Thai Boxing: The story of two student fighters

The world of combat sports can be a harsh and unforgiving environment for the athletes who find themselves within it. Amateurs & professionals are constantly in a state of loneliness and dejection due to the rigorous training, frequent injuries, and pain of loss, which at times can leave them questioning if it’s all worth it.

One thing is for certain, not everyone is cut out for a sport with such high demands, however for others, the opposite is true.

“It sounds a bit crazy, but I love the brutalness of the sport, I think it’s a bit awesome, I just love training, and I love how every time I train, I feel good about myself.”

These were the words of Leeds Beckett student & Thai boxer, Huseyin Yahya, upon being asked what is it that made him continue taking part in the sport after trying out for the club. “I got into Thai boxing because my friend that I go to Uni with actually told me about the society in Leeds, and I’ve always been a fan of boxing, MMA, stuff like that. And I thought it might be time for me to get into something like this and I love it. It sounds a bit crazy, but I love the brutalness of the sport, I think it’s a bit awesome, I just love training, and I love how every time I train, I feel good about myself,” Huseyin said.

Huseyin has been doing Thai boxing for one and a half to two years now and whilst this may seem like a long time, in the grand scheme of things it’s still a relatively short amount of time, as a fighter but says he’s noticed positive changes because of the sport.

“I wasn’t really that aware of Thai boxing for a while. I was aware of MMA and everything, but I didn’t really know about Thai boxing until like four-five years ago, and when I first brought it up, my mum obviously gave the cliché answer, like no don’t do it, I don’t want you to get hurt and all that, and my dad encouraged it, he was like yeah do it, do it, all that stuff.

But I think that they see that I enjoy it now, and they see that I’m getting in better shape and everything and they’re happy that I’m doing it I suppose,” he explained.

Balancing the Grind: Fight preparation amid work overload

The majority of fighters in the Thai boxing club at Beckett will have relatively simple schedules, with only training sessions held during the week. However, a select few who are judged to be experienced enough will participate in exhibition fights, where they will square off against opponents from the University of Leeds.

Huseyin was selected as one of the fighters despite having little experience in real combat in the ring and he was aware of the significant progress he had made from the beginning of his journey to this point, largely because of the university’s support, which he acknowledges.

“If it weren’t for the uni I might’ve not even started Thai boxing, so they’ve played a pivotal role in helping me get to where I am now.

I’ve always been into boxing, and I’ve been doing boxing for a little bit, but I don’t think I would’ve started Thai boxing potentially if it wasn’t for the Uni,” Huseyin said.

With fights on the horizon for these young fighters, they would commence preparations immediately, which brought about it’s own set of problems and challenges and one student who fell victim to this is, Matis Green, another student fighter who would be representing Beckett University come fight night.

“It can be difficult to balance uni with training, as in order to keep up with both to a satisfactory level, it doesn’t feel like you get much downtime, which can be draining. Unfortunately, I didn’t do a great job of this and fell behind with my uni work during fight camp. Also, as keen as I am to fight again, I can’t risk not balancing my uni work during exam season, so I likely won’t fight again now until the next uni year starts,” Matis said.

For Matis, his Thai boxing journey involves going through a similar set of experiences to what Huseyin went through, in that he was referred to the sport through a friend and is very thankful to the university for the progress he’s made during the many months of training.

“I’ve been interested in watching MMA for around 8 years, so I went to a Muay Thai session with my friend who did it at the time. I carried on because it was so much fun, and I was instantly obsessed with it.

Obviously, I’m still relatively new having only done it for around 10 months, so l can still see myself constantly improving. If I fought myself from 10 months ago I’d back myself to win with a hand tied behind my back,” Matis said.

The uni has been genuinely amazing and crucial in my development, the training is more affordable than going to a regular gym, our coaches are brilliant and doing it at uni is what made me want to have an actual Muay Thai fight,” he added.

Despite positive signs being shown by those involved in the club, the sport deeply loved by these two students in particular was proving to take a toll on their university life, nevertheless, they managed to endure the struggle, no matter how bad it got.

“I suppose coming up to fight month, it’s quite hectic because I work as well. I work at Wagamama’s and I need money obviously, but I’ve got a couple of assignments coming up and they are quite big assignments, so it’s quite hard finding the balance of the physical work, uni work and then paid work, but I’m managing quite well, I like to go bed early, wake up early, get exercise in early if I can and just make sure I can do whatever I can to improve,” Huseyin said.

