2010, we all live in Future World: And my plan for success in it.

Well it’s 2010, a definite number that conjures images of the future. OK we don’t live in space and we don’t have flying cars but we definitely live in a world of tomorrow.  Every morning I wake up and check for messages and news on my portable communicator system which can show videos and hold more songs than all but the biggest jukeboxes of yesteryear. I press a button to open my car and cars look like this.

Then in my car a magic voice tells me where to go based on information it receives from a satellite

Blah de blah, basically the point is the world has moved on in 10 years from the millenium even if we haven’t realised it. That and it’s an excuse to post this:

Late 80′s power metal, awesome.

Anyway, how am I going to survive and improve in this new Future World. Well 2009 was a good year, lots of fun and lots of fights and the plan is to improve this year along similar lines.

I want to improve as a fighter.

I want to improve my social standing in the real world, MMA isn’t the real world unfortunately or i’d get far more girls for kicking fuck out of boys.

I still want to have fun doing it.

Obviously the way forward is goal setting, I set some vague aims last year and achieved them. I plan to improve on that this year by having a more structured goal setting process to allow me measure my success and have process goals that I can work to week to week. By doing this I think I can improve on last year and become a little bit better every day. Kaizen as you might call it if you worked for Toyota.

Anyway, this is all about setting my aims for 2010 and how I plan to go about achieving them.

First of all the most interesting part of this for the majority of readers of this here sorry excuse for a blog. Fight stuff.

Right main fight goal is to fight 3-4 times against a high level of opposition, win a British title of sorts, cement my place in the UK top 10 at MW and if possible be paid to fight abroad. So the goals are, win a title and be a top 10 MW in the UK. The way to do that is by winning fights against good guys. Getting fights is easy if you keep winning, winning them is the hard bit.

How am I going  to keep winning as fights get tougher.

1. Get Strong! I plan to get stupid strong as quickly as possible. That’s too vague a goal so getting specific, I’m going to be able to bench 1.5 times body weight, squat 1.75-2 times body weight and chin body weight plus a third by July. I’ll review my strength goals after that and see how they look. The plan to achieve that is by lifting 3 times a week and making it a priority in my training. Before on lifting programs I’ve slacked off and sacrificed lifting in favour of more rolling cos it’s more fun. Well this year is less about fun than last year and more about success so lifting is taking a priority.

This song helps sum up my strength goal.

Except without the babies.

2. Wrestling. It’s vitally important for MMA. It’s also less fun than BJJ and Muay Thai by some margin as you can’t do it while quite tired and still beat up folk. It demands energy, all the time. How can I get this much energy, by eating and sleeping well and not fucking about and eating like a retard when I’ve got no fights. This juice might also help.

To add a measurable goal I will compete in a wrestling competition this year and my process will be training with a wrestling club at least once a week except in the 4 weeks directly before an MMA fight. 

That’s the MMA goals, also finally get my purple belt in BJJ. That’s overdue anyway and I think I’ve done enough to show I deserve it so it’s now out my hands. People I tapped in competition now have purple belts, some even got them 2 weeks after I tapped them. So plan is to win some more gi comps and let that take care of itself.

Anyway the other goal is around improving my real world circumstances. I’m 26, I should maybe grow up a little bit. Not too much like but the plan is to do some career advancement this year, I’ve jumped around too much since I left Uni and it’s time to really get ahead with my career in Engineering and make some cheddar. Plan is to join the IMechE and continue along my professional development towards getting chartered. That and just generally care more about my career, do more overtime, chase the better projects and  not go with the flow so much. Mainly I’ll achieve this by being more organised.  I’m a smart guy but I don’t organise myself well, I’m going to read some books on organising your life, not a clear goal so recommendations on books here would go down well.

Plan to buy a house this year, I’ve got a deposit for a flat/house and I’m gonna move in in the first 4-6 months on 2010. Plan is to get a 2 bed place and still have a flat mate to share the cost. If anyone who knows me well is looking to move into a room (probably in Glasgows Wend in like May) let’s talk!

Having my own place, being a bit more career driven and more organised would definitely improve my social standing.

