Fight Girls
About six weeks ago I came across a conversation on Facebook about a Fight Girls Charity event. It’s an organised fight to raise awareness and money for two charities; the Chariot Trust and the Neonatal Unit. I then witnessed a lot of women from our community coming forward to get on board the training program. I watched and listened with bemusement when they told us how much time we would have to commit to take part in the Fight Night, it meant training hard out, four to five times a day, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. I looked anxiously at my calendar and just thought, well, there is no way I can fit that in!
So, I took a step back and looked on with envy at all the girls as they each got chosen. I was surprised to find that I felt so disappointed, with myself mostly. I really needed a challenge, I wanted to be involved and I wanted to raise money for the charities. I knew that I had let myself down and that I had let a good opportunity slip by.
I found myself following all the Fight Night updates, feeling the need to catch any information or any scrap of news. Then one afternoon, I just happened to be on Facebook as an announcement from the lead coach was posted stating that someone had dropped out of the training program. I almost jumped for joy; I hastily rang and begged them to take me on. Of course, it was after my conversation with the coach and the very second that I hung up, that I had a sudden flash of panic; the terror and the realisation suddenly sank in, it was a classic “What have I done” moment.
It has been six weeks from that day; I have learnt so much, I have achieved things that I never thought I was at all capable of. I have in the process, sweated blood and tears by the bucket load.
Kickboxing is hard work, it hurts, and it hurts in places that I never knew I had. Some days there just isn’t one muscle in your body that doesn’t hurt; but boy, it is so much fun! There is something to be said about throwing a punch at a boxing bag, the adrenaline rush is great and after class I feel so pumped.
Dynamic Martial Arts in Silverdale is a Club that isn’t like any other I have ever seen. It has a good mix of men and woman and its run by Dave Sawyer, who looks big and scary, he gives the impression of being an overbearing sort of a man, but in actual fact he’s a real big softie. I’ve watched him closely with his fighters; you can really see the affection that he has for all of them. He’s diligent in their training, always considerate and concerned, making sure that they are ready and well prepared. I have become extremely fond of Dave and his club.
Dave created Fight Girls which has been a huge undertaking for him. He started with 28 women and now it has been whittled down to 20 or so. There are two teams, mine is yellow and there is the black team, the idea is that we each face an opponent in the ring from the opposing team.
We have four weeks left to go and its coming to the crunch time. I almost feel that training for five nights a week isn’t enough. I actually do feel kind of privileged to have trained with the Fight Girls, and proud to have stuck with the program, it’s definitely an interesting experience.
So, we have only a few weeks to go, we are still training for the big event. The weeks are flying by quickly, it’s hard to stay grounded, but we have to stay focused. I’ll keep you posted with how things are progressing.
