When Arvada’s Coach and Black Shirt Terence Cheah came to the US from Singapore, he had 20 years of experience running Muay Thai schools under his belt. He had built a syllabus and had served as President of the Muay Thai Association of Singapore.

Suddenly, he found himself in Colorado mid-Pandemic, a stay-at-home dad without a community and at a loss for employment. Terence had met his wife, Daphanie, who also trained Muay Thai, at the school he ran in Singapore – Transcendence. Originally from California, before she moved to Singapore, Daphanie had also lived in Colorado. After the two had a child, they decided that out of their options, Colorado made the most sense to grow their family. 

They arrived in 2019 with Daphanie luckily already having a job. However, Terence found it a bit more difficult to carve a space for himself. He had a ton of expertise in a very specific industry, but as he tried different martial arts schools, nothing felt right. He also experienced a lot of hesitation from potential employers about his irregular, stay-at-home-dad hours.

At the time, the family was living in Loveland, and Terence had fallen into a depression. He had gone his life running martial arts academies, building up coaches and training Muay Thai. Now he had spent nearly four years inside, disconnected from teaching and not working. 

Then, in 2023 the family moved to Arvada.

Return to roots

Hoping to pull Terence out of his depression, Daphanie pointed out the obvious: it was time for him to start training Muay Thai again. He needed to get back to his element. 

Terence found Easton that January, and he loved it from his first class. He tells us that his coach, Daniella, did a great job of breaking things down and bringing the energy in the room up.

“The way coaches uphold themselves is very important to me,” says Terence, “and the way they treat the students. As someone who ran gyms for 20 years, it’s something really intimate to me; Arvada was fantastic.”

Back on his feet and in his body, Terence finally had an outlet to move stagnant energy, get out of the house and start building a community. Then, that April, he suffered a torn ACL and had to pause training.

With the renewed connection to his body, Terence kept up his fitness and movement through boxing and also picked up rucking. He healed fairly quickly and was fully walking in July, back on the mats in October.

Ever since Terence first joined Easton, we’d wanted him to play a larger role in the school. His experience in Singapore made him an invaluable asset, adding a unique perspective, knowledge and texture to our level of education. Earlier that year, however, Terence hadn’t felt ready yet. Now, after six months of boxing, rucking and recovery off the mats, he went to see if Arvada’s GM, Chris Mierzwiak, still wanted him.

A month later, Terence was teaching Muay Thai All-Levels and back to feeling the most himself he’d felt in years.

“Getting back to training definitely helped set things better,” says Terence, “but something was missing. Once I got back teaching, I felt so right.”

With teaching, it’s not about you. It becomes about imparting knowledge, sharing the wealth and helping others grow and benefit from it. When keeping information to yourself begins to feel selfish – like seeing something done wrong and not stepping in to help – your priorities have changed. No longer do they lay in being the best; they lay in passing down the art itself – in helping others understand it and reach their full potential.

[The Ultimate Guide to Muay Thai]

The art of Muay Thai

For Terence, his biggest driving force on the mats comes down to the sheer beauty of Muay Thai. There’s so much to learn; even after 30 years, you can still have “Aha!” moments. Though, Terence tells us, that’s the beauty of martial arts in general.

Muay Thai is only an umbrella name for battle-tested Thai martial arts. The art alone is made up of so many elements, attributes and branches – from stand-up striking to wrestling and bone-breaking (not even getting into weapons.) The Muay Thai accepted in the US today is only a fraction of true Muay Thai, which provides endless opportunities and possibilities for study. 

The use of weapons in martial arts in Asian culture has deep historical roots, such as Kali, a Filipino fighting art derived from Fencing with a focus on sticks, swords and knives. In the West, however, the use of weapons such as these in fighting has become viewed more like entertainment like Karate.

Part of this division, Terence believes, roots in weapons not having a lot of practicality in day-to-day life (think nunchucks), but also because the West already has its own strong culture and influence around weaponry. Here, guns are legal and normal to carry, but most states make it illegal to carry knives longer than three inches. 

Terence first began training in martial arts at age 13, starting with Tae Kwon Do, to help with bullying at school. Following this, he dabbled in Bersilat, a form of standing-grappling mixed martial art which involved a lot of hand fighting, and he had an uncle in Karate who had also indirectly influenced Terence’s interest. 

However, it wasn’t until he was 20 that a friend from the army introduced him to his future master – and Muay Thai. The school, called Hilltop Muay Thai, sat atop a small hill which made up its training grounds where the students showed up to train, rain or shine. 

[From Sparring to Scrimmage: the Muay Thai Competition Journey]

This led to a lifetime devoted to Muay Thai, including serving as a Committee Member of the Muay Thai Association of Singapore before becoming its Technical Director (aiding in the development of coaches, referees and judges) followed by the Operations Director and subsequently the General Secretary and then President. He left the last position to concentrate on the building of his own academy and also to prevent a conflict of interest.

Terence did a lot of syllabus work (not counting his own) in an effort to synchronize Singapore’s various Muay Thai schools’ education under one degree of excellence. While the syllabus always remained a guideline rather than a hard-and-fast rule, it gave a linear framework of progression, grading and metrics for the schools, teachers and students to follow. 

Terence frequently tells his students, “You don’t learn the sport of Muay Thai; you learn the art and apply it to the sport.” Otherwise, you’ll miss a lot.

[Structure Is the Spice of Life: Crush It]

A future with Easton

This ingrained sense of structure, from Terence’s martial arts and military training to his structured approach running his schools – including core values – was one of the clear bonding forces that made Easton such a fit. This approach to martial arts training, while quite natural to us at Easton, does not always prevail in other parts of the country or the world. 

“I feel like the fit is just there,” says Terence of Easton. “I really click well with Sean [Madden] and Steve [Eisman] too; it’s like we’re on the same frequency even though we’re from different sides of the world.”

Terence tells us that many schools in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Asia in general don’t have such a set structure. It’s often up to the individual instructors to pay attention to their students’ progress and track where they’re at. 

While freedom undoubtedly has a place, Terence believes that for things to truly flourish, you also need to have a good structure at the foundation.

With a reclaimed passion for teaching, Terence, who turns 50 this October, wants to continue working with and training fighters – something he also excelled at back in Singapore. 

His stay-at-home dad status now expanded to add another little one, what free time Terence has, he tries to get Boulder or Denver to work with fighters on the team who have upcoming matches. We are so grateful to have his expertise on the team!

[Building an Elevated Team + Forging Battle-Tested Martial Arts]