Make a Commitment to Yourself Right Now

August 29, 06

“Make a commitment to yourself right now that you will not stop, that you will respect yourself enough to give it all you got.”

That’s what the KOTC fighter said as we were jogging around the room at the end of practice getting ready to bust our asses through conditioning. Something about the way he said it made it seem like he wasn’t just trying to motivate us, like he was speaking from experience that hard work paid off if you made it pay off. He’s not that big really, shorter than me, weighed 140 in high school. I know he wouldn’t lie to us, and I know that something made him able to fight in King Of The Cage, and it wasn’t raw strength or steriods.

Today’s practice wasn’t tough like during hell week, but it was a gut check. After we got done drilling moves, we grouped off by weight and went live from different situation (one guy in on a single leg, one guy flat on his stomach, etc). I’m good at leg-riding, but at this level, so is everyone else. I wrestled a guy who was taller and lankier than me, he rode like a shoelace pulled too tight, impossible to get off you.

Afterwards the team split into two groups, those above 155lbs and those below 155lbs. Light guys partnered up on the mat for a live match, bigger guys ran along the sides and did pushups during the second half of the match. Light guys up, shake hands, wrestle!

Me and my partner shook hands and clinched up. I pushed off and shot for his legs, he sprawled and got around me and I sat out and tried a switch and we ended up back on our feet fighting. He took me down again and the first period ended with him up. Yeah I got beat pretty good. Second period started on the mat, one guy down and one guy on top. Whistle blows.

A lot of guys don’t know how to break the two-on-one hold, where they hold onto one of your forearms with both of their hands. I just put my free hand in between their’s and pry like a lever. Cheap move that works every time. I didn’t get tilted in the second period, but I got pretty worked, that guy knew how to leg ride. Third period, my turn up top.

Top’s always been my best position. The guy’s already down on his knee’s, half the work is done. The first few seconds of top are hardest because its a game of hot hands, who’s quicker. I was able to sink my legs in though, and then he was mine. I could tilt him, hold him, try to turn him, and flatten him out. I held him and turned him for the entire thrid period, and then coach yelled at us to go as hard as we could for the last ten seconds.

We stood up and bam! I let loose and shot the quickest low single I’ve ever felt myself pull off. Smooth, my shoulder barreled against his shin and I got around him and the takedown was mine. From that moment on, I knew that nothing else mattered, not being a girl or being a JV washout, I belonged there.

Little guys turn to run, we ran and then did pushups for the entire second period. I felt myself not going down as low as I wanted to, my lower back is weak and pulls me down. But dammit I banged out those pushups for a minute and half strait, I stayed in pushup position to rest and the pain got unbearable but I just kept doing 4 and 5 at a time, just get them done. Not once did my knees hit (my butt went up in the air a few times but shhhh no one saw that). I saw guys doing pushups on their knees, and yeah I saw the occasional stud do 20 an inch off the ground and a few inches up…and then crash to their stomachs and be unable to move. I think we were all pretty spent.

So we were all beat and practice was done, this week is weight cutting week. I was walking away and my partner, the one whose name I don’t know, slapped me on the back without looking and continued walking.

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