Not as long a break this time but still longer than I should to keep this thing relevant. I’m fighting at Absolute Combat on Saturday in Meadowbank Arena, check out the fight card etc. at www.absolute-combat.co.uk it’s a strong card with interesting matches to prove who Scotland’s best Welterweight is between James Mair and John Quinn and who’s Scotland’s top Featherweight prospect between Dean Reilly and Doni Miller. Plus John Cullen in action against International opposition, me against Ryan Kelly and loads more top fights. Basically if you’re in Scotland get along, its gonna be a blast. Really looking forward to the fight, game plan is sorted, I’ve been feeling good and I have good momentum behind me.
Fighting is alot of fun, cutting weight isn’t and this time round it’s been no exception. The really rough bit hasn’t started yet but I’m already feeling it with the constant pissing and lack of concentration. When you’re full of caffeine and water you start to feel as though you’re becoming transparent, as though you lack any substance. It’s not nice but it’s the price you need to pay to compete in this game. I think forcing people to cut weight before they fight for the first time is a gret idea as it show’s you’ve got character and are willing to tough it out to make it through a challenge. It’s a battle and dropping the 6kg in a week shows you’ve got the will power to stick with it through adversity, the sort of strength of mind you need to fight. I’ve bored people with my diet enough on here before but knowing I’ve only got 6 litres of water and 2 protein shakes between now and Friday 2pm is a bit daunting. Work on Friday morning is going to be tough but it needs done cos I used all my holidays going to LA.
Worth it though.
Interesting interview with Ryan Hall recently that I’ve been thinking about alot recently, view the whole thing here http://lockflow.com/article_view.php?id=4992 it’s interesting to see that a man famous for his invert guard game is taking such a stance against flashy play and advocating towards top game and mount. He’s right, but I think he’s going too far.
“The way Marcelo Garcia plays guard, is, in my opinion, how it should be done,” Hall said. “Your whole job is to pull them off of you and stand up into a single leg. I’m finding more and more that the traditional sweeps don’t really work at the high level, at least not in the way that you normally think of them: you cut me over, and I fall like kaboom right on my back. That doesn’t really happen. It’s like a 20 point touchdown. It just doesn’t usually work like that when both guys are at a truly elite level… I guess I’d say my approach to the guard has changed drastically. It isn’t to pull some whacky sweep or triangle out of my ass anymore. My whole goal is to just make you off balance to the point that you can’t, for a moment, stop me from standing up—and now I finish from a positional advantage. I feel that’s the truly reliable way to do it. You can replicate it against a high-level opponent who knows what you’re doing. That’s when you know you’ve got something.”
All fair but let’s not forget that Romulo Barral was hugely succesful with guard at the Mundials if we’re talking Gi play and Braulio showed that having a great guard was still an effective strategy no-gi at the ADCC in Barcelona.
Here’s the evidence that having a guard still wins you shit at the top level couretsy of Mundials Champion Romula Barral.
Dodgy music aside that’s some beautiful guard work. Though Ryan does have some fair points about how awesome single leg entries from guard are and Roger did pass, mount and cross collar choke Romulo in the Absolute Final at this years Mundials.
Anyway on the subject of dodgy music I had two gigs to go to at the weekend. Dio and Slayer and both got pulled, how gay is that? I was looking forward to both of those, especially as The Haunted were supporting Slayer. In Flames are playing with Killswitch Engage on Friday but I’ll be too busy eating as much food as I can handle on Friday to head along. Kinda fancy seeing In Flames again (5th time I think) but can’t justify it. On a more positive note though I finally got round to picking up the new Skeleton Witch record (not so new now) and it’s AMAZING! Up there with the last 3 Inches of Blood record for my album of the year. I’ll give it more of a think and be really self indulgent and do an awards blog later in the year. Telling people what your favourite record or fight of the year was is remarkably self important but blogs are for self important people. Back to Skeleton Witch though as they’re playing on Monday. That’s going to be a fun St Andrews day, I’ll have a haggis supper in celebration and check out an awesome band.
How metal is that!
Oh I should be in next month’s MMA Unlimited in their New Breed section that checks out up and coming UK fighters. It’s an interview so I’ll come across like a douche at some point in it. Still it’s nice to get some exposure. Go check it out next month.
UFC was good at the weekend and no-one got robbed in the main event like the last 2 shows, how impressive was lil Nog? Maybe we’ll get to see him rematch Shogun, they’re first fight was brilliant and over 5 rounds for the UFC LHW title would be genius (assuming Shogun beats Machida in a rematch and there’s no early finish). Spoiling you guys with copyrighted Material I found on youtube.
Anyway I’ll pop in next week with a fight and afters recap and go over the plans for period up to Christmas and talk about some more bands and BJJ banter. Still got to do a year in review at some point to check out how I performed against the goals I set out in this way back in January.
Wow! Almost 4 months away. This thing was as good as dead but I realised how much I enjoyed doing it. Not only that but it was part of my new years resolutions to keep a blog along with many other things and I’ve got the feeling if I don’t do this the rest will slip away as well.
Let’s start where we left off and do a quick recap of where we’ve been since then and then have a quick look at the present and immediate future. I’m gonna try not to dwell on anything too long as 4 months is a long ass time and a lot has happened since then.
July
Was in Rio back then and promising to stay away from bad things like drink and partying and concentrate on my training and winning a BJJ comp out there and seeing some of the sights away from all that. Instead a team of boys from Edinburgh arrived and I kept going the way I had been, trying to balance training hard with partying hard. It was great fun but my performance didn’t really improve. I did manage to get to a game at the Maracana and seen Marcello D2 play from my list of things to do before I leave. I also tried surfing which I found to be a pile of wank. I almost drowned trying to surf, that was not cool and has put me off it for life. In the Rio State Open I won one by sub then lost by sub, if i’d prepped right and not been a pure booze hound I think I could’ve done pretty well at it but such is life.
August
Came back from Brazil and unforgettable 7 weeks, made some great new friends and got to know a few people much better. Maybe I got to know myself better, maybe that’s just nonsense talk, either way it was amazing and will live with me. I doubt I’ll get that sort of time off again anytime soon but I do plan to head back to Brazil in March for 2 weeks. What I pay in flights I can make up in accommodation and food etc. over going somewhere in Europe and I like Rio far more. If Iron Maiden happen to tour around that time I’ll coincide my stay with theirs to have the best day ever. If not i’ll still love spending time in Ipanema.
Got back to Brazil and hit Pressurefest in Germany, good line up but a very poor turnout. It was shocking how few people came out, still had a good time and enjoyed the New York Hardcore of Aggy Front, Madball and H20 along with the german beer and sunshine and the markedly more cynical humour than anything I had been used to while away of McLeary and Lev.
Doug went away to Brazil about 4 days after I got back so managed to catch a combined leaving do for him and Bam Bam who’s moed to Australia. We are an international bunch these days.
From there just rode out the month training and chilling and trying not to spend money after the crazy summer. Should’ve been updating my blog but didn’t, all that free time and didn’t do enough with it. How I’d love some of that now.
September
Started the new job and returned to the real world of grown ups. Got a new car to do the commute, an 05 Mondeo which makes me look like a step-dad in waiting. Seriously buying a decent diesel motor that hasn’t done about 140,000 miles for under £6,000 is impossible. The Mondeo was the best deal I could get and it’s good to drive as well as being economical. As much as I wanted a Golf GTDi or a VRS Octavia Skoda I just couldn’t get one at the right price.
New job’s been going well since starting, involved in a few interesting projects and a few dull ones. Spending more and more time on the dull ones these days though.
