Wrestling 2020 and beyond

It’s been a good while since my last blog update, I can hear the thoughts of “not long enough” going through some people’s heads. Truth be told I've been trying to get this update done for over a week now and yet again in this little quest to become a Commonwealth Athlete. I've found it a bit of a struggle to balance all the facets of life. 

Actually training has been great fun the last few weeks, I've properly got back into my weights programme that Alex has done for me, I've been looking a reasonable size (muscle wise) and have been enjoying a bit of bulking in the gym currently at 119.1kg. Even better than that though I've been loving Wrestling. There was a stage admittedly that I was just so tired and run down that I really couldn't be bothered but I still did it and got through it. Even better though I've fully recovered from injury

I think every sports person who has had an injury will know what I'm talking about when I say that you get the “FEAR” when you get into the same position as when you received the injury the first time round. It happened to me in rugby – when I blew my knee out it was always in the back of my mind that I might do it again and that is a dangerous thing, you adjust your body position or don't pull all effort in and you are more likely to get injured. I'm past that bit with this injury. I probably got back on the mat 3-4 weeks too soon, but I needed to because my knowledge had slipped badly but after last night’s session, I'm pretty confident I'm back on track. It's nice to have that fluidity in your wrestling.

So…onto the International Olympic Committee recommendation. As you will be aware if you have any interest in the sport that this weekend is the announcement whether wrestling shall regain its place in the Olympic Programme after 2020. There have been some significant changes to the sport, and for those of you comedians out there, that doesn't mean fireworks, entrance music or a finishing move. They have changed the scoring system that is designed to make the sport more exciting and encourage more spectacular bouts. Don’t be fooled though, watching a couple of heavyweights compete isn’t going to be too much more exciting but you never know. If this whole saga with the IOC has done nothing more that give FILA a bit of a boot in the arse and raised the profile of the sport then that’s a good thing. It’s brought a lot of people from all over the world closer together and that can only be a good thing for the sport. Wrestling in Edinburgh has certainly benefited from the news that the IOC was going to turf it from the Olympics. I still struggle to get my head round that in the first place... a sport that was in the ancient Olympics from 776 B.C and has 300 million participants world wide its an outrageous idea to consider in the first place.

The IOC will announce this weekend their verdict based upon the presentations of the World Governing Bodies of the sports that were on the short list. Who is going to get in? Well, personally from chatting to a few people I think that Wrestling will rightly be restored to its place on the Olympic programme but I also think that to save face the IOC will need to put something else in as well. To my mind that has to be squash. Squash have been on the shortlist for the Olympics 3 times, they have made some incredible changes to the way their sport is perceived and viewed across the globe and let’s be honest if you look at squash, they deserve it. Whilst I think Karate would be a good addition to the programme I just don’t think the governing body is in a fit enough state to progress to that level of competition, that said there is of course argument to say that if it was granted access to the Olympics it would give the sport a boot in the right direction. There you have it … if I was a betting man Wrestling and Squash into the programme.

I’ve had a bit of a humbling experience over the last couple of weeks which has been pretty interesting. The first was heading home to see my parents for a couple of days. My old man is getting progressively worse with a stenosis in his neck which is affecting his walking. Although he is still doing too much and he knows it! 

My old man has been working tirelessly for the last 11 years on building a new church for the East Neuk Baptist Fellowship (Now Coast Line Community Church). Through the battles with planning and the community council who were opposed to it being built. Yep can you believe that a community council in a small fishing town were opposed to a new church facility that is open to the public, for conference, cafe, book store as well as a church. It's shocking that they didn't support the project and are still causing issues. Some people need a reality check.

Anyway I walked into the church building and the only thoughts going through my head were that dad had put in some much time, effort and thought into the building and I was incredibly proud of him. It was an amazing feeling knowing that your dad has had such a positive influence on somewhere that is going to benefit so many. What was even nicer was at the opening ceremony Mum and Dad were asked to cut the ribbon, testament to all the work that they had put into that.

David Smith - Changing Paths

I was pretty gutted I couldn’t be there, but more pressing matters needed tending to. Simmo (weeble’s) 30th birthday bash in Bristol. A competition of Mini Golf, Bowling and Laser Quest had me fighting off some old friends to try to win coupled with the first "Sharknado" drinkathon. I took a 2^nd place overall which I wasn’t going to complain about despite getting a gutter ball at bowling and completely sucking at golf.  

