New Orleans coach uses Muay Thai to reach youth 1 kick at a time

Faint breezes from industrial fans placed among the red-and-black painted walls of the MT Athletic Gym attempted to keep members cool as they worked out intensely one May afternoon. The sounds of controlled breathing, friendly encouragement and strikes against bags in a boxing ring echoed throughout the Uptown New Orleans gym as a young student took the lead and called out kicks to a Nola Muay Thai class.

“Ready? This is your ball game. This is your home. Let’s go. Call it,” Jarret Spaulding said to his class.

When defining the word home, Spaulding, a New Orleans native widely known as Coach Jay, has a unique answer. After living in Houston for three years and Atlanta for close to 10, he described it as “not a tangible place,” but instead the feeling he gets once he enters the ring in his gym.

“When I step in between these four ropes, I feel completely in charge,” he said. “I feel at peace. I feel nostalgic.”

Spaulding has been an athlete for most of his life, participating in basketball, football and track during his time at Joseph S. Clark High School, even spending some time in martial arts as a kid. After traveling over 9,000 miles across the globe for athletic opportunities, Spaulding was invited by a friend to visit Thailand to learn Muay Thai and do mission work. He described the month-and-a-half he spent there as mind-blowing. He admired the way locals expressed love for each other, but he was mainly impressed by the way they showed discipline in everyday life.

When Spaulding returned home to Uptown, he brought back a special gift from Thailand that keeps on giving. He now uses his Nola Muay Thai program to teach New Orleans youth about the same discipline, confidence and leadership he learned in his travels.

Coach Jay Spaulding kicking bag

Jarret “Coach Jay” Spaulding holds a kicking bag inside a boxing ring during a Nola Muay Thai class on Monday, May 1st, 2023, at MT Athletics Gym in Uptown New Orleans.

ARETHA MCKINNEY / NEXTGENRADIO

Inside MT Athletics Gym in New Orleans

A view of MT Athletics Gym in Uptown New Orleans from inside a boxing ring on Monday, May 1st.

ARETHA MCKINNEY / NEXTGENRADIO

“Coach Jay” Spaulding holds a kicking bag for a student on Monday, May 1st, during a Muay Thai practice.

ARETHA MCKINNEY / NEXTGENRADIO

When I step in between these four ropes, I feel completely in charge. I feel at peace. I feel nostalgic.

Jarret "Coach Jay" Spaulding

Muay Thai coach at MT Athletic Gym, New Orleans, Louisiana

“I haven’t told them anything. They’re all warming up. They’re all preparing for class. They already know what to do because of what they were given,” Spaulding proudly explains as his students take initiative when he’s not in the ring.

He points to this as a precise example of the discipline implemented in his program.

Spaulding started Nola Muay Thai in 2016 to reimagine discipline for New Orleans youth, extending his idea of home within the ring to others, hoping to impact them in any way possible. He also offers the love and sense of community he found in Thailand by ensuring that his students aren’t just a number for his gym enrollment.

“We never want you to walk through the doors [and] feel like a number,” he said. “We want you to feel like you have a purpose here. Everybody gets spoken to when they walk through the door.”

Even damage caused by Hurricane Ida in 2021 to the physical space could not stop it from serving as the home Spaulding has helped bring to this gym.

“We’ve literally had the roof blown off of this place,” Spaulding said. “And guess what happened? All of the members came in.

“Everybody didn’t ask for a dime. Everybody picked something up. Everybody cleaned something up. Everybody moved something. I think that speaks a lot to what we’ve done. What we’ve grown. Homegrown. That’s what we are.”

MT Athletics Gym mural