Was getting geared up for a fight at the start of October so stayed fairly quiet for most of September and didn’t head out to Barcelona to the ADCC’s. Fight ended up being cancelled but I got rematched for the 17th which will be dealt with in October section.
Did the Glasgow open gi comp at Blue Belt, won my weight and absolute subbing everyone on the way. It wasn’t the best attended comp but it still showed I have a skill set above where i’m graded in BJJ, Onde e meu faixa roxa? Whatever, I know my level.
There’s footage of one of my fights from it here in the Absolute Division,
Think there was an Oran Mor show that month where our boys had a good day and our girl JoJO won her European title. Massive shout out to her for that!
October
October was dominated by 2 things, my fight at Eurofight Xtreme at Braehead Arena on the 17th and my trip to Los Angeles for the TUF trials the following week.
The fight prep went well as usual, and the hellish dieting and cutting process has been documented previously on this blog and they were as always utterly shit. Made a fuck up of reoralyte when I read paul’s text of 2/3 tsp salt as 2 or 3 and not two thirds of a tea spoon. It was vile and we only found out later. Luckily I still had my salt tolerance from Brazilian meat.
Fight was a different strategy as I knew he was a high level Judoka having been on the France Team and thus wanted to avoid clinching with him. I knew his stand up wasn’t the greatest so aimed to keep the fight there and pick him off. Never let my hands go as much as I’d have liked but had great success with the leg kick. I slipped and people thought I was dropped (I wasn’t!) abut worked some nice leg locks to avoid damage on the bottom. Second round worked more low kicks, got his back and kept back control with the body triangle to land Ground and Pound from the back to win the fight.
Good night out afterwards, ended with me being locked out my own flat as I’d gave my keys to Gazz. Good times! Eurofight was a great card, I don’t hink people realised how strong it was, mixed results for the team with big wins for me, Doolan and Quinny being balanced out by losses for Mark, JC and McVeigh. McVeigh’s fight was super technical and although not the most exciting to your average fan was full of super cool and interesting cage work to those involved in the sport. Difficult night for McVeigh, there was a point in the last round where he went for the back take and missed ending up on bottom, if he’d got his back there he’d have probably rode it out to win a tight decision rather than losing. That’s the difference sometimes.
Wish there were some pictures of that show because the setup looked ace!
Week after that I was in LA trying my hand at getting on The Ultimate Fighter reality show, I don’t know how much I can say and how I much I signed to say I couln’t say stuff but even though I didn’t get on the show it was really worthwhile going through as it showed there’s no gap in skill between the guys getting on TUF and me, they might look the part more but they’re not any better. That was a real confidence boost and really gave me heart that if I keep plugging away I might get the break and be on the big shows some day.
Around that I trained out there at Hollywood BJJ which was great fun, much love to Shawn Williams for letting me train at his place. Did the LA sights took in Hollywood, looked sceptically at Scientology centers, went to Venice beach and almost got in a ruck, dipped my toe in the pacific, went to Santa Monica pier and headed through Malibu and had drinks in some cool bars in Hollywood. I’m 99% sure I spotted Johny Depp as well.
At this point i need to give a MASSIVE SHOUT OUT to Jules and Robyn for putting me up while I was out there, they were so cool and great hosts. Thanks so much guys, I owe yous one and if there’s anything I can ever do in kind to help just say the word.
My boy Jason crossed the country to come to Disney Land with me, we tore that place up and had a great laugh, I took about a 1000 pictures of it and they’re on facebook I’m sure almost everyone that reads this is my friend on face book anyway. Highlight was being on the Indiana Jones ride when it broke down and getting to go “back stage” in behind the ride. It gave me an excellent chance to bam up the workers there, they didn’t know what I was saying but I was being hilariously wide. It’s worth noting that I much preferred Universal in Florida and the female staff were also much more attractive at Universal Orlando.
Halloween finished, as is traditional, with Halloween which involved me reviving an old costume an going as Che Guevara and getting utterly wasted. I wish I could tell you more but the memory of the evening is hazy at best. Felt terrible and ended a good month on a bad note.
November
And now we’re on to the current month, 2 and a half pages later. Nothing exciting has happened yet in this month, I’m fighting 28th at Absolute Combat, visit the website at www.absolute-combat.co.uk and get tickets off me. It’s going to be awesome. Most of the month has been spent either training or working, basically the whole moth is just build up to this fight in 18 days. I’m getting hyped for it, after that it’s almost Christmas, and that means holidays and boozing by the barrell load, can’t wait. In December I’m gonna reflect on the year against my resolutions, I think I’ve stuck by them pretty well so let’s see.
Not going to the UFC card in Manchester, it’s not strong enough to justify it for me. I caught the Shogun against Machida at the Staples Centre in LA and this just doesn’t compare. Oh and on the subject Shogun definitely won that fight!
Misc.
That’s 3 and a half months in 3 pages so sorry if I missed anything you were keen to read about.
Got a few gigs next weekend, Dio on Saturday and Slayer on Sunday. New Slayer album is mediocre but the gig is at the Barra’s so it should be good, hopefully they don’t play too heavily from the new album and do a mostly old set, older the better, Haunting the Chapel era stuff. And before that I’ve got the metal midget king DIO! Dio playing a hits set is going to be amazing.
Well another 2 weeks have passed for me in Rio De Janiero and I’ve not done that much more than I had before. Well that’s not true, I’ve been training hard, competing and losing and drinking far more than is good for me.
Since last update I’ve been feeling generally unwell, cold symptoms that don’t seem to be shifting. A cough, a blocked nose when I wake up and a general lack of energy. Obviously I got the swine flu fear straight away, especially as a girl I’d be hanging with told me she had 4 days off work because someone in her office had a case of the grippe sweine (incorrect Portuguese spelling). The reality is that it’s self inflicted and it’s a case of fresher’s flu. Too much booze, a diet that’s far from great, late nights and still trying to train like a serious athlete. It turns out I’m not super-human and that shit doesn’t fly.
This was manifest at the Cupo De Munde this weekend where I rocked up feeling like shit, tried my best to get my mental game sorted but still performed like a retard, no explosive power and a sluggishness in movement and thought. It didn’t help that I got the winner of the weight class and absolute in my first fight and a monster in the absolute. Well it’s the Rio Open later this week and the plan is to be clean until then and hopefully get some more energy to perfrom closer to my level. I dunno if 4 days is enough to detox but it’s better than nothing.
Anyway, my boy David went home. He was so genuinely gutted about leaving Rio after 6 months. It was actually quite touching. I’m sure he’ll be back out here soon though. It got me thinking about how I had to make the most of my time here (which resulted in me going out nearly every night and didn’t help in my athletic performance) and lead me to the conclusion that I had to spend more time here. Called up on Friday to get my flights changed but expedia aren’t for letting me and I’ll have to talk to the airline direct, calling them tomorrow. If i get the extra 2 weeks I’m looking for I’m going to spend it travelling round Brazil, if not I’m going to Germany to see Hardcore bands and getting to see a boss MMA show in Glasgow. So it’s win, win.
Assuming I’ve only got another 16 days in the marvelous city I’ve got a still to do list.
Favela Party – Looking to get a hook up off Jason to hit Vidgigal (sp?) and not do it the tourist way. Terrifying but should be awesome. Mon the Baille Funk.
Climb Sugar Loaf – Jason is again my hook up here. Fuck getting a cable car when I can climb up.
Do some surf lessons- got a guys number, gonna call him tomorrow.
See a game at the Maracna – Been to the ground on a tour but an actual game would be much better, ideally a derby.
Go to a gig – Marcelo D2 is playing up at that place in Fogo next to Shopping Rio Sul, that should be ideal.
