Fighter challenge: why I train
It all started out when I was in middle school playing pop warner football. I wanted to stay in shape for the next season so my coach at the time told me to try wrestling. So at the age of 12 I started wrestling. I enjoyed it but not with the same fervor I do now. I always struggled with it and I honestly didn’t become a good wrestler until after my high school career. Plus my first couple years I had a lot of trouble with my asthma, but I thank god that I wrestled because the constant training eventually allowed me to overcome it.
So a year goes by and I’m still wrestling and playing football and one night I flip on the tv and I find Randy Couture fighting Tim Silva for the ufc heavyweight title. It was crazy to me..I saw a man take the wrestling skills I had just begun learning and combined it with other arts and used it to defeat a much larger man…I was hooked right from their. I kept watching fight after fight and learned about the sport, picking up all the rules and lingo and everything and I was consumed by it.
My freshman year of high school I started boxing. I used to take classes at a local gym that was supposed to be a boxing/mma class. My very first instructor was a guy named Stew Burroughs. A tough and gruff 50-something year old with 25 years pro boxing experience and 5 years of mma experience. He taught me mainly how to box since I was a wrestler. I thank him to this day because my boxing is probably my main strength when it comes to my stand up game.
Eventually I asked Stew if I could learn how to kickbox and he said he wouldn’t teach me until I bought the proper equipment. Since I didn’t have a job at the time I didn’t have the money to get shin guards and my parents didn’t want to shell out the money, so I decided if no one would teach me I would teach myself. I ended up buying Greg Jackson’s striking book and read it front to back and practice my moves so I looked just like the pictures.
I finally ended up buying shinguards and ended up training both at the boxing gym and with my dad’s friend who ran a shotokan karate dojo out of his house. He was a fifth degree black belt and a martial arts fanatic to the T. His name is Edmundo Crimi and I still see him every now and then. Without him I wouldn’t be the man I am today.
It was the the summer just before my junior year when I discovered why I did martial arts. My very first girlfriend, whom I had been dating for almost two years at the time had cheated on me while she was away for vacation. Needless to say I was crushed. I went to sensei Crimi’s place and told him and all of my friends and classmates what had happened and they consoled me but it didn’t really feel right. Me. Crimi didn’t take it easy on me though. He fought with me and toyed with me and almost danced to the music he had playing as he struck me at will..I was so frustrated and angry that I had to sit out…and then I began to think. I kept wondering why mr Crimi had danced in front of me and how his motions flowed so smoothly..and then it hit me…martial arts isn’t about technique and being strong, it’s about expressing yourself, just like dance. I went back in with mr. Crimi and just let all my pain and sadness and frustration flow through my body and I became a physical paintbrush for my emotions…I never felt better.
My senior year of high school I began training with my current instructor, Sifu Joe Cargado at his school combat fitness martial arts. He has been teaching me Muay Thai, bjj, commando Krav Maga, jeet kune do, and combat submission wrestling for the past two years. When I’m home I go to the gym every day it’s open and I even teach the children’s classes. Sifu Joe has been like my second father and I honestly love him and everyone at Combat Fitness.
So why do I train? I train to learn, I train to fight, I train to protect myself but above all those things i train martial arts to express myself in the truest way I know how. Martial arts is an art for that very reason and that’s why I love it so much.
