Throughout our lives, we are taught to overcome everyday endeavors, and the way we deal with our problems is what makes us unique. The way I have learned to overcome my difficulties is with my relationship to mix martial arts. Mix martial arts has helped me grow and hone my skills as a student and a person. As I first began I would have never believed that this new sport would be a part of me for the rest of my life. On my first day of class I was thrown and slammed across the mat by other children ranging from six to twelve years old. It felt degrading being nine years old and seeming like the worst student there. My father desperately tried to enlighten me that, “ It's only going to get better from here, that I should not give up, and to at least continue training for couple more months to truly know how I feel about it.” So I did so, and to my surprise I felt my skills beginning to grow and I even started to enjoy sparring with other students who were a …show more content…
During the day of the competition my stomach was in knots, as if my inside were ready to break loose, a clear sign that anxiety has taken over my body. At the end of the day I won my first match, but lose the second. I felt like a complete failure, that all my training and hard work were for nothing. One of my instructors had realized that I wasn’t taking the loss too well, so he sat down next to me and said, “ What do you expect you’ve only been practicing hard for a couple months, to become the best you can be you have to look past the bad days and continue to train to your absolute limit.” So I took his advice and stuck with it, slowly but surely I progressed from community tournaments, to state, then national, until finally I earned the title of world champion. I continued holding the title for about two years until it all had to come to an unprecedented
In all of the events I’ve competed in, learning from losses has given me a better learning experience than when I won a competition. During my second year in SkillsUSA I competed in many different events, performing an opening ceremony, explaining how to make an Ethernet cable, and running to be a leader at a district level in Texas just to name a few. In all of these competitions, I never really tried my hardest. I thought that I didn’t need to prepare or practice any of the skills that would have helped me. During the award ceremony, I was shocked to learn how mediocre I really did. This was especially true when the new District Officers were announced for the 2014-2015 school year and my name wasn’t announced. I soon realized that most of the other competitors have spent months practicing and preparing for this competition
Being a professional boxer didn’t do much for his mental health because he says he would feel on top of the world and yet so lonely at the same time after a fight. Therefore, he suffered not only the physical demands, but the mental demands in the professional arena of the sport.
After my win, my team was lined up to congratulate me; I was the only member from our team to pin their opponent. The feeling of the referee raising my arm was one of the, if not, the best overwhelming feeling I've ever felt in my life. Knowing that I won that match on my own gave me great confidence that I was just as good as anyone in my bracket. I kept telling myself that if I made it that far, then I must be. As I moseyed to my seat where the team was sitting, people were patting me on my way up the stairs. People I didn't even know were congradulating me, telling me way to go, good job. That feeling was one of the best too. As I took my seat and got ready to watch the Waitmanator, one of my teammates wrestle, a reporter came up and sat right beside me. He shook my hand and started asking me all kinds of questions. I told him everything he wanted to know, and after he was done talking to me, I got that feeling in my stomach again. That made me really pumped up for my next match. The very next day was even better. The reporter put me and all of my quotes in the paper. Now, everybody knew about my match. Things were just going my way.
It then started to get harder and each day was a different workout to help me and my teammates improve. I was at a point where all I could do was attend school, go to practice and go home. Each day I was beyond tired. At a point of time I felt like giving up and going back to my regular life, and regular schedule. As the coach started to notice how I felt, he pulled me to the side and started to question what was going on. I explained, but everything I said was not a good enough reason. My coach told me, “If this is what you really want you won’t give up, no matter how hard it may get you will overcome it.” That day I learned a valuable lesson, to never give up.
I have always wanted to be a soldier in the United States Army. I liked the idea of serving of my country. I started at a young age trying to help my community. I volunteered to help at soup kitchens, do yard work for elderly or disabled people, and I joined the Boy Scouts and later on became a Junior leader and an Eagle Scout. This desire of helping others led me to enlist in the P.A. ARNG in March 2015. I enlisted with the intent of becoming an officer. I originally planned on going to Valley Forge Military College. I later on received the full ECP scholarship. This decision had changed when I was in B.C.T. at Fort Jackson SC. I had met with a cadet who had just finished his 3rd year at West Point. He loved it and after talking with him
I have been a dancer since the age of 3. My earliest memory of dance was when I was too terrified to go on stage during a recital and I refused to go on no matter how much they tried to push me. Up until the age of about 12, dance had been just a hobby or an extracurricular activity. In fact, I didn’t even enjoy going to dance. I didn’t have friends there and I wasn’t that good of a dancer. It wasn’t until I participated in Dance Bermuda’s summer dance intensive in collaboration with the American Ballet Theatre in 2012, that I realized that I had a passion for dance. At the program, I was exposed to other dancers that were my age and older and most of them were much more advanced than I. So to avoid being the worst dancer in the program, I took to YouTube and watched hours and hours of dance videos. I researched all the ways to improve my ballet technique. I can remember trying to practice my pirouettes in the kitchen and falling onto the table and knocking a whole bunch of things over. I was determined to be as good as the other girls in the program. By the end of the two weeks I was fired up, motivated, and ready to get back to class after the summer.