“And with a fight in three weeks, what I’m doing to prepare for that is, I’m cutting out drinking, all of the bad stuff, I’ve got to cut weight, got to cut a few kilos. In December I was 92, and right now I’m sitting on about 84 so I’m just taking out all the bad stuff, training really hard and just making sure that after the final bell goes, that I can say I left everything out on the ring, win, lose or draw, as long as I put my heart into it then I’m happy,” he added.

Matis, like every other fighter, will have to prepare for fight night in the same way: they have to work extremely hard in the last two weeks before, weigh themselves regularly (based on their weight class, they may need to gain or lose weight), and follow a rigorous training schedule that is only meant to make sure they are physically and psychologically ready.

“I’ve only had the one fight, and to prepare for it I completely cut out alcohol and stopped eating junk food, and instead ate really healthy food throughout. Also, I did weight training 4 times a week along with training Muay Thai 4 times a week,” Matis explained.

A night to remember

The Leodis Fighting Championship 23/24 event, held at Leeds Beckett University would prove to be a success in every way and was only made possible because of the enormous crowd of parents, family members, all the extra staff and most importantly the fighters who made it all happen.

Events like this are important as they offer these fighters the way to showcase their talent and play a crucial role in their development as they’ll gain real-world experience and career progression by familiarising themselves with what goes on in the professional side of things and no doubt that this will be engrained as a great experience to live and be part of for these fighters.

There were an incredible eleven athletes from Beckett University, seven of whom won and took home gold medals, and four of whom secured their second-place finish with competitors coming from all over the country.

Despite displaying remarkable skill and tenacity throughout the rounds, Matis and Huseyin finished in second place.
Even though Matis remained composed and easy-going during the first part of the battle, he acknowledges that losing the fight was his undoing, saying that he needs to do better at keeping his cool in future bouts.

Husyin & teammates observing a technique

“The day of the fight I was extremely calm and felt very good. It wasn’t until walking out to the ring that the nerves started to set in, but when your opponent is gaining the edge over you, it’s extremely difficult to stay calm. You are aware it’s happening when they start to gain momentum and so you feel like you need to do something to stop it but it’s a lot easier said than done and can lead to being more sloppy,” he said.

“Unfortunately, my game plan essentially went straight out the window as I didn’t do a great job of controlling the adrenaline and nerves while I was in there, so l basically fought off instinct.

However, I think I did a good job of moving forward, anticipating and catching his kicks, but I need to improve my ability to keep my composure so that I can be more effective in my attack, which I wasn’t on the night,” Matis added.

On fight day, Huseyin also felt mentally prepared, but he was defeated by his opponent’s modest height advantage as well as his struggles with a minor injury.

“Mentally for the fight I was feeling pretty prepared, but physically maybe a little bit under because I felt like I had a small injury that stopped me from training as much as I should’ve, before the fight as well. But mentally I felt like I was prepared to fight.

It was tricky to stick to my game plan because he was a lot taller than me, so I knew I had to be very defensive at the same time like I had to come in close as well, I had to close the gap between us and get him close and make him feel uncomfortable because he was just a lot taller than me so he could hit me with his legs & arms much easier than I could hit him,” Huseyin said.

“When your opponent is applying pressure it is quite difficult to maintain focus, obviously if he was to kick me in the head or something like that, then I’d just have to shake it off and gage eye contact again and make sure I’m focused on the matter at hand.

Even with all the hardships that come from Thai boxing, many fighters will continue to train and devote their life to a sport such as this one because they love the sport, want to better themselves and their family, and want to grow personally. The challenges are frequently worth it because of the sense of camaraderie, the discipline acquired, and the individual victories in the ring.

Coach Lew in the centre, giving feedback to the students

For these student fighters, this current period is now a time of rest, reflection and analysis, where they’ll be able to recover and analyse these recent fights to improve the negatives and better themselves for future fights & events.

For Matis, despite only being in the Thai boxing world for a short time, he’s already made his intentions clear on continuing the sport after university.

“I absolutely plan on continuing after university. I love the sport and would like it to be a part of my life indefinitely,” he said.

As for Huseyin, he was very critical of his overall thoughts on his fight and knows what he needs to work on.

“Looking back at the fight I think I need to work on things like flexibility, and applying more pressure to taller opponents because he was a lot taller. I shouldn’t been giving him the space that I was, and I should’ve just got in more,” he explained.

Final Project Update 3

This last project update will include a few more photos, some of which I plan on using within my actual project and give some overall feedback on my thought process.

I am fairly satisfied with a lot of these pictures and how they turned out, and whilst they are not perfect by any means, I still think there are positive aspects of each one that make it well shot. Most of the photos hardly have any blur which is good and demonstrates my good and efficient timing of pressing the shoot button. This all came through relatively well due to the different options and settings that we were taught to help us in these specific situations.

