MMA stands for a mixed martial art which is a full-contact combat sport incorporating techniques from various combat sports around the world such as boxing, wrestling, judo, jujitsu, karate muay Thai and other disciplines. I always believed that learning a martial art or practising it will make me feel more confident help me relieve my stress, improve my cardiovascular health. Working out, in general, helps me focus and concentrate on school and studying along with promoting better sleep.

LO 1:

1. Did you identify your strength and weakness?

STRENGTHS:

• My endurance was one of the biggest advantages that I had as due to being a long-distance runner and a football player my endurance would allow me to train more with increased intensity in bag work and footwork. Knowing my endurance was very beneficial allowed me to be workout and train more, I was able to push myself more.
• My footwork with my muscle-brain coordination was already strong due to being a long-distance athlete and football player, that really help take a grasp of the movements and also I used to practise a few boxing moves such as jab, cross, uppercut and hook, so my form was better than other beginners. Due to my muscle-brain coordination, footwork and raw form my performance got better in a short period of time allowing me to learn and practise more.

WEAKNESSES:

• Despite having a form I lacked in technique since I used to do boxing workouts at home, without any guidance doing everything in a chaotic way. My techniques were weak and many times wrong, so sometimes implementing the correct technique could take a few classes, disturbing the usual pace of classes leaving me a little behind.
• It was important to know my strengths and weakness to get better at them and convert them so it would benefit my mental capacity and physical health. By working on my weaknesses I am overcoming a type of mental challenge too.
• As I mentioned overcoming weakness helped me win over a challenge both physical and mental and help me improve in a balanced way as I didn’t just strengthen my strong areas but also worked on weak points.
• Now that I am aware of my strengths and weaknesses I can focus on areas where I have to work harder, how regularly I have to practise/work, put in efforts and improve my performance.
• I did work on my weakness because when training martial arts you play smart with the opponents and should create a balance between strengths and weaknesses. So working on my weakness will help me in a fight to confuse my opponents.

LO 2:

• Despite me being an athlete in sports like track and field and football. There was no direct violence or physical contact, in football shoulder pushing was allowed but besides that, there was actually punching or kicking to be done, so getting the hang of it was slightly different at first, not difficult but just different as while doing shadow movements they seemed correct but doing bag work they got complicated, implementing them was harder but after practising it got easier.
• I used to incorporate shadow boxing movements in my high-intensity workouts so I was used to the shadow work with raw technique and using a wall instead of working on a bag. People usually think that martial arts and boxing are all about power and fighting, displaying as much as violence, but what I learned from my MMA training is it requires stability, proper posture and a balance with your body with the muscle-mind connection. You should be aware of your next move and have it planned in your mind to bring it into action, you should have a mental image, be calm and take a second to prepare yourself. This is a takeaway I never thought I could learn from such physical contact sport.
• After learning MMA I discovered that I have a lot more power in my hands along with legs, I used to consider my upper body power a weak area as lifting wouldn’t support me that much but in MMA and standing bodyweight workout, it was easier. Learning MMA gave me a different sense of confidence as it made me feel a little complete and balanced, during MMA training sessions I converted all my stress and anger into training so it worked like meditation to me, keeping me balanced and calm.

LO 4:

• I had to manage my time crisis because to jam-packed schedule for specific days of the week I wouldn’t be able to train all 6 days a week, but 3 instead leaving me already behind. In order to improve and get better, I had to practise the movements. I had to shadow the box in order to learn more combinations and to get better at movements I had to add weights, like progressive overload.I had to do bag work in order to add intensity to my training and make sure I am doing movements I can actually implement in a self-defence situation or in a fight. So if I didn’t be consistent and committed for those 3 days of the week, my training would be nothing but time wastage.
• I had to give proper 60-75 minutes on the circuits I was doing based on the day splits, every movement and exercise to perform in sets and a minimum of 50 repetitions each side, different coordination such as jab-uppercut,jab-hook, jab right left right and vice versa to strengthen my muscle-mind coordination, improve muscle memory and get hold of that specific movement and then move to bag work. With intensity, time had to give with commitment as well as nutrition.The type of food also consumed my physical and mental health along with intensity and performance in my training sessions.
• Since I had 3 days a week,I would stay regular because I was already missing out on 3 sessions.I needed to stay consistent,I scratched my luxury of having an option to go to training sessions and forced myself to give all I could in these 3 days.

In the nutshell getting MMA training benefitted me in various ways, improved my mental and physical health, helped me manage my time crisis and I practise shadow boxing at home when I’m lost. Also taught me the importance as well as results of self-discipline and consistency along with creating a balance within my lifestyle.