I Wanna Be Fighting Fit
Bored with yoga and aerobics classes, many women are learning how to kick, wrestle, roll and land killer shots instead, says Jocasta Shakespeare
On the wrestling mat at London Shootfighters, one of the UK’s top fight clubs, secretary Vicki Jecks, 26, kicks out at her opponent. She wears boxing gloves, but no head protection; he is 6ft tall and wearing knee pads, black stubble and bulging biceps.
There are 14 pairs of fighters training here tonight. Dance music thuds out from a boogie box in the corner and tube trains rumble overhead, overlaid by the whack and smack of kicks and punches connecting with rubber shields. Without them, groins, thighs, shins and faces would, by now, be reduced to putty.
After this kickboxing session, which lasts up to two hours, Vicki will be doing a mixed martial arts class – training for her first cage fight competition once she has perfected her wrestling technique.
There are now 40 fight clubs in the UK teaching unorthodox “combat sports” with mixed techniques such as submission wrestling, Kumite and Shotokan karate, boxing, Krav Maga – the Israeli self-defence martial art -and Capoeira – an awesome fighting style originally developed by African slaves in Brazil.
Some of the most dedicated fighters are women. Bored of yoga, meditation and beauty therapy, more and more women are training at MMA (mixed martial arts) gyms where they learn to hit and to be hit, to kick, punch, roll, wrestle, break bones and land “killer shots”.
Some fights have rules such as no fish-hooking (putting fingers into an opponent’s mouth and hooking out the back of the palate), no eye-stabbing, head-butting or groin-wrenching. Others have no rules at all.
Typical injuries are broken collarbones, broken limbs, smashed teeth and mashed muscle, but Jecks is not afraid. “One of the girls is injured at the moment, but I have built up a tolerance for getting hit,” she says, her brown eyes sparkling, ready for action. She is slim and shorter than most of the men here, but her broad shoulders and steely determination show fighter spirit.
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