Activity – MMA (Mixed Martial Arts)

Location – My house

I started taking MMA at the beginning of this year (grade 11, 1^st year of IB). The reason I wanted to take it was simply because I love the adrenaline. I love to work out and play sports for the sweat, the feeling I get to push myself athletically can’t compare to any other feeling. Mixed Martial Arts demands two things, you have to want to do it. And you have to want to get better. Every training session there is an improvement. This improvement can be an improvement in fitness, strength, or even something like a new throw, punch, kick, lock, escape, anything.

            At first I had my lessons with a friend of mine, however he dropped the classes after about 2 months. I have 1 session per week, on Sunday. There have been a few lessons that have been missed due to complications with timing of other activities (for both me and the instructor). For me, these were something like, a performance, or being sick. Besides these few missed lessons, there has been one span where 4 consecutive sessions were missed. And this was due to me being away on a the basketball ISSEA trip, then falling sick, the next week the instructor was unable to come, and the week after that the instructor wasn’t able to contact me to confirm for the lesson (he was confirming since we had missed the last 3) and do to a miscommunication on my the lesson didn’t occur.

            In these sessions there isn’t much need for sportsmanship, since there isn’t anyone else present. However, I turn sportsmanship into a smaller degree of tolerance. I can sometimes become frustrated when I’m unable to perform something I think I should be able to do. I’ve been trying to do this less in the sessions and have been improving. I try to turn the frustration into focus at correcting my errors. When I am sparring (practicing fighting) with the teacher another one of his students (that sometimes come to my sessions so we have a partner), we have to leave whatever happens in that sparring session. We can’t leave with grudges. In a sparring session it is normal to give and take a few hits. If one guy hits the other more than the other hits him, it is unsportsmanlike to remember that for a time when you’re not in a training session.

            Overall, I think that this sport is a great sport. It helps athleticism, reflexes, sportsmanship, keeping a straight head. I think that continuing training sessions will be a great aspect of my life. I find that I’m improving, but more importantly, I can’t wait till the next session when I get to push myself to my limit and then try to keep pushing. Its hard work, but it always pays off at the end when I feel like I’ve gotten fitter, or faster, or stronger, or all three.