The sport of fighting unleashes the aggressive nature of human beings and is one of the few legitimate outlets of violence in modern life. But in the traditional impression, "hardcore" fighting looks like a "male-only" sport – until Zhang Weili won the UFC world championship, boxing actresses Gu Hong and Li Qian won the silver at the Tokyo Olympics, more and more people began to pay attention to women's boxing.
In reality, more and more girls are entering professional fighting gyms and practicing fighting sports. "In the past, almost no girls practiced fighting," said the manager of a fighting gym in Beijing, which was first established in 2009 and opened eight branches in Beijing in the last year, and the number of students has nearly increased tenfold, of which women account for more than half.
In the 120th issue of Titanium Media Image Online, we interviewed three girls who practiced fighting sports, who walked into the fighting gym for reasons such as work pressure and physical health, and finally found love in this cool and sassy sport.
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At the same time, he commanded 30 aircraft, and the air traffic control "decompressed" with punches.
With both hands on the sides of the head, the waist drives the legs to exert force, and the sandbag makes a regular "banging" sound. Straight punches, hook punches, swing punches, elbow punches, low sweeps... Under the coach's slogan, the trainees practice the movement combinations over and over again.
Wang Ziyu, 26, is an avid fan of this type of fighting class.
In 2018, Wang Ziyu graduated from the Civil Aviation University of China and became an air traffic controller at Beijing Capital Airport, directing the taxiing of aircraft taking off and landing in Terminals T2 and T3.
She works on the highest floor of the airport tower, surrounded by panoramic glass windows, with a very wide view, you can see the whole airport, the runway, and you can also see the sunrise and moonset.
Such a working environment once made Wang Ziyu yearn, but from the beginning of becoming a "civil aviation person", she really felt the "burden" on her shoulders.
In the year of first entry, the number of flights at capital airport was 1700 and 1800, the number of flights per hour was about 100, and the number of seats was more than 20 or 30.
"You want to communicate with 30 people at the same time," Wang Ziyu told Titanium Media Images Online, "I want to remember their respective names, their locations, and where they want to go in the future, I have to memorize these things, and there can be no deviation."
Beijing Capital Airport Tower, Wang Ziyu at work.
At the beginning of 2019, Wang Ziyu began to experiment with the fighting sport that seemed to "decompress".
There are many branches of the sport of fighting, including boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Taekwondo, Sanda, Kickboxing, and Mixed Martial Arts.
After his initial dabble, Wang Ziyu chose to major in Muay Thai, a traditional martial art from Thailand known as the "fiercest martial art", in which the players mainly use fists, legs, elbows and knees to strike.
Taking the group class attended by Wang Ziyu as an example, a group class lasts for one hour, and the process is divided into three links: warm-up, sandbag, and one-on-one target shooting with the coach.
"When you fight hard and take all your strength out, all your unhappiness and pressure are gone," Wang Ziyu said.
Before practicing Muay Thai, Wang Ziyu learned to skate and ski, but she found that these sports require some equipment to help complete, "only Muay Thai does not use anything", she said, "there is a kind of physical art".
The job of air traffic control is "two days off", and when she is not working, Wang Ziyu almost "soaks" in the boxing gym: the frequency of training more than four times a week occupies almost all her spare time.
"Air traffic control is a relatively stressful job that requires extremely strong psychological quality, and then when you get into the ring and the opponent beats you madly, it is actually a test of your psychological quality," Wang Ziyu told Titanium Media Image Online.
At the beginning of the actual battle, the opponent punched in the body, she was easy to "rush the eye", "all the actions were forgotten", and could only be beaten by the opponent into a meat sandbag. Now, Wang Ziyu has the title of "Valkyrie" and is well-known in the circles of Practicing Muay Thai in Beijing.
Wang Ziyu and the coach practiced in actual combat
At work, after a three-year probationary period, last year, Wang Ziyu began to independently command the aircraft. She recalls that the first independent command was on a snowy night, and the harsh environment was expected to cause large-scale delays, but in the end, she did not delay too long, and she commanded more than 30 aircraft in her hands safely and smoothly.
