Where to begin...continued

(Wow guess I have a lot to say)



I didn't want to go back to boxing. Being a MMA fan I now know that it takes a lot more than good hands to win a fight, not that I plan on brawling every day but I might as well learn something useful if I'm gonna do this right? Well right at the time I was doing this there was a special called human weapon running on TV, it showed a variety of martial arts from there home countries. The special on Muay Thai was great and this looked like a great stand up style, I told myself this is where I am going to start. Now I also know that being in a fight means going to the ground, from watching MMA back when the UFC first started I remember guys like Royce Gracie just dominating with their Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.



So I want to learn Muay Thai and I want to learn BJJ. I grab the phone book, open to martial arts and see an add for Empire Martial Arts. It says they teach Muay Thai AND BJJ.....how much more of a sign could I get right? It says they have a web site so I check it out and after reading decide to fill out the form for a 2 week trial. Long story short the next day I get a call from Alan and set up a time to come in for a workout. He seems pretty friendly on the phone so I relax a little bit but now I think...what am I getting myself into.



I don't have a problem with fighting, that's not what I am nervous about. I am nervous about the fact that I am so out of shape the guys are going to see this fat blob walking into the gym and burst out in laughter! I drove up that night and tried to watch one of the classes through the window and I see a bunch of guys in fairly good shape doing warm ups, again I think what am I getting myself into..I don't even think I can make it through the damn warm up!



Finally 3 days go by. I get the the gym parking lot, get to the door....take a really deep breath....and walk in. I think I kinda closed my eyes a bit....waiting for those laughs I was sure to hear....but they never came. The place was pretty quiet and guys were just standing around getting ready for a class. I was greeted by Alan and we went over some paper work, I was pretty happy that he looked like a guy who could fight, I was kinda nervous I would walk in and see one of those 50 year old "black belts" with a gut bigger than mine telling me all about his "secret chi pressure points" lol. We went out to the mat and Alan intoduced me to one of his instructors mike, Mike definitely looked like a guy who had been in a fight....those ears, if there is a picture in the dictionary of cauliflower ear I bet Mike is in it.



I guess I forgot to say, for the moment I had to chose between Thai boxing and BJJ because I couldn't afford both and couldn't physically do both. I chose Thai because it looked a little more forgiving for a fat guy. I warmed up with mike then we started a private lesson. We covered basic stance, shuffle, and jab cross. The workout was only about 30-45 mins but it was definitely enough for someone who hadn't really worked out since 17 or 18 years old.

From this point on I was hooked, for the sake of getting caught up to current date I will try and sum a lot of stuff up. Thai boxing doesn't traditionally use belts by my School does. I have been doing Thai boxing for about 10 months, I am currently a orange belt (should be green within a month or less. Ranking system goes white, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown, black). I have been doing BJJ for about 3 months and I am a yellow belt (ranking system is the same as Thai listed above). I am down to 296 pounds, much better than my original 335 but I still have a long way to go. I have put on muscle, lost fat, and greatly improved my cardio and flexibility. My ultimate goal is to get down to about 205 and maybe compete in MMA or BJJ competitions. I am getting there but my main focus is to continue learning, the weight loss will come as long as I keep eating clean and training.

I wish I had started this blog earlier to have all my training archived but I didn't so I am going to start off with my training now and eventually I should cover the stuff I have already learned.