Rolling with the punches

RECENTLY opened by Matt and Lani Williams, The Boneyard in Torquay is a gym different to most others.

Even before the gym’s opening in April, Matt’s focus was on doing more than training people martial arts. He worked with Surf Coast Secondary College to run free sessions in the gym on Friday evenings, which are now run at The Boneyard gym on 36/309 Cylinders Way.

Having a background as a youth worker and being part of Chin Up Project, Matt says he sees a range of benefits of these sessions.

“Having the forum of a martial arts gym provides not just a place to have Muay Thai training in, to get fit in and develop good relationships, but also to have those conversations with young people and kind of explore it through the metaphor of the training.”

Muay Thai is a form of kickboxing that is Thailand’s national sport. It is also becoming increasingly prominent in Australia.

It is taught at The Boneyard along with kickboxing and mixed martial arts (MMA).

Matt and Lani are well-equipped to teach these skills too.

Lani is the Victorian kickboxing champion while Matt has experience both fighting and coaching in Muay Thai, MMA and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Matt began learning Muay Thai when he lived in New Zealand, and says the martial art has taught him valuable life skills.

“For me with the art of Muay Thai and hard times there’s a lot of parallels. It’s like those colloquialisms of ‘rolling with the punches’ and ‘pick yourself up off the mat’.

“In my own life I’m able to draw a lot of references between the two, and it helps me overcome challenges and take them on.”

The gym embraces the culture of Muay Thai. Matt is a Thai speaker himself, and he and Lani had the gym blessed by Thai monks before its opening.

To learn more about The Boneyard, head to theboneyardtorquay.com/thegym.