Some girls want to play with dolls when they’re little. Other little girls want to see what else is out there.
Boxer and Bakersfield College student Melissa Drywater, 29, was one of those girls.
“I was drawn to [sports]. But my parents said that was for a boy, and you’re a girl. I didn’t get to participate,” she said. But despite her parents initial reservations, Drywater would go from no sports to trying martial arts and entering the world of competitive weight lifting and boxing. This isn’t to say Drywater considers herself a Superwoman of sorts.
“You should be scared. If you aren’t, something is wrong with you or you’re too cocky. You’re trying to hurt each other,” she said.
In her junior year at Stockdale High School, Drywater got to take control. She joined the track team after her P.E. instructor noticed her natural athletic ability. Soon after, she began weight lifting as well.
“I was my own opponent,” she said, often pushing herself to “lift just five more pounds,” each session. “I like feeling strong.”
Drywater noticed that being better than the boys was something she was just good at. While taking a martial arts class at the gym she belonged to, the trainer soon noticed that the boys were “intimidated” and chaffed at the fact that Drywater, then an 18-year old female, won many of her sparring matches.
“I had a lot of natural power. The instructor said I should do kickboxing,” she said.
She would continue as an amateur kickboxer for 3 1/2 years and in 1999 received her black belt in karate. But eventually she found herself “burned out” on kickboxing and “I missed lifting,” she said. Drywater then took up bodybuilding.
Always one to achieve her goals, Drywater competed in bodybuilding shows for 3 years, competing in venues like the Orange County Championship where she took second place, and the California Collegiate championship where she won third place.
But a chance meeting on BC’s track would change Drywater’s direction once again. She met Danny Clopton, a boxing coach who works primarily with women while he was working with one of his trainees and Drywater was running. Clopton remembered seeing Drywater fight six years ago and asked her to spar with his trainee. She has been boxing in the two years since and now is a certified boxing trainer through USA Boxing, a national boxing organization.
“You have to know yourself, be in tune with yourself and hold your composure. You have to be in charge of your emotions,” she said. “Boxing is a thinking game.”
Drywater is now a boxing coach and trainer at the Police Activities League, teaching other young women discipline through working them mentally and physically.
“Girls just seem more coachable. They listen. If you tell them something, they take it home with them and work on it,” she said. “They know they have to work harder because they are girls.”
Drywater will start a free boxing camp for women ages 12 to 35 this summer based out of PAL. “Brutal” training sessions await the ladies.
“It has never been done. yet,” she said. “Female boxing doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. Female boxers don’t get time [training] and get frustrated.” Many female boxers have a hard time finding other women to box against and end up training for matches that never materialize, Drywater said.
The camp will have an orientation on the last day of May and begin the first week of June. Interested women can contact Drywater through PAL.