The adrenaline rush is understandable, especially when it works, but when it doesn’t, well, that’s what separates folks like Reed from the rest of us.
“It’s bittersweet because you try it and if it breaks, it’s great, if it doesn’t break, it definitely hurts a lot more than it should, so it’s a little bit of chance,” said Reed, who has broken baseball bats, cross-grain planks (which she said is the most difficult), cinder blocks and four concrete pavers stacked together. When she says this (and there’s proof on her Instagram page), I can only wonder how all this applies to MMA, especially if she gets mount on her opponent.
“You have to create the same force all the way through those cinder blocks, and if your angle is not a hundred percent, it won’t break and it will just mess you up,” she explains. “So definitely the focus and the technique helps my current day job, and if I get somebody on the ground and I can throw elbows like that, it’s game over.”
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Scary. But Reed doesn’t blink. And why would she? She’s been studying martial arts since she was six, had an extensive amateur MMA career, and is now 5-1 as a pro. Let’s not forget that the Virginia Military Institute graduate is still in the Army reserves. Yep, not a blinker. And as calm as she is under pressure, she is equally loyal, as she’s been working with her coach John Kanabay since she was a child.
“I started because I wanted to be a Power Ranger, (Laughs) and my dad was like, ‘Well, this place is open,’ and the rest is history,” Reed said. “He (Kanabay) is my first boss; outside of the military, I haven’t had any other job other than working for him, so we have a very good relationship. I think it’s more of a partnership a little bit now in terms of the business side, but as a coach, he has called me on my s**t plenty of times. I like to be the tough person and he’s like, ‘Are you really doing that?’ So, our coaching / fighting relationship has definitely grown over the past years, and it’s worked out really well because he does know me so well and he knows my tendencies and my striking style, and he’s seen it all develop. I’ve known him longer than he’s known his wife, and he’s pretty much known me the longest outside of my family. It’s pretty crazy.”
