Sitting within a sea of industrial buildings and semi-trucks, you could never tell from the outside, the blocky, concrete building was any different from those next to it. Yet, this concrete box not only served as a shield from the cold but something much more unique; community and connection. For, as you step inside, you will be met not only by warmth, but also by a class training and learning together.
Within this otherwise normal industrial building, is a gym. The STB Training Center, a martial arts gym, which offers early morning Muay Thai classes. Muay Thai being a form of martial arts from Thailand, which, as opposed to more standard western style boxing, involves both a variety of punches and kicks. This makes Muay Thai a very physically intensive sport; and a sport which one of Hayfield’s own, English teacher Brian Hannon, coaches.
Hannon’s class certainly lives up to the intensity of Muay Thai. Much effort and focus is demanded from students, as they go through exercises ranging from intensive cardio warmups to practicing fighting combos. However, the intensity of the training isn’t the only exceptional thing about the class; as it’s not just adults who train in the class, but Hayfield students as well.
“Well, really I invite anybody who wants to go,” Hannon said. “Students had expressed that they wanted to go do something like that and I just mentioned that my gym offers that kind of training.”
While the students Hannon invites may be new to the sport, he is a veteran, having been practicing Muay Thai for the past 19 years. Beyond making him skilled at the sport, and an able coach, the two decades spent practicing has given him plenty of time to think about what he gains from the sport.
“Obviously one [workout] is good for fitness and cardio, but it’s a good way to be involved in something consistent,” Hannon said. “Since I’ve been training, I’ve just been doing it consistently in different places, wherever I go. It’s always been kind of like my constant.”
Having this constant to fall back on is just one of numerous ways Muay Thai has impacted Hannon’s life for the better. Coaching, for example, is another way he is able to find satisfaction through the sport. By being a coach, he is able to both keep practicing his own skills, but also develop stronger connections with those who train in his course, especially those he also teaches at Hayfield.
“You know, some of the people who go to the gym are already students at Hayfield and I feel like I have a kind of a deeper connection and understanding with those students because of our kind of shared experience at the gym, and students who come to my other classes like seem to enjoy it as well,” Hannon said. “And it’s just nice to be able to impart something different than just English to people who want to learn.”
Hannon isn’t the only one benefiting from Muay Thai. Through the burn and intensity of training, his students are also able to feel the joy and self improvement that comes from practicing the sport. One of the more regular faces at training is senior Ella Pomaranski, who has been attending Hannon’s training for the past two years.
“I started going halfway through my sophomore year,” Pomaranski said. “Mr. Hannon was like, you should just come and try it. It will be fun and I think you’ll be good at it.”
While this dedicated practice has led her to become stronger and improve at the sport, the growth she values the most is of a friendship. one of her friendships.
“I got my friend Lauren, who’s been my partner since, for two years,” Pomaranski said. “I feel like I’ve gotten to be really good friends with her.”
This type of connection is what makes Hannon’s class truly special. While it does seem somewhat strange for an English teacher to invite their students to martial arts training, Hannon has created a sort of community between himself and his students, and enabled them to strengthen their connections with one another. The benefits gained from this sort of collaborative training are best expressed by those who have participated in it.
“I think, even with people you don’t know, it’s still building bonds just through (doing) hard things with other people or your friends,” Pomaranski said.
