I’ve uploaded a video of me rolling. This is towards the end of 2009.
A major improvement from my ‘brilliant’ performance at Seni in 2008.
My match against Liam Corrigan in June 2009
A stranger that is. So… my first post of 2009… and coincidentally, a year on from when I first started the blog… EXACTLY! Wow that’s some freaky shit and I didn’t even plan that shit! Another coincidence is that I’ve just booked myself a flight to go back to Thailand on 14th December til 18th January next year… but more on that later!
I’m still trying to get over returning on the same date as I started! I honestly didn’t mean for that to happen.
Since the last post, way too much stuff has happened, life got better… then worse… then good again… then worse. now it’s settled to a nice mediocre pace which I’m happy with although all I ever seem to do right now is sleep, eat, work and train… and eat more between all of that. I’m not going to get into what happened over the New Year, all you need to know is some people belong in your life, even if they play the tiniest role and some aren’t.
So I’m fitter, stronger and feel loads better in the gym. I’ve gone down to a nice 74kgs from 79 when I returned from Thailand. Although at one point, I went down to a sickly 72 and couldn’t find the balance between eating healthy and being neurotic. Now 74kgs, doing weights and sprints on a regular basis with a set routine has had my stamina through the roof (by my standards anyway) and my training in the gym a little more technique based and little less spaz like. It feels good!
I’m determined to finish the Thailand ‘Blog’ too, I say ‘blog’ in inverted commas because it’ll now be more like ‘a recalling of memories onto a website’… a diary. A flippin’ diary. A crap one at that because you already know how my life went, you just need reminding of the interesting bits that happened along the way. A flippin’ diary.
Anyway, it’s important I fill you in on the training as that’s the main basis of this blog stuff even though I didn’t mean it to be. On my return from Thailand, I competed in Next Generation’s Ground Control 2.0 Grappling Tournament in Liverpool… which saw me take a decision loss, a by into the Semi’s then to get triangled by the eventual Bronze medallist who Matt Inman beat in the tournament to follow to take Gold. Karma’s a bitch ain’t it?
The start to my lower weight came in the form of a 75kg category in one of the most. Sorry I mean THE most shoddily run competition I have ever been in. UMA. Run by, in my opinion, a bunch of self important tw*ts who want to take over the grappling scene using fancy abbreviations and terms for each other. One referee for the whole day, as in, the WHOLE day. He reffed from the womens lightest to the mens heaviest…. but good on him. He did a fantastic job of asking people to hold the mats in place and help relocate the mat area a few metres along after a leak appeared in the roof.
Team SBG at UMA
I think we took 4 golds…
Anyway… 75kgs. having never weight cutted or purposely tried to lower my weight for any particular reason I decided to stop taking on carbs and eating next to nothing and for some reason I made it and have maintained and gone even lower since. But I need to stop eating chocolate before I sleep. It’s a bad thing apparently.
Ground Control 3.0 comes along and I get triangled and armbarred, then I up my intensity in training by doing more weights then Karl brings in the sprinting programme. That’s it up to now. I think. Oh and my memory isn’t what it used to be. Good luck with that ‘blog’.
Team SBG at Ground Control 3.0
We took 3 Golds 4 Silvers and a Bronze!