Also, I need to get to Sao Paulo to see Marcus.
If there’s any time left after that I’m gonna spend a couple of days on Illha Grande which Jeff my flatmate raves about. It does look pretty nice. If I can surf a little bit before I get there it should be awesome.
Looks nice eh?
Anyway, I’ve been back up to see the big Jesus again and got a better picture for Brick.
Jesus can't be touch judge cos he always points both ways.
I’ve also been at the Snoop Dogg steps in Lapa and met the mad Chilean artist that does it all, or I met Selaron and visited his studio but I think Snoop Dogg is a more appropreate cultural reference for the readers of this blog.
See me and Selaron.
The guy next to me in red, did all that mad art. He has an epic beard!
Watch the Snoop Video. Selaron’s been busy since then and added alot to his steps.
Anyway that’s enough of my chat. Training’s been focussed on passing unattached open guard. Simple but effective stuff on mixing pases up and stringing together pass combo’s. Not really MMA effective but good for Gi BJJ.
Anyway, let’s keep this at a good length and call it quits after another song. I wont talk about getting raging in Santa Teresa at a club playing some sort of Barmitzvah Techno hybrid that appeard to be full of Trustifareans with some Italian chicks or any other nights out.
I might be going to see this mob again in 3 weeks, or I might be travelling around Brazil. Either way I fucking love H2O these days.
UFC 100 was cool, look forward to the Dream show this week, see my boy Paulo Filho get back to form and my other boy Shaolin wreck Aoki. Gonna be good.
Didn’t spell check this entry so ignore the amount of typo’s. Comments are appreciated.
Wow it’s been about 2 weeks since I last updated this which is a shame because there was shit loads to talk about and now because I’ve done so much I won’t dedicate sufficient time to each cool event.
That’s the problem with blogs though when there’s cool shit to write about you don’t have time to write about them as you’re too busy doing them. I don’t want to just rhyme of what I’ve been doing because the humour is always in the detail so I’ll try and cover the key events of the past 2 weeks in the marvellous city:
Competing BJJ and having my worst performance ever.
Turning 26 and making the most of my birthday weekend.
Going up to see the big Jesus statue.
Trip to Barra.
Beach time.
Training.
My new crew.
If I can cover all of those I’ve done well but before those I’ll explain my general day. Wake up about 9:30, quick breakfast and bounce down to training for half 10. Leave training grab an Acai, Salgado and a shower then if it’s nice hit the beach or if not go a wander somewhere. Back for about 5 if I’m cooking myself or get food out somewhere and make it back to training at 8, shower and then bed or out with David 5 and Jason and maybe Dennis. They’ll be covered more in the crew section.
This may not sound that amazing but it is. I can’t think of a way I’d rather be spending my time. It’s so much less hassle than the usual work routine, I’m getting world class BJJ training and the weather is amazing about 70% of the time. Usually about 25 degrees C in the sun and a bit cooler in the shade. Perfect weather for a pasty gringo like me.
Anyway rocked a BJJ comp over here and competed like an absolute fool. Lost in the first round of the weight class and absolute. Both guys were infinitely beatable but I just wasn’t at the races. I know having bad days is part of being an athlete and the good players are the ones who can deal with them and still perform. I’ve been having an off day and turned it round before, it was my second pro MMA fight and I managed to get myself into the “zone” by bouncing off Paul, Gazz and the host of other Ninjas down in Newcastle with me. I could create energy and bounce it off them and re-absorb it, it let me perform closer to my ability but out here in Rio there’s no one that’s gonna engage in insane banter and allow me to feed my arrogance enough to turn my game on. That’s another huge part of having a great team around you. I learned it playing rugby, and it’s carried over to MMA. In MMA a great team isn’t just a good coach and sparring partners, it’s having people around you that’ll allow you to perform to your best using whatever means necessary and that includes being people you want to be around. This isn’t a huge revelation to me, I learned playing under 18 rugby and getting the infamous Innes Robb team talks (“drop your cocks and reach for your socks shaggers, I want this fuckers kidneys on a plate!” etc) but it brought it back into focus. Another comp in a week and a half so time to redeem myself.
Right enough faggy shit about how much I love being a Ninja and back to tales of drink and debauchery in Rio. Since I haven’t had a really wild birthday in ages I thought I’d make the most of it and have a drink everyday for 7 days on the bounce. Things peaked on my actual birthday pulling an all nighter and going skinny dipping off Ipanema beach.
Monday was Shen’s for the pub quiz, nothing beats doing a pub quiz in an Irish themed bar when you’re on the other side of the Atlantic and on the wrong hemisphere. We didn’t win but we acquitted ourselves well. A quiet start to proceedings.
Tuesday things got a bit hotter with a trip to house in Leblon, a Samba club with free Caipirinha’s until 12am. Sounds grand but there’s a few problems. 1 I was going with a bunch of girls and they didn’t finish getting ready til about 11 so we didn’t get in until quarter to 12 , 2 the Caipirinha’s were among the worst I’ve tasted and 3 there were probably more gringo/a’s there than in Shen’s the night before. Still good fun dancing with pretty girls, can’t grumble at that.
Wednesday was a few beers at the old hostel with the hostel cats then a trip to Eclipse which is a boss 24 hour restaurant and take away place near my flat. They do very nice Caipirinha’s but a bit pricey, I’d only been there for takeaway before where they do good cheap pizza (this is also the scene of my Brigadeiro shame that David 5 posted on YouTube). Quiet night but fun regardless.
Thursday was a trip to Gavea, which is on the other side of the Lagoa from Leblon. It’s a cool young crowd and quite wealthy. Brazil has a more pronounced wealth and race split than the US so it was strange to see such a white crowd. Think all the black guys there were Gringo’s. Good fun, unfortunately the sushi bar closed before I could get some Hot Philadelphia. It’s deep fried sushi! As a Scotsman with international tastes how could I resist? Our taxi got pulled over on the way home by the police who dragged us all out at gun point and searched us for drugs. Lucky I’m a clean living kind of guy and managed to avoid having to pay my way out of trouble which would have been awkward given my piss poor Portuguese.
Friday was my birthday and I combined my new crew with the hostel kids for a trip to Lapa. Far too many people to organise on a night out so we ended up fragmenting and I got spit from the crew as a certain lady had my attention. Not to be though but a grand night regardless. Climbed the steps from the Snoop Dogg video, which is apparently not the best idea for Gringo’s during the day never mind at night. Uneventful though. Many Caipirinha’s and a few beers lead to thinking it was a great idea to stay out all night and watch the sunrise. It was far too cloudy to see anything awe inspiring but skinny dipping was something to have done while I was here. Had about 5 kids try to pick pocket me through the night and made a friend who invited me to his house to watch UFC 100. Good Caipirinha’s from the place next to the arches, loads of sugar is the key.
Shen’s on Saturday where David 5 was in fine form and showed why he is Brazilian kryptonite. I don’t get it, he’s a lanky pasty gringo and his chat isn’t all that smooth but he gets mad amounts of Brazilian tang its heroic. I’m a good wingman and do my duty with honour. The girl kept calling me Minotauro after the former Pride Champion. I don’t think that’s a compliment. Stopped by the police again on the way home from Shen’s and searched again. I had loads of receipts that I’d left in my shorts when they’d been washed. Every time he found one he got all excited thinking he’d found a wrap but to no avail. Cops are showing me no love right now, obviously some sort of Cop Karma.
Sunday was a trip to mud bug near Copa Palace with the girls from Saturday. Utterly fucked from the week so a quiet one oh and back to Shen’s for the special Michael Jackson themed quiz on Monday. We got a respectable 15 out of 20.
