Ronda Rousey's Mother Discusses Video Game Company, Daughter's Interest In Gaming
SANTA MONICA (CBSLA.com) — She may be the mother of champion MMA fighter Ronda Rousey, but Annmaria De Mars has her own claims to fame.
Decades before her daughter was dominating in the ring on a global scale, and became hero to thousands of girls around the world, De Mars became the first American to ever win a gold medal at the World Judo Championships, in 1984.
De Mars says that Rousey gets teased regularly at home for not being the fastest in the family.
"Ronda is actually third in the house for fast win (and) fastest match," De Mars revealed. "I won a match with one second on the clock, and her little sister won a match in the junior nationals with three seconds on the clock, and Ronda won the junior world finals with (five) seconds."
Beyond the gold, however, De Mars is also extensively accomplished from an intelligence standpoint.
De Mars, who holds a doctorate, is the founder of Seven Generation Games, a video game company based in Santa Monica. The company develops the software that is used in nearly two dozen schools around the nation, and that number continues to grow.
The interactive games developed by Seven Generation Games helps improve mathematics skills for under-served students, and targets Native American communities.
"The numbers are going up on the average, kids that plays the games two times a week for half an hour for eight weeks, their test scores go up twenty-to-thirty percent," De Mars stated, adding that the lessons learned in the games help a wide array of students.
"So what we're hoping is that these will be used as part of the curriculum.
Ronda herself, in fact, is very involved in the company, lending design ideas and feedback, when she is not training or shooting a movie.
"Ronda is super-into gaming, from the time she was little," De Mars revealed. "She is actually our alpha tester."
The MMA champ even makes a cameo appearance in the company's newest game, named "Forgotten Trail", giving players a pep talk, similar to one De Mars says she gave to her daughters when they were growing up.
"There are those days when you want to give up. The key is just keep putting one foot in front of the other."
