Cape Town - Even at first glance, Mec’s Martial Arts and Fitness is different from most other combat sports gyms. Tucked into a retail space off Main Road, Fish Hoek, and flanked by a bakery and cellphone repair shop, the premises are comparatively tiny.
Behind the plate-glass sliding door at the entrance, around 80 percent of the floor and most of the wall space is plastered with blue training mats, creating what co-owner Mec Crain joking calls his “padded cell”.
The gloves, Thai pads and bags at the far end of the room are standard fare, but the essential oil reed diffuser air-fresheners quickly remind you that Mec’s is anything but “standard” as far as gyms go.
Crain and business partner/life partner/student Lyndall Sandenbergh also don’t fit the standard mould of mixed martial arts (MMA) competitors. Both are vocal advocates of veganism and barefoot long distance running, and their “hippie” demeanour is rounded off by the spiral, tribal earplugs and nail polish they both wear.
Even given that, it would probably be a mistake to let any of those differences convince you that Mec’s is somehow less serious about the sport.
It’s inside these four walls that Sandenbergh has been preparing for her second MMA bout on Saturday, in defence of the Cape Fight League (CFL) women’s bantamweight title.
After I sit down on the mats alongside the pair, it is quickly apparent they’re aware they don’t fit the stereotype. But Sandenbergh says the local MMA community has already accepted them as “the quirky gym from down south where everybody wears the funny nail polish and hugs each other”.
“I think it possibly just gives us a different approach to the fighting. Fighting is very real and everything we do is about being real and about being natural and all those good things,” she says.
“I think it actually fits in quite well with living a primal lifestyle, if you can call it that, because fighting is incredibly primal. You put little kids together and what do they do? They start wrestling. It’s such a part of who we are as human beings and not just human beings, but beings in general. Have you ever seen kangaroos fight? Animals wrestle, they fight. It’s what we do; it’s what we’re all supposed to be doing. We’re just trying to be true to all aspects of ourselves in that sense.”
Sandenbergh seems to have very little trouble staying true to and being herself, and throughout the hour-long interview she stays animated and upbeat.
Though Crain’s relaxed, laid-back manner is in sharp contrast to Sandenbergh’s, he echoes her sentiments as far as fighting and Cape Town’s “deep south” are concerned.
“We do live behind the lentil curtain and we carry a passport! Culturally we are different as a gym and we do stand out from the other gyms in that sense, but ultimately it’s a sport,” he says.
“It’s not really about violence. It’s about testing yourself against an opponent who has worked just as hard as you to learn as much as you to see if they can beat you. That’s what it is; it’s a chess match, just a little more physical.”
Crain has been involved in combat sports since his father started teaching him to box at age two, and he progressed to wrestling, kung fu, kickboxing and jiu-jitsu later in life.
Sandenbergh began practising just three years ago, when a friend dragged her to a kickboxing class Crain taught at a nearby yoga studio. Until then, Jean-Claude van Damme movies had been her only experience of martial arts.
At the time, she was a veterinary nurse and accomplished long-distance runner with three Comrades Marathons and several other similar sufferfests under her belt. But in August last year the 33-year-old called time on her 12-year veterinary career to instruct and train full-time at Mec’s.
Though the pair says they are “barely” able to make a living and live a “Spartan” life, Sandenbergh has no regrets.
“I do it because I love it. I like the fact that it’s real. It’s very real, as real as anything gets. The people in the sport are very real as well,” she says.
“I like... the mental challenge, which I enjoy even more than the physical challenge. I like trying to figure out my opponent, trying to decide what strategy to use and trying to read situations and react to them. I also like the family that the sport creates. They say that those who suffer with you, you bond with. We have a very nice culture in our gym and everybody is very supportive.”
Sandenbergh’s decision to train full-time could be set to pay further dividends in the coming months – she’s been selected to represent South Africa at the annual International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) World Championships of Amateur MMA, in Las Vegas later this year.
Following that, she plans to turn professional and hopefully join one of the world’s largest promotions.
Cape Argus