Ehhhhh sorry that was probably boring as fuck as it just mentioned booze and bars in Rio. Anyway.
Big Jesus Statue or Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado to the educated. I’ve seen a few cool things and this is definitely up there with NYC skyline from The Empire State and Niagara Falls as the coolest views I’ve seen. It was quite a cloudy day so it wasn’t ideal but I’ll go up again when it’s super sunny. See below picture for some details but it really shows how beautiful a city Rio De Janiero really is. The statue itself is pretty big when you get up close but pales into insignificance next to the views. The huge hills covered with rainforest or shacks, the ocean, the beaches and the city streets all combine to make a view you can’t forget.
My ass up Corcovado
Me and Jesus. He's taller in real life.
Barra is the new middle class suburb of Rio and it’s apparently modelled on the suburbs of Miami. It shows, it’s like being in Florida except without the theme parks and you can get a bus. I loved Florida when I went but seeing a version of it in Brazil just wasn’t right. It lacks character and I’m so glad that I’ve been staying in the heart of Zona Sul and not out in Barra. Sure there’s great training at Gracie Barra and Gordo’s and the beach is great and there are less kids begging or trying to rob you but it just doesn’t feel as alive as Ipanema or Copacabana. The big giant Barra Shopping mall sums the place up for me. I’ll no doubt go back there but it’s not anything special.
Yeah beaches here are awesome and the place to waste your time. Especially Ipanema beach. Girls in great shape everywhere you look, nice soft sand, people playing keepie-uppy everywhere ( no need for Dean to get angry as they’re all good at it) and soft decent surf. I wish I knew how to surf because it looks ace. I’ve no idea where to learn round here, ah well. Tempted to just get a board and try it but I think that’d be arrogance in the extreme. Today I read the new Gracie Mag cover to cover on the beach. It was a good day.
Right the main reason I’m here is to train BJJ. I had planned to train twice a day every week day and rest at the weekends but it turns out when you need to go hard every roll as there are no chumps out here 2 sessions a day kills you. I’ve got no sensation in my finger tips anymore and I’m tired all the time, I love it. I’ve now dropped to a sensible 2-1-2-1-2(usually 1 if I go out on Friday) breakdown of sessions. It lets your body recover and your gi’s dry.
I’m starting to really appreciate the way Rico has the class structure. We’ll work one position for a full week, add some techniques every couple of days and spend a crazy amount of time drilling the specific techniques. Very little open sparring is done, maybe 2 rounds a class but so much time is spent to limited sparring. It really forces you to work what’s been done in class. It usually results in me getting fucked up by brown and black belts who are far better than me in those positions. I can bother the good guys when I get to play my game but when the game is limited and I can’t go to my comfort zone I realise how week parts of my game are. It’s awesome.
Spent the first week covering some half guard sweeps, they were detailed previously.
Second week we were doing passing spider guard and really covered alot of theory on what you want to be doing and when rather than just blasting techniques, it was really cool covering grip breaking and dominating grips in certain postures before looking to pass. I was getting fucked up all week but really benefitted from it. Grip breaking is something I’ve never devoted alot of time to and I’ve tried to work around bad grips. Not anymore and I think this could lead to a big step forward in my gi passing game.
Third week it was spider guard sweeps. Nothing elaborate or overly technical but the drilling was made nice and difficult since we’d spent the previous week working on spider guard passing. It was good drilling the simple open guard sweeps and looking to hit them on good guys, I don’t usually play to open a guard game on better players to this was really worthwhile. Picked up some excellent little details on switching to traditional open guard sweeps from spider guard control and how to pick up ankle controls when guys are keeping their feet back.
This week has been all about passing half guard. We spend a lot of time on half guard back at the grip and I love knee drive passes so I’ve been fairly comfortable this week but there’s been some really cool stuff on dealing with underhook battles and how to deal with players who you keep really tight there. Some nice stuff using stepping to reverse half guard to avoid being swept from underhooks and make the position more offensive. I had a monster black belt of about 115kg to roll with last night on specific half guard passing and it really showed me the value of one of the sweeps Rico showed in the first week and a specific detail about controlling the sleeve (just for clarity he was sweeping me, the revelation came in mid air before he was on top of me). It’s a far more flowing passing game than the crush game we play at home.
Look how pimp Rico plays. It’s a totally different game to what we play at home.
Right my new crew is now based around David 5 off Cagwarriors who I may have mentioned earlier is Brazilian kryptonite. It’s a self awarded but well deserved title, this pasty lanky gringo get’s so much Brazilian tang it’s beyond funny. I thought he was saying more than his prayers until I seen him in action. He’s smoother than owl shit to Brazilieros. All girls that talk to me are friends with a girl he is either trying to pump or already has. I play wingman cos I don’t just approach girls, I’m too shy, but this fucker does. He leaves in 6 days, it’s not ideal.
My other main homie is Jason from Atlanta. He can barely understand me but he’s a funny fucker and when he understands what I’m saying get’s the joke. Really switched on and with it for an American guy, he also looks like a Brazilian a peach so is a favourite with the gringa’s. Sound guy even if he does call me Scott.
Add to that a few other guys that train at BTT and Dennis my flatmate and I’ve got a good gringo crew. I’ll have more when the team from Edinburgh makes it out for the Rio Open and the possibility of the Firestarter still looms.
I’m dropping lyrics and embedding songs instead now. It’s less gay and more fun for people reading. I’ve been looking at the blog and thinking this wall of text won’t do so hence the inclusion of some pictures and videos.
Anyway I’ve been enjoying Anthrax recently for no reason except they’re awesome. Why did John Bush have to leave they were onto a good thing there. Anyway What Doesn’t Die from their last studio album, a great album that they couldn’t build momentum from cos they changed singers. Idiots.
Got in to Rio on Wednesday night so this will be my fifth night staying in Rio and my first in the room in the apartment and not the hostel. The hostel was the Copa Hostel on Avenue Nossa Senhora De Copacabana which is one block back from Copacabana beach. It was a good hostel, one i’d defo recommend. Met a bunch of American students who were as part of their course, I tagged along with them when they were heading out. They were a sound enough bunch, probably thought I was a weirdo mind you. In fact I was going to be at the Football with them just now but I said I might come along and I ended up running late and missing them, ah well there’ll be other chances to go the football while I’m here.
Anyway I’ve now had 4 full days in Rio and have kept myself pretty busy, on Thursday I trained twice and went a walk down Copacabana beach. Looked to sort out a place and all that boring stuff. AT night tagged along with those American kids to a party that we never made it to. Walked about 20 blocks til we got bored looking for it and ended up just having some beers on the roof of the hostel. Friday was spent trying to get my bank card to work, sorted that problem now, went gi shopping and then went training. Good session again looking at those same quarter guard sweeps discussed in the last update and other ways to play that half guard with a high top leg, similar to the 9-3 guard that Demian Maia plays but with some different grips. Had some good rolls, tapped my first black belt which was nice. Getting to roll with BBs is rare in Scotland and the one I do get to roll with regularly is very good so I don’t get the chance to catch many of them, nice ego boost. After that I didn’t train the late class because I fancied a few beers before heading to Lapa with the Americans discussed earlier.
