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'Bad boys' turn good after meeting muay thai master
He punched some sense into them
By Shree Ann Mathavan
July 26, 2009
THE MASTER AND HIS STUDENTS: Master Yeo (above) has helped many youths, including lawyer Chong En-Lai, personal trainer David Soh and cabby Ander Kek. --TNP PICTURES: CHOO CHWEE HUA
THE dyed golden locks and chiselled body, honed by decades of muay thai, hints at his toughness, but they also belie a heart of gold.
Muay thai instructor Master Johnnie Yeo's job is to teach others to fight, but ironically, these lessons have helped troubled youths turn their backs on violence and helped them back onto the straight and narrow.
Perhaps, it was Master Yeo's streetwise exterior that struck a chord with these troubled young men who had got into numerous scrapes with the authorities.
Or maybe it was the art of muay thai, Thai kickboxing, that they picked up from Master Yeo - who ran Hilltop Muay Thai at Bukit Batok Nature Reserve for the past 33 years - which taught them discipline and focus.
Whatever the case, Master Yeo, 57, who trained at a muay thai camp in Chiangmai intermittently for 10 years, has served as a father figure to over 400 students, many of them delinquents and wayward youths.
It's telling then that some of these former self-professed 'bad boys' continue to train faithfully under him.
His new school, Hilltop Gym, started operations at Havelock Road earlier this month.
Among the rebels made good is ex-convict Ander Kek, now 37 and a cabby.
In his younger years, he seemed bent on a path of destruction. At 16, he was a gang member, drank copiously, got into numerous fights, and collected debts as a loan shark.
Mr Kek hit his lowest point when he was 20, when he was jailed six months after getting involved in a gang fight.
But he managed to turn his troubled life around when he was 22. That was when he met Master Yeo, an old neighbour, after having lost touch for years.
Master Yeo, one of the pioneers of muay thai in Singapore in the 70s, encouraged MrKek to take up the sport.
And it was Master Yeo who eventually convinced Mr Kek to leave his criminal life behind.
Recalled Mr Kek of his soft-spoken master: 'He would always chide me when he saw my bruises from my gang fights and tell me to leave the gang.
'So I stopped everything.'
Mr Kek is now happily married to an insurance agent, 37, and has three daughters 6, 8 and 10.
His story is similar to that of Mr David Soh, 53, now a personal trainer at a local gym.
Eight years ago, the former gangster decided to turn over a new leaf and, with Master Yeo's influence, took his first muay thai lesson.
He was hooked, and later took up instructor and referee courses by the International Federation of Muay Thai Amateur (IFMA).
Rebellious teen
Lawyer Chong En-Lai, 30, an associate in a law firm, also has his own tale of redemption under Master Yeo.
As a teenager, he would get into fights with just about anyone. He even tried to hit his Secondary 4 teacher.
That rebellious streak continued even as he grew older and he regularly fought with some of his peers when he was in National Service.
Recalled Mr Chong: 'I just felt like I didn't belong and I couldn't accept that there were rules and regulations.
'It was just plain immaturity.'
He met Master Yeo when he was 22 at another gym and took up the sport under him.
Mr Chong, who represented Singapore in the IFMA World Championship in 2002 but lost, said: 'The most important thing that 'shifu' (master in Mandarin) taught me was humility.
'In the ring, it's not about how good you think you are, but about the amount of hard work and discipline that you put in.'
Taking up the sport under Master Yeo and losing that international match which he had expected to win was his 'wake-up' call.
Said Mr Chong: 'I didn't expect to lose so the experience made me more humble and understand that I had a lot more to learn.'
From then on, instead of the 'half-hearted' way he used to work at school, he studied hard and graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a second lower honours degree in law in 2005.
Helping wayward young people find their way in life is something Master Yeo hopes to continue doing.
The coach, who still teaches classes six days a week, said: 'Seeing my students grow up, and doing well, makes me really happy.'
His hope is that his new gym at Havelock Road will continue to introduce even more students to the sport.
