← Shannon Cason's Homemade
Shannon Cason's Homemade
Learning to Fight Like a Grandma | Everyday is a Story
00:06:05
This grandma can fight!
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
A
Fighting is so much more than throwing punches. Every day is a story. I'm Shannon Cason. It's Tuesday. I mean, there's kicks, there's elbows, there's knees. I'm just starting off with kickboxing and Muay Thai. This is also Muay Thai. I'm just learning the basics, getting the movements down, getting used to the conditioning. I walk into the Powerhouse Gym or Woodward Highland park, and it's an old relic of a building. It's one of those places that still has the wood paneling on the walls. And the place hasn't changed much since I was a kid. I've been coming here since I was a kid and probably the same machines and equipment are still there. Old photos of world champion bodybuilders and power lifters cover the walls with boxing posters and, and signed pictures of celebrities who have been there over the years. And I walk back to this fitness studio that's in the back, in the back corner and there's a wooden floor and a few punching bags and a heavy bag are hanging. And the trainer, we'll call him T, he's already there on the ground, like in a stretched out pose. And there's a few new people. One of them is a lady. She's an older lady. She's older than me, of course. I would say LA, late 60s maybe. And she introduced, she introduces herself as I'm used. Letters for people's names in this G. Her name is G. And T invites me to the ground to stretch with everyone. And I tell him I gotta go take a piss first. So after nature, I get on the ground on the wooden floor with everybody and, and we stretch out and the deep stretching is showing me that I am stiff. I need to put more work into stretching. Then my dad walks in the room and he's the oldest of the crew and he's still able to get up and down off the floor easily. At least it looks that way to me. And he tells me that I'm late because he wants me to get there early to, to do some stretching with him and to go through his plank routine. He always wants to show off on planks and show that he's so much better than everybody on the planks. But I get there right on time. To me, you know, I miss all that. And T, the trainer, he takes each of us through our movements. He tells me that I'm looser this time, that he can tell that I'm looser this time. And I'm punching harder because I wore a wrist brace this time I have an old basketball injury on my wrist. And first day I didn't have a brace, but this time I wore my brace. And then I watched this older lady, G. Her combinations are clean. It's good technique, hard punches and kicks. You wouldn't expect it from a grandma. I'm assuming that she's a grandma. At the end of it all, we just fall in a puddle of exhaustion. And then we do more stretches and my dad motions for me to do his planks, his plank routine. He's 85, but he's not gonna let me go on these planks. So he likes to show off. That's basically the. The gist of it. He wants to show off his planks. So we do the planks. It's four sets of 90 second planks with this other little thing that he does in between for the trans. I can't even remember the name. He said the dominus transverses or something. He wanted me to do those, but it does have my. It'd be having my. My stomach tight. But he said he was being easy on me with the 92nd plank. So after the workout, I'm talking with my dad and he starts to break it all down. You know that you want to be relaxed. Any of these movements, you want to be relaxed. The muscles move faster when they're relaxed. Control, keep control. Twist into your punches. Bring the power from your toes, especially on that right hand. But on all the punches, you know, bring it from your toes. And if you get into something, make quick work of a person. If you have to use it like in common. In competition, you can't do like knees to the nuts or probably an elbow in the nose. Is, is not really part of the competition. I don't know, it might be, but he said he practices those things. Knees to the nuts and elbows to that temple or to that nose, take them down quick. And these are the conversations that we have. Just like a father and son should be having these conversations. We've had these conversations all my life. I give my dad a pound. I lead a powerhouse gym, and I'm not as exhausted this time. I'm not. I'm not as tired this time. The first day I was very tired this time my muscles kind of get used to it. And I'm going to practice all these moves at home. So next week when I go, I have the technique down a little bit more so I can look like Grandma G while she was punching. That grandma. That grandma has skills. My thoughts are real. Strength comes from awareness, discipline and control. Now, what's something that you've gained more respect for as you've experienced it more and more? Let's talk about it.