Goodfella-
I was mainly TMA for years, but I had flirted with MMA since I was eighteen (I think it was at that age that we began to brink Erik Paulson to MCMA). I'll be honest with you; one of my first conversations with Erik went something like this: "Fighting on the ground is stupid. I don't like it." He replied with "Okay" and was careful not to laugh at me to my face. (He has always been soo nice)
I did, however, enjoy the intensity of the workouts. And Erik's seminars were a blast.
I was pretty burned out on TKD by the age of 21 or so, and was practicing JKD/Kali with more diligence....but still searching for my niche. Another female at our school, who was a Thai boxer, began to work out with me and I was blown away! She was about 5'2 and a buck fifteen (I outweighed her by...a lot
) and she beat the crap out of me. She got me hooked on Muay Thai, which sort of "woke me back up" to martial arts.
Around that time I was watching the UFC at a friend's house and he slipped in a copy of Hook N' Shoot Revolution. When I saw Debi Purcell in action, I realized that there was something about MMA that was calling to me. I have no idea how many times I've seen that DVD (eleventy billion?) and am still impressed with the strength and grace that some of those ladies fight with. I still aspire to be on that level.
Erin, the Thai boxer, wanted to pursue MMA and when the opportunity came up for her to travel to Cali and meet Debi she said she wanted me to go along. We packed up a car and did a cross-country trip and had a summer of pure heaven, IMO. Debi welcomed us with open arms, and although she was unable to train with us b/c of an injury, she sent us to Marco Ruas and helped us daily (mentally and phyically kicking our butts...while still being a great friend). We did Thai boxing with Bryan Popejoy. CSW directly with Erik and went to RVT every other day.
Heaven: Training intensly during the day, laying down at the beach to recover and read, and working at night (well...that part wasn't great).
But all summers have to end (damnit!) and I returned to school, after having my first kickboxing fight, loaded with credit card debt and believing that maybe..just maybe...there was a future for me in MMA.
I had very little confidence in my ground game--my instructors were great, but grappling was just so foreign to me. I took a basic jiu-jitsu class and met one of my best friends/training partners (and now cornerman), Matt. Later on, I moved to the city where his instructor, James Clingerman lives and joined their team...but that was after I had my first MMA fight.
...and then was beaten twice in a row by the same girl. The first time, she jacked my elbow so badly that a piece of it chipped off and imbedded in my arm. (lesson out there to you folks...NO SHAME IN TAPPING :boing1: ). I wanted to rematch and recieved my wish 5 months later...with about 24 hours notice, lol. Took the fight and lost to her again (funny, though..my elbow was still jacked, so when i was in her guard I defended the arm bar with my life...and was triangled, hahahaha!...(maybe that's only funny to jiu-jitsu people?). That same weekend, disappointed by my loss, i took a spur of the moment challenge match with Cung Li's top female fighter, Elaina Maxwell. She beat me by a point (the first kickboxing match I had ever lost).
So I walked away from that weekend, with two pretty big losses and a sense that I had to get my butt into gear. Devoted pretty much my entire time to training on the ground, (with an MMA agenda in mind), and although I was away from my team for an entire summer, I was blessed with the opportunity to train with Lloyd Irvin and his team.
Somewhere, the gods of grappling karma are laughing at me...I am eating my words to Erik all those years ago, because when the Hook N' Shoot Tournament came I had an agenda--to prove to myself I could cut it on the ground after all. I had dropped a significant amount of weight since my losses (although unfortunately, I will always be one of those fighters who has to sweat) and I was suppose to be paired up with Ginele Marquez in my first round (wrestler extraodinare--beat Judy Neff once on the mat). I didn't **** about the rest of the tourney, to be honest with you--I just wanted to be able to hang with Ginele in that first round.
Unfortunately, she was injured and unable to compete. We hung out most of that weekend and I have to say that she is just as exciting and fun as a person as she is a grappler
.
My agenda didn't really change for the tourney--I wanted to win on the ground and did failry well with that, except with Molly Helsel in the finals (Molly is one baaaad-**) grappler herself.
So..umm does that answer your question? I talk too much; I know. There are a few more details in my interview on lockflow.com.
I'm going to shut up now!
jules