Then there was the the Edinburgh Sports Conference, we had David Smith MBE as a speaker, I've spoke about David before and about his story and I will say it again. The man is a complete inspiration. An incredible story that is really just opening another chapter as he hangs up his oars and jumps onto a bike in hope of Rio 2016. I was lucky enough to be able to speak to David for a bit before and after his speech at the conference. It’s not often you meet someone who has a Paralympic Gold Medal but even more impressive than that was how genuine a bloke he is, happy to chat to anyone and hear what their stories are. By the way, those medals are pretty damn heavy! He mentioned about planet X bikes. I am in the market for a road bike, I’ve never been a big rider but something I’m getting pretty keen to get into, so will do some exploring! If anyone can recommend some good bikes, I'm all ears!

Mexican Drug Lord Fool

My final humbling experience was having my good friend Ben over from Australia. You realise when you haven’t seen someone for 5 years and you can slip back into a good friendship like they have never been away you realise that people are good friends. We hit Edinburgh pretty hard, Castle, Whisky, Wrestling (he almost spewed) and even came up with a new business venture that i'm not going to mention - its too premature. It was great to see him and even better was the banter on Friday night at Emma’s birthday Mexican themed night. Ben pulled out the artistic side and made me a wrestling mask for the evening. See picture. What a hero and I drew some tattoos for him as a Mexican Drug Lord. Something that Cameron was pretty keen to emulate this week. He took a shine to Ben! He has been trying to find him for the last couple of days. Looking for his friend "Big Ben" as opposed to his cousin "Little Ben"

Nacho Libre

My final thing to report on is the Scottish Institute of Sport. I was asked to submit an application to the Wrestling High Performance Programme to get institute support. That application unsurprisingly came back negative. I dwelled on it for a minute or two but to be perfectly honest, why should the institute take me on? I’ve not got any qualification results.I haven’t shown that I’m good enough to compete in Glasgow 2014, I've only wrestled in 4 competitions - had I not been injured in the British it might have been a different story but the main thing is that if I qualify in March at the British closed, then its Team Scotland who have the final say and that is still my target and achievable So on that note – I have a lot of work to do, i'm going to work my arse off to make sure I compete at the Commonwealth Games on 29 July 2014. Ticket plug there! head to http://www.glasgow2014.com/tickets

Thanks for taking time out to have a read. Hope you enjoyed it.

@shocksjr

P.S = really good video from US Wrestling about keeping Wrestling in the Olympics

The first bite of the cherry! British Open Championships



Qualification has started

This week was really the start of the Glasgow 2014 Qualification campaign for me... I was Southward bound for the British Open Wrestling Championships in Wales. This time with a coach in tow to sit in my corner, it was the first time I had a coach who was there for me specifically at a wrestling event and it really helped put my mind at rest about strategy and what I should be doing.

The event itself was in Welshpool, North Wales, and a mere 289 miles from Edinburgh. An interesting location for a British Championships. I have actually asked Coach Michael Cavanagh to write a blog post for me and he has agreed. Michael is an incredibly busy man, so we might get it in the next few weeks or so depending on when he has time, but I’ll let him fill you in with details of the road trip,the weekend and progress to date from the coaching perspective. No pressure given the calibre of Steve’s post the other week.

Mark Cocker (2010 qualifier)

My preparation for the British was very good, I ate well, slept well and had trained hard to get ready for what was the start of the campaign. I managed to get a good bout of KCR in before heading down and a massage from Optimus Massage on the legs which massively helped. I weighed in again at a solid 116.8kg had a big meal that night which would have bumped me up a little. The event itself was great, I really enjoyed the atmosphere that was there and I met Mark Cocker, English Heavyweight who came 5^th in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Mark took me for a little bit of a warm up and gave me some pointers about my opponent in the first bout. That was great for me and I really appreciated him taking the time to help me out. He is a genuinely good bloke.

The target for the day was to finish top 3 British Competitors and that would secure me one of the criteria for the Commonwealth Games which meant that I could potential be nominated by Scottish Wrestling to Commonwealth Games Scotland.

The good thing (depending on how you look at it) was that there were only 6 Wrestlers entered into the 120kg category which meant in theory that I was entering at a quarter final stage and I needed to get to the semi - finals to be in with a shout of qualifying. I had a pretty unlucky draw compared to some of the others. There were two byes into the semi-finals I was not one of them which meant I had to fight Tomas Bujak from Poland. Tomas is a Greco Roman wrestler, strong but not to savvy on the leg attack / leg defence. The strategy was to not get sucked in close defend the attack and once the attack was finish counter with a leg attack. It worked beautifully. I defended well and saw an opening and had a strong leg attack which put him on his back and gave me a 3 point lead. Great! The Rules of Wrestling have changed a little over the last few weeks and the latest change was that instead of a 10 point margin for a win you now need a 7 which obviously got me a little bit excited because I thought if I could get another 3 point take down I could be left with just 1 point for the win. This is where “mat craft” comes into it and lack of experience on my part. Had I stuck to the game plan I probably wouldn’t be sitting here licking my wounds and wondering what may have been.

