Mad for mixed martial arts

Patrons who pulled up for a cup of joe at Java On the Run during the past year likely would be surprised to know what Bobbie Sue Goddard did after work.

Customers who saw Goddard following her first bare-knuckles brawl in January might have wondered why she had a shiner and a split lip. Little did they know she had taken up mixed martial arts.

"I started doing it for the exercise," said the 25-year-old Goddard, who until recently served coffee each morning to regulars at the Glenbrook Basin shop. "I was bored by the gym. I wasn't motivated. But then I heard about this.

"At first, I didn't think about competitions. But I loved it so much. It just pumped me up."

Goddard, whose athletic endeavors largely had been limited to sixth-grade basketball and skateboarding into her 20s, decided to take a kickboxing class just to get in shape. But then she got into another class, and then another, and another.

Suddenly she found herself taking at least six classes a week, sometimes as many as three per night.

"The more I do, the more pumped up I get," she said. "By the third one, I'm swinging from the ropes. It gives me a lot of energy."

"It's a good workout. I think it's a lot more fun to meet new people that like the same things than just going to the gym and working out by yourself with headphones on."

At Perry's Full Circle Athletic Training Center in Grass Valley, she has met a lot of like-minded folks. Visit the gym on any night of the week and typically a dozen or more fighters will be found swinging away at a bag - or at each other.

Jay Perry, a coach and the owner of the gym, has been training in the martial arts world for nearly 25 years, including 15 years of competition.

Perry hasn't seen many people walk through the door and catch on the way Goddard did. He saw her natural ability and her desire to delve deeper into mixed martial arts, so he challenged her to take on not only kickboxing, but also boxing and grappling.

Goddard accepted and excelled at each challenge he laid out.

"Adrenaline is a powerful drug," Perry said. "It just gets into your blood, and you can't get rid of it. She's one of those. She just got addicted. It was right up her alley, and now she's tearing it up. It's fun to watch her.

"That's how we make our champions. With her age, her health, her dedication and her spirit, she can go to the top. She has what it takes, and that's not easy to find."

She's not the only woman in the gym, not by a long shot. Perry said he was somewhat surprised a couple of years ago by the rush of women wanting to check out kickboxing at the gym.

But now it's not uncommon for more women to work out at the Whispering Pines' location.

"I have a lot of more girls come in here than guys come in here," Perry said. "When we first started our boxing classes, one month we had 14 girls and four guys. It was that boxing movie with Clint Eastwood called "Million Dollar Baby." When that came out, girls just starting coming out of the woodwork.

"You know, they like it because it's aerobic, and at the same time they learn how to defend themselves."

One of those young women is Jillian Early, a 16-year-old Nevada Union High School sophomore who has been training at the gym for two and a half years. Now she's serving as an assistant coach.

"I've got older brothers that I've always roughed around with," said Early. "I came in here the first time, started boxing and never left."

Early and Goddard often work out together. But when Goddard entered her first tournament in Southern California earlier this year, they became opponents.

"It was hard because we are very good friends," said Early. "It was just very difficult."

Early emerged with the win but gained even more respect for Goddard, although she long ago saw her potential.

"When Bobbie Sue came here, she was for it," Early said. "She trained so hard, she didn't quit and she didn't stop fighting.

"She never had any experience. She just came in, learned fast and now she's awesome. She's better than some of the guys that come in here."

Goddard entered her first competition less than a month into her training, one of the many challenges posed to her by Perry. And it wasn't just any tournament, Perry said. It was so-called pankration, also known as a full-contact, mixed-martial arts bare-knuckles bout.

"She did pretty well," Perry said. "She didn't know what was going on, but she stuck her ground."

Goddard said her first tournament was especially memorable because her grandparents and sister attended. It was especially nice to see her grandfather, who had suffered a stroke two years earlier.

"My grandma was nervous, and my sister was crying because she was so proud of me," she said. "My granddad - you could tell he enjoyed it."

Perry's Full Circle hosted a mixed martial arts tournament Saturday at the Grass Valley Veterans Memorial Hall. Goddard was unable to compete but continues to work out at six classes per week.

"I thought it suited her," said Megan Burdette, Goddard's former co-worker at Java On the Run. "I was surprised she wasn't already in it. She's just a tough chick."

Goddard is not all brawn, however. She holds a liberal arts degree from Sierra College and has plans to return to school to study journalism or acting. Now she also hopes to continue to compete and eventually coach.

"I didn't know that I could do this and didn't know I could have these," Goddard said, flexing her biceps. "It's safe to say I'm in the best shape of my life.

"I just want do it as long as I can. I'd love to teach it, too, because it'd be nice to make money doing something I love."

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To contact Sports Editor Brian Hamilton, e-mail brianh@theunion.com or call 477-4240.

Strong showings

Members of Perry's Full Circle Athletic Training Center's team had strong performances at the California Pankration Championships at Santa Ana College in March:

Team standings - Perry's Full Circle, third place

Flyweight - Nick Sperling, second

Light heavyweight - James Bancroft, second

Women's heavyweight - Jillian Early, third

Bantamweight - Bobby Brown, third

Middleweight - Nick Bocock, third