The time is quickly winding down and his team needs the victory to win the dual meet. He holds on to his opponent's legs, tightly gripping as the time slips aways. There is a moment of silence from his teammates, interrupted by loud cheers from the opposing team. The match is over. His head droops off his body, as if all his convictions rest upon his shoulders, too heavy to bear the lost.
Martial Arts has been around for thousands of years now. It is used to teach a countries army how to fight. Each country has their own way of training their soldiers, and therefore different martial arts. The United States also uses martial arts in their military training. Unlike other countries that have one set art for fighting, the U.S. uses a multiple variety of martial arts from different countries. Therefore the U.S. also uses a wide variety of training methods. The history of how the American forces came to be and where they are now in the way of military practices is very interesting. Like any other military, America had to start somewhere, and does have its roots. The military is also diverse in their curriculum, and how it operates. Exercises are also a major part of combat training, and come into play with helping a soldier survive. Lastly, the foreign martial arts are now being stressed to be introduced to the American fighting forces. Unlike other countries, the United States’ military is very unique in how military fighting is conducted.
Ever since the previous season I had my standards set high. I had placed fifth, which was all right for the time being, but I knew as time went on I needed to push myself and increase my level of wrestling. I decided that I would do whatever it took, through thick and thin. I traveled to small local tournaments in Colorado, and a couple out-of-state tournaments, I even traveled to Delaware. It didn't really matter how I did at these tournaments because it was just all practice until February. So, I lifted and wrestled just about every chance I got. It was all in preparation for one match, six minutes.
As the season progressed, competition started getting fiercer. I was up against girls running at a 5A level, yet, I was able to hold my own. Finally there came a tiny light at the end of the tunnel; it seemed as though I was getting closer and closer to accomplishing my goal. Along with my undefeated title came a huge target painted on my back. I religiously checked "Rocky Preps" every day to see if the competition was gaining on me. It seemed that every time I had improved, there was someone right behind me, running their personal best too. I trained during the weeks before regionals like I had never trained before. Each day my stomach became more twisted with knots that looped around every part of my stomach. I don't think I had ever been that nervous in my whole life.
“Today can be the day of my first wrestling match, I absolutely hope I win , what if I don't and It's embarrassing? I’m overthinking it, I’ll be fine, I just need to use the knowledge and skills I’ve learned from the past couple months.” I thought to myself as I walked to my sixth period class which was wrestling. It was the third week into the wrestling season and the first two league duels I defaulted because there was no one in my weight class.
Finally Friday came. The tournament lasted for about three hours, peppered with constant complaints, arguments, and threatened fist fights. To my own disbelief, we lost -- by one point! For the rest of the night I rationalized our loss by creating stories of how they must have cheated, accented by remarks about the character blemishes of their mothers. I just kept saying that we were still the best and it didn't matter that we had lost. By the end of the night no one was speaking to me, not even my partner in the competition. I finally snuck off and went home. All the way, I could feel myself choking on ...
My opponent’s name was John Doe. There were other competitors at the tournament, but they had never posed any threat to my title. For as long as I had competed in this tournament, I had easily taken the black belt championship in my division. John, however, was the most phenomenal martial artist I had ever had the honor of witnessing at my young age of thirteen. And he was in my division. Although he was the same rank, age, size, and weight as I, he surpassed me in almost every aspect of our training. His feet were lightning, and his hands were virtually invisible in their agile swiftness. He wielded the power of a bear while appearing no larger than I. His form and techniques were executed with near perfection. Although I had never defeated his flawlessness before, victory did not seem unattainable. For even though he was extraordinary, he was not much more talented than I. I am not saying that he was not skilled or even that he was not more skilled than I, for he most certainly was, but just not much more than I. I still had one hope, however little, of vanquishing this incredible adversary, for John had one weakness: he was lazy. He didn’t enjoy practicing long hours or working hard. He didn’t have to. Nevertheless, I had found my passage to triumph.
For those who do not know, I am a mixed martial arts fighter. Mixed martial arts fighting is “a sport allowing a wide range of fighting techniques that include striking, kicking, and grappling.” (www.merriam-webster.com) It is a compilation of forms of different martial arts. Two fighters will face each in the rings (known as the octagon due to its shape) for three to five five-minute rounds. I started taking martial arts classes when I was six years old. I wanted to be a mixed martial arts fighter all my life. I loved the thought of stepping into the octagon and pounding somebody senseless as a sport. My mother and father, at first, did not want me to take the Taekwondo classes because of this fact. It took a lot of begging to finally convince them to let me do it. They realized that it is very important for any child to learn some type of martial arts. It is essential to use for defense. Mixed martial arts are the thing that helped me cope with my rough childhood and mold me into who I am today. Over the past twenty years, the sport of MMA has revolutionized and has become very popular throughout the world. Despite this being said, other people very hesitant about accepting mixed martial arts. The sport of MMA is gradually becoming a safer sport. Even though it is considered a dangerous sport, other sports at proven to be more dangerous.
A global citizen is that who is willing to use its voice and knowledge to make a change. No one would ever be able to make a change in just one day, it is something that takes time and devotion. I’m really interested in diversity and I’m seeking to what is my role is as a world citizen. The fact that I’m searching for an international education is the proof of my desire to establish myself as a global citizen and my interest in the world issues.