Costal Cartilage tear - rough area in green (hurts lie hell)

Yep, I attacked – for who knows what reason, confidence, stupidity, excitement. I didn't hear Michael in my corner but I'm sure he was telling me to defend but instead I dived right in...Well as you would expect, I got blocked and got caught in a headlock before finding way to the floor to concede 2 points. He put me in a nelson which stretched me across the chest. I felt a pop that was uncomfortable but I managed to escape and get out of the hold. I was half expecting to be called back to our feet but that didn’t happen and Tomas put me in the same move and tried to turn me. This time the stretch across my chest ripped the costal cartilage next to my sternum, connecting my ribs and I don’t think I have been in as much pain since I blew my knee in 2005. It was agony. The ref heard me yelp in pain and called an end to the match. That in theory would have been me out because Chinu Chinu was the next opponent for the winner of my bout but Bujak beat Chinu with a pin, an upset in the heavyweight world.  Meaning I was pulled into the repechage but couldn't compete. I finished 5^th Overall, 4^th In the British Athletes meaning this time I’ve just missed the Qualification Criteria Boat. I continue to dwell on what might have been but I guess there isn’t any point. Had I beaten Tomas I would have been through to the semi-final and really had a chance of competing for the bronze spot. You live and learn.

I lay on the mat for a couple of minutes, paramedics were there before I managed to get up and head to the side where my breathing returned to normal. Tomas helped me get there which was very kind of him and a testament to the character of wrestlers. Something that I learned a great deal about this weekend. The organisers whisked me off to hospital with Michael to speak to the doctor who diagnosed the cartilage rip and ramped me up on some pain killers that aren't nearly strong enough for this. If you haven’t done this to your ribs, the pain is horrific, it hurts to sit, stand, lie, rotate, eat,  breath and if you are really stupid and make a sudden movement. I had hiccups earlier and wow, that was ludicrously painful. The pain changes from an ache to a stab that is possibly one of the worst things. I was almost sick with pain twice but it quickly wares off. I was reading a bit about what I could do to help progress the speed of the recover and a couple of articles I read compared the pain of this injury to a heart attack! how nuts is that! 

Although my competition was over for the day, I went back to watch some of the remaining bouts. I saw Cocker wrestle for the first time, he defeated a lad from Birmingham called Khan 7-0 before beating Bujak 7-0 in the final to become British Champion again. I watched Chinu fall to Bujak and saw my first live suplex, Leon Rattigan 96kg suplexed a lad and it was a beaut the video is here...

The highlight of watching wrestling for me was watching the women’s competition. I watched Sarah Jones compete in her final against Spiteri, that match was intense. Sarah was in control but got countered and the other girl straight back into it. The match finished 10 – 9 in Sarah’s favour. It was a great spectacle to watch. Then there was the two lassies from Tullibody and the Institute, Chelsea and Shannon. They were great to watch, just very good wrestlers, strong, aggressive and technical.

I had the opportunity to speak to loads of wrestlers and that’s the nice thing, although you are going to have 6 minutes where you are trying to hammer the guy, you can always sit down and have a chat before or afterwards. The sport is too small to do otherwise in my opinion. I really enjoyed meeting folk and chatting to the other Wrestlers and that is one of the things that makes it a great sport.

Where does this me now? Well, the qualification criteria, in theory gives me two more attempts over the next year. Although getting through the British Open Championships would have significantly helped my cause, I wasn’t expecting to qualify at this event but what has really annoyed me was that it was in my grasp, it just wasn’t to be. The Commonwealth Wrestling Championships were supposed to be in July but have been postponed and possibly moved meaning that there may be a call to rejig the Scottish Selection criteria to another tangible event but failing that I have to wrestle as much as I can and get a result at the British Closed next year. 

If I’m completely honest, it’s a tall order and is going to be pretty difficult to qualify for next year but I’m going to continue training for it and still put in the work, even if I don’t make Glasgow 2014 I have got Gold Coast 2018 on the horizon and who knows what will happen. another 5 years wrestling experience under my belt I could well be in for a shout for something better than just making the team. I've had some really nice positive feedback about my wrestling so far and although its disappointing not to be able to say i've met the qualification criteria, I have plenty of time to throw myself into contention at the British Closed Championships next year and that is the focus. 

As always, thanks for taking time out to have a read… sorry I haven’t made it yet, but where would the fun in that be!

@shocksjr

Wrestling - Taking the bad with the good!

