`SHE'S GOT THE HEART'
Kingston woman eyes world Muay Thai gold
Kingston's Kayla Taylor is kicking ass and taking names.
Well, maybe not the taking names. More like making a name, for herself, in the world of Muay Thai.
Taylor, who moved to Kingston last summer when her husband was posted to Canadian Forces Base Kingston, is the Canadian women's Muay Thai champion in her weight class (67 kilograms) and the defending bronze medallist at the International Federation of Muaythai Associations Senior World Championships.
Next month, Taylor is seeking to upgrade that bronze to gold, when she and her coach, Kingston's Mark Sitb peegohn, head to Greece for the 2024 senior championships.
Taylor, preparing for her regular training session in west-end Kingston on Saturday, talked about her love for the martial arts, which stretches back nearly 20 years at this point.
“I started in karate,” said Taylor, who is lean and muscular and stands six feet tall. “I started karate when I was 15. I had always had an interest in the fighting world, but I didn't really know where to start in martial arts. There was nobody else doing it.”
Ultimately, she said, she decided that martial arts was something she wanted to take a kick at, so she and two of her sisters all joined together. Today, Kayla is the only one among them still competing in martial arts.
“Just through life, one of (my sisters) started having kids and she stopped and the other one went to university and she stopped, but I just kept on going,” Taylor said.
As she mastered karate, Taylor was soon representing Canada at national and international events around the world. During a competition overseas, Taylor said, she discovered other forms of martial arts that piqued her interest.
“I'd see all different kinds of martial arts at different competitions, and I was like, `Oh, I want to do those ones. Those ones looks like way more fun.' So I started doing kickboxing.”
When her husband was posted to CFB Petawawa, it appeared her martial arts career might be over, Taylor said, as she couldn't find anyone in the area to coach her. But her husband found Evolution Muay Thai, led by Kru Yai Ricky Godoy, so Taylor opted to give Muay Thai a try.
“It ended up being awesome because it's the best of the standup sports for sure,” she said. “Ricky had a lot of connections with fighting and that kind of thing, so once (things opened after) COVID, we were right on the first card with Muay Thai Ontario and I was just like, `Give me more of this.'”
While karate taught Taylor self-defence and point fighting and how to compete in a combat sport, deep down inside, she said, she had a burning desire to fight. That desire is fulfilled with Muay Thai.
“When I started switching to more full contact, I didn't recognize that there were opportunities to fight,” she said. “I wouldn't really say that I specifically had a goal in my mind like, `I want to be on Team Canada,' or `I want to do this' … I was like, `I just want to fight, I just want to fight, I just want to fight.' I guess it just got started and fuelled in karate and that the hunger for that, the competitiveness, the passion for what I'm doing transferred over to Muay Thai.”
Making the switch from a semi-contact martial art like karate to a full-contact one in Muay Thai wasn't without its challenges, she admitted.
“In a karate match, we'd be set up facing one another, the ref would set us up and he'd say go and the first contact he'd stop us and he would give a point and we'd reset. Muay Thai is continuous. The judges are around the edges and the refs are continually counting. They don't stop you unless there's some kind of reason they need to. Karate, everything is above the waist; Muay Thai, you can kick the leg, you can elbow and knee, you can clinch and sweep and those kinds of things. A thing that I had to unlearn from karate was the stance. (In) karate I stand sideways; Muay Thai is straight on. Karate is very bouncy and twittery, whereas Muay Thai is steady and smoother.”
As she always has, Taylor quickly excelled at her new passion, last October winning the national championship against Winnipeg's Ashely Viner at an event in Oakville.
Also last year, Taylor travelled to Thailand to participate in the IFMA senior championships, winning bronze. Next month, she is eyeing gold in Greece.
“This is the Olympics for Muay Thai,” her coach, Sitbpeegohn, who has practised, taught and competed in Muay Thai for nearly 50 years, said.
Taylor believes her training under Sitbpeegohn, as well as her experience at the event last year, gives her an advantage.
“A lot of what (has) clicked in for me (since) is a lot of mental stuff,” she said. “Allowing your inner confidence to show in the fighting. I didn't know Kru Mark at the time, and Kru Ricky, who was my coach in Petawawa, neither of them were able to be there, so the Team Canada coach, Kru Clifton (Brown), he was there and I was talking with him quite a bit throughout the whole thing.”
Brown, Taylor said, immediately identified her greatest strength.
“I didn't realize how competitive a person I am,” she said. “I know that might sound ridiculous, but I kind of never really thought of myself as being that competitive. He was saying, `You're one of the most competitive people I've ever met,' and just recognizing how that affects my fighting and being confident in the skills that I have, and I guess the competitiveness that I have, starting to build on the mindset and strengthening my view and all of those kinds of things in the ring, that kind of opened the door in my journey this year to work on more mindset stuff and more confidence before I go in the ring.”
And then there's her rigorous training, which is not for the faint of heart.
“I tell them every day: Muay Thai is pain,” Sitbpeegohn said. “You can't do it unless you just absolutely love it. It's grilling, it's head-to-toe punches, elbows, knees, kicks, sweeps … it's gruelling, gruelling training. There's nothing like Muay Thai training. It's recognized as the hardest martial arts training in the world. You have to be really, really, really passionate about it.”
Passionate as in running 10 kilometres daily, along with strength and conditioning training, sprinting, hundreds and hundreds of knees, kicks, punches, pad work and sparring, to name some.
“It's long, long sessions,” Sitbpeegohn said. “It's almost like a full-time job. You have to really dig it and just be totally captured with it in order to keep going.”
The coach sees something special in Taylor.
“She's got the heart,” Sitbpeegohn said. “She's in here fighting with guys. Kayla is sparring with guys who are typically stronger and bigger and sometimes faster and she's in there. It's fighter training. She's got the heart.”
Taylor will lean into the experience from last year when she gets to Greece.
“One thing I didn't quite expect last year was because it's such a long type of a tournament, how different you can feel day to day,” she said. “I felt really confident mentally and strong on the first (day), and I thought that wave would carry over, but then I kind of dipped. When I went into my second fight last year, I kind of felt a little uneasy. So we're building on that this year, recognizing that that is a thing that happens when you have a multi-day tournament. I think it just helps be prepared for those kinds of things.”
Taylor and Sitbpeegohn will ramp up the training even more as the event gets closer, while also seeking out sponsors and donors to help offset the huge costs associated with the trip to Greece for the event. A Gofundme crowdfunding campaign has been set up to help cover costs. As well, they're seeking businesses or sponsors who might help with the trip. The Gofundme can be found online at gofund.me/c301d67a
In the meantime, Taylor will focus her efforts on preparing the world championships in Greece.
“This year, we're very much aiming for the gold,” she said. “We've put in the time, put in a lot of effort of growing. We have had a hard time finding fights this year. People backing out or not wanting to fight or whatever, but with that, we've had a bit more time to kind of break things down and work on a few more skills. Instead of constantly fighting, we've had a bit more time to hone in on some of those skills, technique and just get better overall. We've talked about this as a team and definitely bringing a better, stronger self this year and I'm really hungry for it.”