Mixed-martial arts helped guide Miller Rogers away from a dark path.

Before he joined Whitehorse-based Avalanche MMA, Rogers said he had submitted to a life of drinking which usually led to fighting.

"I came from a good upbringing, but I went off on my own for a while and caused my own trouble,” the 20-year-old said. "(MMA) definitely turned me around 100 per cent.”

Then a buddy of his invited him to the Avalanche MMA club.

Hesitant at first, Rogers got hooked.

"I just kept going; that's when the fighting at the bars stopped happening, I slowed down on my drinking – everything turned around 180 degrees, completely,” he said, attributing that change to increased discipline.

"I had a lot of pent-up anger from when I was a teenager, so when I was going to the bars, somebody would say something and I'd snap. With jujitsu and the martial arts, you work a lot of that out instead of holding it in, so it's a lot easier to stay calm in different situations.”

Rogers – who is now 2-0 in his amateur mixed-martial arts career – hopes he can relay these messages to kids in Carmacks during the Anti-bullying MMA clinic scheduled for the Carmacks Recreation Centre on Saturday. With 37 currently registered, invitations to the clinic have been sent to the people of Pelley Crossing, Faro and Ross River.

The clinic is spearheaded by Yukon MP Ryan Leef, who approached Avalanche MMA in September with the idea to use the sport to combat bullying.

"To the average person it looks like just a violent encounter,” Leef said, a retired mixed-martial arts fighter.

"What we need to do is try and teach what the sport entails, the discipline, the dedication, the commitment, the professionalism that has to go behind it – and then we have to add all of the safety, rules and guidelines around it, which are well-established in the professional sport but cannot be so well established in an amateur or a school-yard setting.”

Without the proper information, many sports are dangerous, he added.

"If you don't have all those things combined, it, like any other sport, would be dangerous. If we went to play football without the proper safety gear or without the proper fitness, you're going to end up with injuries or ham-string pulls, cracked heads and concussions.”

Leef, who was an instructor in defensive tactics for the Yukon Government, believes MMA is a sport that youth are interested in and can relate to. With clearer messaging, he's hoping community leaders will pick up the cause to promote positive, safe experiences that will help with community development and involvement.

"It has to resonate with the people that we're sending the message to,” Leef said.

"We're looking at the age group from 12 to 18. We know what their interests are; they're interested in mixed-martial arts, they're interested in watching UFC, they're emulating these things, they are fans, some of them are involved in the sport already.”

Leef attended elementary school in Dawson City in 1984, where there were no such anti-bullying programs.

Education on bullying has since improved to give people a better understanding of its negative impacts, he noted.

"There were school-yard fights, kids got bullied, I got pushed around, but it also, for lack of a better word, probably hardened me up and there were times when I pushed back. But it just was a different day in our education around it, in our understanding of the negative impacts of it. Back in those days I think we looked at it as though, ‘Oh, the kids will settle it out, it's just a fight.' But now what we understand about it is, there's emotional things that go on long, long after; there's a sense of safety and security that affect people's health, education, self-esteem, productivity – and it goes beyond the borders of the individual.”

Avalanche MMA coach Cliff Schultz agreed.

"We want to be able to make sure that people are aware that what we do at Avalanche MMA isn't just fighting; it's a sport, it's a discipline as well, and we're not just out there learning how to fight to bring it onto the street or use it for bullying,” Shultz said.

"I want to make sure that people realize it is a disciplined sport, it's not a bullying sport – and that's the message we want to get out there to these people, that there's more about fighting than actually just fighting and being a bully.”

Avalanche MMA has doubled in numbers this year, and has added programs including women's kickboxing and youth MMA.

Schultz added that the sport struggles with delineating the difference between brutality and skill.

"That's the main thing we want to get across,” Schultz said. "A lot of people don't understand, they only think of it as brutality, when it's not, it's a sport and it's very hard work. People don't understand…that's why they're always against it, because a lot of people are totally against fighting itself.”

Added Leef of the Avalanche MMA fighters:

"They have some great personal experiences to share about their own lives and how their own lives turned around by getting into the sport.”