Sharples Bolton Open Championships 2013

It's been a reasonable amount of time since my last blog update so thought it was time to regale you with chat about what's been happening in the world of wrestling and specifically my #mission2014. The last time I updated the blog I was talking about the kick up the arse I had (motivationally speaking) from David Smith MBE and how his story had encouraged me to buckle down and get training. I spoke about the Commonwealth Games qualification standards and burritos from Los Cardos in Edinburgh, of which I am now a loyal customer. In other news my old man celebrated his 66th Birthday and I was treated to a Nandos, I would have loved to have treated him but really just haven't got any disposable income at the moment, it's a sad state of affairs but we will prevail. Still having money worries, its pish but that's life! It was their first taste of the chicken gurus and they thought it was pretty good. Was great to catch up with them just the three of us, first time in a while.

I spent a bit of time last week reading back over my blog posts and on reflection, it has been a pretty fun journey so far. I've been wrestling properly for 7 months now and have three championships under my belt with 2 loses, 2 wins and two golds. I've fought the Best in the Britain and I've had a cracked rib... i've got loads I want to do and I need to and want to train harder. I noticed that for the first three months I was spelling Michael Cavanagh's name wrong and I botched up his role title as well, what a muppet. He never mentioned it but I will apologise for that. He must have thought I was a complete tit for getting that wrong but I've amended them now.

I've had a few good run outs on the mat, my confidence was running high after the British Novices and I wanted to keep that feeling going. I have also had a bit more support from my mates which is great, I'm still eagerly awaiting the return of the Bear to the mat and would love to wrestle the Weeble, but i've been Wresting on Tuesdays at the Emirates arena with Dave Simm (the weebles brother), it's been great fun and tough training. Dave is back in the Scotland 'A' Rugby League squad and trying to increase his fitness and he is a good partner to train with, although he is a lefty which makes life that little more awkward for me. It's great to have someone kind of close to my weight to wrestle against it is completely different wrestling someone heavy that the lighter guys.

If your free get down to the club

I had a nice surprise the other week as well down at Edinburgh Wrestling Club, I mentioned that Iain Feenan was going to try and get down for a session, that finally happened a couple of Mondays ago. It was awesome to have him and Rory Monks down for a bit of a grapple. Iain, I think found it pretty easy to adapt to giving his MMA and Judo background and to tell the truth I was a little bit anxious/nervous/excited/all of the above to wrestle him in the live bouts at the end of the session. Iain is strong, fast, explosive and doesn't show any mercy so to get on the mat and fight with him was great. The wrestle itself was pretty decent, Iain with his speed managed to get some points in early with a double leg and he nipped round behind me. I managed to get him down as well and scored 4 points with a leg lace to get back in it and was only losing by 6 - 7 with 7 seconds left on the clock. In that situation there is only really one thing you can do... charge. I don't think Iain saw it coming... my charge was low into an ankle pick and drive that got him down with that I took the round 9-7. Unfortunately I didn't get to wrestle Rory, maybe another day! Iain took on Rory and beat him pretty convincingly but I have to mention that Rory got a cracking double leg at the end to give himself 3 points. Yep, we ruined Iain's day!

My other wrestling Antics have been with my coaches Steven Cote and Michael Cavanagh and then with folk like Callum Anderson and Danny Gallacher. They are always keen for a scrap at the end of the session. Steve and I have a healthy rivalry which is great. He has the experience and I have the weight advantage but to be fair if we were the same weight he would score a lot more. Steve tried a new tactic last week and kicked my ass twice, the first was just normal and he beat me in the last 2 seconds but the second bout he properly smashed me by mixing it up and driving, which I didn't see coming and I didn't really know what to do, in fact Steve had the better of me this week as well, its been a bad training week for me, this is Wrestling and you have to take the Bad with the Good, that's how you learn! Coach Michael proved a point this week as well that he still has it. He scored mainly off of my mistakes, I have no idea why I changed my tactics, i'm normally pretty defensive but I went for some leg attacks and failed and as a result Coach one the round. Then there is Danny, its always fun wrestling Danny, he has an energy which I really like, he bounds about the mat and has a really good double leg attack! Again the weight advantage usually dictates the winner of those bouts but its great to see Danny getting better and better and he managed to get a good take down on me yesterday as well. 

Callum - I don't want to talk about him, I need to kick his ass next time he is down training, using my favourite move against me.

Scales spotted on Saturday - no weigh in?

