{"id":31699,"date":"2019-11-14T00:00:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-13T14:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/?p=31699"},"modified":"2020-10-07T13:09:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T03:09:11","slug":"a-woman-on-a-martial-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/living\/a-woman-on-a-martial-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"A woman on a martial mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lani Williams is on an increasingly challenging mission to prove to women that gender doesn\u2019t define strength. <\/p>\n

The Torquay mum, who operates martial arts gym The Boneyard alongside husband Matt, first put on the gloves about five years ago after the birth of her son, Marley. <\/p>\n

Since then she has enjoyed triumphant success in the ring, having won four out of five fights this year alone. <\/p>\n

\u201cI came to martial arts quite late in my life\u2026 I wish I had found it earlier and pursued a bit of a career,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found a sport that I actually enjoyed doing. Doing three sets of 10 at the gym didn\u2019t suit my personality \u2013 I got bored doing a stagnant routine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel blessed to have gone as far as I have given my age.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple made the move to the Surf Coast from Melbourne at the start of the year as they both longed for the sensation of sand between their toes. <\/p>\n

Lani admitted it was neither her nor Matt\u2019s intention to open a gym once they were seaside bound, but when they both realised there was no Muay Thai training facility in the area, they felt inspired.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed somewhere to train,\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s quite a few really good ones in Geelong, and we found a lot of people from Torquay were travelling to Geelong to train. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed to make it as easy as possible for people\u2026 having one in Torquay just made sense. The Surf Coast has been really supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lani described the gym\u2019s demographic as \u201creally broad\u201d, with a group of young men aged between 18 and 24 making up The Boneyard\u2019s biggest fight team. <\/p>\n

She also said her focus area, classes for women, were growing in volume. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe women range from about 18 to late 40s; a lot of them are mums, but many are women who used to do Muay Thai in a past life, had some kids and now they\u2019re coming back to it. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd although martial arts is a very male-dominated sport, we are seeing a lot of change in that field. There are more and more fight shows with girls on the card.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are excited to watch young women fight now. A while ago you wouldn\u2019t have heard of women fighting in UFC, but they sell shows and tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lani is the gym\u2019s only female coach, and while she hopes to find another woman to be her \u201csidekick\u201d, for now she\u2019s channelling her energy into fostering growth across all skillsets. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing for me is to develop and bring out a sense of self-confidence in women; it\u2019s not necessarily to see how far they take it in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see such strength and power come from young women is really motivating and inspiring for me as a coach. The bonds that you see these women build with other women is incredible. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe most competition is yourself when you\u2019re in the gym.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Boneyard is located on the corner of Boneyards Avenue and Cylinders Way, Torquay. <\/p>\n

For more information, head to theboneyardtorquay.com<\/a> or follow @TheBoneyardTorquay on Facebook and Instagram. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lani Williams is on an increasingly challenging mission to prove to women that gender doesn\u2019t define strength. The Torquay mum, who operates martial arts gym The Boneyard alongside husband Matt, first put on the gloves about five years ago after the birth of her son, Marley. Since then she has enjoyed triumphant success in the […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":31700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-31699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA woman on a martial mission - Surf Coast Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/surfcoasttimes\/living\/a-woman-on-a-martial-mission\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A woman on a martial mission - Surf Coast Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lani Williams is on an increasingly challenging mission to prove to women that gender doesn\u2019t define strength. 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