At first glance, David King Aganov is a student of 6ᵉ like the others. He lives in Paris, goes to school every day, does his homework when he returned. Except that at 11 years old, he already combines victories in grappling competition. He testifies.
His thing is neither consoles nor ball games, but this millimeter combat sport, without blows, where the strategy is queen. Portrait of David, young grappling athlete at the ADXC 9, who affirms: “At school, I am much more concentrated.” David discovered the very small grappling. “At 5 years old, my father enrolled me in grappling. I tried, I liked it, I continued.” Since then, he has never left her again. Every day, after school, head to the room. An hour of minimum training, sometimes more. On the weekend, he continues group lessons. “I have a partner, it’s Dimitri, I have known him for about 6 months. He is a year older than me, he helps me play sports.” A well -oiled routine, which he assumes without flinching, between pupil life and sports discipline. “I do my homework like everyone else”, he assures.
What is grappling? “It is a sport without physical blow, not very dangerous. We work on the fists or the gestures of submission. To win, I make a submission. Type, it’s prohibited.” Key of arms, Kimura, Americana, Triangle… These names that sound like secret codes are in fact very precise techniques aimed at immobilizing the opponent. “Submission is over”said David. End of the fight, without violence. All in a strictly defined framework: at its age, the fights last 4 or 5 minutes. In competition, it is three two -minute rounds, interspersed 30 seconds of break. “We chain adversaries, with rest time”, he explains, almost mechanically.
David talks about his sport as a bodily chess game. “At chess, you think, you anticipate, there, it’s the same. When you shoot guard, you shoot with an intention.” For him, grappling is not just a sport, it is a tool for life. “It gives me confidence, logic, it allows me to anticipate better.” This confidence also feels it in class. “It allows me to be much more concentrated, even if there is a lot of noise, I enter my bubble, there is only me and my leaf”. And on the side of his comrades, “They behave normally, they do not cause me. ”
Many parents think that combat sports are too violent for children. He does not agree. “Technically, if you are the rules, there is nothing dangerous. And if the defeat is assumed, there is never injured.” His vision is clear: this sport helps him know better, to better manage his emotions. And when asked what he would say to a parent to encourage him to register his child in grappling, the answer fuse: “It will allow him to develop more quickly. Even a shy child will have more insurance, logic and anticipation with grappling”.
Last Saturday, he was on the carpet. And he did not drag. “I won with an arm key, from the second round, in the 18ᵉ second.” The first round, however, lasted until the end. “I failed to submit”, he recognizes. But the essential is elsewhere. “Behind the curtain, I was stressed. The more it was approaching, the more stressed. But this sport also allows me to manage my stress. I know what to do to calm down, I know how to think.” In two minutes and 18 seconds of combat, David therefore won a new trophy. Next meeting: May 2, in Milan.