I also want to read more, most of my chat now revolves around MMA, stories about MMA events and partying, music and occasionally aircraft. That’s not cool so my plan is to read more to give me a range of conversation that I can talk to more diverse people about. For this I need more time to read, it’s not coming out of work time and it’s not coming out of MMA training time so it’s gonna come from Facebook time. Social Networking sites and internet forums are time thieves and I really need to stop them stealing so much from me. I cut myself loose from www.altnation.com but instead used Facebook more and spent more time on Cage Warriors. Not good. So the plan is less time reading what idiots think about MMA and more time reading actual books. At least 1 book a month. First book is going to be Outliers. Here’s a wiki article on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_(book)

So I need to be a bit more responsible and keep fighting alot but still have fun. I’ve got some ideas in the pipe line for this but it will involve a trip to another continent for a holiday (where is yet undecided but early runners are trips to the USA, Thailand and of course Brazil) and seeing Iron Maiden in Europe and probably Metallica as well. I’m a fun loving guy so I really don’t see me letting other stuff get in the road too much. But it’s going to be a busy year with full time work getting heavy attention, buying a flat and establishing myself as a top UK Middleweight and I want to make sure to remind myself to make time for memorable stuff. Oh and I’m going to see the Black Eyed Peas in May! Pump it!

Right that may well have been the most self involved thing anyone has ever written.

Eh anyway, something some people might actually care about.

Is this the best hip hop song since 2002? I don’t think so but a few very good friends who really know their hip hop think it might be.

Anyone got anything better? I thought maybe some of Nas’s recent stuff but I think Hip Hop is Dead is the best of his recent stuff but is it better than Rae Kwon’s? Mibbe.

Anyway peace playa’s. Thanks for reading and here’s to 2010, normal service will resume in following up dates.

2009 personal review.

2009 was a good year for me, a lot of fun times and a lot of success. Definitely a good year and one I’ll do well to better in 2010 but that’s definitely the plan. Anyway I started blogging this time last year (on Bebo, I don’t even use Bebo anymore) and wrote down my 3 plans for the year so that I’d have something to work towards and measure myself against.

They were 

More fights: This relates to more fun in a direct way. I like fighting, I like training and I really enjoy hanging about with teh guys I train with so it makes sense to do it more. First fight of this year is planned for 8th February and I’d like another in April. Problem is if I win both of them I’ll have a 3-0 pro record which makes me look like a decent fighter and will lead to a better standard of opponent so a lengthy lay-off after that fight to take my game up a level is required. Need to improve in every area and get a whole lot stronger. 6 months no fights, would be the plan to come back for 2 fights before the end of the year. I like the idea of fighting abroad, there’s something I find really cool/romantic about being paid to fly out and somewhere and compete so hopefully I can push for that.

I wanted to have 4 pro MMA fights and win them all. I did that. I didn’t get to fight abroad but that’s definitely an aim for 2010. I also competed in BJJ and Muay Thai so I kept busy on the fighting front and am starting to see more opportunities opening up for fights in 2010 but that patter can get saved for the next installment where I set out my 2010 plan. 

More fun: All work and training is not gonna be the most exciting life so plans are being made to do a bit of travelling for 2-3 months. I’ve already looked into getting an extended period of unpaid leave once the project I’m on winds down and have plans to go to Rio/California/Thailand in that time. I’m getting old and it’s coming up to the end of the period where going travelling is socially acceptable so it’s now or never.

More fun, I made that with room to spare. 8 weeks in Rio De Janiero meeting some great people and having some great times, experiences that will stay with me forever. Going to LA and Sweden was great as well. Hell I went to Disney Land and that always makes it a fun year. That plus a multitude of hilarious nights out has made it an insanely fun year. 2010 is gonna be more low key on the fun front, no 2 month holidays and the like. Got a few ideas i’m kicking around for travel but again that’s another post.

More Money: Nigga needs paid. Gotta keep moving up the corporate ladder and all that so I can afford nice things. Steps are already underway in that respect as my boss is leaving in February and I’m taking over alot of his activties but the problem being the project ends in late March so after that I don’t know where I’ll be. Hopefully taking the time-off to go travelling and come back to a new project in my current work but if there’s nothing there that’s gonna push me it’s move on time. If there’s no good work in Glasgow I might look further afield. Hopefully they’re still choking for engineers in Canada/Oz at that time. A good step would be to spend less time on bebo and more doing my job but I’ve managed OK so far.

Started a new job in September far more in line with what I want to do so that’s a good start. I’m not moving up the ladder quick smart but I’m seeing opportunities that wouldn’t have been available at my old work. I’m doing Aeronautical Engineering work in Glasgow so I can’t argue with that.

