At 6:05 a.m. on a July Saturday, just as the sun was rising in the clear sky, Francisco Carranza lightly jogged to the patch of grass where his peers had already been stretching since 6 a.m.
“You’re late,” Khun Kru Genelle Gaudinez said. “It’s 50.”
Not even daring to challenge the Khun Kru, the burly Carranza immediately dove into the ground and pumped his push-ups as his instructor and his three classmates started their three-mile run around the Del Rey Lagoon.
“I had already completed a lap or two, and he still caught up to me,” Gaudinez said. “And he still beat me by I don’t know how many minutes.
“I was really impressed with him that day because I was trying my hardest to beat him even though I knew I had a great head start.”
As her sprint slowed to a jog, Gaudinez commented to Carranza, “Great job. You lapped everyone.”
Having impressed his Muay Thai instructor and his classmates, Carranza joined the group for yet another strenuous workout in preparation for the approaching Pacific Northwest Muay Thai Camp.
Muay Thai: a Martial Art
Carranza, a fifth-year history student, first signed up for Muay Thai martial arts classes through UCLA Recreation at the John Wooden Center only because Jeet Kune Do wasn’t offered during the 2008 summer session. He thought Muay Thai would simply offer him a great workout while preparing him for Jeet Kune Do in the fall.
But Muay Thai became so much more than that.
“I really fell in love with it because at first … I thought it was just, learn how to fight and get some cardio and that’s it ““ but it actually has a whole culture behind it,” Carranza said. “I can see why it’s a martial art now. There’s a lot of discipline behind it, a lot of seriousness, a lot of focus, and it’s very family-oriented. I really like that.”
According to Gaudinez, who teaches beginning, intermediate and advanced Muay Thai classes at UCLA, Thai boxing is not just about kicking and punching.
“Yes, it’s great we learned to be able to defend ourselves and we have that self-defense in our arsenal, but without having the respect and discipline, you can’t fully understand the art,” Gaudinez said. “It’s not about going out brawling and starting fights and seeing if your technique works, but being able to avoid those confrontations simply by being a good person.”
“Kru” means “instructor” in Thai, and “Khun Kru” is a formal address of “Kru.” In Muay Thai, the Khun Kru holds the utmost authority in the class, and whatever the Khun Kru says, goes.
“I stress to the students that (Muay Thai) is a martial art,” Gaudinez said. “That’s why when I teach, it’s very important to me that they always maintain a certain level of respect and discipline. You’ll see in our class that we always pay respects.”
And if her students forget to pay respects?
“They have to do push-ups,” Gaudinez said. “It’s just a very physical way to do it. If they forget to pay respect … that’s a huge deal.”
Not paying respects includes forgetting to “Wai,” a cultural Thai greeting when pressing one’s palms together and bowing, or forgetting to answer “Krap,” which mean “yes,” in response to the Khun Kru’s commands. Or, in Carranza’s case, it includes arriving late to training.
During class, Gaudinez begins by leading warm-ups as her students, all sporting boxing shorts embroidered with Thai writings of “Muay Thai” and a smaller gold “UCLA” stitching, follow their leader’s suit. Although the Khun Kru stands at five feet tall, there is nothing petite about the power of her voice and the level of esteem her students have for her.
“How many legs in Muay Thai?” Gaudinez yelled while demonstrating a new punch, never breaking the rhythm of the class of one August class session.
“Eight!” the Muay Thai class answered in unison over chiming background music.
Muay Thai is also known as “The Science of Eight Limbs” since fighters use their hands, feet, elbows and knees in the martial art.
Every class, Gaudinez uses mirrors, Thai pads, and partner drills to teach Muay Thai techniques after warm-ups while focusing on conditioning. Although Muay Thai presents an excellent workout for students, it is Gaudinez’s philosophy of always relating Muay Thai to everyday life that inspires her students.
“She’s teaching a discipline (to her students), a mental attitude to work hard and try and be the best that they possibly can be,” UCLA Recreation’s Instructional Program Coordinator Paul McCarthy said. McCarthy also takes Gaudinez’s Muay Thai class at the John Wooden Center.
Gaudinez educates her students to apply their physical determination in their Muay Thai workouts to their attitudes toward hardships outside of the sport, ranging from academic stress to family and relationship difficulties.
“I try to get them to understand that … they can translate the skills they learn in the physical aspect of Muay Thai to their outside lives,” Gaudinez said. “Otherwise, if there is no connection being made, … they are just coming to do a martial sport ““ which is okay, but I want it to be more than that.”
Although the Muay Thai students at UCLA don’t compete against other schools, Gaudinez’s class functions like a team, a family. These boxers go out to dinner and train together outside of class. Gaudinez said that the community atmosphere in her Muay Thai class stemmed from the necessity of trusting one’s partner in order to train in martial arts.
“You have to take care of each other because we are a family,” Gaudinez said to her students. “If you can’t trust your partner, you can’t train, you can’t get better no matter how much you love the art. The art can’t grow, you can’t grow without your partners in the class.”
For Carranza, the students in his class become trainers for each other.
“While I’m holding the pads, I’m also teaching whoever I’m training with,” Carranza said. “(Once) his hands go down, I have to hit him, showing him.”
An avid runner and soccer player, Carranza said he feels that Muay Thai requires a completely different type of stamina and cardio. Having played since an early age, Carranza said his soccer ability comes as second nature to him, while Muay Thai forces him to utilize a different set of muscles.
