Is there any lesson sports can’t teach?

(The title of this post is in honor of Hank Hill and the series’ recent demise.)

I took some time to visit Kansas City this weekend, mostly sticking around the place where I grew up, a small town that you may have read about exactly once. Although I couldn’t have asked for a much worse start to a trip (I’ll write about it another time), the dust has settled and I’ve been able to unwind a bit. I walked with my friends to the costume shop nearby, in a strip mall that has never housed much else, other than a grocery store. But there’s been a recent addition, something that wasn’t there last time I was around: a mixed martial arts gym.

Later, when I drove down my old street, I noticed two kids, probably 12-14 years old, grappling on the front lawn. You can see the booming popularity of the sport in the attendance and Pay-Per-View numbers, but it’s experiences like this that lead me to appreciate the perpetual influence of the sport, and make me excited to be a part of it, no matter how small and newcomer that part is.

Apart from this being a personal blog, where I’m trying not to limit my voice to any particular theme (if you’ve been here for awhile, you can tell I’m bad with this), you might still be curious about the shift in material, why I want to write about blocking kicks, and what it means.

I mentioned this recently, but I am in perhaps a unique position in that I’m not only a beginner to MMA, I am a beginner to sports. You wouldn’t know it by looking at me, because I lift weights and work out a lot, but there is a huge difference between an athletic-looking person and an athlete. This is one of the gaps in my development, and I am trying to fill it with one of the most intense and demanding sports possible. I chose fighting for several reasons:

• I’m a fan who was excited about and interested in MMA anyway.
• I’ve never been in a street fight, and although it’s not something I anticipate, it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared for it.
• The level of conditioning and toughness–both physical and mental–you must develop is rivaled by very few sports. I don’t have that yet, and I want it.
• Violence is part of humanity. It’s not even a matter of condonation, it’s about control and acceptance versus ignorance.
• Let’s just say I’d rather have my arm raised in victory inside a ring, no matter how amateur, than winning a local softball match.

So I think there is a lot of value to be extracted and shared. But if nothing else, at least you’ll get to laugh at an uncoordinated grown man as he learns new concepts like left, right, front, back, and stop getting hit in the face.