Some nice 2009 pictures.

Anyway, 2009 in brief pictures. I fought, went to Rio, went to LA and went Partying. Those sum it up pretty well.

Tune of 2009, gotta be

or maybe

Peace playas and i’ll catch you soon with 2010′s plan.

OSSSSSSS!

Dinky Ninja Fight Team 2009 Stats 22/12/09

It’s time to look back and celebrate a fantastic 2009 for the Dinky Ninja Fight Team. Across the three gyms in Lanark, Glasgow and Dumbarton we’ve had our fighters compete in basically every combat sport going and had great success not just in MMA but in Muay Thai and BJJ as well this year. But going over everything we’ve done well would take forever so I’m just going to look at Semi-Pro (no headshots on the ground) MMA and full pro MMA.

Over the course of 2009 our 3 gyms have had 28 athletes compete in semi-pro MMA and full rules MMA. Some of these people are veterans of more than 20 pro fights and some had their first semi-pro fight this year, from weights ranging from 60kg to 120kg. 13 of those athletes competed under full pro rules, and 15 of them under semi-pro rules. To produce that many athletes able to compete in as demanding a sport in MMA is an accomplishment in itself and is testament to the fighters and their coaches.

The number of athletes competing allowed the team to take part in 70 fights this year, 45 of them professional fights.

70 fights by 28 athletes in 12 months, that’s something else to be proud of, but that’s just the tip.

Of those 70 fights we won 52 of them. That’s 74.3% of all the fights we took! 74.3% win record!

For pro fights we went 34-10-1 and semi pro 18-7-0.

We took on fighters from all over the UK and from Brazil, USA, Sweden, Lithuania, France, Ireland and more and won 3 times as many as we lost. I can’t think of many things more awesome than that.

This comes close.

 

Probably because I watched Role Models the other day and currently love KISS.

As does GWAR on Joan Rivers.

They’re from space!

KISS and GWAR might run us close but not only do we win fights, we finish them. Of our 18 semi-pro wins 14 were by sub and only 4 by decision, that’s a 78% finish rate. And when you let us hit people in the face on the ground or finishing rate gets even better. At pro of our 34 wins, 17 were by sub, 12 by TKO and 2 clean KO’s with only 4 fights going our way from the judges. That’s 88% of our pro wins coming within the distance!

Even when we lose we do it with fireworks, only 4 of our losses were by decision.

Not to finish on a negative note let’s look back.

28 fighters, 70 fights, 52 wins, 44 within the distance, 31 by sub ZHOO ZHITSUUU! That’s before we even look at our Thai record and BJJ wins.

Big thanks to everyone that made this possible, fighters, coaches everyone that trains with us, promoters for putting us on shows and especially the guys at Absolute Combat and Eurofight for taking huge financial risks in getting us fights against top international opponents and of course sponsors. You’ve got to thank your sponsors.

On the subject of sponsors, we’re looking to top 2009 by really breaking out in 2010 and already have some big matches in the pipeline so please get in touch with our fighters. I can give you contacts through here for them or their management or you can contact the gyms direct. Get on board the DNFT war wagon for 2010 and get your shit recognised.

Enough begging, guys great 2009! Get ready to better it in 2010, first team spar 3rd January at the D-Unit.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Merry Christmas, see you at the Sub Crawl.

Tis the Season – 18/12/09 (posted 21/12/09)

Tis the Season – 18/12/09

 

One week til Christmas and it’s my work’s team Christmas dinner tonight so I’m off there and don’t have too much time so I’ll look to keep this pretty brief and do another blog before Monday. Plus I’m at work so can’t access to you tube to find videos to include for songs.

 

Right after Absolute Combat (hereafter referred to as AC) and the amazingness of the DNFT clean sweep what’s been going on?

 

Caught Madball at Ivory Black’s, they were on excellent and had a really good crowd, which surprised me. Really good gig, I was mega tempted to bring the mosh but I don’t bring the mosh in Glasgow, it’s saved for international adventures where folk I know wont see me.  

 

Had a bit of a cold so couldn’t train that much and I’ve been mad busy at work trying to get stuff finished before Christmas. Been heavy on the overtime which is good as money is always tight this time of year and since I’ve not got any fights coming up soon it’s the best time possible to miss training.