Lapa gets a full paragraph because it’s mental. It was stupid busy, people everywhere, stalls selling booze and scran at every turn and bars/clubs blaring music everywhere. Ended up having a grand and exciting night, one of the yank girls was wearing a chain that got snatched by one of the many favela kids there on the rob. Unlike some people I wasn’t being a hero and took nothing to do with it, but fair play to those girls they got all argumentative and ended up buying it back for 5 reals. A few more beers and my decision making obviously became questionable because I decided I would have some meat on a stick barbecued on a grill on the street. It was amazing so I had another. The fact I survived and didn’t even have to spend the next day in the toilet was a miracle. Aye anyway I’ve never seen a place as wild as Lapa for a party. It was like a major music festival except without the bands, overpriced shit and space. I’ll go back before I leave for sure. Got back from Lapa and there was some party/disco effort in the hostel, everyone went to bed except me and one of the Americans (he was a big fucker, like 6’7”). It was his birthday so we went into that party and knocked back as much as we could before it closed. Good times, some local girls wanted us to go to MacDonalds with them, it was closed though.
Next morning with a raging hangover I went to pick up the keys to the flat and pay my rent for a month. Got my keys then back to the hostel to pack my bag and then took my stuff to the new place, I forgot which door it was so I tried several to no luck, phoned the guy up and got no response. Ah! At that point it was about 26 degrees, I had a massive bag on my back and a raging hangover. I took the smart option and went back to the hostel, booked in for one more night and went back to sleep. “Mais um noite por favor!” Saturday was low key until I hit a fight show at night with David5 from the CageWarriors Forums and a few guys he trains with at BTT, it was 11 amateur fights and 5 pro fights. The amateur fights were under UK semi-pro rules but with big as gloves, pure enter the dragon efforts, shin guards and head guards. It was a pure swap from the UK with the fighters having excellent BJJ but generally pretty poor striking while in the UK they generally have solid striking but dire BJJ. Good fun but it became obvious the almost all had problems with gas. It got me thinking that what we’re doing at Fightzone isn’t a good workout, it’s very technical BJJ and good rolling but if that’s all I do over here I’m gonna go back with absolutely no gas tank. So I need a work out plan for MMA conditioning while I’m here.
PAUL McVEIGH! Hook me up. Or anyone else with some good ideas. I think blasting some tabata circuits 2-3 times a week on top of the constant BJJ training should be plenty. I have access to nothing more than a chin and dip bar on the beach. I could really do with a medicine ball, I might buy a cheap football and fill it with sand and use that as a med ball so I can more stuff like slams and throws. Gonna have a think about a program and post it later in the week, give me comments on that and ideas for now. I’m thinking 8 tabata sets; burpees, chins, dips, med ball slams on the ground, med ball throws against a wall, jump squats, depth push ups and wall ball press. Get some plank work in as well and i think I should be ok. Would do some hill sprints but all the hills here are covered in favelas and I don’t want my life to be in danger every time I try and do some conditioning. I could do beach sprints like in Rocky 3 but I can’t run for shit on sand, might be the best bet though. Anyway I need to do more than just BJJ or I’ll come back with the world’s worst gas tank is the thrust of that paragraph.
Eh, where was I? Saturday night came home and was still shattered so went to bed once I came back from the show. Today I moved into the room in the flat, successfully this time. Then I went a walk along Ipanema beach. Taps aff obviously! I tried to play a game and spot someone paler than me. That turned out to be far too hard, I think I spotted one girl paler than me and she was ginger. So I played the far easier and more fun game of spot the pretty girls. Except when I was walking past the gay section at Posto 8 then I looked at the pretty boys. When in Rome and all that. Had a wee swim and played in the waves, wish I knew how to surf.
Came in from the beach and was talking to some of my new flatmates, Stewart is from Liverpool he’s doing some teaching English while he’s here. He’s been travelling for like 3 years solid and has been in Rio for about 10 months so has pretty boss Portuguese and Rafael is one of the black belts at Check Mat (fight zone, whatever you want to call it) got chatting to them for a while and lost track of time and missed the hostel kids who I was going to head to the football with, shame as I fancied seeing a game at the Maracana. Plenty of time though. Another 6 weeks.
Next entry will have pictures for sure. I doubt anyone will have bothered reading these two walls of texts except Dean and that’s only because he’s offshore with fuck all else to do.
Bit of a wild one with lyrics but since I just walked past it yesterday here’s some Barry Manilow.
“At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa….they fell in love”
What I don’t get is Copa is south of Havana.
Anyway better lyrics from Public Enemy,
“I’m ready and hyped plus I’m amped
Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for 400 years if you check
Don’t worry be happy
Was a number one jam
Damn if I say it you can slap me right here
(Get it) lets get this party started right
Right on, c’mon
What we got to say
Power to the people no delay
To make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be!”
That’s plenty for now, I’ll fire up another update later in the week.
Regular readers may be aware that I’m going to Rio, I’ve mentioned it a couple of times on here before. Well it’s now happening. I’m writing this from Heathrow Terminal 3, its 10pm Tuesday night I’m waiting for my next flight to Madrid at 7am before I get on the flight to Rio.
I had a nice plan for getting a couple of pints in tonight while watching a repeat of the Lions game, walking about the shops to kill time before reading my book and grabbing some kip, but it turns out everywhere closes at half 9 in Terminal 3 so I couldn’t even get a pint. I’m now left with nowhere to plug in my laptop so no chance of watching a film, nowhere to buy scran and not much to do bar read a book. However by the time I post this I’ll be in Rio De Janiero so I’m not gonna grumble.
I’m not even there yet and I’m already really regretting not investing more time in learning Portuguese. I spent all my time last week fucking about the gym, getting my gi game back up to speed then going boozing. Good times were had and I feel really comfortable in the gi again but I think it’d have been smarter to learn more than about 10 phrases in Portuguese. Ah well, here’s to total immersion learning.
Since last update not a lot has happened really, been training and boozing and that’s pretty much it, having no job to go to was great fun for a week, should have probably done more with it but I was trying to watch my cash for going away. Highlights were a trip to Liverpool to see Disco Jimmy Turbo win the Cage Gladiators British Bantam Weight Title and the Foam Party at Classic Grand.
Doolan was superb winning by Triangle in about 2 minutes; you can see it on P4TV at www.p4tv.com all the talk before the fight was about it being a classic striker versus grappler fight with Doolan being the striker. Dool got taken down but showed he’s far more than just an excellent striker by retaining guard and standing back up, he got taken down again off a knee from clinch but kept his cool and worked his guard, landed a vicious elbow and wrapped up the Triangle Choke. No night out in Liverpool, straight back up the road (via KFC).
To make up for that lack of boozing me, Gazz and Paul hit the Foam Party at the Classic Grand, we picked up my flat mate Marc on the way and got involved. Watched a bit of “I Swear I can’t help it!” the best thing ever put on TV. Tourette’s is hilarious. The wee chicken guy wasn’t funny but John’s Not Mad and Chopper are brilliant. You can see it on YouTube. DO IT! If there’s one thing you’ll not regret doing it’s watching that show.
Anyway hit the foam party and got involved, £1 drinks equal 3 or 4 drink rounds and a messy night. Memories are hazy but a good time was had. It acted as my last big night out before my trip and it was good, had a wee night with McLeary on Friday but it was a low key affair. It did confirm I can’t go to clubs and not really drink anymore. I used to be able to do that but not now. Hit the West End Festival on Sunday and wasn’t overly impressed to be honest, apparently it’s much better when they close the roads and it didn’t work confined to the park. First time I’ve headed up, hopefully better next year.
Today’s biggest success stories was getting ear phones that actually fit in my Mongo’d ear. Basically my Cauli ear stops me using iPod style in ear earphones and I hate walking about with big DJ efforts on my skull. I get too self conscious. However, these Gummy/Marshmallow bud efforts are minted. They’re currently supplying me with some excellent beats from Racionais MCs, I was listening to Gehnwna but keyboard driven black metal wasn’t in keeping with my good time holiday mood no matter how good an example of the genre they are.