I like the fourth photo of Matis Green, who is one of my sources, looking down at his boxing gloves whilst seated and sweating. I think a shot like that is just as good as the action shots as you can visibly see the sweat on his face and his facial expression whilst looking at his boxing gloves. In my opinion, with a few editing touches, it is a photo that flows well with the story that I plan to tell and will be good to use.

I also liked the third photo of Huseyin, who was doing some sparring exercise with his teammate but in that particular instant, he wasn’t doing or performing any action which is why I like the image so much. He’s got both arms out, almost like he is about to perform some sort of action but the captured moment is very simple with him in a natural position and once again I think would go very well with the story.

Another picture I like is the fifth one where a kicking action is being performed and in that exact scenario, I was able to capture the kicking action perfectly with barely any blur. I think the mid-angle range works well for that photo and would’ve been ruined if I was any closer or further away.

Overall I’m reasonably satisfied with the work that I’ve been doing across the module and can confidently say that I’ve seen a small development in the quality of my pictures even in such a short amount of time. I am disappointed that I wasn’t able to get more pictures from their other training sessions or actual fight event, as it would’ve been good to include some of those as well, however, I feel like I will be able to pick out a decent set of 8-12 quality pictures to include in my project.

Project Update 2

These are a few more test shots that I took whilst at the Thai Boxing session and one aspect that can be noticed straight away is how all photos consist of a similar angle and depth.

Most of the photos were taken whilst the fighters were side on with half of their body being captured on camera and all images also seem to have a similar depth of mid to close range shots.

In this first image, the individual in blue is performing a punching action, which I managed to capture relatively well as you can see the defining moment of both gloves touching each other. These were the type of shots that I was looking to capture throughout the session, and in this particular instance, I’m satisfied with how it turned out as there is very little blurry and the individual being focused on can be seen clearly.

This picture involves another punching action, however, there is more blur within this picture which takes its overall quality down. Once again this image was also taken at a sort of mid to close range. If I was to retake this picture, I would most likely take it head on where you’re able to see his full face to capture the expression being made on his face and also reduce the blur.

I think this test shot was the worst one of the four simply because of the blur and left hand from the boxer on the right that is blocking his face. These two aspects played a crucial role in how the photo turned out and perhaps with better timing, there wouldn’t be such issues.

This shot is different from the others and that is because I thought that I could try something different. A new angle or action is being taken by a fighter, which is how I captured this one. I think this picture would’ve been better if he was looking up with his head as I would’ve been able to capture that as well.

Project Update 1

As my project is about Thai boxing athletes and their stories, I have been going to their training sessions for the past two weeks and taking some test shots. It’s through these test shots of the training that I will pick out my best 8-12 photographs of my chosen athletes.

The pictures above are a few test shots that I have accumulated whilst attending sessions for the past two weeks and are the style that I look to use within my actual project but with more clarity and quality.

As a beginner with little experience using a camera, it is natural that most of the photographs taken in the early stages will come out with errors such as blur and other issues, which is what I have been experiencing throughout my process of taking photos. Since the content I am covering involves fast movement and action, finding the right angle, speed and timing when capturing something is going to be extremely difficult.

However, as you start to familiarise yourself with a DSLR camera you’ll start to find things slightly easier and capture decent images and the ones above are proof of that. All three images were taken whilst the individuals were performing some sort of kicking action, which I think is a good moment to capture, but as the images suggest, there is blur on all of them which takes a way from the quality and also perhaps the angles at which they were taken could also be better.

However, as you start to familiarise yourself with a DSLR camera you’ll start to find things slightly easier and capture decent images and the ones above are proof of that. All three images were taken whilst the individuals were performing some sort of kicking action which I think is a good moment to capture, but as the images suggest, there is a blur on all of them which takes away from the quality and also perhaps the angles at which they were taken could be better.

Week 7 Task: Colour & Image Correction

For this week’s task, we had to go over a few different images taken by us and select at least two that we would edit and improve. I decided to edit two pictures from the Leeds Beckett Thai boxing session that I attended two weeks back.

Original

Edited

Whilst at this session, I made sure to adjust my settings on the DSLR camera and switch the dial to TV as this would allow me to take photos with minimal blur, since most of my shots would include movement from the athletes.

As for the image above, the use of the shutter speed and other functions worked in my favour since there is barely any blur within this perfectly freeze-framed action shot of the two athletes clashing. However, the photo turned out quite dark, so I made a few changes and made the photo brighter by increasing the exposure to +1.80, and decreasing the contrast & saturation. This then added a better clarity aspect to the photo, which can be seen through the most eye-catching part of the photo where both athletes are colliding with their gloves, but also through a small detail in the headgear and boxing pad in the bottom left corner which can hardly be seen in the original image.