 

Went to a fight show the weekend after AC2 up in Dundee, it wasn’t quite up the standard of AC and the like. In fact it was quite a long way off. I really do think that shows without pro fights mostly made up of amateur fights are hurting the development of MMA in the UK. I understand that putting on 8 pro fights cost a fortune and that everyone has to start somewhere but charging people to watch no-headshot MMA isn’t good and it will sour people to it. Amateur fights of the UK type (no head shots) have their place but I think they belong in sports centres like BJJ comps and not in front of crowds. Semi-pro with head shots standing is cool, that’s still entertaining to a punter but take away people getting punched in the face and Joe Public wont care.

 

Speaking of shows had an awesome weekend with Paul McVeigh in Norwich last weekend as his bad ass was fighting Musse Hasseval on the Bushido Challenge show down there. You can get a full review at http://www.mmaunltd.com/news-detail.asp/NewsID/1140/bushido-challenge-report-and-results.htm but it was a great show with Paul taking home a comfortable decision over the three rounds, he dominated from bell to bell and if you split that fight into 10 second chunks and scored each one there was maybe 3 or 4 he didn’t win. He almost landed a twister which was impressive, maybe he was making a statement to me after I told him in training if he ever caught me in that I’d kill myself. I don’t there is anyone in Europe for Paul to fight anymore and he has to make that step to the next level. Great fighter and great coach, faggy haircut though. Good show from start to finish, maybe not the best venue in the world but a good card and we were treated really well. Nice to see my man Rob Mills win by TKO early on. The guy hits like a truck, and if you chase him he will tag you.

Around that we also managed to have fun at a castle.

 

Yeah! Look how skinny Paul is day before weigh in!

 

We got to see Jim Jeffries do his stand up on the Saturday night (fight was on the Sunday), he’s fucking hilarious! Brilliant laugh and I’d include some videos of his stuff if I was at home. Do it some other time. But aye, check him out, I don’t know if he’s got a DVD but if so get it!

Since this is now getting posted from home here’s a clip.

Awesome.

After Party on Sunday was excellent and lead to us getting mad boozed in a strip club and talking to cool Swedish fighters and hopefully hooking me up with a fight in April/May against top Swedish Middleweight Papy Abedi.He’s built like a house but I think I’ve got the right tools to cause him big problems so we’ll see if that goes down. Fingers crossed. We’ve already done a stare down so it has to happen!

 

Norwich is full of wee birdies btw, great place for a fight/night. We need to keep getting Ninjas on that Bushido challenge card.

 

Got a flight back to Edinburgh Monday morning and had to drive over to Glasgow then work in the afternoon on next to no sleep. It was not a good day. Rough doesn’t begin to describe it.

Our boys also did well at Alloa, some props to them for that as well.

 

This week has been work dominated in a big way but the Griphouse night out last night was a welcome break and kicked off the festive party season. Works night tonight, Ninja night tomorrow, Sunday quiet, Monday-Wednesday I have to work but if anyone asks me out for a beer I wont say no. Tis the season after all! Then it’s Christmas eve and that’ll be rock and roll all the way though to Sub Crawl on the 30^th, get involved bitches!

 

Still not done Christmas shopping, ooops! Everyone likes booze though so I’ll just hit ASDA on Sunday or Monday and go mental there getting stuff. That and they can get MMA Unlimited cos I’m interviewed in it this month, go out and buy it.

I’m a media darling these days after my exposure in the Daily Star last week, apparently I’m Plane Hard. Props to Kim Hamilton, MC Extraordinaire for hooking that up.

 

Plane Hard!

 

Eh, Sonisphere next year looks amazing with Iron Maiden, Slayer and Anthrax already confirmed and rumours about the addition of Metallica and Megadeth. That would be off the hook and I may be tempted to lift my self imposed festival ban for it.

 

Anyway loads more blogs to come soon, I need to do a years reflection of my performance against my loose goals and I want to do an best of the year thing as well as a point about DNFT success this year.

 

Christmas times call for Christmas tunes but I can’t include youtube here so just go look at Twisted Sister doing Come All Ye Faithful on youtube yourself.

 

Peace playas!  

Since I can include YouTube footage now, here’s a Christmas song.

5-0 for No Love, 8-0 for the Ninjas 2/11/2009

Well this blog is going to focus on one thing, Saturday night’s Absolute Combat 2: The Gathering card at Meadowbank Arena. I had my 5^th pro MMA fight and my fight team had 8 fighters on the card so there’s a lot to cover. I’ll go through my fight and do the thank yous etc. then the rest of the card and then  the hilarity after and some chat about music and Renzo Gracie.

