My first experience with martial arts was a Jujutsu/self defence class that was part of my gym curriculum at high school. I didn't like it that much, mainly because I sucked at it. A 2-week class with about 30 or so students isn't exactly ideal for learning martial arts.
2 years later, I had another gym/martial arts class, except this time, it was kickboxing instead of Jujutsu. It was brutal, it was painful, and it was awesome. I wanted more. When I got out of high school, I started doing cardio kickboxing. I went there as often as I could, and my fitness increased exponentially. 4 months later, I took Mixed Martial Arts classes at the same school. 3 months later, I started Kenpo - again, at the same school.
At MMA, I often do sparring, which has helped me learn more about myself and my fighting style. I'm mainly a stand-up fighter. My ground game is crap. My grappling offense is pretty much limited to "GUILLOTINE CHOKE, LOLZ." However, I have the advantage of flexible shoulders, making it difficult for people to get me to tap.
My standup game is fairly decent. I'm fairly tall, so I have good reach. I mainly stick to keeping pressure on my opponent with left jabs, and dealing damage with right leg roundhouses.
The closest thing I've ever been to in a real fight is a 4 minute tournament MMA match (with protective gear), that was supposed to be light-contact, but ended in both me and the guy I fought getting a black eye.
In the end, I lost because he got me on the ground on my back and he won by points, even though he wasn't in a very good position. I was holding his head and arms to the ground most of the time, so he wasn't in a good position to go for a submission or get any decent strikes in.
Outside of martial arts, I train by doing high intensity interval training one day, and then bodyweight exercises (no gyms in my town and I don't own a car) the next. My bodyweight routine needs some improvement though. I do pushups, and then do either a plank position, horse stance, or prisoner squats, depending on whatever I feel like doing.
High intensity interval training has really helped me cut weight, which I wanted to do
1) To get in a lower weight class for the aforementioned tournament
2) To get my six-pack to show
On April 1, my weight was 175lbs. On May 22, my weight went all the way down to 149lbs. My six-pack only shows when I'm flexing it, but within another month or two, I won't need to flex. Right now, I'm a skinny bastard, but that will all change when I go to college in September (they have a gym there) and start beefing myself up.
