# What Should I Expect?



## Kaygee (Oct 26, 2012)

Hi All,

In case you haven't seen me lurking around the boards lately, I have just quit practicing Tang Soo Do after a little over 2 1/2 years because I felt like a "T-Rex"...all legs, not hands and the practice started to get boring and stale for me. I am not bad-mouthing the art, it was a really great thing to experience and I learned a lot, not just about the art, but about life as well while I was there.

However, it just wasn't for me. So I started looking into MMA. I went around to over a dozen gyms in my area and, with the help of this community, picked the right one to sign up for.

Tomorrow morning, I am going in to give them the money to buy my gear. I will begin my training on November 1st. They teach Muay Thai, Western Boxing and BJJ. They also have fitness and conditioning classes as well.

Before I ask my questions, let me tell you what I want to get out of MMA:
I do not have any interest whatsoever in fighting in a cage professionally. I am nearly 39 years old....I may even be too old to start MMA, but I am going to try anyway.
I wish to achieve maximum fitness, learn how to defend myself, and make some friends in the process.

Now, this goes out to all of you MMA'ers out there. When I was going to trial classes, most of the classes weren't "structured" and I was doing "odd" things like superman punches and flying knees. I am the type of guy that doesn't even know how to hold my frikkin hands up or punch correctly. Should I be expecting them to "start from scratch" with me? If I shouldn't expect it, should I ask them to? I am going to need a lot of work. Flexibility and balance is not an issue for me......I can kick head high two or three times without pulling my leg back down, but my hands are completely useless.

Perhaps they taught this way during the trial classes because they wanted to try to get me to enroll in their school so they tried to show all of the "cool" moves? It was just very chaotic.

What I am trying to get at, is, what should I expect on my first few classes? Should I just go along with the program? Should I tell them "hey, I don't even know how to hold my hands up let alone shadow box or punch a bag"? 

Thanks for reading!!


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Oct 26, 2012)

I don't know whether or not to expect it, since that depends a lot on the gym and how well they believe you are on the basics..If they know you have experience with Tang Soo Do, its possible theyll just assume you're fine with it and go on to more advanced stuff. It's also possible they'll go over them anyway. But definitely tell them you want to work on the basics! I can't imagine them saying no, and you don't want to get into any bad habits by not knowing the basics.


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## Steve (Oct 26, 2012)

Not too old, but I'm surprised that you aren't doing some more basic drills... 


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## malteaser14 (Oct 27, 2012)

If you don't learn the basics properly it will be harder to learn the more technical aspects of MMA, or you could injure yourself. If you tell your instructor that you don't have much experience with your hands (also consider elbows and knees) the I see no problem with them starting from scratch. Hope you enjoy MMA


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