Recently i've been hooked to MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). It started one day when i was walking down a small alley way in Adelaide CBD thinking about the all weights i've put on recently. Out of nowhere i saw this little Boxing ad on the wall.
Like most people, with no experiences in martial arts, when i thought of combat sport, the first thing to my mind was "brutal". But let me assure you, it is not at all what it seems, unless you go pro, then there will be blood. So i rocked up the following Saturday for my first training session. Things went quite smoothly, started with skipping, push ups, stretches, then i got to learn some techniques, a little sparring to wrap it up. Everyone were very nice and the punches and kicks are only executed at 40%-50% power, just so you get the reflexes and techniques right, nobody was waiting to beat you to a pulp. I really enjoyed the session so training has been on my schedule for every Saturday since.
As time goes on, i found that one session a week isn't enough. Iwant to get better, faster, stronger. About a month ago, i found out that Cameron Hill, a mate of mine is actually a pro fighter. So i called him up, asking for some tips and advice. The guy was nice enough to tell me just to come over his place and he'll train me for as long as i want. When someone offer free training, you say yes please.
So we picked a date to start and i drove down to his house to find this.
Is that the coolest shed ever or what? The guy has all the needed gear for practice and his skills and knowledge on this sport are impressive.
Why would i call something this violent a "gentleman's sport". Let me break it down to you.
1. Golf is way overrated (and Tiger Woods kinda ruined it for everyone already)
2. MMA help you build confidence. You don't go out and look for trouble but you know you can manage if trouble looks for you.
3. It is way better than cardio and weight lifting. 2 hours of dancing with your gloves on is more exciting than jogging for sure.
4. You will be trained to stay calm and actually think in critical situations ( let's say when someone is pounding you).
To the costs:
MMA is not an expensive sport if you really make your money worth. Let's break it down to 2 basic costs, gear and training fees.
- Gears: to start you would just need pair of gloves. Synthetic ones are abour $40, leather are about $80 depends on brands. A few known brands in MMA: Everlast, Title, Throwdown, Hayabusa, Tapout. Later down the track you might want to invest in some more protective gear such as shin guards, mouth guards, head guards, wrist wraps etc. Those are NOT NECESSARY when you first started.
-Fees: Fees varies from each gym. Mostly because some only do "fitness" MMA where people practice just to keep fit and most of the time what you will be doing would be skipping, push ups and so on. There are others who provide specialised training, they will show you how to perfectly execute a take down, how to really make some damages. Now those are the expensive ones. For me however, my training cost me $10/session every Saturday. For the other 2,3 session my mate Cameron trains me for free so i didn't have to pay much there.
Another thing to remember with training is that the more people you train with the better as everyone has different style and techniques.
Brian Nguyen
- Not a player, not quite a douche, he's a gentleman-
P/s: i recently switched to Mac so i'm still struggling with the photo editing softwares :(
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