Moving swiftly on to the Bolton Open Championships... I was a little annoyed that there wasn't an on the day weigh in but I guess it didn't matter at the end of the day. I was just hoping to save myself some driving, petrol, time, money the night before but c'est la vie. I only had one bout again but it was a good one and as it turns out it was really just to give me someone to fight against. I was fighting a lad called Cameron from Tryst Lions in Cumbernauld. I think he was weighing in a bit heavy for the 96kg lads at 98-99kg and he won that division and had to wrestle me. That kind of took away from the day a little bit for me but still we had to wrestle and we were both looking for the win. It tough to develop when you only have one match, yeah you still get the title and hats good but i want to be able to walk away after winning a couple of matches not just one.

The match itself wasn't the most brilliant of spectacles, there was a lot of strength and fighting for position and a few shots and blocks but at the end of the first round the score was sitting at 0 - 0 that meant that we went to the Clinch. This was my first in competition. It's basically a tie breaker. One person draws a ball out of a bag and the colour of that ball gets to dominant position by starting with the opponents leg in their arms. Basically like a rugby tackle. I drew out the blue ball and that meant I had to surrender a leg and was in a bit of a precarious position. The whistle went and I sprawled and somehow managed to break my leg free. That meant I only had to defend for 30 seconds without conceding and the round was mine. Success!

Hanging out with my Trophy 

The second bout was a bit more interesting, I won 2 - 0 with a push out of bounds and I successfully defended a shot and managed to take Cameron's back that gave me another point. What are my thoughts after the match? I need to work on my fitness, I'm not sure if it was the day that took it out of my, pressure of winning a match or the driving or something else? but I was tired afterwards and that's something I want to fix. I felt my strength was good and I think I played a very safe, very tactical game, I knew that Cameron had a very good leg attack and my goal was to disrupt that, throw him off his game plan and pick up a couple of points. think that worked quite well. If there is one thing I've noticed since the English Championships its that my wrestling knowledge and know know has really improved... but there is still a hell of a lot of work to get done.
I watched the USA vs. Iran vs. Russia at Grand Central station in NYC the other night, wow! Jordon Burroughs take a bow, his double leg attacks were phenomenal, no idea where he gets the power from when he is on his knees but its impressive!

How is my balancing act with a full time job/wrestling/family/money. I've still not won the lottery which is pretty disappointing, i've not really been playing to be fair but still... that's not the point. It's the last couple of weeks in the month that hit me hardest. Not that i'm bad at budgeting, but the first week of the month wipes me out - mortgage, council tax, bills, food, petrol. I've been managing my time a bit better of late I think. Trying to get sessions in where I can and i'm vowing to start running this week to start increasing my CV capacity. Of course FILA (Governing Body) have changed the rules of the sport which i'll talk about in my next update... I've also got myself a guest blogger for the next Update - Mr. Steven Cote is going to write me a blog post this week giving some interesting insights into the world of wrestling and hopefully on my progress on the mat since we locked horns back in September... i'll keep you posted with that one. Cameron has been helping me out with some training. You may have seen this n Facebook or You Tube but in case you didn't 

This video below is Gareth Jones, one of the Scottish Wrestlers who was competing at the Bolton Open, I thought his bout was really good to watch. It went the full distance. You can check it out here: Gareth Jones - Sharples Bolton Final camera work isn't great

My final thought for the day goes out to an old friend of mine Pete Oshagbemi - I played rugby with Pete years back for Scotland Students, he was a big, strong, fast winger and a lovely bloke. I mention Pete because Pete has started writing a blog, he isn't doing any mad sporting challenge (yet) or reviewing anything in particular but what he is doing is trying to make sense of things and document his thoughts, much the same as me. I read it last week and thought it was a decent effort, a well put together piece of writing. I hope he keeps it up! If you want to have a look you can find it here. Musings of a citizen of humanity just like you!

Right, that's all from me this week. Thanks to everyone who has supported me thus far and who has been been down to the club or through to the Emirates to help with training, always on the look out for new people so feel free to get down!

Cheers

@shocksjr

"Practice makes permanent"

Inspired by a Paralympian...Never Give Up!

Since the novices at the beginning of the month i've been riding a bit higher than normal, it gave me a great boost and a confidence lift that I needed, I know it wasn't the biggest contest in the world but i'm still chuffed to have got a W on the board. 

The last few weeks at wrestling have been great, I've been going back over some of the moves that I was a little rusty on, gator roles, gut wrenches, head locks and leg laces all of which i've enjoyed. My body has held up alright, leg laces are horrible things and wrestling the guys who have been down Craig, Callum, Danny and Dave all of whom love an arm drag has left me covered in bruises but other than that i'm doing fine.

I finally managed to drag my ass back to the Emirates for a spot of wrestling. I haven't been able to fork out the extra cash for a 120 mile round trip but I happened to be in Cumbernauld on Tuesday presenting a breakout session  for the Scottish Sports Development Conference afterwards I was sitting listening to the key note speakers in the afternoon and was inspired. So much so that i'm almost re-energised to increase my efforts and get to the end goal of the Commonwealth Games. It's got me excited again.