After making weight on Friday and eating myself into horrendous pain (something I always say I’m not ging to do) it was time to do this thing on Saturday. I was fighting Ryan Kelly out of EFR Team in Ireland who had a solid 3-1 record going into this fight a good match to my 4-0 record, having seen him at the weigh-in I knew he was a big boy and he’s the first Middleweight I’ve went in with who’s weighed more than me come fight time. He was also taller, with a longer reach. He showed good boxing and used his range well, throwing hard straight shots. I had planned to use my jab and low kick to set up the head kick, basically the same strategy as against Frank Vatan but I couldn’t get my jab working as well against Ryan as he used his range well and was still a threat at the end of my jab. He came forward alot and I looked to counter with low kicks and overhands rights, the low kick was landing well, overhands less so. I was ready to start to look to set up a double leg when he threw a body kick which I gratefully caught and swept his standing leg moving straight to side control. Unable to land any good offence from side control I moved to mount and looked to land my ground and pound from there for the finish or to set up the arm bar. We ended up under the ropes so the ref restarted us in the middle, I knew he would look to bridge straight from the restart so tried to stay heavy but I was in too high a mount and his birdge was succesful, however i bailed off for a belly down arm bar and caught a very Nogueira esque submission victory in the first round.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Ryan was a good opponent and I really enjoyed the fight, I’m sure he’ll bounce back stronger for it. I was really happy with my work, thought I was countering well in the stand up and while my ground and pound still isn’t destroying boys I think it’s getting slightly more sting in it. Massive shout outs to the whole Dinky Ninja Fight Team and everyone at the Griphouse for helping me prep for this fight, we train as a team and win as a team as will be discussed later on in this entry. There’s too many folk to name and shout out, it’d get ridiculous and I’d end up missing out someone really deserving so let’s just say I love all my Ninjas! 2 guys get special hollers my immense corner team of Paul “Metabolic” McVeigh and Garry “The Firestarter” Christie. I’ve been training MMA for about 26 months and now I’m 5-0 as a pro and these are the 2 main men in leading me there. I’ve got pretty decent at this and that’s down to them more than anyone. HOLLER!

At my side and wearing hats!

Anyway, I was far from the only Ninja having success on Saturday night, we had 8 fighters on the card and each one is going to get a sentence or 2 of props.

Wee mad Brian was fighting semi-pro and showed his stand up skills and showmanship is a convincing decision win. I thought he could have been more aggressive and got the finish but he played smart and got plenty of ring time so it’s all good.

Mark Connor used his crushing top game to get a submission win over the tough and talented Mark Platts. Mark’s BJJ looked really good as he played a classic Gracie game with the clinch standing, trip takedowns and pressure from top. Very nice, if somewhat unexciting work

Dean Reilly showed dynamite in his hands in an early TKO of Doni Miller. This was a mega hyped fight with Doni Miller coming from a nearby gym so there was a bit of pride at stake. Alot of internet talk from people outside the DNFT making Doni the favourite i this fight but we all know what Dean is capable of,  he was nervous going in carrying the pressure was new for him but he shone through and showed his character and skill to get a TKO in under 2 minutes. EXCELLENT!

Scotty Ward was on form taking an arm triangle victory in the first round. Didn’t see the fight but I’ve been training with Scotty alot and his top game has game on leaps and bounds over the past 6 months and this was not surprising. He’s a monster on top now, and a sexy fucker to boot!

John Quinn cemented his status as Scotland’s best welterweight with an armbar from guard to beat James Mair who had dropped down to Welterweight. Quinny showed great composure and is going to go far. 2010 is a huge year for him and if he gets the right fights next year who knows where he could end up.

Graham Turner made the drop to Featherweight for the first time and looked comfortable in doing so. At 22 with a 13-5-1 record all at LW he’s always been a striker and ground and pound expert but with this Arm Bar win at a new weight he’s showed that he’s getting better all the time and is a nightmare for any Featherweight in the UK, again 2010 could be a huge year but he’s got all the time in the world.

