{"id":9482,"date":"2016-12-07T20:42:45","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T20:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/?p=9482"},"modified":"2016-12-07T20:42:45","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T20:42:45","slug":"amelia-anderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/07\/amelia-anderson\/","title":{"rendered":"Amelia Anderson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wood River Senior Takes to the Mat<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n

By Jonathan Kane<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Amelia
Amelia Sage Anderson. Photo courtesy of Alondra Barajas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amelia Sage Anderson, a senior at Wood River High School, can be a lot to handle in the ring. That\u2019s primarily because she has been training, in her words, \u201cfor as long as I can remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Wood River High School, Anderson is a proud member of the cheerleading squad and a participant in the Spirit Club. She is also an avid skier and hiker and said that her passion in life is \u201cto make people happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But her real talents are apparent in the ring, and her goal in life is to be a professional fighter in mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad, Lee Anderson, is a coach, so it was natural for me to get involved,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

Lee Anderson runs the USA Grappling Academy in Bellevue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my favorite thing to do as a kid,\u201d said Amelia. \u201cI was so little that I wasn\u2019t an active participant, although in my mind I was. I remember that we had a lot of punching bags\u2013\u2013not connected to the ceiling but on the ground, like an obstacle course. I would do laps around them and jump over and roll around on them. It was extremely fun. I used to tell my dad that I did 500 laps.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are various aspects to mixed martial arts, including jiu-jitsu, kickboxing and normal boxing. Anderson excels in jiu-jitsu, which she started training in at age 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when my dad told me that even though he had a lot of older girls in the class, I was better than a lot of them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Amelia learned the four basics of the discipline: stand up on base, sitting on base, rear naked choke and sprawling.<\/p>\n

Jiu-jitsu is a gentle form of self-defense in which one protects oneself without harming someone, as opposed to kickboxing, where there is possible harm to one\u2019s opponent, according to Anderson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that I can do with the family,\u201d said Anderson, \u201cbecause you\u2019re not hurting anyone and my dad made it a lot more interesting than if I had learned with someone else. As I got older, I was able to observe kickboxing and soon learned it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson began competing in jiu-jitsu at age 8 in various tournaments in Idaho.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did very well for my belt division\u2013\u2013gold,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

There are various belt designations and black is the highest, which takes a long time to achieve. Your coach\u2013\u2013in this case, Anderson\u2019s father\u2013\u2013is in charge of the designations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad is old school and you really have to earn and deserve it,\u201d Amelia said.\u201d It\u2019s mostly based on how you are progressing and your motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amelia is currently a blue belt, with purple and brown to go until she achieves black belt. She feels this is attainable in her 30s with great commitment and a lot of competitions.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note:<\/i><\/b> Anyone who would like to recommend a Blaine County School District student for The Weekly Sun\u2019s \u201cStudent Spotlight\u201d feature should contact Jonathan Kane at jkjonkane@gmail.com.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wood River Senior Takes to the Mat By Jonathan Kane Amelia Sage Anderson, a senior at Wood River High School, can be a lot to handle in the ring. That\u2019s primarily because she has been training, in her words, \u201cfor as long as I can remember.\u201d At Wood River High School, Anderson is a proud […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,38,41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-schools","8":"category-sponsored","9":"category-student-spotlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}