'Bad boys' turn good after meeting muay thai master
He punched some sense into them
By Shree Ann Mathavan
July 26, 2009
THE MASTER AND HIS STUDENTS: Master Yeo (above) has helped many youths, including lawyer Chong En-Lai, personal trainer David Soh and cabby Ander Kek. --TNP PICTURES: CHOO CHWEE HUA
THE dyed golden locks and chiselled body, honed by decades of muay thai, hints at his toughness, but they also belie a heart of gold.
Muay thai instructor Master Johnnie Yeo's job is to teach others to fight, but ironically, these lessons have helped troubled youths turn their backs on violence and helped them back onto the straight and narrow.
Perhaps, it was Master Yeo's streetwise exterior that struck a chord with these troubled young men who had got into numerous scrapes with the authorities.
Or maybe it was the art of muay thai, Thai kickboxing, that they picked up from Master Yeo - who ran Hilltop Muay Thai at Bukit Batok Nature Reserve for the past 33 years - which taught them discipline and focus.
Whatever the case, Master Yeo, 57, who trained at a muay thai camp in Chiangmai intermittently for 10 years, has served as a father figure to over 400 students, many of them delinquents and wayward youths.
It's telling then that some of these former self-professed 'bad boys' continue to train faithfully under him.
His new school, Hilltop Gym, started operations at Havelock Road earlier this month.
Among the rebels made good is ex-convict Ander Kek, now 37 and a cabby.
In his younger years, he seemed bent on a path of destruction. At 16, he was a gang member, drank copiously, got into numerous fights, and collected debts as a loan shark.
Mr Kek hit his lowest point when he was 20, when he was jailed six months after getting involved in a gang fight.
But he managed to turn his troubled life around when he was 22. That was when he met Master Yeo, an old neighbour, after having lost touch for years.
Master Yeo, one of the pioneers of muay thai in Singapore in the 70s, encouraged MrKek to take up the sport.
And it was Master Yeo who eventually convinced Mr Kek to leave his criminal life behind.
Recalled Mr Kek of his soft-spoken master: 'He would always chide me when he saw my bruises from my gang fights and tell me to leave the gang.
'So I stopped everything.'
Mr Kek is now happily married to an insurance agent, 37, and has three daughters 6, 8 and 10.
His story is similar to that of Mr David Soh, 53, now a personal trainer at a local gym.
Eight years ago, the former gangster decided to turn over a new leaf and, with Master Yeo's influence, took his first muay thai lesson.
He was hooked, and later took up instructor and referee courses by the International Federation of Muay Thai Amateur (IFMA).
Rebellious teen
Lawyer Chong En-Lai, 30, an associate in a law firm, also has his own tale of redemption under Master Yeo.
As a teenager, he would get into fights with just about anyone. He even tried to hit his Secondary 4 teacher.
That rebellious streak continued even as he grew older and he regularly fought with some of his peers when he was in National Service.
Recalled Mr Chong: 'I just felt like I didn't belong and I couldn't accept that there were rules and regulations.
'It was just plain immaturity.'
He met Master Yeo when he was 22 at another gym and took up the sport under him.
Mr Chong, who represented Singapore in the IFMA World Championship in 2002 but lost, said: 'The most important thing that 'shifu' (master in Mandarin) taught me was humility.
'In the ring, it's not about how good you think you are, but about the amount of hard work and discipline that you put in.'
Taking up the sport under Master Yeo and losing that international match which he had expected to win was his 'wake-up' call.
Said Mr Chong: 'I didn't expect to lose so the experience made me more humble and understand that I had a lot more to learn.'
From then on, instead of the 'half-hearted' way he used to work at school, he studied hard and graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a second lower honours degree in law in 2005.
Helping wayward young people find their way in life is something Master Yeo hopes to continue doing.
The coach, who still teaches classes six days a week, said: 'Seeing my students grow up, and doing well, makes me really happy.'
His hope is that his new gym at Havelock Road will continue to introduce even more students to the sport.
