The Impact of MMA on My Life

After goofing off in my friends basement with a pair of boxing gloves and head gear, I decided to tag along with him to an official gym with no idea what I was getting in to. I didn't realize the impact it would have on my personal life.

Photo creds: evolveohio.com - The gym my friend dragged me to at the age of 14

For anyone that has seen me, I am a skinny guy. I might be tall, but I am most definitely not big. It’s something I have been razzed about my entire life. It has its advantages at times and most people do everything they can to be skinny, but I have always felt I was at a level of being too small, especially playing sports growing up. I always got hurt or just flat-out pushed around by others that were twice my size. Even having an older brother who was nearly 100 pounds heavier than me growing up made it hard to pick fights with siblings, as it never ended pretty for me. Even my friends took notice and tried every way they could to help.

Aside from learning how to defend myself, It taught me, to disbelief of some, how to avoid confrontation and fighting.

Surprisingly, that is right around the time I discovered Mixed Martial Arts. Every other sport I played I wasn’t big enough. In football coaches told me to work on my arm strength in my early days. In other words, I wasn’t strong enough. Playing baseball, I had coaches try and help to get a little more power out of my swing or change my position in the field, again, because I wasn’t strong enough. It seemed everything I did I was just a little behind. With MMA, the glorious thing behind this sport is your size plays a little role in how talented or successful you can be and that caught my attention immediately.

My first time going to a gym with my friend I made it clear I was worried. I had little knowledge about the sport and at the time I was maybe 100 pounds on a good day, standing almost six feet tall. Being tall, skinny, and having long limbs actually helped to my surprise. Spending just a month there it helped me not only from a fitness standpoint, as doing any martial arts is one of the greatest workouts you can do and will get you in shape fairly quick, it also taught me various life lessons. Aside from the obvious of learning how to defend myself growing up, which was something great to know always getting picked on and over-looked, it also taught me discipline, how to manage emotions, and to disbelief of some, how to avoid confrontation and fighting. People get confused when I say that, considering you’re paying to learn how to punch and kick people, BUT like I said in previous posts it is more of an art form than a barbaric sport. You learn breathing techniques that I still use to this day, how to manage your muscles and isolate certain parts of your body, how to deal with emotions and anger in confrontation, and most importantly how to use your disadvantages as advantages. There is one for everybody no matter your physique or talent level.

I remember the first time I had to spar with someone (basically a practice fight with heavy protective gear) I was absolutely terrified. I am small, and tall. Probably someone’s worst nightmare if they ever had a confrontation. But there is something therapeutic about going through the motions and seeing everything for yourself. The openings, the opportunities, the thought process behind it and how to leave everything from your personal life at the door before you even come in. It’s like a mental escape where you get to free your mind and body. It’s truly something that may be hard to understand unless you have done it yourself. Plus, the upside to all of it, is being a small kid with little strength means I have an advantage elsewhere. Like I said earlier, turn disadvantages into advantages. Being smaller means, you are quicker, you can move faster, your limbs are long and flexible giving you an advantage on the ground. Hell, to even point out the obvious, you are harder to hit being smaller too.

In a sense, just learning the basics of MMA seemed to give me a purpose. It was something where being the smaller, undersized kid could be on an equal playing field with those athletes that have more muscular physique than a grown man at the age of seventeen. It helped train my mind and look at things differently in life and truly opened my eyes on how to deal with overcoming certain circumstances. You not only train to get in shape or learn how to defend yourself, you train to become a better person. Which has not only helped me better myself, but has helped thousands of people around the world too.