UPDATE: Apparently you can’t just kick about airside overnight at Heathrow. I just got booted back through customs to UK soil. Annoying because I had a good spot scoped out for kip with a bunch of seats with no armrests to myself to lie out on but good news is I got my pint and the walk killed half an hour. Surprised they let me get airside when my flight wasn’t until the next day when they were going to kick me out, ah well. Only 7 hours til my flight opens now. I can kip for 4 surely.
Ah well see you guys in Rio De Janiero. Away to read my book, if I can find an unguarded plug I’ll watch a film as well.
Peace and OSSSSSSSSS!
18/06/2009 24 hours in Rio De Janiero
Right this is a double entry as I’ve not managed to get Wi-Fi access yet but that should be sorted as I’ve got a place to stay with Wi-Fi, one of the black belts at Fightzone (the academy where I’m training) has a spare room in his apartment. Result, went and checked it out earlier and its basic but it’s in a good bit, has a doorman the room is off the street so it’s quiet and it has Wi-Fi. Going to meet the guy tomorrow to pay it and then move my stuff. Its 4 blocks from Posto 6 on Copacabana and 5 from the start of Ipanema beach so it’s in a great locale.
Anyway, my flight from Madrid to Rio was spent asleep mostly as I got fuck all sleep in Heathrow. I did demolish World War Z by Max Brooks. Really easy and fun reading so that spared me from too much boredom. It’s written as a serious of interviews where people recall their experiences during the world wide war against Zombies (hence the title). Anyway I didn’t have a wee telly in the seat of front of me and choice of films like I’ve always had going to Singapore or the US so I had to watch The Pink Panther then the Maltese Falcon or kip out and kip won. The most noticeable thing about my flight was it was full of Hells Angels in their biker waistcoats with their chapter on the bottom (i.e. Austria, Munich etc.) there must be some sort of convention on the go for them cos Copacabana is crawling with them, they’re not exactly inconspicuous either with their waistcoats and 6ft wide shoulders. What is it with biker gangs and being huge? Those cunts love gear.
Anyway arrived last night and got a taxi from the airport, almost certainly got overcharged but I got to my hostel sharp so I’ll take with parting with some extra cash for an easy ride. Arrived at my hostel and was shitting it, Copacabana in the dark when you don’t know it and have heard so many stories of Rio is quite an intimidating place. Once you walk around it in the day light and get your bearings etc. it’s fine. Feel like a bit of a prick for being so apprehensive last night. Copa Hostel is pretty decent, nice clean new rooms, a cool wee telly room, internet cafe below and a nice new kitchen. It also has some tasty American guests, one especially is lovely. She probably things I’m some weird old man that’s too old for hostels I’M ONLY 25! I’ll need to show her the guns and my passport!
The only approach I’ve had has been from the hooker on Ave Atlantica that has approached me twice, once at 1pm where I just walked past and later when I was sitting eating my Big Bob Burger. She made a hand gesture for a BJ at me, I couldn’t even say no as my mouth was full of low quality meat. I had to swallow before saying Nao!
Training again at 8 at Fightzone, one of the assistant instructors is taking the class but I trained earlier at half ten and Rico took the class, taught 3 sweeps from quarter guard with the lapel passed through the legs which were pretty cool, the last was a nice counter to people reverse stepping into that wrong side half guard that Gazz kills me with. Drilled those then did some position specific sparring. That was all cool but then we did something weird. We played from half guard looking for an advantage, the guy on top wasn’t looking to pass only for the advantage for getting them flat and under control while the guy on bottom wasn’t looking to sweep or regain full guard but just to retain half guard and keep an offensive position. That was really weird as I’ve never had the “game of BJJ” shown to me in such a way, hell there’s probably only 2 guys at the grip who know how to score an advantage for control in half guard.
Oh yeah, spent most of today walking about getting my bearings, turns out firing on Havianas (flip flops of a Brazilian type) for the first time then walking half of Copacabana beach leaves you with messed up feet!
I’ll take some pictures and fire them up so this isn’t just a wall of text.
After 4 nice days on the bounce I’m now sunburnt as fuck, in true Scottish style I now look like Dr Zoidberg. Ah well.
Anyone plenty’s been going on since last update. Most notably going to Sweden for Superior Challenge to corner Mark Connor. After Bjorn’s hype for Stockholm in the summer (according to him the water is like bath water, there are people swimming, street parties everywhere and everyone is a BJJ Blackbelt) I was expecting big things and it didn’t disappoint. The weather was great, there were several million we birdies to swatch and a good time was had by all. Most notably on Saturday night when we went out after the show. Mark didn’t get the result we were looking for against a very highly regarded opponent in Musse Hasseval but we didn’t let that dampen our spirits and we got involved. Turns out Musse is like the worlds nicest man and he got us into the Spy Bar. Last time I was in Stockholm we didn’t get near to getting in the spy bar despite trying for about an hour. It’s nice getting hook ups.
Booze fuelled antics contained the now obligatory singing of KRS-1 to the police, hassling Yan Cobral for stealing my beer, stealing drinks Musse bought for other people (well he got them on the house cos he’s a mega pimp) and dancing in the hotel fountain with not a lot to cover our shame (just me and Paul really). Good weekend.
Anyway, seeing a show like Superior Challenge from the backstage end was great. It’s the biggest European show and was professionally run and being involved in Scotland’s biggest show in Absolute Combat makes me really want to push ahead with MMA and try to get the best fights I can. It’s something to aim for and when you see guys from your team going there and doing well it makes everything seem so achievable if you just put the effort in so here’s hoping for some decent fights after my return from Rio.
Talking of Rio I should be leaving a week today however due to some passport issues (possibly resulting from my Swedish hijinks) I’ve had to move my flights back by a week. So it’s another 2 weeks now until this blog just talks about who tapped me all the time. Mega looking forward to it but I’m now quite glad I’ve got an extra week here to sort stuff out. Still finish work on Friday though so I’ve got a free week in the UK to get my game as good as it can be before I go. Need to blast training with the better guys to get me playing properly all the time and get me fit to roll all the time out there. I’ve been loving having the gi back on and as a result have went collar choke crazy. All I’ve been looking for recently are gi chokes, turns out my finishes from back are still shit something I need to work on but not tonight as my sunburn means I intend to spend zero time on my back tonight. Sweep from sit up guard into passing game and attacks from mount or knee on belly. Anyone grabbing my collar is going to rub my gi in my sunburn and I don’t fancy that at all. Anyone that does that gets a hard knee on belly anyone that can do it to me without worrying about repercussions may be given a wide berth this evening.
Fuck sake 4 sunny days in Sweden and Scotland and I’m as pink as Brick’s favourite shirt! How the fuck am I going to survive in Rio?
I’m loving summer tunes for the good weather but now my ipod magically started working again I’ve been listening to some awesome metal that I’ve forgot about notably Skeleton Witch and The Amenta but they have silly lyrics that don’t talk about good times on a summers day so will be dismissed. It’s all about the feel good tunes to go with the awesomeness of leaving my job for the longest holiday since Uni and the longest tiem I’ve ever been abroad for. Gaz was playing Green Day when we were rolling before heading to Sweden, I’d forgot how awesome and album Dookie really is and I still knew pretty much every word to it despite not listening to it in about 8 years. Instead though here’s Radio by Rancid, been loving NOFX’s cover of this recently.
“Never fell in love
until i fell in love with you
Never know what a good time was until I had a good time with you
If you wanna get the feeling and you wanna get it right
Then the music gotta be loud
for when the music hits I feel no pain at all…
Here it is
Here I am
Turn it up
fuckin’ loud
Radio, Radio, Radio…
When I got the music
I got a place to go!