John Cullen was main eventing against the tough french man Jean-Robert Monier who has been on the best shows with some very good guys and was stylistically a horrible match for JC, a patient crushing grappler  who would wait on JC to make a mistake and punish it. Well JC showed great work off his back while he was there and didn’t make the mistakes. It was a more mature and measured performance from JC and if he can keep that up he can make waves. He’s awlays been dangerous on his day but prone to madness, now that looks to be under control. Big win for JC!

Well you may have noticed that’s 8 wins from 8 fights! How awesome is that.

It’s so awesome it’s impossible to explain without resorting to Westwood impressions!

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/westwood/soundboard.shtml or http://www.aeonity.com/ab/soundboards/celebrity/tim-westwood.php for inspiration

 

Anyway, 2 other points to discuss before I’m calling time on this.

Renzo Gracie was on fire in an interview in response to the comments made by Relson last week about people not having the real Jiu Jitsu. Renzo is the man and tells it like it is.

http://thefightworkspodcast.com/2009/11/29/renzo-gracie/ to check it out but some fantastic quotes from it are below.

In reality, I see this crap today, “this is the real jiu jitsu”…let me be honest, I see jiu jitsu now turning into Krav Maga. Turn into kung fu! Like they are selling things that will chop your head in half, with a karate chop.

You know, its become a joke. Let me tell you what the real jiu jitsu is: the real jiu jitsu is the one that doesn’t back away from a challenge. It goes at the obstacle and defends its flag. It’s like, if you want to claim that you have the best fighting style, you should be in the UFC kicking some ass. That’s where the best competition is.

So when people call me, saying “this is the real jiu jitsu,” the next thing they are going to say is “I cannot use it, because I could kill you!” [laughs] You know, that’s what I heard my whole life, from those fake martial artists who claim they were better than everybody else. So believe it my friend, I live my whole life watching this and seeing this. We were always against that, and now suddenly one branch of my family is turning into that! It’s claiming that, but doesn’t go on the proving ground to prove it, does not step into the place where he should actually be representing jiu jitsu, to do it.

So don’t force me one day to do a visit, because I will do it. Right now, I’ve been training a lot, and I want to fight again. If along the way I need to do a visit, I will do it! I’ll bring the class with me, exactly like they liked to do it in the old times. I know exactly what is going to happen, when I get there, they will tell me “where do you think you are? You’re in America, I will call the police! You don’t belong here!” I do believe that is going to be the reaction. They don’t even have the balls to back it up, I don’t believe they have it. I know what I’m talking about, my friend, believe it.

Renzo is a legend, if hes back in the UFC I’ll cream myself, then be heartbroken when he gets beat but loving it for ages first.

 

Other non fight news, I caught Skeleton Witch last night and they were excellent, had a great sound which really surprised me. I thought it would be really muddy and alot would get lost in the mix but they had a very clean classic heavy metal sound and it made for a blinding show. Was really impressed with them, they are getting hyped for big things after their 2^nd record and I hope they do, they deserve to be heard.

However I’m not gonna link in a Skeleton Witch song cos I did one last week and instead shove up some old school Mercyful Fate from their first EP in 1982. King Diamond is still singing normally and they have a very NWOBHM production. It’s excellent. Terrible lyrics aside.

 

Is that Radiohead?

If you don’t play air guitar to that you have no soul, you may well be a corpse without a soul.

Ohhh Goatwhore were supporting Skeleton Witch and had an epic slogan on the back of their T-Shirts.

“Stay Sick, Stay Fuck, Hail Satan”    That doesn’t make any sense!

It made me want to see if my old Raging Speedhorn shirt is still at my folks house, i’m going to look for it and start wearing it. It was mad pimp, it said “Sniff Glue, Worship Satan” on the back.

Peace Players!

HOOOOOOOO to the Ninja Legends! 8-0 Baby!

PS After Absolute Combat I got mad boozed and had a great night out dragging Geordie lads to an Edinburgh goth club. Great fun was had but memories are somewhat sketchy, ending up in A&E after a night out but leaving a Pro MMA fight unmarked is testament to the insanity.

Another Month, Another Fight 25/11/09

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 (5^th 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.

Peace Playas!

The sabbatical is over, 10/11/2009

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 17^th 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 17^th 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 28^th 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.

Hail the metal god!

No time for games, or is there? 19/07/2009

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.

Peace!

Misadventures in Zona Sul: 3 weeks down in Rio de Janeiro 07/07/2009

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.

 

 

Peace Players.

21/06/09 5 Days in Rio

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.

 

Peace