My Summer Days

Summer is now over and with it, all the fun I was having.  How much fun you ask?  Well let me tell you, I did not spend my summer vacation going to China or Japan.  I did not go to Seoul.  I stayed in Busan.....and worked out.

My summer vacation was kind of weird because my school was off for a month but I still had to do summer camp.  So I had one week off, two weeks of summer camp, then another week off.  Those two weeks I had off consisted of me waking up at 7 in the morning and eating breakfast.  I packed my workout bag and I was gone until at least 7 at night.

Summer break was the only time I had to practice MMA properly - with the pros.  I have been learning jiu jitsu and I've been trying to understand kickboxing but nothing was really connecting them together because we never did MMA sparring (combining all elements into one).  So I would do crossfit in the morning like the other fighters and then head to practice in the afternoon.

I had never done crossfit but I was happy to be in a gym with weights to be honest.  I miss that sort of strength training.  I quickly learned that my crossfit coach had the biggest smile and the biggest desire to push everyone to their maximums.  Everyday I came in he would say, "Today is hard, you will die". I'm thinking wonderful, he wants to kill me.  After the workout, he would come up to me and say, "Tomorrow will be hell".  He did not speak that much English but that's the most consistent thing he would say.  At least the workouts were consistent with his words.  Everyday was harder, and everyday I died a little bit inside.  But after the first week, I saw my arms looking leaner, my stomach muscles were starting to show, and my legs were thinning out to show the muscle underneath.  So as much as I hated having to do 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 situps and 400 squats -- I am quite pleased with the results.

The last time I felt this good was when I was a junior in high school.  I never realized how unhappy I was with myself until I started changing it.  My mom actually pointed it out to me that I had been unhappy for so long and she was glad I was happy now.

As much as I would dread starting my mornings with crossfit, I loved seeing the change.  It was good to get a varied workout in after having the same workouts everyday at night at my fight gym.

Anywho, I would leave crossfit around 11 am and would have time to spare before practice.  Sometimes I would sit in a cafe and study Korean, sometimes I would go home and take a nap, and sometimes I would hang out with my friend who happened to live right next to my fight gym.

Practice for MMA would start at 2:30 and at first, I was so intimidated I was afraid to really push myself.  I kinda just wanted to blend in and workout but being blonde, foreign and a girl, its hard to be invisible.  The thing I liked most about practices was they were a solid 2 hours to 2.5 hours long.  Every practice always had some kickboxing, some jiujitsu, some wrestling and always MMA sparring at the end.  I miss having long practices.  I do two classes at the gym but that means I do the warm ups and cool downs twice which doesn't really help me that much so it seems like I am working out just as long but it't not as productive.

Since punching of any sort is new to me, I didn't really go my full potential at the practices.  When they started kickboxing sparring, I would just sit down because honestly - these guys are pros and I just started learning kickboxing a few months ago.  Plus, no one would ever ask me to spar so I just sat and tried to at least observe and absorb.  I think that method worked a little bit but it was still not as good as just throwing myself in there.

The first week, my body ached. Week two was easier and by week three, my body was used to the workouts and that was when I started going harder.  Finally, one of the guys asked why I never sparred and I told him I was afraid but he told me all the guys will go easy and I can just punch the crap out of them.  Well, with that advice, the next day I asked to spar and lo and behold, he went easy one me - and I even got to land a few solid kicks and punches.  Not amazing but it was a start.

Week four was amazing for three reasons.  1) One of my teammates noticed I did not have any mma gloves during sparring so the next day he came up to me and said, "Here, its a present," and handed me a pair of UFC mma gloves.  Honestly, it was so sweet and he did not have to do it but I am so grateful and it made me feel like they actually cared about me.  I wasn't just a girl on the team, I was a part of the family.  2) One day we got to wrestle at Kyungsung University.  When I first came to Busan, I contacted the wrestling coach at the Uni and asked about wrestling there for fun but he told me I was not allowed to because it was for students only.  I think it is funny that I was still able to eventually wrestle at Kyungsung - except this time I was coming with the best fight team in Korea.  It was great putting on some wrestling shoes and properly wrestling - not mma wrestling.  3) I got offered a chance to personal train a kid in wrestling.  He is Korean but goes to school in America and wanted to practice wrestling over his summer break.  And no one knows folkstyle because in Korea, they only wrestling freestyle.  So I was the best  choice and I am really happy I did it.  I got to wrestle and it was great coaching again in some fashion.

So that is how I spent my summer.  I did have a few little adventures with I will post in another section  because this one is already too long hehe.

P.S. I have been back at school for two weeks now and today I was able to go to a pro fight practice. I am happy to say I sparred every single round and even managed to land a few well placed armbars.  I am a pretty happy girl ^_^  I officially feel like I improved.