"Stay calm at all times and react quickly," says Wang Ziyu, who is also the exercise she gets from Muay Thai combat.
Gain 10kg, art students become "blacklist" girls
The 25-year-old Yang Xiaoxiao stood conspicuously in the crowd: 175 centimeters tall, taller than most girls; wearing a black top and sports shorts, the clothes were impressively printed with the three big words "blacklist", impressively like a professional athlete.
In the second year of boxing, because of his good skills and accurate blows, Yang Xiaoxiao beat his opponents to pain every time he took a practical combat lesson. Some people secretly pulled a small group to put her on the "blacklist", privately prevented other students from fighting with her, and as long as they saw her coming to class, they withdrew from class or changed to another museum, and started a "guerrilla war" with her.
Later, Yang Xiaoxiao simply printed the three words "blacklist" on the vest and became the "blacklist girl" of the boxing gym.
Yang Xiaoxiao participated in boxing group classes
In fact, Yang Xiaoxiao and many girls initially contact the same purpose of fighting sports, in order to lose weight and maintain their figure. Although she admits that the current appearance often brings people a "sense of oppression", Yang Xiaoxiao in life is a small girl who speaks softly and is easily shy, and likes green, pink, rabbits, and plush dolls.
Since 2020, she has maintained almost 2 to 3 hours of training time 3 to 5 days a week.
As the technology becomes more and more sophisticated, the goal of "losing weight" at the beginning is gone, and she requires herself to do the most standard, at least "watching a move and a style is practiced", not a "wild road"; at the same time, Yang Xiaoxiao's obsession with "body" has also disappeared, and her body shape and appearance have begun to run counter to "art students".
"When I was a bachelor, I was only 57 kilograms, and I was also tall and thin," Yang Xiaoxiao told Titanium Media Image "Online", and now she is 66 kilograms and has gained nearly 10 kilograms.
Yang Xiaoxiao is currently a second year in graduate school at Chinese Min University, majoring in applied psychology; but almost no one guessed that she once dreamed of becoming an actress and enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy as an undergraduate.
Although she passed the art exam and entered the "dream hall" of the actor, she quickly realized the cruelty of the acting industry, "the competition is too fierce", Yang Xiaoxiao told Titanium Media Image "Online", because of the limitations of appearance and photogenicity, "I may be the best supporting role at best."
In the sophomore year, the surrounding students began to enter the crew, and Yang Xiaoxiao made a choice that is not common among acting students: graduate school.
"If I don't do something that meets my expectations, I may change my mind and find a more suitable and more likely to produce grades", in 2019, after graduating from undergraduate, she successfully passed the interprofessional examination.
Although it has become more and more common for girls to participate in fighting sports, Yang Xiaoxiao still suffers a lot of sneering. Some relatives were worried that she would not find a boyfriend, "because she could not fight", and advised her to give up early and get married and have children quickly.
The coach who first took her to the beginning did not encourage her to continue to improve her skills, but expressed puzzlement about her persistence, "What is the use of practicing so well?" Is it difficult to play professionally? ”
At first, Yang Xiaoxiao would try to explain a few words, and then she figured it out, "Why do I care about other people's eyes?" ”
Yang Xiaoxiao has participated in 4 amateur competitions held by the fighting gym, and the record is 2 wins and 2 draws. The competition was a learning, a technical drill for her, but more importantly, a stage focused on her.
"I will be very excited when I stand on the stage, I like the feeling of being illuminated, if I don't give me this feeling for a long time, I will be very uncomfortable", Yang Xiao novel, "actress" career ended early, she once felt very lost. But in the ring, she found the light again.
Defeat cancer and find pure joy in boxing
Pan Jie, 42, has been training for two hours a day, six days a week, for the past six years, from Haidian District to a fighting gym in Chaoyang District. She practices muay thai, boxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu at the same time.
While most of her peers were still worrying about promotions and salary increases and children's education, single and unmarried, flexible working hours of the publishing house, gave Pan Jie a "free" life, "every day is home, company, boxing gym, three points and one line."
