Art of War 2008

It was the 2003 Taekwondo Jr. Olympics in New Orleans. I was at the top of my game. I was training over 30 hours/week. I was running 8 miles a day. But once I stepped in that ring, it all didn't matter. I was just unprepared to fight according to the WTF tournament style rules. I had been cross training Kickboxing and taekwondo so much that my strategies were all wrong for winning a taekwondo tournament. I went into the 3rd round down by 5 points. I could feel my anxiety take over my body and sap all my strength away. Giving it everything that I had, my kicks still came out sluggish and ineffective.

Its been over 5 years since that day, and that feeling of helplessness still haunts me. I started training for the WKF MMA nationals back in February of this year. From the very beginning I knew I had a long way to go before I was comfortable hopping back in the ring. June came around, and I still didn't feel ready. My work schedule started pickin up and I started missing a lot more practices. As a consequence, I had to pull out of the tournament. However, in retrospect, I'm pretty sure I let myself get absorbed in work to not have to fight. When my former Kungfu teacher told me about his tournament in November, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to get back in the ring. I signed up for the Advanced Sanshou division, knowing that if I signed up I wouldn't let myself back down.

November finally rolled around, and I hopped in the ring. I had no idea the level of competition I was up against, and had to trust my instincts that I could handle it. I trained hard all year. I tried as much as I could to get rid of my old Taekwondo habits. Between juggling work, class, and training, I wasn't able to keep up with the fighter training program at Evolve Academy, but I did what I could with the time I had. Given that I haven't sparred at all since April, I think I did pretty well. I fought too conservatively, and I still think too much with my feet and in terms of short point combinations instead of continuous exchanges. But I felt good the entire fight and finally got over my fear of stepping back in the ring. Now I can't wait to fight again. Without further ado, here's the footage of my fight. I lost after 2 rounds, but the guy I fought went on to win the weight class.