It’s incredibly important for men to see what it means to be a father, and to be reminded that other fathers face the same struggles and have similar aspirations.
I’m winding down the writing of Unlocking the Cage, my attempt to understand who mixed martial artists are and why they fight. In my search for these answers, I interviewed 400 MMA athletes and visited over 100 gyms in 25 states. I got a very raw and real look at these men and women, and I obtained a great number of lessons I hadn’t imagined learning.
As a stay-at-home dad of two young kids, my number one mission in life is to not screw them up. I don’t want them to make the same mistakes I did; I don’t want them to be stunted by my same weaknesses. I felt I was doing a fairly good job when I began this journey four years ago, but then I saw the opportunity in front of me. The majority of the fighters I spoke with seemed like genuinely good people, individuals I admired. Many were fathers, and while I’m not going to say they were all good dads, I believed them. I gained so much from their words—what kind of fathers they strove to be, what things they aimed to do better.
We can all learn a lot from these fathers who just happen to be fighters.
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Photo: YouTube/Mark Tullius
So another stereotype of the “manly man” shattered to pieces when we actually listen to the men themselves rather then the assumptions we’ve been handed.
interesting.
Agreed