EDITORIAL: I LOVE MUY THAI; NO, NOT THE FOOD!

Ian Shank, Staff Writer

There’s nothing like the combat sport Mixed Martial Arts. The adrenaline pumping through your veins, seeing your knuckles covered in blood and sweat, watching your opponent in agony, all of it is an adrenaline rush for me. When I tell people I do Mixed Martial Arts I either get a response of “that’s awesome,” or “why?” Well, the reason I put myself through physical pain is because of all the benefits that you reap from it all. It does make you tougher when you have professional fighters constantly kicking and punching you everywhere on your body, you learn how to take a beating and suffer through the pain like a champ.  Also, your hand-eye coordination is greatly improved upon. The submissions are complicated at first, but after a while you can immediately grab a person’s wrist or any other limb on their body without any problem arising. On top of all that, you will learn what respect is, if I don’t say “Yes sir” or “No sir” to my trainer he will make me do fifteen pushups or just give me a quick punch in the face, neither of which is pleasant.

One of the main reasons I love Mixed Martial Arts is because of all the exercise you get since you work just about every muscle in your body. Within twenty minutes of working on the bag or a body bag; I’m covered in sweat. While that may sound disgusting, it’s actually great for me because whenever we work on submissions, no one is able to get a good grip on my wrist or any other limbs. Speaking of submissions, let me tell you about my two favorite fighting styles: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muy Thai. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is an aggressive sport where you use leverage and techniques to take down a person and use a series of chokeholds and joint-locks to get their opponent to tap out. I know it sounds painful, because it is; nevertheless I enjoy it to the maximum. It’s an exciting adrenaline rush from the second you grab the person’s arm to the time they either pass out or tap out. Now let me talk about Muy Thai, it’s a fighting style from Thailand that uses your elbows, arms, shins, legs, and even knees. This is definitely the fighting style I use the most. It was the first style I was taught by my trainer and I instantly fell in love with it. It makes me more aggressive than any of the other fighting styles because of how easy yet complex it is. I can throw a jab or a cross, but if I do it using the Muy Thai technique my punches and kicks become very powerful very fast.  In conclusion, I am very passionate about the combat sport that is known as Mixed Martial Arts.