Meet the MMA Clinic’s Danielle West.
She has a weakness for handbags but if she gets you in the cage, she won’t be hitting you with them, as she’ll be too busy squeezing you into submission with her steely thighs. Danielle West is the Clinic’s resident female cage fighting pro. Click here and you will see just what I mean about those steely thighs! http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A582581E92BD50D3
Born in the US, just outside of Boston some 30+ years ago, Danielle now resides in Essex with her husband and teenage daughter. She’s from a family of girls and loves nothing more than to spend a day at a spa…so it’s fair to say that it would be unwise to judge this book by its cover.
Danielle took up cage fighting 6 years ago for the challenge. “I wanted a tangible goal to work towards when training to ensure that I didn’t get lazy. I love to train for fights and to see how I’ve progressed afterwards”. As a pro-fighter Danielle has won two fights and lost one. Although Danielle trains for up to10 hours a week and more in the lead up to a fight she’s modest about her fitness, “I would say that I’m fit as in MMA specific fitness but I couldn’t run the London marathon”.
As she gets closer to a fight, her training session will become more technical and she will rely on the coaches to keep her focussed, “The coaches will often push me harder when they know I have a fight coming up and will drill my game plan”. But Danielle is sensible, as she knows that rest plays a vital part in her fight preparation as does diet. She comments, “I try to rest twice a week or at least manage a few naps if I only get one day’s rest. I take Cherry Active for recovery and ensure that I’m getting enough aminos, proteins and carbs for my target weight”. She knows how to let rip though – when the fight is done and dusted her fists become paws as she raids the cookie tin.
As I learn more about Danielle it appears that the only place she is tough is in the cage, the rest of the time she’s marshmallow soft. When asked what her favourite sound is she replies, “Squirrels arguing or birdsongs in the evening,” and the only reason she would lie would be “to salvage someone’s feelings.” The quality she most likes in people is a sense of humour and the talent she would most like is patience. Keeping her happy is simple, “Family, mochi, macaroons and smuggling bananas to the tapirs at the zoo.”
Keeping me happy? Simple, I plan to stay away from the cage when Danielle is around as I think she’d be feeding me my tattered ego pretty quickly!
05/07/09
by
S Finnegan
