IT'S JUSTIN TIME: Find a Cure for Harvard Routine

It was a chilly night earlier this week. A Monday or Tuesday, I believe. I was right by Holyoke Street, just a block from Harvard square. Sweat drenched my brow. My heart was pounding. Two muscular, raging men were right in front of my face. I was pumping my legs as fast as I could, but I wasn’t going anywhere. I was thrusting my arms back and forth, but connecting with no targets.

I wasn’t being assaulted or mugged. I was actually at the MAC, doing my regular cardio workout on an elliptical machine while watching a bro-brawl on 'Real World Cancun'. I was surrounded by others in the same situation: students trudging through their routines, zero calorie fitness water in hand, intently watching people with lives less monotonous than their own.

Then the revelation came to me: it was time to try something new. What would it be? The clue was right in front of my eyes.

Not a day later, I learned about the Harvard Self Defense Club. Unofficially started in the fall of 2007 by George D. Eggers '10 and Dan H. Oshima '10, the Harvard Self Defense Club began as the Harvard Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Club, an underground movement for MMA enthusiasts and gym-rats alike. Eggers, who coaches Muay Thai and has competed in Hapkido in South Korea, began training intensely with Oshima, who coaches Judo in his hometown of Somerville, MA and has won two national championships.

Their motivation was the rapidly increasing popularity of UFC fighting, which ESPN has recognized as one of America’s fastest growing sports. UFC fighters employ moves from many different martial arts, engaging in both standing moves and moves from the ground.

Eggers and Oshima began practicing these moves and sharing techniques in gyms around campus, but knew that others would love to participate.

“We started a facebook group, and after two weeks, we had 25 guys coming,” Eggers said. “We would start out with basic drills, and every week was alternating between two days of striking and one day of groundwork, or the other way around.”

While the training is as intense as it sounds, the level of variety in their training routines has great appeal for bored-out-of-their-mind Jazzercisers such as myself.

“We wanted a club martial art that was going to give people a great workout,” Oshima said. “Doing MMA, you’re going to get cardio, plyometrics, and more, all from one club, and at the same time you are going to learn really useful technique. A complete package is really what we are trying to do.”

Training continued throughout their sophomore year, and efforts to become an official club started in the fall of 2008.

For reasons that some could imagine, Eggers, Oshima, and other group board members ran into trouble when it was time to formalize.

“It literally took us an hour per day calling people just to find out who we had to talk to,” said Eggers. “One guy asked me if people weren’t going to do it just to start fighting people in the streets.”

Televised portrayal of MMA fighters as bloodthirsty entertainment surely contributed to the groups’ struggles. However, MMA employs techniques from various martial art forms that are officially recognized on campus.

After eight months of phone tag with members of the athletic department, the Harvard Mixed Martial Arts Club became the Harvard Self Defense Club. The club does not champion brute violence or mindless “fighting”, but, according to Eggers, can guarantee “high intensity cardio training and a mix of weights, bodyweight exercises, hard drills, speedbag, pull ups, and jumping jacks.”

Harvard students are visibly active, motivated, and driven. Many of us rely on consistency for sanity. I personally feel like an OCD hamster when I’m on an elliptical machine at the MAC, and it has to be the 2nd one from the back on the right side.

If anyone out there shares my sentiments, perhaps you should check out the MMA guys. I know I will. Next time things get heated on Holyoke Street, or in Cancun, I’ll be ready.

—Staff writer Justin W. White can be reached at jwwhite@fas.harvard.edu.