Pan Jie and her partner practice Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
More than a decade ago, Pan Jie did not think that "punching" would occupy most of her life. Like many young people in the North Drift, Pan Jie, who is in her twenties, has a mind of making money through work and taking root in Beijing. She started as an accountant, then started a photo studio and a restaurant, and recalls that at that time, she commented that she was "very stressed" and "very grumpy".
When the money is earned, the health is gone. In 2008, Pan Jie was diagnosed with cancer, underwent chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hair loss, and every day was worse than death, she began to re-examine her life. After recovering the following year, she set out for Tibet, where she had always wanted to go.
She stopped saving money and began traveling the world to experience new things she had never tried; after the ghost gate was closed, her physical condition was worse than before, and she began to worry about "what will happen to her parents if I die?" ”
In 2010, she began to exercise, because she liked the natural scenery during the trip, she began to climb mountains and run trails. After a few years, her knees could not bear it, and her exercise plan could only be shelved.
In 2016, Pan Jie took her first boxing class at the gym. "I really threw up in 15 minutes," Pan Jie recalled, after the experience class, she did the card. In the gym, Pan Jie practiced for three years.
After starting exercise, Pan Jie's physical condition has improved greatly. In 2017, Pan Jie had a uterine surgery, and there were six months of "menopausal symptoms" after the operation: weak, irritable, and easy to break out in cold sweat when moving. Doctors advised her to stop working and rest at home for half a year.
She couldn't stay, and after a month of rest at home, she began to resume training. At first, due to too weak, "five push-ups can not be done", Pan Jie can only attend half a class, but it only took a month, Pan Jie found that the "symptoms" almost all disappeared, and she punched like crazy as before.
"Punching makes my body better, but more importantly, it makes me particularly happy," Pan Jie told Titanium Media Images Online.
In 2019, Pan Jie moved to a more professional fighting gym. In order to make it easier to exercise, Pan Jie has a neat short hair for many years; she used to wear glasses, and she had special myopia surgery two years ago and took off her glasses.
Straight punches, hook punches, swing punches, kicks... The action points of the fight, with rhythmic music, are arranged into a regular "fight gym" - super orangutan, Keep and other chain gyms, all provide similar "fight gym" courses, which is one of the most popular sports methods in the current urban white-collar workers, and it is also the first contact between many women and the sport of fighting.
But for the "addicted" boxer of fighting, the most core and essence of the sport comes from its "confrontational" part: actual combat. This is also one reason why many people switch from gyms to professional fighting gyms.
When the boxer is no longer facing a heavy sandbag, but a living "opponent", the fun of "fighting" is truly reflected. At this time, the boxing movement is no longer a pure tool for decompression and venting, and how to apply the learned skills in actual combat has become the first place that needs to be studied.
"Different types of fighting sports have great differences in technique and playing style," the manager of a fighting gym in Beijing told Titanium Media Image Online.
For example, Muay Thai "does not dodge much", likes to use the body "hard"; it seems that the rhythm is slow, the moves are simple, but the "moves are fatal"; boxing pays more attention to the pace, the pace is relatively fast, and only attacks the upper body.
Pan Jie and her partner practice Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
In 2021, Pan Jie began practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a completely different type of fighting sport from boxing and Muay Thai.
"It's not like boxing is standing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a kind of ground fighting technique," Pan Jie introduced, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by dragging the opponent into the ground, gaining a controlled posture, using a variety of attack methods such as joint techniques, twisting techniques or hitting techniques to subdue the opponent.
Due to the high technical difficulty and the need to practice with partners, most people who practice Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu have more than half a year of training experience and are true "fighting enthusiasts".
"It's hard to get into the pit, but once you learn it, it's very addictive," Pan Jie told Titanium Media Image Online, "but when you make the action and then surrender the opponent, it really has a sense of accomplishment."
For the future, Pan Jie does not have much planning, "a day is a day", and after dealing with diseases for more than ten years, she pays more attention to the feelings of the moment, "You don't know which one will come first tomorrow and the accident". But as long as you live, you have to keep punching until the day you can't move. (This article was first published titanium media App author / Wei Liukun video shooting / editing Wei Liukun Editor / Chen Zheng )