“It’s respect for everybody. I don’t expect you to respect a woman any differently than you would respect a man. That’s my equality.” Head muay thai Coach Star Joyce has been coaching with us at Fight for Peace for over 10 years, and last year she received her 13th Khan rank and title of Assistant Master. 

Alongside her continued pursuit of excellence within muay thai, Coach Star paves the way for many women athletes entering the traditionally male-dominated environment of combat sports. A tenacious role model, an assertive coach, and a remarkable mentor, we heard about her experience coaching muay thai and how she pioneers for equality. 

Star began training when she was 35, humbly recalling, “I had no martial arts background at all, but the time slot suited me, and I wanted to learn something new. When I went, I realised, sometimes you don’t realise something is what you need until you do it, and then you’re like, ‘This is great’.”

Muay thai, like many combat sports, was born for the battlefield, and as these military spaces traditionally dictated, also excluded women. Even with a global love of muay thai putting this sport on the map with over 150 countries now practising it, it remains a largely male-dominated space.

Reflecting on this element of the sport, Star shared, “Muay thai has always been that [a male-dominated sport], but I never allowed that to be a barrier for me.” 

After competing at amateur level, Star started coaching and a career swiftly followed. Coaching in the sport came with its own realisations; “I realised that working in such a male-dominated environment, I’m not a man; I can’t pretend to be a man, but my delivery has to be as strong as a man’s. I have to be very direct and believe in myself.”

But the challenges have only demonstrated just how passionate about the sport she is: “I didn’t allow it to stop me, because it’s something I loved; it was my passion. I wanted to do this sport; I know I’m good at what I do, I know I can do it, and I won that respect [in coaching] based on my ability. It’s got nothing to do with the fact that I’m a woman.”

This mantra of hers is something that she channels into each session she coaches: “Every single person in this room is as capable as anyone else. You’re all going to have to do the same thing, but you will do it at your own pace and as your body allows you to do it.”

Her reflections, however, do not take away from the reality that these spaces can be more challenging for women: “I think we do have to try harder to prove that we’re able to do it [muay thai] and to get respect from people. And especially when I teach women-only classes, I always let them know: don’t ever let people tell you you can’t do something because you’re a woman. You can. The only person that’s going to let you down is yourself.”

In these spaces, she also teaches an important life lesson: “I always say to women: even if muay thai isn’t the field you stay in, it teaches you how to handle a male-dominated world. Generally, the corporate world is very male-dominated, and if you can handle it in a sport, you can handle it in the corporate world. It makes you mentally stronger to handle confrontational situations strategically, rather than emotionally.”

In her mixed sessions, language is something she takes care with, stating the contradictory nature of gendered phrases in sport: “I don’t like it when they say ‘female push-ups’ because suddenly, people think the female version of things is weaker or easier. No, it’s not. There are some men who can’t do full press-ups and have to do press-ups on their knees. It’s not that they’re doing a female press-up – they’re still a man doing a press-up.”

The foundations of Coach Star’s equality and the reason her mixed muay thai sessions at Fight for Peace are a crowded buzz of happy, moving bodies, is because she treats everyone the same: “I think it’s really important. If you want men to feel comfortable training around women, they also need to know that you’re not going to favour the women in the room.”

Feeling comfortable, she teaches, also extends to showing men how important it is to process emotions: “Sometimes guys have a hard spar and want to cry, too. It’s far more common for women, but I don’t shame anyone in front of everyone. I just tell them quietly, ‘It’s fine, go to the toilet and have a cry, your body is just releasing stress.’ It’s okay to feel your emotions, but don’t let them control you.”

Coach Star continues to be an inspiration to us all, and her parting words on equality echo far beyond the space of muay thai: “Mindset, resilience, and discipline can all be equal.” 

Interested in muay thai? Coach Star’s mixed sessions (open to 14-25) are on Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm at the Fight for Peace Academy. She also runs a junior session (7-14) on Thursday from 5-6pm.  All are welcome.