“Nothing has pushed me the way that Muay Thai has pushed me,” Carranza said. “Muay Thai, it’s a real commitment. You really have to focus your mind.”
From Del Rey Lagoon to Camp
Wilkerson
In the spring, Gaudinez, a member of the Thai Boxing Association of the USA, invited her intermediate Muay Thai class to participate in the 19th Annual Pacific Northwest Muay Thai Camp held July 22-25 at Camp Wilkerson near Portland, Ore.
Four students immediately volunteered.
“(The students have) never fought or anything like that,” McCarthy said. “They were just dedicating their lives to this and shown … that commitment to it, and that was what impressed Kru Genelle to invite them.”
To prepare her students for Muay Thai Camp, Gaudinez required them to attend mandatory training outside of UCLA recreation classes. From May to July, Gaudinez conducted training sessions every weekend that replicated conditions at Muay Thai Camp.
“At Thai Camp we’re running up and down hills, we’re in the forest, gravel, running through trees and things like that,” Gaudinez said. “So we’re at the beach training on grass and running through sand to simulate that because I want to try to get as close to camp experience as possible.”
Other days, Gaudinez and her four students ran the bleachers and track at Drake Stadium, followed by a workout at the John Wooden Center.
“Muay Thai tends to be a lot of form and a lot of cardio,” Carranza said. “Basically when we started out, we exhausted ourselves from the beginning. We just ran and ran and ran.”
While running helped increase stamina for the boxers, it also helped improve their Muay Thai technique and form when they shadowboxed immediately after running, followed by hitting pads, sparring and learning new moves.
“When you’re exhausted, that’s where your muscle memory comes in,” Carranza said. “So when you shadowbox right after you’re running, your arms want to drop. But if you focus on keeping them up, that’s where your muscle memory will be.”
The intensity of the energy-demanding workouts during training bonded the Muay Thai boxers at UCLA.
“It’s something with humanity that, when you pass something really tough with somebody else, you guys just tend to click, regardless of how different you may be,” Carranza said. “You see these people all the time; you’re suffering with them; you’re sweating with them: It’s a really good experience.”
Meanwhile, having already achieved the first level of Muay Thai instructorship, Gaudinez was preparing for her next level of instructorship: “associate instructor.”
“I basically created my own test,” Gaudinez said. “My tests were my students. That’s why I dedicated my own personal time to meeting at 6 in the morning for however many weekends it was ““ because I wanted them to do well at the camp and to feel comfortable there and to just enjoy and have fun learning.”
Because campers must be sponsored by a Thai Boxing Association member, the Muay Thai Camp turned away hundreds of fighters, including professionals and people willing to pay double the price of the camp.
“I was just lucky and honored to bring students of my own,” Gaudinez said.
Gaudinez designed her Muay Thai weekend training regiment about right: at Muay Thai Camp, activities started at 6 a.m. with running, shadowboxing, sparring and working with Thai pads and heavy bags. Campers also learned the Muay Thai stance and the clinch, as well as Krabi Krabong, Thai weaponry.
“I pushed them to their absolute limits during the weekend training because I want them to be able to know that they can handle (Muay Thai camp) physically and just be able to concentrate and say, “˜Oh, I’m ready to learn now,'” Gaudinez said.
Essentially having practiced Muay Thai from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Muay Thai Camp, Carranza said it was physically one of the toughest things he has ever done.
“During the whole day, I’d say we rested about, maybe, three hours,” Carranza said.
Most surprising to Carranza were the Muay Thai opponents. He called his encounter with them “humbling.”
A brawny man himself, Carranza said that he expected seasoned fighters to be hefty “tough guys.”
“They were like regular guys,” Carranza said. “These guys were really humble, very respectful ““ that’s part of the Muay Thai tradition, especially part of the Thai Boxing Association.
“Everybody was really humble when you see them, but the moment they hit the pad, … it blows you away. Some of these guys are so fast and so strong, it’s amazing.”
Due to the UCLA students’ constant interaction and training with highly experienced fighters, Gaudinez felt that her students’ improvement in Muay Thai skyrocketed in that span of four days at Muay Thai Camp.
At the conclusion of Muay Thai Camp, the Thai Boxing Association promoted Gaudinez to associate instructor and honored her with the Outstanding Instructor Award. Gaudinez said she burst into tears, recollecting her own martial arts journey and the journey of her Muay Thai students.
“It was my dream as a 12 year old … to affect massive amounts of people in a positive way,” Gaudinez said. “Without knowing, and however the cosmos aligned, … it was actually happening here at UCLA, to be affecting that many students in mass.”
The Aftermath of Muay Thai Camp
Gaudinez said that she will take a larger group of Muay Thai students from UCLA with her to Muay Thai Camp next summer. But for now, most of them are preparing for their first testing for a first-level ranking on Oct. 17 at the John Wooden Center. The test requires them to perform the Wai Kru Ram Muay, a Muay Thai ceremonial pre-fight dance, and to demonstrate to a panel of instructors their Muay Thai forms and skills ““ punches, elbows, kicks and knees.
But Carranza said he has additional aspirations.
“I would definitely like to compete (in the ring),” Carranza said. “At least once, just to know the experience. We went to go watch some amateur fights and when we saw them, we were like, “˜We could do that.’ Khun Kru Genelle has trained us very well.”
Having said that, Francisco Carranza lightly jogged back to the Muay Thai training room, where his peers were about to begin stretching, seconds away from another 50-push-ups sentence.