The Influence of Mixed Martial Arts

I've noted in previous posts that both boys have been taking Martial Arts most of their lives. I wanted to go more in depth and describe the influence Martial Arts has had as well.

When I was a kid, I never really asked to take karate classes. Most of what I learned about Martial Arts was from books and friends. One of my neighbors was taking classes and would teach me what he learned. In Jr. High one of my teachers was a black belt and taught a self defense class as an extra curricular activity, so I took that too. I read books on Aikido as well as Judo. All of these taught me something in the way of self defense, as well as different types of karate, but I never really got the whole discipline or teachers perspective.

Before I even knew I wanted to get married or have kids (ask my wife about that one!), I just knew that I wanted my kids to take some kind of karate. My wife found this Karatenastics course at a Little Gym not far from us that combined gynmastics and karate. Josh started when he was 5 years old. Seth mostly did gymnastics classes here. At one point when he was about 3, he accidentally fell off of our bed and chipped the cartilage in his elbow. This resulted in another trip to CHOP and a cast for about 4 weeks. Now, you would think that a cast would prohibit him from his gymnastics activities, but you would be wrong! Seth wanted to go and refused to take shortcuts. Now granted, much of what they were doing was like obstacle courses, but he ran through them like a champ with one arm!

About a year into Little Gym, the Sensei's made the leap to go out on their own with Budo Full Range Martial Arts. The first dojo was in Marlton, NJ in an office park right behind little gym. We kind of "lost" them for a few months and found them again when Josh was 6. At that time, they only enrolled kids 6 and older so Seth was not yet eligible. However, he would learn from and practice with Josh and about 3 months shy of his 6th birthday, Sensei's let us enroll him as well.

Budo was great for the kids. They had journals to complete that had them doing tasks at home. When they completed a journal they would get patches to put on their Gi (uniform). They had self discipline and respect journals and were taught the meaning of work, discipline, showing respect to others, as well as defending themselves when they had to. If you felt you were being threatened or bullied, there was an emphasis on three steps. Be aware of your surroundings, use your words, and if all else failed, use your Budo skills. I've seen the boys put this into play a couple of times when they were kids and it was pretty effective.

There were certainly times they weren't sure they wanted to continue. Josh didn't qualify for a test once and was pretty mad about it. . .he didn't think he wanted to go back, but he did. When Seth didn't pass his first black belt challenge he had serious doubts about continuing because he didn't think he could do that again. They both stopped for short periods of time, Josh for about a year to study for his Bar Mitavah and Seth for a couple of months when he had a procedure to remove kidney stones.

My wife and I would of course encourage them to continue but never forced anything. After some time to "reflect" all roads would lead back to Budo. As they got older and worked their way through the belt ranks, they became the seniors in their groups and were always among the best in the classes. I even took classes for a couple of years, but in my late 40s to early 50s I felt slower than everyone else in the class. I had my moments. I remember a 4 hour belt test that was pretty brutal and physical, but as I sat at home afterwards with ice on my shoulder and knee, I was quite proud of the way I performed to achieve the next belt level. I was put way out of my comfort zone, but in the end, felt a great sense of accomplishment.

As young kids, and even into their teenage years, our family genes were not good to the boys. As active as they were they had my love of food and were a bit overweight. I think this affected Seth to some extent during his first black belt challenge, although he really pushed through some adversity. As that 10 week challenge wound down, Josh told me he wanted to be in the next black belt challenge. I said, "You just watched your little brother get brutalized for 10 weeks and you want to do that?" His answer, "I have two years to get myself ready". And get ready he did.

At 15, Josh put himself on a diet. He used an app on his phone to determine how many calories a day he could eat to achieve his goal. I had an old weight bench and he started working out. He would jog in the morning and lift weights. Eventually, we bought a weight lifting system (Craigslist is a beautiful thing!) and turned our Florida room into a small gym. He dieted and worked out religiously and was determined to take off those pounds and get into shape. Within a few months Josh lost 60 pounds! He looked great and felt great. I was so proud of him too, he really did that all on his own and stuck to it no matter what. He kept lifting weights after that and really transformed his look.

Seth had started to grow too and was also dieting and started to work out. As two years passed, they both had transformed into lean mean fighting machines! When the black belt challenge came around they tackled it! Fought all the way through and both of them passed! They also started teaching at Budo, taking on more of the roles of coaches, salespeople, and businessmen. They now help run the school and are known by all of the parents and students.

They also wanted to take their skills to the cage and were working towards that goal. Unfortunately, during a sparring session, Josh went to block a kick and dislocated his shoulder. He tore the labrum and needed surgery. This didn't keep him from teaching or being at the school, but he had to stop training. At the date of this writing he is doing shoulder rehab and killing it! He still won't be training for a few months but he will be back working out soon.

One of the other coaches won an amateur fight a few months ago. Seth decided that he was going to fight before the end of the year. He put himself through a rigorous workout, diet, and weight cutting routine to lose about 25-30 pounds in preparation for competition. He had his first amateur fight on September 29, 2018. His opponent was a little more experienced with one fight under his belt, but Seth and his team were able to watch his opponent's first fight and pick up on some things they thought they could take advantage of. The plan was for Seth to try and stay on his feet and use his hands as much as possible. Of course, the best laid plans don't always work out. As expected, his opponent came out and tried to take Seth down. He did on a few occasions during the fight, but Seth made great efforts and ended up back on his feet. He was able to use his stand-up skills and land kicks and punches. You could tell towards the end of the fight that his opponent was just spent and just wanted to stay on the ground. In the end, Seth seemed to have impressed the judges by doing more damage in stand-up than his opponent did on the ground and he won his first bout by split decision! It was a really great experience and fun to watch.

None of this would have been possible had we never got them on their Martial Arts journey. They've grown from boys to men right before our eyes. They are respectable, well spoken, educated and motivated. That has as a lot to do with the Sensei's as well as me and my wife, they taught them things that we never could. It's easy to say now that with all the work my wife and I put into schooling and raising them, what also helped them to be the men they are today was the influence of Mixed Martial Arts.