It begins...

I had my first official kickboxing class today. If you would like a quick refresher, I have decided to get involved in fight training at octagon MMA. I've enlisted in their Boxing and Kickboxing programs. I got into it because this is something I've always wanted to do. Ever since I was a little kid getting picked on I wanted to learn how to fight. I've been in a few scraps here and there but i haven't been in a knock-down/drag-out brawl before. I really want to try it because this is one of those rare sports where anyone off the street can pick up and try. It's not like football or basketball where if you didn't go to college you can never play football on a pro or semi-pro level. Not that I'm trying to go pro. I'm 29 years old, I know that I will NEVER fight in the UFC unless in 6 months when I'm leaner and more experienced the president of the UFC walks into my gym and happens to see me sparring. Even though I'll probably never reach that upper eschilon, I want to at least have tried. Rather than sitting on a la-z-boy when i'm 50 watching UFC 220 thinking "i could have done that". My attitude going into this is going to be one class at a time. If i develop fast, then I'll go into sparring. If I'm good enough at sparring, I'll compete. I don't even want to think about what i'll do if i actually get some wins under my belt and I'm still at a relatively young age. Hopefully I'll just get good enough to teach others some day. I will be perfectly content with just being a coach one day. So, about today's class. Today went really well. And by 'really well' I mean I didn't throw up during class even when I thought I was going to. Today we worked on alot of cardio and footwork. I didn't break a huge sweat like i did my first time around but that might have something to do with the fact that i was too winded to really put too much into it. Everything I'm going to do is very intense but honestly it's more mental than it is physical. There were times this morning where I had to take a knee and just suck in huge gulps of air and i thought to myself "What the fuck am I doing? There must be something seriously wrong with me to get up at 5:00am to come down here and get my ass kicked." It even crossed my mind, if only for a moment, to tell the coach that I just couldn't hang anymore and quit early. But then I was reminded of something I was reminded of every fighter that i've seen who refused to come out of their corner, or said "I quit" in a fight or waved off their opponent. I thought of that and remembered that if given the chance, i would never do that. I quieted that voice and for the rest of the training period there wasn't a single conscious thought that entered my head. That's the way it was for the most part of the training. The only thoughts that came into my mind were "quit" and "don't". Other than that, I felt nothing. No pain, no fear, no happiness. No emotions at all. It was about as close to a "zen state" as i could describe. So I'll keep you all updated about my progress as it...er...progresses. One of the great side effects is the fact that I'm going to lose a ton of weight from this so i might as well keep you in the loop on that. As of this morning at the start of my first class i weighed in at 243lbs and a 38in waist. As those numbers get smaller I will let you know.