sincerely: “I respected you too much to punch until someone told me that refusing to hit you in sparring would be disrespecting you.”
That was in 2007 and I still stay in contact with some of those guys. This year that same boy from the camp and his wife stayed a few nights with me in Auckland while on honeymoon from Canada.
What does your diet look like? Do you have to avoid food before training or do some foods give you energy?
I'm a foodie and I could eat rice and noodles at every meal. At the camps in Thailand we'd have rice breakfast, lunch and dinner, either served at the gym or made one of the nearby food stalls which were on every street. Basil pork, som tum salad, seafood curries, it didn't matter what you ate really, because you burned so many calories during training.
What enhances your experience? What impairs it?
Any long-term relationship experiences its highs and lows and my relationship with Muay Thai is no different. What started out as an obsession is now a long-term healthy passion and my vocation.
I've learned not to rely on external factors (training partners, charismatic trainers, exotic training locations) to create a good training session for me. I tell my students that training with professional fighters in Thailand is something I hope all of them can experience one day.
But not every session is fun and not every trainer is encouraging. I’ve traveled thousands of miles to train with “world-famous” trainers only to find they belittle and humiliate their students.
I’ve shed tears in the privacy of the changing room after losing fights, being yelled at by my trainer, or having a bad training session. I've now learned not to be too hard on myself.
At the end of the day, you have to make your own fun and set your own goals, otherwise it’s easy to get disappointed with regular training. You can lose a fight but the only real losers are those who choose to give up, rather than learn from the experience. You learn so much from training with people better than you.
The Lockdown was also a (forced) opportunity to take a break from hitting things, which actually made me appreciate the sport and the fact I get to introduce it to a lot of people through JAI.
I get a lot of satisfaction and pride from teaching now, and watching the expression of joy (and agony sometimes?) on the faces of the people I train. I love hearing their stories about how the sport has enriched their lives – it makes me happy to be able to pass that feeling on.
JAI Wellington opened in 2009 and JAI Auckland followed in 2015
NZ Herald Interview.
Su-Lin quit her job and moved to Thailand to train full-time before opening JAI in 2009
Teaching and training can be more rewarding than fighting
Training with friends is a bonus - burning 800 calories an hour gives you an excuse to pig out afterwards!