David Smith MBE

I don't think that happens all that often... getting inspired or enthused into doing something but I was listening to David Smits' paralympic journey and how they secured a gold at the Paralympics and was pretty much blown away by what had happened to him. In a nut shell, he was in the GB bobsleigh team for the winter Olympics before heading down to the paralympic open day, basically if you have a disability you can do some testing and they match you to a sport. David was born with clubfoot and therefore qualified for paralympics and tested really well for rowing. It's a little more complicated than that but basically he had been feeling not quite right for the 19 years he had been doing sport and was finally diagnosed with a spinal tumour. After surgery he had to reboot his nervous system and teach himself how to walk again amongst other things and wow that was some story. 2 years later he is winning gold. If you ever get the chance to hear him speak, he is a very humble guy but his story is pretty incredible. 

Perseverance is the key

After David Smith there was a talk by David Grevemberg (chief executive Glasgow 2014) about the "legacy" of the games and building a sporting community, inspiring young people. Unfortunately, the speech didn't quite hit the spot for me. I've heard David speak before about the Power of Sport and he was very good, this time it almost felt scripted and lacked a bit of passion but it didn't matter I was already inspired by Dave Smith. Finally to top off the day we had Doctor Andrew Murray to close the conference, he is a great speak and another one I would recommend. He is an ultra marathon runner and is threatening to try out all the commonwealth sports before Glasgow 2014 comes about. I was chatting to him briefly afterwards and we might even see him on a Monday down at the Edinburgh Wrestling Club. The key message I took away from his speech is pictured to the right. Hopefully he will come down to Wrestling...

So I had a revelation that my training kit was in the car and decided to head through to the Emirates after the conference to make a much needed appearance. I text my mate Dave Simm to see if he was about and luckily for me he was and was keen to get down. It was a pretty full on session lots of technique work and Dave is a lefty, which I find horrific to fight against. I can tell that i'm getting better and I think Vio (Scottish Assistant Coach) was relatively pleased. Even better i'm going to head down every Tuesday and that will be my session in Glasgow to keep me in with the coaches. Vio gave me some really good feedback again and whilst I don't want to pre-empt anything, I know know there is still a lot of work to be done its looking possible that I will be making my debut for Scotland in July at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in Edinburgh. That's a really exciting prospect and of course gives me the third platform to qualify for Glasgow 2014. 

So onto Glasgow 2014 itself, people keep on asking me what the likelihood of this actually coming off and me making it to the games. I take an objective view to it. At the moment i'm enjoying the training, I need to work on a few things and find a bit more time to train but overall I think we are still in with a tangible shot at making it. In case you have forgotten how it works. I have my first qualification event in June at the British Championships. If I finish in the top 3 Commonwealth Athletes I have met the qualification criteria. The second is the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in July, I have to be selected to compete in that event but there isn't any reason to suspect I wouldn't be selected at the moment, if nothing else to give me more experience competing against the best in the Commonwealth. If I finish in the top 8 or top 2/3 or the field then I meet the criteria and the British Closed in early 2014 if I medal I will make the criteria. Lets assume I make one of those criteria or lets assume I don't I still have to be nominated by Vlad and Vio to represent Scotland and the final decision is then taken by Commonwealth Games Scotland. The maximum number of competitors is 7 males for wrestling but they could double up a category if they wanted, which they might well do if there is a better chance of a medal. I don't know who we have at what weight category so its hard to say but I'll keep on trucking till I know. Most likely will be British Closed next year but we will need to wait and see you never know, I might get a good draw and qualify before then. It's exciting!

How good does that look!

To finish off i'm going to plug a couple of local companies / organisations in Edinburgh the first is the zoo, great training venue, get yourself a 28 month old and a buggy and go see the big cats. That is a great workout. I was in Leith in Edinburgh over the weekend, my cousin Sheila turned an unspeakable age on Saturday and had a get together party in Wild Creatures, really cool little bar on Leith Walk. The real company I want to mention is the one across the road. I managed to get across the road to Los Cardos for a burrito after the party. These things are amazing. If you are ever on Leith Walk and need a good feed...No... wait... if you are ever in Edinburgh and need a good feed you need to get to Los Cardos It is the bomb!! www.loscardos.co.uk If I could I would eat there all the time.

Thanks to all the guys who have made it down to training over the last couple of weeks and to those who are going to come down, look forward to seeing you there and thanks for the support. 

Thanks for taking time out to read the blog

Cheers

@shocksjr

HERE WE GO!

