“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
Bruce Lee
Many people struggle with ADD or ADHD as I have my entire life. At a young age, I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder which is very common. I was prescribed to take Adderall or similar medicines to combat this disorder.
I never liked taking it and my mood would noticeably change. Thankfully, my parents didn’t make me take it all the time which allowed them to see how it affected me too.
My parents put me in a lot of sports as a kid as they thought the team structure would help me with my attention problem but it just got worse when I played these sports.
Playing basketball and especially baseball you would catch me running around in circles in the outfield and not doing what I was supposed to do. Practices were especially challenging because I would not listen to my coaches and all the kids around would make me more hyper.
When I was six years old my father thought I should try karate. Karate as with all martial arts have a strong focus on discipline. It’s not just about learning to fight but also about controlling your body.
This is when everything changed for me. In karate class we would always start by bowing and showing respect to the sensei, my mates and the martial art.
The sensei heavily influenced me and with the lessons on how to control punches and kicks and working on our flexibility it would help me channel my focus.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
As I got older I stopped wanting to do karate because all of my friends were wrestlers. So I continued my journey on structuring my life with normal exercise at the gym weightlifting and wrestling in high school. Yoga was also essential because that taught me how to control my breathing and meditate. That was the second most helpful aspect of learning to control my focus.
When I was in my college years is when I got introduced to BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) because I was watching a UFC fight between Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar.
I assumed Brock Lesnar who previously was a WWE Superstar was going to run over Mir but boy was I wrong. The fight started with Lesnar spearing Mir with a takedown and I thought it was over but when Brock stood up, Frank grabbed a hold of his ankle and forced him to tap!
Then I realized I need to learn that! I was never into street fighting or anything like that but I liked to know how to defend myself. So I started doing research on BJJ and I found the Gracie family. I proceeded to watch Youtube videos of Rickson Gracie in Vale Tudo.
I went to the nearest Gracie Academy and the most helpful thing I learned was the breathing techniques. That was the most helpful thing in my journey to help me control my focus and attention.
Ever since then I’ve never needed to take any drugs for my ADD and I just use the breathing techniques. If I’m ever feeling extra hyper then I go and do a class and roll with some of my class mates and exhaust myself. Then I feel much better.
Training Mixed Martial Arts
A few years ago I started to train MMA. For someone currently struggling with ADHD it probably isn’t a good start because there are so many things to learn, but through my progression I am able to compartmentalize my training and focus on one thing at a time.
I’m a huge fan of MMA including the UFC and Bellator. I would never step into the cage but I really enjoy watching and training myself.
I can get bored of things very quickly so getting introduced into mixed martial arts training was essential because there are so many things to learn. Having something new to look forward to and focus my attention on is huge and that’s why mma was so helpful too.
I had a basic knowledge of striking from Karate but learning Muay Thai, boxing and kickboxing was like a whole new world for me. I still have a ways to go with striking and that’s what motivates me.
I already had a decent ground game because of my Jiu Jitsu training experience but I’m still learning every day because it’s evolving so much.
Sometimes I’ll go hours watching Youtube videos of Eddie Bravo from 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu teaching new moves.
After I master striking and since I already have good Jiu Jitsu, I’ll focus more on wrestling. That’s the key to my structure too is having something to look forward to.
Conclusion
Martial Arts especially Karate and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gave me a solid structure to my life. My Karate sensei would hold me accountable for my actions inside and outside of the dojo and I was able to release my energy into the strikes.
BJJ taught me how to focus on my breathing for meditation and to calm down my mind and my nerves. Having a structure where I wake up and do meditation with stretching then go to school or work and then training after was what I needed and is better than any medicine I could put in my body.
BIO
I’m Joseph Montero a martial arts fan from Miami Florida focused on living a healthy life and training every day before and after work. I focus most of my time now working on my blog themmathrone.com
