Charlotte <\/a>has grown rapidly in recent years, and Michael Allen, owner and head coach of Checkmat Charlotte, has been there since the beginning.<\/p>\nAllen joined WCNC\u2019s Live Impact News to discuss how MMA took root in North Carolina and how far the sport has come.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was fortunate enough to be part of it when it first got legalized here in North Carolina,\u201d Allen said. \u201cWe had a company called Fight Lab, and we sort of got the entire scene started. We\u2019d have anywhere from 2,000 to sometimes 4,000 people at our events.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen said the sport\u2019s growth has been steady and community-driven.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, there\u2019s so many gyms,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s growing, the scene is growing. It\u2019s really cool to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before opening Checkmat Charlotte, Allen transitioned from competition to coaching after sustaining an injury at work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI got hurt working at the paper mill,\u201d Allen said. \u201cMy coach told me, \u2018Why don\u2019t you help me coach the team?\u2019 Next thing I knew, I had my hands in everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Checkmat, Allen focuses on keeping jujitsu accessible and inclusive for all ages and backgrounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur gym\u2019s pretty diverse, but it\u2019s not diverse enough for me,\u201d Allen said. \u201cThere\u2019s a segment of society that needs jujitsu that we haven\u2019t reached yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Allen said he wants to continue expanding access to the sport throughout Charlotte.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJujitsu is important \u2014 not just for the physical part but for the mental and emotional benefits it brings.”<\/p>\n
For the latest breaking news, weather and traffic alerts that impact you from WCNC Charlotte, download the WCNC Charlotte mobile app and enable push notifications.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coach Michael Allen has been in combat sports for 25 years and shared some of his experiences and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-260069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}