Kerry Ann Vernon: one of a new wave of Irish fighting females. Picture: Mark McDermott

When 45-year-old Dublin woman Joanne Morris underwent cervical spine surgery in 2017, she was distraught by the news that she would never be able to exercise again.

“I was told with my injury, I'd probably never go to the gym or anything else again,” says the mother-of-three who was a regular gym-goer, “and I was in a bad place mentally because of my health. I just saw myself in a total rut and I didn't know how to get myself out of it.” 

So when Morris came across an Instagram ad for a mixed-martial-arts (MMA) fitness programme that was cleverly captioned "winter warrior", she was completely stunned by the pivotal effect signing up had on her life.

The 45-year-old, who says she had no faith in herself to complete the programme, could not have anticipated how much her confidence levels would rise after she did.

“I wanted to get my posture and body back,” she says, “but what I gained in confidence surpassed all of that. Combat sport has a terrible name, but it actually has something special for mental health.” 

Alta training, an intense 20-week MMA training programme that launched in Sydney back in 2012 started operating in Ireland in 2016 when coach John Kavanagh got on board during the height of his run with UFC fighter Conor McGregor.

The renowned coach, who says “it's not seen in any way unusual for women to be interested in combat sports", also says that women are becoming increasingly interested in MMA, which is a trend he’s noticed in the 120 Alta training gyms across 10 countries worldwide.

“We're averaging 30%-35% female participation,” he says, “and I'm pleasantly surprised — I shouldn't be — but I’m pleasantly surprised that we're racing towards that 50% participation rate with women.” 

Closer to home, in his Dublin mixed-martial-arts gym, Straight Blast Gym, coach Kavanagh says he’s seeing young girls draw inspiration from female figures in the world of MMA.

“I look across my early teens group in my gym, and that is now racing towards 50:50 participation,” explains Kavanagh. “Girls now see this as a sport that anybody can do.

Katie Taylor was such an inspiring figure for many women for well over a decade now, and I think she caused this massive growth.

A recent study by menstrual hygiene brand Always found that more than half of girls (51%) will have quit sports by the age of 17. But of the girls who do stay in sports, three of the top benefits reported were increased confidence (62%), teamwork (64%), and leadership skills (54%).

'I was going through a really hard time at that point in my life'

Retail worker Sophie Evans, 22, says she struggled with her confidence for years, so when she saw the positive impact MMA had on her mother, it prompted her to also train in a typically male-dominated space to work on her confidence.

“I saw the change that happened to her [mother] and the impact it had, so I needed that for myself,” says Evans, “because I was going through a really hard time at that point in my life. I saw how much more confident she was as a person and as a mother, and it made me want to do it.” The 22-year-old, who says her confidence was “on the floor” prior to training, also says she found it empowering to train against men.

“It makes you feel powerful because you're grappling with men and you'd think, ‘oh, he's so strong, he's gonna do whatever,’ but it's not the case because you can actually see yourself overpowering the men sometimes,” explains the young Dublin woman.

“It totally shifted my whole mindset, I became a lot more positive, a lot more confident in myself, and a lot more comfortable,” she adds.

This increase in confidence was observed by psychologist Lorna Lawless, who worked as a mindset coach for the participants in the Alta training programme in 2017. She used her background in psychology to track women’s mental toughness as they progressed throughout the programme.

“I was really interested in seeing the actual mental development,” says Lawless, “so I used a psychometric assessment called The Mental Toughness Questionnaire, and was actually able to see it numerically and see the development in a quantitative way.” 

Lawless found vast amounts of growth in women’s mental toughness across various psychological skills but saw a resounding increase in confidence levels among female participants across the board.

“The model and the test measure four main areas,” she explains, “so we call them the four Cs: Confidence, challenge, commitment, and control, and I found that all of the women had improved their overall mental toughness. But the dimension that was most developed was actually their levels of confidence.

“If you speak to any woman that trains in martial arts, they will tell you about their increased confidence, but it was just really interesting to have the actual quantitative data,” she adds.

Dublin-based coach Jaqueline Almeida who specialises in jiu-jitsu and wrestling, says the mindset women have when they train against women can be a lot more empowering than training against men because it leaves no room for excuses.

“Training with ladies is way more competitive, and the majority of time when women train with women, they become better than training these guys,” she says, “because when they train with the guys they tell themselves ‘he let me win’ or ‘I'm not strong enough.’ So the mindset changes when you train with ladies, you’re going against ladies so there's no excuse.” 

The Brazilian native, who holds a brown belt in ladies' jiu-jitsu, also says it can be reaffirming. 

“I believe the more ladies are involved [in MMA] and the more you fight against ladies, the more confident you become because you know you are capable,” she says.

Such is the case for An Bróg-sponsored athlete, 28-year-old Kerry Ann Vernon, who started training MMA in October 2019, shortly after her boxing club closed down in Cork.

The fighter, who is on the cusp of turning professional, comes from a family of boxers and says the time she spent studying martial arts in theory throughout lockdown helped her progress very quickly into the world of MMA when the gyms reopened.

“I was after progressing so well that I got put forward for the Irish team and things have kind of escalated quite fast,” she says.

The Irish bantamweight champ in MMA, who says she redeveloped an interest in boxing through an LGBT organisation in Cork, walked out with a gold medal in the 2018 Federation of Gay Games for women’s boxing in Paris, and currently has two world silver medals from the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF).

But while professional mixed martial artists fight for a title inside the cage, the 28-year-old says there is a sense of community among women who practice MMA for themselves.

“When we come together, we come together with force, love and support, she says, “and everybody's building everybody up. It might be a minority, but it's a strong minority and it’s growing.” 

Vernon is readying herself to travel to Brazil, where she will train with Amanda Ribas, who is ranked 9th in the world in the UFC women's strawweight rankings. While she says she wants to be "a beast on the ground" she adds that fighting has been a massive boon for her mental health. 

Currently working as a bouncer, she says that fighting is "where she is meant to be" and has several tournaments coming up, including the European tournament in Prague, an international in Abu Dhabi, and one with Grappling Industries in Dublin, July 31. 

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