Million Dollar Mama
By Karma Wilson - November 17, 2008
I have a confession, Ultimate Fighting (commonly referred to as Mixed Martial Arts--or MMA) is my favorite sport…me a middle-aged picture book author and mother of three. But isn’t Ultimate Fighting dangerous and lacking the rules and regulations of more main-stream sports like boxing? I used to think so.
Honestly, I was never a sports fan. I’ve always been hopelessly uncoordinated and terrible at every sport I tried (is pie-eating a sport?--it‘s the only thing I‘ve won). Fighting of any sort never appealed to me, certainly not Ultimate Fighting.
Then my husband convinced me to take a martial arts class with him “just to get in shape”. We found an MMA school and joined.
The instructor assured me MMA incorporates many rules for the safety of the fighters. Unlike boxing, there’s never been a death during a sanctioned MMA fight. MMA is a combination of wrestling, kickboxing, and submission grappling. And because MMA isn’t just about power, a smaller person can beat a much larger untrained person--making it great self defense for women.
I didn’t exactly fit in with the twenty-something males at the gym. I flopped around helplessly sure I would never “get it“. With time and hard work I eventually did and the impossible happened, I was loving a sport. After all, how many middle-aged women can do something as impressive sounding as a “rear naked choke”? (nobody is naked, and as long as you tap out if you are caught in one, nobody is choked.)
I no longer describe myself as a “klutz” and I owe it all to “Ultimate Fighting”. It may not be for everyone, but for me it is the Ultimate rush!
Honestly, I was never a sports fan. I’ve always been hopelessly uncoordinated and terrible at every sport I tried (is pie-eating a sport?--it‘s the only thing I‘ve won). Fighting of any sort never appealed to me, certainly not Ultimate Fighting.
Then my husband convinced me to take a martial arts class with him “just to get in shape”. We found an MMA school and joined.
The instructor assured me MMA incorporates many rules for the safety of the fighters. Unlike boxing, there’s never been a death during a sanctioned MMA fight. MMA is a combination of wrestling, kickboxing, and submission grappling. And because MMA isn’t just about power, a smaller person can beat a much larger untrained person--making it great self defense for women.
I didn’t exactly fit in with the twenty-something males at the gym. I flopped around helplessly sure I would never “get it“. With time and hard work I eventually did and the impossible happened, I was loving a sport. After all, how many middle-aged women can do something as impressive sounding as a “rear naked choke”? (nobody is naked, and as long as you tap out if you are caught in one, nobody is choked.)
I no longer describe myself as a “klutz” and I owe it all to “Ultimate Fighting”. It may not be for everyone, but for me it is the Ultimate rush!
