EPThttp://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/460782-my-fighting-experience
Summer opens up with some buddies of mine drinking like mad. A buddy and mine had been talking shit to each other the whole day for fun, and he was like "fight me" and I was like "okay," but I really did not want to fight him since he was 5'6 (167 cm) and 160 lbs (73 kg), but he had a squat of 160kg and a bench press of 130kg... (350lb squat and a 270lb bench), while I was 5'10 (179cm) and 140lbs at the time (64kg) since I had recently just ended another run of anorexia LOL and was trying to be healthy again. Also, the guy (Spencer) was a wrestler, and he had won second place in his Varsity division at State Championship. I...didn't really want a piece of this guy.
Also, I was kind of retarded at the time, and was in the whole poke mentality, which doesn't really work.
Literally the whole day we were just joking around, but I'm sober since I have to drive everyone home, and Spencer is straight up on 5-6 shots, so not inebriated enough to lose his motor function...but then Gary throws a helmet on me (he's pretty drunk too) and throws the gloves at me and then I suppose I'd do it just to get it over with. He was so done I just took him down, put a knee on his stomach, and that was that.
Then Chris fights Jake, which was really just Jake tackling Chris.
Then Spencer asks me to fight, and I really didn't want to, but I don't know why; I accepted. I guess I wanted to face my fears or something. Or maybe I had an inferiority complex and I needed to prove to myself that I COULD handle him. Because he was better than me at a lot of other things or something really dumb like that.
So I landed 2-3 shots to his ribs, and he wasn't happy. It was kind of dark in his backyard, and he throws a right hook as I shoot for a right straight of my own and I hadn't been practicing with my hands up...
WHAM! His punch threw me to the ground, as I clutched my head in pain. Thank goodness he struck near the eye and not the chin, otherwise I might've had a concussion. 160lbs of pure muscle swinging a hook as hard as he could [he actually broke his hand, even with gloves on]. If I was not wearing a helmet, I don't know what would've happened LOL that helmet can take some punishment man.
After that, I felt a burning impulse to kill my best friend. Thank goodness I still had some sense of self-control and I was able to hold back, otherwise I might've done something that I really would have regretted. I went home, defeated, my ego shattered.
Which was probably a good thing in the long run, but not so much at the time. The next day, apparently Spencer had been bragging about how he punched me in the face to our mutual friends and stuff, so the next day, when I was hanging out at my other friend's house, a mutual friend came up to me to examine my eye. I had a full black eye, which was kind of awkward to hide from my family and my boss and stuff, and while I succeeded the first, I did not succeed in the second LOL. Jamie kissed it though, so that made me feel better. Somewhat.
I got really, really depressed...all sense of self-confidence in my martial capability and combative ability faded...and I felt so lost, so weak, so powerless. I didn't know what to do. I thought I had all of the answers...I did everything right! [Except a whole host of things]
About a week later, I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself. Luckily, there was a video, and I started to analyze everything I was doing wrong, and I started finding a lot of things. I tore through book after book, asked countless friends for opinions, and I realized that there were soooo many things that I was doing wrong. I did not have any of the components of power - my range was off, my structure was poor, my timing was good though. But I was off-balance, no grounding, etc...
Eventually I sought instruction, since I realized then that I had absolutely no idea what to do when the fight came to the ground. I could survive more or less standing, but I decided that my lack of ability to groundfight was going to cost me dearly later on...and since I live in Torrance, where better to look than the academy of the legendary Gracie family, which was literally 5 minutes away?
So I dragged some of my friends with me, on the fateful evening of July 14th, and we did the 10 day free trial. I was hooked from day 1. The moves made sense, and they worked. I started going every day...and when September came around, I ended up going twice a day. My understanding of physics and the movement of human bodies was getting really good too; I started being able to apply the principles that I knew about to the techniques that I was learning from the Gracies. I learned to see my own mistakes and correct them, to modify the techniques to work in different situations [though I'm sure I'll learn that later on], to make the moves work for my body, and when the move would work, etc...it was pretty cool! I felt like whenever someone showed me something, I could immediately break it down, figure out how it worked, modify it for me, and get it to work for myself.
Five months later, in December, I got my blue belt :D School had started though, so I couldn't go quite as much, but I was still regularly attending, and it was a lot of fun. I'm starting to be able to hold my own against most people on the mat, and though I don't really tap people out, I can survive/hold a position somewhat decently. My standup game has been improving too; some of my boxing buddies are showing me some stuff, and it's really fun doing the slip/bob/weave while I work for a clinch XD
It felt really empowering though, not letting something like this make me quit, and instead gathering my courage and facing my own wrongness. I felt so empowered that I was able to seek improvement, rather than wallow in my own failure...
I must say, one of the most important things I learned though was that before I'd been relying on my uber-fast reaction time [thanks to Halo XD] to see punches and kicks coming...but then a homie of mine told me that all I had to do was look at his shoulders and knees...since if a punch was to come, it HAD to move. And if he doesn't move his shoulders, then there's no way that punch could hurt very badly. This has helped me soooo much.....it seems like I can feel someone's going to through a power punch at me before they even do it, and it seems like I shoot for the takedown BEFORE they through the hit. I just somehow know. It's really surreal. Even when they try to feint...I think I'm sensing their intention to through a strong hit? It's really weird idk but it's cool XD
Will update later with more stuff.
I'm surprised the rating is so low