Liverpool this weekend for Cage Gladiators to watch Doolan main event it then just sorting everything out for a week before heading to Rio. A wee trip to Aberfoyle for Go Ape may be on the cards but we’ll need to see who’s going to be off and available.
Now the problem is that when there’s plenty going on worth writing about you’re too busy to write it up.
Absolute Combat was on Saturday there and from the last time I updated this my opponent had pulled out and a new guy had been found to take his place at a catch weight of 90kg. I had to eat up to make weight and almost went too far. The guy was Ken Dugay and he had a solid 5-3 record and his losses had been to good guys.
Anyway, enough of the build up. Took him down early, he tried a guillotine that wasn’t close and then I postured, passed and took mount and started to drop shots from mount. Doolan cried out that there was 30 seconds left so I went for the arm bar and got the finish. It doesn’t matter there was actually a minute thirty left and if I’d known that I’d have tried to finish him with strikes.
He took the fight on short notice so he’d have probably gassed in the later rounds so I wanted to finish him sharpish so he’d have no excuse. I did that. OSSSSSSSSSS! That’s me 3-0 in pro MMA, that’s a decent record hopefully we can get a good fight sorted for after Rio to keep the momentum going.
Apart from that huge wins for McVeigh who dominated Marcelo Costa for 3 rounds and Quinny who made short work of the insanely experienced and dangerous Jenkins. Awesome work by the DNFT.
We have a great team here and it deserves all the plaudits it gets. In the month of May we’ve had fighters in 6 different shows in Muay Thai (Lyn, JoJo and Kat) and MMA (Billy and John Quinn, JC, Kimbo, Gaz Ward, Bam Bam, Danny Grey, Biodin, Jordan Smith, Mark Connor, Me and of course our top boy Paul McVeigh) and had a total of 13 wins with only 3 defeats and 1 fight yet to happen. In one month to have 17 fights involving one team and to win at least 13 of them is special and deserves to be applauded. Hell ATT probably didn’t have as good a month of May as the DNFT.
Anyway, away from fights the time has been dominated by fight related activities i.e. mad boozing to celebrate. A crazy night out in Edinburgh on Saturday night was followed by a brave attempt to do it again on Sunday but I was burst, I was there til the death but I was only there in body by the end. Ate enough sugar to keep the Cuban economy going for the year and may have given myself diabetes. Normally I’d start mentioning the banter from the weekend but it was too plentiful to capture.
Surprised by Machida at the UFC, I thought Rashad would have him figured out but no. He got smashed. Hughes Vs Serra was awesome but doesn’t prove anything. Gutted that the Jacare Vs Mayhem fight ended as it did as I was mega hyped for that. The next Dream card looks mad pimp with Filho back in action against Manhoef and Shaolin taking on Aoki, two of my favourite fighters on one card.
Off to Sweden on Friday for Superior Challenge and more boozing back on Friday and it’s time to mad panic about the fact I fly to Rio in 2 weeks. So much to get sorted before then and the desperate need to learn more Portuguese than “Onde es saide?”
Good times though; another win, a successful night/month for our team, a good night for my mates promoting shows, hilarious nights out, a great holiday to look forward to and a new job when I get back. Life is good! Seriously good, can’t ask for much more.
Dunno if I gave props to Common Rider in my last update but I caught Jesse Michaels new band Classics of Love the other day and it reminded just how much I adore the first Common Rider record. Seriously good tunes for a summers day or evening. The thought of sitting with a barbecue listening to that record on a hot summer’s night is enough to cheer me up from the foulest of moods.
“At one -
I was sitting and thinking of all the
beautiful things he could have become
Instead of a lyrical oracle and I’m a most appreciative one
’cause I’m in a world of my own
when I’m into it I don’t want anything else
and nothing can bother me when I’m inside of it
cause I’m outside of myself
Midnight Marauder spinning on my stereo
Mr. Desmond Dekker got a crown made of gold
The kids are alright a what a what I hear
London calling but I have no fear
Ms. Ella Fitzgerald got no peer
Music sweet music make the truth so clear
Classics of love make a dark day light
If you don’t believe the words then just look into their eyes”
OSSSSSSSSS!
Parabens to the DNFT and the Absolute Combat promotions staff and massive props and shout outs to everyone who helped me prep for this fight.
Closer I get to a fight the more boring this becomes. Mostly because all I do is train work and not eat. That’s not really all that interesting to anyone is it? I’m not even playing with anything funky in my game that I can talk about as I’m only hitting the moves that are part of my MMA game and that’s mostly ripped off of Paul except I include and use Shawn Williams Guard in my game. Shawn Williams is a Renzo Gracie Blackbelt with his own club out in LA, Hollywood BJJ, and it gets good reports from everyone that goes over to LA, never been personally so can’t say anything about it, but for ripping of part of his game I feel like giving him a shout out.
I’ve started a naming style for move sequences I pick up by naming them after the players I steal them from, eg my Shaolin Kimrua series, or Nog Half Guard Series. I think it works quite well as it gives me a mental reference back to where I’ve seen it so I can go and refine it by watching them use it. Eddie Bravo has a rubber guard series, I do use it and it is very good and it’s very well laid out in his book but it’s just another attack series and not an entire system as some people seem to make out. I’ve been arguing with certain people about Eddie Bravo recently and since I’ve nothing interesting to write about I’ll put up my thoughts on him instead.
He’s got good game and he’s a legit decent to high level black belt. His game is somewhat limited from what I’ve seen because there’s not enough footage of him competing and all the footage of him rolling with his students involves him using his series to promote it. His rubber guard and half guard series are very, very good and his s-mount arm bar series is equally excellent. I incorporate all of them into my game, infact they’re part of my A-Game. I’ll say it again just for clarity, they are very good series.
The beef is with the hype, it’s not an entirely new style of BJJ, it’s not gonna change the world of MMA, it’s a few very good, very well explained series that rely on attributes (flexibility). His self hype and the mouth of Bravo Joe Rogan being the UFC’s colour and technical commentator means that everyone that plays BJJ has heard of Eddie Bravo and the rubber guard. People take this onto forums and ask questions about things they don’t really get. People who can’t shrimp(hip escape) properly ask about securing lockdown and whipping up. Everyone knows him and his accomplishments as a fighter and coach do not warrant this. How many of his students have won anything of note? What has he won? Everyone knows he tapped Royler at ADCC, who knows what happened in the match after that? I’m tempted to try and do a survey next time I’m at BJJ and ask for a show of hands for who’s heard of Eddie Bravo and who’s heard of Leo Veira? Where is justice?
On a similar note, if you have a theory that seems sound but all empirical evidence disagrees with, should you not look at the theory and question it?
I have 10 and a half more days of work in this job, wow! I fly to Rio 3 weeks tomorrow; I really need to get more into my Portuguese lessons. After this fight I’m gonna be mad on the books. Had some good fun listening to Brazillian Hip Hop, loving the funk sounds of Marcello D2, the eclectic mix of stuff that Racionais MCs put out and the more familiar beats of MAG but I’ve not learned any Portuguese by osmosis. Back to the traditional learning methods for me.
FUCK SAKE I LEAVE FOR RIO IN 3 WEEKS! OSSSSSSSS!
My weights looking good for this fight at 87.8kg this morning, need to be 84kg by Friday at 2pm. Should be comfortable enough. Last real session tonight and after that it’s just game plan and mental prep with the odd roll around to keep me amused. Feeling good, my game was on last Thursday and Friday, it iddin’t carry across to team spar on the Sunday. My body was great never tired really but my head wasn’t up to pace. I’d trained basically everyday solid for 9 days so it’s to be expected that my mind might drop off. I’ve never not switched on when it’s mattered so that’s not a worry for me.
