The Boy’s Club hang out after high school in California introduced computer tech Jeff Allen to martial arts.
And while he no longer practices, he still remembers those days of sparring.

One of his most memorable moments was when he got disqualified in a tournament. He was a blue belt and the rules said that only brown belts and above do face contact.

Allen practiced Taekwondo, Kickboxing, MMA and Jiujitsu. The skill ranks in Taekwondo start as a white belt and work up to black belt.

Allen said with Taekwondo martial artists start as a white belt and then go to orange.

“Each school is different,” Allen said. “Once you get your 1st degree black belt, second, third, and so on and so forth it’s harder to [move up].”

Allen said as martial artists improve and move up in Taekwondo it takes three years to move from 1st degree to 2nd degree black belt.

Allen earned the rank of black belt in Taekwondo and MMA. And a black shirt in kickboxing. He was a white belt in Jiujitsu.

Allen’s favorite style is MMA: mixed martial arts. MMA is a mixture of Karate, Taekwondo, Wrestling, and pretty much all the sports together.
“It’s more ground fighting and submissions,” Allen said. “It’s hardly any stand up like Kickboxing or Taekwondo.”

Unfortunately, Allen said he got tired of doing martial arts.

“I have to wear a face mask and I don’t like it, so I pretty much stopped,” Allen said. “Yeah, pretty much done getting beat up.”

According to Allen, practicing gets brutal. He had to have reconstructive surgery on his nose because he got a right hook.

“Right hook went from one side to the other,” Allen said. “Broke my nose, took cartilage from my nose, took a piece of my sixth rib, put it in the tip of my nose.”

Today Allen can be found fixing all the technology around campus. Martial arts is no longer a big part of his life.

“It’s a good work out,” he said. “You stay in shape, you learn a lot of things, that’s for sure, ‘cause I mean after my third degree I still have more to learn. I just couldn’t do it anymore cause having kids and I got married. That takes a lot of time away ‘cause I used to train five days a week. I just got burned out. It happens. Just like any other sport, you get burned out on doing things.”