He had become my fighter and that meant that he now belonged to me.  It was now my responsibility to see that he was appropriately trained and ready for battle—that moment when he would walk into the cage and claim it as his own.  And it was a task that I took seriously.  I wanted [...]

I really do wish I could say that it was an uncommon experience, but it wasn’t the first time I’d discussed something similar.  It was one of those sweaty, throw-down, half-the-class-is-puking kind of nights—kind of my favorite.  I was just dragging myself to my feet after another Ironman round of takedowns when I noticed that [...]

Once people start to get to know me they often find me kind of strange.  It’s actually funny, I think, to watch the questions they want to ask but just can’t make themselves press the words past their lips.  They can see my ears, my crooked nose, and my ugly, scarred face.  But there’s just [...]

I was having one of my prouder moments.  I had watched one of my fighters succeed with skill and aplomb.  We had worked hard devising a game plan and she had been faithful in its execution.  Hours of hard work in the gym had paid off in the cage, resulting in a victory over a [...]

It had been a hard day, but that’s why we were there.  We had trained for hours, sweating in the summer heat until we were exhausted.  We had drilled technique nearly entire time, taking only a few minutes at a time for the instructors to give us the next task to perfect.  And they were the best [...]

We were exhausted to the bone, tired in the way that only a good practice can inspire.  It had been a hard night of training that started with kickboxing, moved to grappling, then morphed into MMA.  We had worked with the timer, against the timer, against one another, and with one another.  It had been [...]

It was a familiar feeling—all too familiar.  I heard my name being whispered from a distant place while I struggled to discern the place where I was.  I scrolled through the possibilities in my fogged mind. Was I at home?  No, definitely not. Was I at work?  This wasn’t work; work felt totally different than [...]

It’s something that I’ve heard often, and something that I’ve experienced nearly as often as I’ve heard it.  I’ve experienced it enough that I recognized the barely silent expression in my fighter’s face as she looked at me incredulously.  It was easy for me to say, of course, because I wasn’t in her place.  But [...]

I was barely a puddle—a puddle of frustration, emotion, sweat, blood, and a few tears.  It was one of the most brutal training sessions I had been part of.  Unfortunately, I was the center of attention for this particular afternoon.  I had big fight coming up—a tough opponent and a production that seemed to be [...]

It was nearly surreal.  I had arrived with an entourage of sorts, but not as the star.  I was in a supporting role and an important one, at that.  I was the coach. The venue was almost empty thus far, only a few bodies mingling about.  I looked at the empty cage, the bustle of [...]