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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about falling down. That might seem like a weird thing to spend one’s time pondering but I have 2 kids and a ton of nieces and nephews. I was watching them play recently in my dad’s yard. The older kids were running around, jumping on the trampoline, chasing the dogs, playing on the swings, and wreaking all manner of havoc. The younger kids, those just learning to walk/run, were spending most of the time running behind them just trying to keep up. Quite often they would fall down.
I watched as the toddlers, mainly unaffected, would quickly get themselves back up and once again begin pursuit. You could tell that they were much more skilled at getting up then they were at actually chasing – they’d done it more as they learned to stand. I noted that they were quick to get up when they fell forward. When they fell forward they would just get to their knees and pop back to their feet. A few times however they were knocked backwards (dogs, other kids running into them, or when they ran into something immovable). On these occasions they were slower to get back to their feet. The process was more laborious and not as easy to figure out – sometimes it involved rolling around for awhile – but they always got back up eventually.
While watching this I was glad to see that they kept getting up. It made me proud in a way. I thought about the “rising generations”. These kids, and others, are the ones that will take our place in the future. There’s always someone coming up through the ranks to oust the people at the top.
There have been several “old dogs” in the fight world who have recently retired. There’s always someone who will take their place. It’s incredible to see that there are programs cropping up that start teaching the fundamentals of MMA, boxing, kickboxing and traditional martial arts at a young age. This issue we explore two local programs from FIT NHB and Mean 1 MMA.
I couldn’t help but to relate this to all of us and to KNUXX specifically. I get asked, all the time, how I got into the combat sports world. My canned response to this is that “I tripped, stumbled, and fell into it”. It’s a pretty accurate description of the events. It’s also a great way to explain how we keep going. We have made a lot of mistakes with KNUXX. We’ve fallen down a few times but we keep getting back up. It doesn’t matter if we fall down, what’s important is that we’re heading in the right direction and that we get back up when we fall – and every time we fall we “Fall Forward”.
I hope you enjoy this issue.