Since my last impromptu update about the competitions, i've really just had my head down and have been trying to get myself into the mind set I need to be in - that is that i'm officially kicking off my wrestling career in just over a weeks time. I've been asked a few times how I feel about that? and am I ready for that? 

The answer to the first question is that i'm a little nervous. Who wouldn't be? I've been doing this for five months and although I know some of the basics, i've still not fought anyone who is a wrestler and in my weight category, which will no doubt be an issue when I go against the big dogs at the English Championships but at the same time as all that i'm of course excited. It's a great feeling knowing that i'm going to actually get on the mat and compete. I'm currently sitting at about 116kg which is fine, I would have liked to been a bit closer to 118kg - 119kg but there is still time for that. In fact there are 544 days!

Training has been great over the last couple of weeks, back into 2013 with a bang and I have a new programme from Alex that is designed to get me to competition in April, but a few tweaks to get ready for the first competition. I'll get into that in a minute. 

The Wrestling side of things has been good too. Friday two weeks ago l I had a fantastic session with Ewan Maddox. He has a lot to teach me and gave me some great pointers. Steve Cote was coaching and again has a lot of knowledge to pass on. In fact Steve is all about fluidity, he wants to see me go from one move to the next without having to think about it too much. That's one thing I found with wrestling at the start. I didn't know where to go or what to do. My repertoire of moves is getting there, I have them in the bank it's just a case of spotting the opportunity when to use them and at the 120kg weight category, the chances of actually being able to use most of them is pretty slim. We worked on a combo move for me to get a guy from standing into a pin, it works quite well but we will need to see. It's not a sexy weight category to be competing at. Its more of a grapple rather than a throwing match but then again sexy has never really been my style! I would give you my combo, but I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for the guys i'm going to be wrestling down at the English next weekend

Last friday night saw mr Andrew Wildgoose attend wrestling at [EN]GAGE for the first time. Andy is a big boy, a rugby player must be pushing 6'6 and is about 130kg. He is a gentle giant but picked up everything that was thrown at him and again another one who enjoyed himself, we had a wrestle at the end which was really good practice for me to be fighting against someone heavier.

I have only made it through to Glasgow a couple of times in the last few weeks. Not through lack of trying but...

The New car??????

One is cost, my car (god rest its soul) loved a bit of petrol and cost a fortune to travel through, second is work, I have just had a bit too much on to get through. The car packed in, decided it had had enough and that was that this morning. AA popped out to save me again and told me that it was probably the timing belt but likely a bit of damage to the cam shaft. Knackered for those who aren't car people. I'm desperate to buy one of these to the right but I will keep dreaming for now!

However, I managed to get through to Glasgow before it died and met Zane, this mysterious heavyweight who i've heard about. He was described to me as an older hells angel type of guy with a massive beard. It was funny when we met because I half recognised him some somewhere, we had a chat then he came out with "Oh No, you play for those "F**king Edinburgh Eagles, just as I was beginning to like you." I had a good chuckle at that, Zane played for Ayrshire Storm in the Rugby League Conference a couple of years back and was affectionately known as the viking to our lads at the Student Rugby League 9's. It's a small world after all. We got on well, Zane taught me a few things and schooled me on a few others. I always feel coming back from Glasgow that I haven't made good progress, I think its because everyone has been wrestling for longer than me but you live and learn. 

Final opponant over the last few weeks was Coach Cavanagh. It was a fairly even contest (I have a good 15kg advantage) but I will concede this time that he beat me almost fair and square by 1 or 2 points. I say that but he beat me with some crazy move that I didn't see coming. Believe you me, he still has some skills up his sleeve! so depending who you talk to its' 1 all or 2 - 0 in that contest.

 

Onto conditioning - conditioning is what I thought would be my least favourite activity but actually the programme i'm on at the moment is keeping me motivated. It's been tough as you would expect but it's keeping me guessing. The weeks sessions are - Strength, Aerobic, Muscular Endurance, Flexibility, Mobility and Power. Combine all that with a couple of wrestling sessions and you have a pretty intense programme. 

[EN]GAGE has been getting some professional photos done for marketing purposes and part of that was getting some sports in there. Wrestling featured and I got the opportunity to wrestle Alex. I've been hoping they would be up by now but we haven't had them yet so I can't show off the singlet that Michael gave me.

I mentioned in my last blog that this was going to cost me a small fortune, luckily my parents bought me the Wrestling shoes for my birthday. They are in the post thanks to Bank of Mum and Dad, I've been a member there for 29 years! good bank!

