The Palace, [EN]GAGE and the Return!

So, despite having a "rest week" this week, I have been pretty busy on the wrestling side of things, which if nothing else makes a nice change, even if it is just mixing things up a little bit. The "rest week" was of course to allow my body to recuperate after the last 10 weeks of preparation before hitting my first 6 week block of hypertrophy (muscle building). The week hasn't really been that, if anything i'm more sore just now than I have been in the last 10 weeks!

The reason for this soreness is in fact the number of wrestling sessions that i've been able to get to this week. As usual we start on the Monday, It was a good session as always with Michael Cavanagh at the helm. The warm up drills were pretty standard, normally I avoid coming last and manage to avoid doing push ups which is a bonus. But there is one exercise that is all about strength and flexibility. It's hard as nails and works better for the more dainty of people. Not the big rigs! 

Its hard to describe but basically one person is on their hands and knees anchored into the mat, the other clasps onto their chest and flips into a bridge position before pulling themselves over into the start position. It is pretty much as hard as it sounds. I did it a couple of times and my back made some noises and cracked in places I never knew existed.

Leg-lace - never get caught!

The session was great, Nikos loves getting stuck into the physical side of things and always gives 100% and he is strong! I managed to get a couple of good takes downs during the sparring at the end but I have got probably 30kg on him which makes it a lot easier for me - if we were the same weight, it would be a proper battle! We did a lot of work on Leg laces. This is a basic tie up of the legs that is brutal and effective to score points, quite good fun to do as well! Best never ever to get caught! Example left - if you get into that, you are in serous trouble. I love it!

Monday's session took its toll on me but as Emma and Cameron had headed up to Aberdeen for a few days I took full advantage and decided to head through to the Palace of Art is Glasgow, its the Scottish Institute of Sport centre of excellence and where Scottish Wrestling base their programme out of. Before going, I had to get my back looked at, I had KCR from Laura to loosen me off, it certainly helped but I was still struggling a bit and decided that a trip to the gym was in order to speak to Alex. Triggerpoint therapy and stretching was the order of the afternoon and Wow, I don't think I have ever been so close to tears in a gym! The x-ball that you use replicates a forearm massage and I had to put that in my back, glutes and also in my hip flexors. That plus some deep stretching had me grimacing, trying not to scream. 

I went to the Palace of Art with Martin King, an Edinburgh lad, studying in Dundee who is also embarking on his own #mission2014 but in the 66kg category. He is a good lad, had been wrestling for a couple of years and is really good to watch whilst he is sparring.

Sighthill - Hermiston Gait = 1 hour!

I don't want to get into a rant on traffic at this time of year. So, I will leave it at this... on Tuesday it took me an hour to do the journey to the right to get to Glasgow and combined my time stuck in traffic jams over 3 days was 6.5 hours! that's almost a full day at work! Those Journeys combined should have taken 1h 40

Anyway, we made it and I was introduced to Viorem (Vio) Etko, former GBR wrestler (originally from Moldova) who is now the Scottish Wrestling Assistant Coach. He was doing some crazy warm up stuff, handstand walks, flips, you name it the man is strong and agile. I obviously don't really know him very well yet, but we got on fairly well and he seems like a dead on guy. I also met Pedram, Iranian Junior Champion, who was my partner for the session. Pedram is still learning English but he gets his point across quite well through demonstration, he is obviously a very natural wrestler and was throwing me around a fair bit. I loved the session, I learnt a lot and it was good to meet some of the people involved. The key thing I learnt was to relax the shoulders and just enjoy it and take my time - technique = slow to ingrain it. They were the key points Pedram wanted to get across. 

Too Much Red =
Miserable night, miserable journey

Wednesday hailed an altogether different story. Martin and I road tripped again, this time with in the Luton van to pick the remainder of the wrestling mat up from the Palace. We got it, left at 4pm and guess what... traffic jam! I hate the M8. We arrived at the Palace at 6:30pm.

The session when we got there was stretching to start with one of the Institute staff, it was fluid and surprisingly tough. Volodymyr (Head Coach) was there for this session and offered some good advice and as it turns out, i'm a little bit unique. I'm right handed but lead with my left, which makes me a bit of a weirdo when it comes to wrestling, so from now on, i'm going Rocky Balboa and fighting South Paw. Vio, took me firmly under his wing on the Wednesday session and I got a good bit of one on one coaching, more about getting in close and how to use my weight and get control. It was great to have that time, a bit of banter and again I found myself learning a lot. Kindly, Vio said and I quote "to look at you I wouldn't think you were strong - but you do have strength." to which I was at first surprised because I think I look and feel quite strong but then as you find out very quickly in this sport - looks can be very deceiving. Volodymyr also complemented me before I hit the M8 again and said I was pretty quick on my feet for a big guy and that the night was a good start! I don't think you can get too much more positive for an hour and a half of getting thrown around. There is a heck of along way to go but I feel good and meeting the coaches encouraged me to work harder. 

My only negative comment on my experience from the palace is that I would like to know where all the Institute Wrestlers were! There are 18 registered on the institute and in total over the two days I think I met and trained with 8 of them. I'll see how many rock up next week!

The Wrestling mat at [EN]GAGE in all its glory!

I mentioned briefly the mat we picked up, well it for lack of a better expression is a beautiful piece of kit that took its place at [EN]GAGE for Friday night, my final session of the week. I had a special guest. Mr Ash Carroll, my former coach at Edinburgh Eagles and Ash was also the assistant coach as I finished my Scotland 'A' career in 2010. Ash is a strong man, he would be classed as a heavyweight and was a good contest for us both I think. Ash did really well with the standing up simulated drills and some of the take downs. I identified that my grip isn't strong enough and that is something I would like to work on. That said, I think my ground work and attacking from the ground is probably the strongest part of my wrestling at the moment. I managed to get a few throws on ash including a gut wrench which was good (maybe not for Ash). I'm covered in bruises and in a massive amount of pain so Ash must have been doing something right and more importantly, I think he enjoyed it.

This is the stage that I probably dislike the most with any sort of training regime, I was the same with rugby league. I'm not sure if its the intensive learning and the frustration of not knowing everything, or whether its that I have the goal of Commonwealth Games and really don't know a massive amount about the sport and haven't had a competitive fight yet. I have to keep on pulling myself back and remember that I am still in training and there is plenty of time. I'm not into my physical best yet. I won't be until about March after I have gone through Hypertrophy and Max Strength and Wrestling skills wont come over night. Like I said, there is a long way to go but I think we are on track at the moment, its just a little frustrating!

Finally, I had a bit of a news flash this week as well! The Titan - Simmo is returning to [EN]GAGE on 22 November for a re-match. His comment "get used to looking at the yellow!"

What he doesn't realise is that if I can see the mat and the yellow, he will be looking at the lights on the ceiling, and in that position - in wrestling - its all over! Bring it big fella.

That's all for this week folks. As always, Thanks for taking some time out to read the blog. Hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to share it and a big thank you to all the guys who are taking time out to help and sponsor me for #mission2014 you can find out more about the team and sponsors by clicking the links

Mike
@shocksjr