SMACK! That was the noise I heard when I became a man, and found out what I'm truly made of. It was the noise of a 16 oz leather boxing glove catching me squarely on the jaw. I instantly became dazed as my jaw bone smashed up into a bundle of nerves for the first time in my entire life. I looked at my good friend who was apologizing profusely and thought to myself, "That was AWESOME!"
Have you ever felt overweight, under driven, physically or mentally weak? Maybe you just sometimes feel unsatisfied with yourself. If this is you, I think I've found the cure... It's MMA. If you've ever seen the movie Fight Club then I can tell you from personal experience that the movie isn't to far from the truth. Have you ever been in a fight before? Have you ever even been punched before? Have you ever lost yourself in the moment and felt completely and totally alive? Have you ever woken up early and pushed yourself to your breaking point while actually being excited about it? If you answered no to one or all of these questions then you should definitely check out the world of mixed martial arts.
You see, just 3 weeks ago I was just like you are now. I had never been in a fight in my 20 years of life or even been punched once that I can remember. I had absolutely zero fighting background. Luckily that all changed and it started approximately a month and a half ago. I was in Fresno visiting my girlfriend when I went with her sister's boyfriend to watch a UFC fight. I had heard of UFC but I'd never watched an entire event like this. His friends went all out too, with all sorts of delicious food and the full Pay Per View package. I don't even remember the fighters names but I do remember getting completely caught up in it all. In every single fight that night both fighters would push their bodies beyond the breaking point just for the sake of pure competition. There was something even more then competition and violence though. Beyond the shear physical aspect there truly was a beautiful and inspiring art form. You could see the pure skill that these guys developed after years of intense dedication and training. They punched, and kicked, and grappled all with so much power and precision it was completely astounding. If you've never thrown a punch just stand up and throw the best punch you've got for 3 minutes. You'll probably be completely exhausted and realize that you punch like a 12 year old girl, or at least that's how I felt when I first tried it. Hopefully now you realize it's more than just two guys throwing random hay-makers and hoping for the best. After being utterly blown away by all of these athletes a deep curiosity formed inside of me and when I got home I began to do some research on the subject. I still didn't know I would actually want to try it but I definitely wanted to find out more.
Upon returning home I began to do some research starting with boxing. I turned to Art of Manliness as it seemed like a logical place to start and as I've said before I just love this site. They just so happened to have a great series on the fundamentals of boxing starting with how to wrap your hands. This article series seemed to be of good quality and looked like an excellent place to start. I read the entire series and played around with the basics of stance, defense, and striking in my room. I felt completely awkward and slightly ridiculous doing this by myself in my bedroom but at the same time I was having a blast. I would clown around and swing my fist through air and practice slipping and rolling punches for a couple minutes to work up a slight sweat. I didn't think of it as exercise it was more of an experiment. I began to search YouTube and Google for even more resources to better learn the basics. One night on YouTube I stumbled upon this video and discovered yet another resource. The resource was Trav's YouTube channel and his website How To Fight Now. I have found all his videos not only extremely informative and helpful but also incredibly entertaining. I began to shadowbox in my room, which for those of you don't know is when you dance around and fight all these invisible opponents and generally make a fool of yourself, even more frequently. I began to really focus on technique and I actually noticed a very minimal but exciting improvement.
Upon returning to Fresno I asked my friend who had originally taken me to the fights when we were going to fight. He informed me that he had head gear and one pair of gloves and that he actually used to do Muay Thai. He told me that he would be more than willing to spar and suddenly my curiosity spiked and just had to know what it was like. I wanted to know what it would be like to actually punch another person who was punching back and more than anything I wanted to fight!
We didn't get a chance to spar while I was in Fresno but when I got home I realized it was definitely something I was thinking about more seriously. One night my parents were out of town and my good friend Bodey was over and I mentioned in passing that I had become interested in MMA. I told him that we should body box somewhat jokingly but I only had one pair of gloves. It just so happened that he had some hand wraps and gloves in his truck. We grinned stupidly at each other and decided that this was the best idea we had ever had. He ran out and grabbed his gloves and we began moving furniture so that we would have enough room to hit each other. I set a timer on my phone for 3 minutes and we began. I was fighting! Neither one of us knew what we were doing and we looked completely retarded but we had an absolute blast! I utterly lost myself in the moment of trying to hit and defend. It was amazing! We mainly just caught each other in the arms but we both got our wind knocked out pretty severely once and I took several solid punches to the sternum. Then something beautiful happened. We had agreed to just punching each other in the body but Bodey accidentally missed my body on one shot. I didn't even see it coming but instantly my head was turning and I was looking dazed and wondering what had happened. I slowly came back to my senses and realized that I had been punched square in the jaw. Bodey was apologizing but I just looked at him and said that it was alright and in fact it was utterly amazing! I now knew what it felt like to get punched in the jaw, to be dazed, and to be a man. I was on top of the world. That was the moment I realized that this sport was for me.
I was able to get a free 2 week membership at the local MMA gym by donating blood. I remember the first time I walked in and was hit by the smell of dedication, hard work, and perseverance. For those of you who don't know what that smells like is a whole lot of sweat, blood, and tears. I went to my first class which was kickboxing and tried jiujitsu right after. Everyone was absolutely amazing. They were all extremely helpful and didn't mind that I had no real idea of how to even throw a punch. Since that first class I fell in love and haven't looked back. I've been exercising more than I ever have in the past just due to pure excitement, and let's face it punching stuff is just plain fun. I'm constantly thinking about my technique and form and trying to iron out all of the kinks. I decided I'm going to get a 1 month membership to the gym so I can go more frequently and really immerse myself prior to leaving for the NAVY. I've honestly just had an absolutely amazing time and I'm so happy I was exposed to this sport. In my next post I'll go over why you should try out MMA too with some cold hard facts that prove it is awesome so stay tuned.
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