Start of the Road to 2014

Even Luckier though was that I had a text the evening after I posted the blog from my Michael who told me to hold off buying the singlets as there might be some old but new one's that he has. Now I didn't think I would ever get excited about a lycra onesie but I was wrong! The two I now have are pride of place hanging in the cupboard because they are awesome. Adidas singlets that are branded with the Team Scotland Logo on the front leg and have SCO on the back. They are the official Team Scotland 2002 Commonwealth Games singlets that were never warn. That to me was pretty special. I of course gave the wife a fasion show that evening and I think I pulled it off. It was a weird feeling. If you have pulled on a jersey that meant a lot to you, I got the same feeling when I put on my jersey for Scotland Rugby League 'A'. Granted the singlet is just my competition singlet but I look forward to the day when I can pull on my own deserved Scotland one. That will be a special moment!

Finally - Now i'm officially registered as a British Wrestler which is cool, officially on the record so its real and even better [EN]GAGE is now a registered club as well! Bonus!


As Always, thanks for reading!

@shocksjr

 

Another Impromptu Update: competitions

Getting thrown in at the deep end somehow isn't a statement that is cutting it at the moment. I was hoping that I would kick off my Wrestling career in a competition where I would be comfortable competing. That would have been the British Novices at Stockport in April, the beauty about the Novices is that all competitors have to have been wrestling for under three years. That was the plan and it was a good plan. Would have given me 12 weeks to prepare and get myself into good nick to compete. 

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" was a quote by Rabbie Burns that my old man once said to me when things didn't quite go the way I had planned. 

Why am I telling you this? well I started my new training programme this week. It's pretty intense, really focussing on developing and maintaining aerobic capacity, anaerobic fitness, strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and power! it's 6 days a week which is pretty tough. I did the Muscular Endurance circuit yesterday and that involved squat jumps, medicine ball rotation slams, bear crawls, kettlebell swings and kettlebell overhead lunges for 5 sets. Yes, I was blowing afterwards but needs must. It's after all 12 weeks till competition season, or is it? 

British Wrestling Association

To even further knacker me out, I then took a trip through with Martin to Glasgow to train at the Palace of Art, my first of 2013. I was chatting to Vio before we started about a whole host of different things and what the plans were for this year. I mentioned that I was planning on entering the British Novices in April as a gentle break into competition but he swiftly said that I really should be entering the English Open, it holds more weight, is a more credible competition and will give me a solid bench mark to find out exactly where I am. You see, if I want to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Games I need to be an institute athlete on the Scottish Wrestling Programme, that comes from a nomination from the Scottish Coaches who say "we think this person should be on the programme." My problem is that whilst I could be nominated now for an institute place, the comments that will come back from John the performance director would be...well what's he done, what competitions has he been to and what are the results. Hence as Vio said "the earlier I can compete the better" and he wants me to compete at the English.

The English Open is in Wolverhampton in three weeks! that means I need to get some new wrestling shoes (no offence Mr. Festorazzi, your dancing shoes have served me well) and need to purchase those sexy singlets as well as registering with British Wrestling. So if there are any birthday treats heading my way. That's all I want.

This week has been good for me though, wrestling on Monday was good fun, Mikey Young managed to get down, which was awesome, he is good fun to wrestle with, a strong lad, not quite at 115kg - 120kg but over the tonne club anyway, so it was good for training. It was a nice surprise to see him training. Monday was all about leg attacks and a few throws, I'm still working on my stance, left still feels a bit unnatural for some things but i'll get there. 

Wednesday's session was tough, event the warm up was tough. Wrestlers can do some crazy things, back-flips and twists and loads of gymnastics style stuff, i'm getting better compared to what I was in September but am not quite there yet, saying that not sure if a heavyweight needs to be. I was wrestling with Pedram and Ali, my two Iranian friends. We spent time on leg attack, leg defence, snap to headlock, par terre and par terre defence. followed by some live wrestling. Pedram is about 80kg at the moment that 35kg less than me and that makes him a hell of a lot more agile and of course a bit quicker. So his leg attacks had me hitting the deck quite a few times. Bigger they are harder they fall and all that and I need to work hard on 

The second point is that I mentioned in the last blog post that the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships would be probably passing me by this year as I need to get a lot better very quickly to get selected to take on the  best in the commonwealth, well i've since been told that might not necessarily be the case. As there is a lack of 120kg Wrestlers and Scotland is hosting the championships, they might decide to enter me anyway just for the experience of competing and again to bench mark where I am against my heavyweight counterparts from the corners of the commonwealth. That's an exciting / scary thought but we will see. This is all just hearsay at the moment, i'm not saying that i'm going to jump onto the institute this year, I might leave it till next year but Vio is right I need to get fighting now! 

Like I said, all very exciting chat even if I am a little nervous about it all

Cheers

@shocksjr