Kicking the Couch Habit

I have always kind of wished that I took karate or some kind of martial arts when I was a kid. I suppose I could blame The Karate Kid or Buffy the Vampire Slayer for my obsession. Who wouldn't want to be kick ass?

Day 1 :

I start out slowly. To get in the right frame of mind I watch "Kiss of the Dragon" and a couple Buffy episodes. Jet Li and Sarah Michelle Geller kick ass all over the place while Bridget Fonda does a bad impression of a strung out junkie. Excellent. I check out the phone book to find a likely place. It seems with the rise of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) as sport entertainment there are a lot of places now. I must decide do I want a traditional karate/judo place or a MMA gym? I pick one MMA gym and one traditional place to visit. The traditional dojo isn’t open in the day, but I can go to a trial class later in the week. The MMA gym invites me to come right over and take a tour and discuss what I want in a gym. I feel a little bad not telling the guy that I am pretty sure I am not going to sign up unless I am SO inspired by his place that I would be willing to cancel my regular gym membership, but I get over it and head over.

I arrive in my street clothes at the gym 5 mins later. The gym is practically around the corner from my house. When I walk in, no one is at the counter. I briefly consider backing out, after all I am a thirty-something overweight stay at home mom, what business do I have being here? But P, the owner comes out of the back and greets me. He laughs when I ask if he can turn me into Buffy, at least that is a good sign. Our tour of the facility takes about 3 mins. There is a weight room, a small break room for kids to do homework, and the gym floor that consists of 2 very large mat areas, a wall of heavy punching bags and a wall with various small equipment like jump ropes. The gym is empty except for 3 guys and a 4 year old who belongs to one of the guys. Even the 4 year old looks as if he could take me.

The owner tells me that if I am looking to become Buffy-like, Muay Thai is probably the class that I want. It will teach me to punch, kick and use my elbow and knees. If I join the gym I can choose to attend any class they offer any time I want. This location has Muay Thai, Brazalian Jui-Jutisu, Judo, Boxing and Conditioning classes. He invites me to return the next day and take a class for free. I agree and head home.

I spend the rest of the afternoon learning about the different types of Martial Arts. Muay Thai is a kick boxing sport that originated in Thailand. It is closely related to a bunch of other Muay sports. It is one of several sports that are used in MMA or cage fighting matches. Brazilian Jui-Jutisu and Judo are related and focus on grappling and wrestling on the floor. I start to wonder if maybe I just picked the most hard-core class to attend.