I have watched UFC fighters on TV for years with my dad, but I never thought I would ever actually get to train with one, let alone meet one. Today, I met one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, Rich Franklin. He taught a seminar at 100% Martial Arts. I was told about the seminar a couple weeks ago when I was a guest at Black Belt Excellence. I think it’s so important to put yourself in new environments and challenge yourself. You never know who you will meet or what you will learn. I only did the striking portion of the day because the grappling portion doesn’t apply to TKD.
I am always looking for opportunities to grow as a martial artist. I went to this seminar to learn more about striking because my kicks are my strength in sparring and I am always trying to improve with my hand techniques.
You know you’ve made it big when you have your own line of merchandise 🙂
It was very surreal shaking hands with such an awesome fighter.
I went with my training buddies, Miro, Alana, and Diego. I love training with these guys! 🙂 It’s also really nice to have another girl to train with.
Mr. Franklin was very thorough and easy to understand. I have been to many World Class Seminars in the past few years and they all seem to follow the same structure of teaching and showing by example and then we get to have hands on practice
I concentrated really hard since it was the first time I have ever been to anything MMA related and I wanted to make sure I understood.
Mr. Franklin walked around the room to help everyone and make any necessary corrections.
Seeing all the different ‘fighting’ gear was all new to me.
I had a great time today and I learned a lot. It was such an honour meeting Rich Franklin. I never thought that I would ever get to train with a UFC fighter so it was such a special moment.
Attending different seminars like that has made me think that someday after I have a few more World Championships under my belt I would like to run seminars myself. The idea of traveling all over the world, meeting new people and teaching Taekwon-do, would be incredible. TKD is a sport that brings people all around the world together. I’ve never been to a TKD seminar that was given by a woman so it would be interesting to see if as many people would go or take it as seriously. Who knows, it might open the door for more women to attend. I have so many opportunities in front of me, I am really curious and excited to see what I am going to be doing when I’m older.