Been listening to some Blind Guardian recently, they are fantastic power metal. Been on a bit of a power metal kick recently, mostly Blind Guardian and Helloween but with the odd bit of HammerFall and Sonata Artica thrown in. It’s made me fancy bloodstock this year, best line up for it that I’ve ever seen plus the chance to see Blind Guardian and GWAR live! I’d love to see GWAR live!
EUROPE : CARCASS : ARCH ENEMY : BLIND GUARDIAN :
CRADLE OF FILTH : FEAR FACTORY : SAXON : AMON AMARTH : SATYRICON : APOCALYPTICA : ENSLAVED : CANDLEMASS : MUNICIPAL WASTE : THE HAUNTED : KATATONIA : DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER : KREATOR : EQUILIBRIUM : GWAR : TURISAS : BATTLELORE : SABATON : GIRLSCHOOL : MOONSPELL : MILLION DOLLAR RELOAD : GODS OF HELLFIRE : INTERNAL CONFLICT : THE GREEN RIVER PROJECT : THEY WILL RISE : VALLENBROSA : CELESTY : PYTHIA : BEHOLDER
A lot of bands there that I like, anyone up for it? Wee trip to Derby In August? I know it’ll be full of bearded losers but it has GWAR! You love GWAR, why don’t you join the band?
Lyrics are from the Scumdogs of the Universe, the mighty GWAR.
“I love hate songs ’bout mass destruction
other people’s pain takes my mind off you
I love puppies when they’re road-kill
They’re too cute too live, too cute to live
like you
I’m bored with immortality
I’m too tired to stick it out for eternity
You’ve got the very best of me
fell in love push came to shove and you broke so easily
I hate love songs
I hate love so I hate you”
Oh yeah if you want Absolute Combat tickets see me or Paul McVeigh or get them from Tickets Scotland.
Right, I leave this job in 4 weeks my boss is on the other side of the world and there’s nothing urgent for me to do.
That means it’s an ideal time to scribble down some thoughts on the old blog. It doesn’t matter that it’s not gonna be exciting cos no fucker reads it anyway.
Right after booking flights to Rio last week and handing in my notice at my job not a lot has happened, I’m now just waiting for the Absolute Combat show (come see me for tickets!), might be off to Sweden the weekend after, then it’s just countdown to Rio time.
Spent the weekend training with John Kavanagh who was doing a seminar up the Grip, check him out at http://www.sbgireland.com/ It was a really good session and he was showing really high percentage techniques, really cleaned up my passing from half guard and dropped some super handy hints for back taking, finishing from the back and showed some nice stuff open guard entries. It’s great to get a new perspective on things and his methods are a bit different to Paul/Marcus so even when he’s showing techniques you’re already familiar with it still comes across as fresh. There’s probably something in there about the psychology of teaching that’s pretty interesting so if anyone can explain it please do.
Quick recap of JK’s seminar so I can do it again in my mind.
Correct Open Guard Posture No Gi
Reclaiming Open Guard
School Boy Sweep
Entry to Shin Across
Shin Across Sweep (note, similar to Nog Half guard sweep keep tight to avoid Kimura when playing)
Open Guard Outside The Lead leg (single and double finishes plus leg across sweep, pressure on knee to avoid turn in, smaller circle to keep outside, like boxing against south paw)
Irish Bear Trap
Butterfly
Clamp Down Control
Sweep from Clamp Down Control
Pressing Arm Lock from Clamp Down control (don’t miss out steps)
X-Guard Entry from half Butterfly
X-Guard Finishes and Posture
Half Guard Passing
Half Guard Postures
Head to legs half guard, hug the hip and bring off mat, leg switch on legs open, keep knee pointing out for kick out
Normal half guard pass, curl before cross face
Guillotine, check the time and elbow tight before sprawl (leads well to Brabo series)
Lockdown clearing.
Back taking, harness, knee in, control heel.
Mullet grab
(SNOOZE! I totally zoned out at this point and thought I was going to pass out so picked up nothing here McVeigh can fill in the gaps here)
That’s not bad at all, going through this again in my mind was nice, it’s good to note them down as there were a few I was starting to forget.
After training hard Thursday, Friday and then seminar Saturday/Sunday I was totally megatronned (copyright Dobbie) by Sunday afternoon. This got me concerned for Rio and trying to double session it 5 days a week. I hadn’t been eating a lot to make weight so I’m thinking an increased calorie intake would help but I went a bit mad Saturday and ate far more that I should including a lot of carbs but I was still fucked on Sunday. Energy levels seems fine again today though so I’ll see how rolling goes tonight. If I’ve got pop then my concerns are waylaid but if I’m lacking in energy I think I’m going to have do something to allow me to train to my maximum potential out there.
It’s super sunny right by my window at work, I want to go out in it or train.
I think my butterfly guard is being passed a bit because I’m taking over under control and being too lazy with the over hook which lets them pass to that side, better control of that arm and the understanding that butterfly guard is not a rest position should really help my game. I think butterfly guard is really under used in MMA and it’s something I’m looking to develop. It’s far more dangerous in terms of sweeps than closed guard and it’s very hard to work any ground and pound from top butterfly. Subs are hard from there but there are options and it’s so easy to stand back up. With the amount of top BJJ players pulling half guard in MMA you’re going to see half guard sweep defence improve considerably and I think butterfly guard is going to be the progression with fighters moving from half to half butterfly or full butterfly and looking to sweep from there.
I’ve also been playing a lot with this leg over the back Kimura grip attack as shown here by Shaolin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi8psrHZnBo been having some good success with this position.
I’m now finding a lot of guys up the Grip are getting a lot better at BJJ and are developing their own game, it’s great to see and really good for my own development but I need to develop a level between total play about not giving a fuck and full on comp game. I don’t have a level where I try things but keep fairly tight, and that’s something I need to develop. I think it’s an ego problem that I need to sort out, I don’t like the idea of trying and not tapping guys who I could previously tap so I either muck about which my ego can deal with because it doesn’t matter I’m just playing or I go to my strong positions (high closed guard, half guard, stack passes, brabo’s, triangles and kimura’s) and play properly and get the validation from getting subs. I struggle going to butterfly or shin across guard for example and playing properly against decent players because I don’t like being passed while I’m trying. I’ll do it against good players though and get passed but accept it. It’s a real block to my development, I think fighting MMA doesn’t help because you do need to spread yourself so thin you don’t get the time to put into developing positions, plus the need to keep my confidence up before a fight forces me to play A-Game or fuck about.
In saying all that my BJJ does feel good just now, Paul and Gaz have sorted out my problems with my cross which has dramatically improved my boxing, I’m hitting harder and faster than ever and my wrestling is good. I’m in a good way for this fight, just need to make weight then do it.
Day out after Absolute Combat? Or Day out after Doolans fight? Straight from Liverpool to Alton Towers or Camelot or Lightwater Valley or anywhere just for a fun day out? Mon! Get involved! I’m looking for someone to spear head this initiative, any volunteers?
Lyrics from those wacky funsters in Hatebreed.
“Some scars are meant to be worn with pride.
Everyday is knowledge to use in life.
A lesson lived is a lesson learned.
Setbacks used to propel me forward
Misjudgements taken as force to do right,
A better outlook a mindset of power.
Each day resolve and reform.
A lesson lived is a lesson learned
You’ve got to fend for yourself
A lesson lived is a lesson learned
Everyday is a lesson”
OSSSSSS! Holler at me about the fun day out players!