Original

Edited

This image in a way is the polar opposite of the first, as this one has a bit more blur which can be seen in the boxing glove of the athlete in red, but has much better lighting and brightness overall. I still thought that the lighting could improve so I made a few adjustments by increasing the exposure to 0.55, vibrance to +15 and saturation to +25, giving it a much brighter tone in the second image.

Week 5 Task: Shutter speed & ISO

The images below were taken using different shutter speeds to help me capture every single moment involving some sort of action like a jump or hand movement.

The images where the individual is in mid-air were taken with burst mode because it allows me to have different image points of the jump, ranging from the leap, being mid-air and to the ground once again. I also took a few photos with the live mode on to get that long exposure effect.

This image was chosen out of a series of different ones taken with burst mode on to capture the moment where the individual is mid-air without blur.

Similar to the picture above, this one was taken using burst mode and helped me capture the moment where Niall is mid-air without lots of blur.

This picture was taken with live mode on which creates that long exposure effect.

Another picture of Niall mid-air taken with burst mode.

This one was taken with live mode on as I was waving.

Week 4 Task: Focus, Aperture & Depth of Field

The images below will all have different settings as of when they were taken, with some images having the highest F-stop, a few with a mid-F-stop and the lowest F-stop on others.

This close-up shot of me was taken with a low F-stop, and this was done to make myself the clearest object amongst anything else within the picture, and the background’s blur helps achieve that.

The F-stop setting for this picture was somewhere in the middle because I didn’t want to make my background objects fully unnoticeable. The option of a close-up shot allows me to make Daniel Tandy stand out as the main focus but it also means that with the right F-stop setting the two individuals behind are also clear to make out.

This mid-shot image of Daniel Tandy was taken outside, with the highest F-stop setting as I wanted to keep both the object and background clear and visible.

It’s clear that this close-up shot image was taken with the lowest F-stop setting possible as the background is completely blurred out, except for Niall who is the clear object.

This image is very similar to the one above with the only difference being that this picture was taken with a much higher F-stop setting as Niall and the background can be seen clearly.

This close-up shot was also taken with the lowest F-stop setting possible as only Tandy can be seen without any blur.

Lastly, this close-up shot of Sewell was taken using a high mid F-stop setting as the background is visible and clear but we can still make out a slight blur, compared to the Sewell who can be clearly seen.

Week 3 Task: Edited Images

Resized image

A mid-angle shot from a hockey game between two women's teams. — The sport of hockey has seen a significant rise in the number of participants over the years, particularly amongst women. “Image by John Torcasio”

Cropped & changed to Landscape image

A close-up shot of a man as he's about to strike a football in his back garden. — There’s no better feeling than hitting a wonder-strike volley in your back garden….. even better if it’s in an actual match “Image by Sven Kucinic”

Perspective Crop image

A wide/mid shot of a flat, during the evening. — The increase in cost of living is only getting worse, making it harder for individuals to find suitable places to stay. “Image by Maria Lysenko”

‘I want to finish the London marathon’ Beckett student sets his sights on the popular race this year

Close-up shot of Leeds Beckett Student Jake Quarmby who's wearing a purple training top and holding a ball after futsal training. — With the marathon event only a few months away, Jake has begun preparations with weekly runs of 10 miles whilst also balancing the futsal which is currently underway. “Image by Carlos Nunes”

Leeds Beckett student Jake Quarmby has set himself the objective to finish the London Marathon race which will be held in April of this year.

Quarmby’s chosen charity is Macmillan Cancer Support, and he hopes to raise enough money to help and support families going through tough times.

Part of his decision to run the marathon came through a friend of his who also took part in the event last year he revealed: “I was inspired to run the London Marathon after watching my friend Cieran run it last April for his chosen charity which was the MS UK.

I was taken aback by the atmosphere and really wanted to be a part of the event whilst raising money for a good cause.”

“During my secondary school years, I completed in cross country competitively for my county, Merseyside, however, I fell out of love with the sport and feel like this marathon will provide me the perfect opportunity to pick up running again.”

Whilst Quarmby has started his preparations for the marathon, he is also part of Beckett’s futsal team who train & play three times a week and so he must balance the two, which comes with its own set of challenges.

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“I am finding it challenging to balance futsal and running training at the same time to allow enough time for recovery.

As a result, I am currently only managing one long run a week around 10 miles which is less volume than I would like, however, I’m still feeling positive with how the training is going.”

Just finishing the race and hopefully inspiring others to partake in similar events is what Quarmby hopes to achieve with his actions.