Who knew Brian May was a Wrestler?

Wrestling has had to take a bit of a back seat over the last couple of weeks. It has given me an opportunity for my other persona's to come out... I've been a Pirate through to Brian May from Queen. Keep reading and you'll see.

Alex and I having a cuddle...I mean wrestle

In fact training full stop has been slower and less often than normal. That's not to say I haven't done anything, I have but its been less intense. Following my rib injury I tried to get back into the swing of things with a strength session that included squats, I warmed up and got on with it. Only with 60kg on the bar, the aim was to gradually ease into it but I was still having problems with the rib and couldn't comfortably squat (Do you even lift bro?). That was disappointing but I have developed some new Wrestling specific training with Gerry at work using bands, really good for developing my head snap and neck stabilisation, look like a bit of a knob doing it but its all good! I had an episode with my lower back last week as well, basically the rotational movements and over compensation  because of the rib pain meant that my lumber was killing me, I could barely walk, so called in the big guns and kindly got Laura to do some Kinetic Chain Release, really helped! 

The Gym! I studied Sports and Exercise and It's funny  I've been noticing myself going through the stages of exercise behaviour. If you have ever trained for anything you will know what I mean, you go through the stages of pre contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. Action is the Honeymoon period, you grow to want to spend as much time as you can and its maintenance that is the tricky part and sticking with it. I'm currently in a mix, because I haven't trained I'm gagging to get into the gym  to do some weights, I'm in maintenance / contemplation at the moment if that makes sense. I don't think I'm strong enough or powerful enough yet and I know that so I need to be training. Sometimes its a massive chore and other times I'm really up for it, I guess that comes with the territory with these things.

The last month has been really tough with Cameron and Emma both being sick, its been difficult, lots of waking up in the night and lots of early mornings. For example last night, I went to be just before 11:00pm, was woken up by crying Cameron at 12:00pm, he had puked everywhere, curdled milk mixed with baked beans - disgusting! Emma can't deal with sick and was about as useful as tits on a bull. Anyway 2 hours later we were all back to bed, puke was cleaned, Cameron was bathed and there was a massive pile of stuff for the wash in the morning. Now, as a parent this comes with the territory and It wouldn't be a problem but come 4:00pm - 5:00pm and training time I really just want to get home to rest up. Trying to train properly it is a problem but its a psychological problem and i'm past that as well and ready to get back to work! Although I do need to get more rest.

Iain Feenan (Beast) photo courtesy of www. billykinnear.co.uk 

I have kept up my wrestling at [EN]GAGE, I haven't gotten through to Glasgow as often as I would like, whether its meetings or lack of time, exhaustion or money, I think i've hit all of those "excuses" over the last month. I had a good session with the French boys who can through with Steven Cote and I got a good Wrestle with Danny and Steve. I felt pretty comfortable and it was good fun. Steve keeps on going for the big 3 point throw and I keep on ending up on top of him. Think a change of tactics is needed there, I effectively weigh about a pig heading to slaughter more than Steve.Having said that there are just under 500 days till Glasgow 2014 and I still need to up my game. I need to train and get my skill level to where it needs to be. I got schooled by Gav Clark, former British Judo lad two weeks ago, he is smaller, quicker and more experienced (fighting) than me and ended up royally kicking my ass. It was like I had completely switched off and couldn't get anything to stick. It happens... its  probably happen next week when I will have to take on this brute in the picture above fresh off a win in his MMA career and a Silver medal in the English Judo Championships.
Iain Feenan is again a Judo lad at 81kg and studying at Edinburgh Napier, he is making an appearance at Wrestling for the first time with Rory Monks so you'll get an update on that one in a couple of week. It will be an experience training with them and even more so in the live wrestle at the end of the session. I've been friends with a lot of of the Judo guys for a while now, funding is tight in Judo and all the boys worked the doors down at the 3 sisters and faith, that meant a minimum of 4.5 hours of talking crap and I used to enjoy hearing about how the competitions went and where in the world they were off to next. Hopefully the boys will make up a decent proportion of the JudoScotland team at the Commonwealth Games, they definitely deserve to just a case of qualification.

Obviously, with the lack of training you would think that I have nothing really to write about but I like to think of blog as a diary of activities not just wrestling related, so let me fill you in with what's been happening off the mat...briefly

Freddie and Brian rocking out

Fancy Dress parties have been on the weekends! which has been fun, went to titch's 30th as Brian May supporting Callum as Freddie Mercury and Ross's birthday as a pirate. I've always been a big fan of fancy dress having been on many a night out. 

You may have noticed facebook was littered with Mothers day chat on Sunday, people wishing their mothers a happy day, half of them probably aren't even on facebook I still haven't figured out what that chat is about. What's wrong with a card and a phone call? Anyway, I spent a bit of time up in Pittenweem last weekend. Trying to get the parents house more manageable for my mum who has Multiple Sclerosis and uses a wheelchair. My brother Paul and I decided it was time for us to step up and help out our dad and get the house sorted. It's a big place and pretty tough to manoeuvre  We went up to help and mum made us get in the wheelchair and try to negotiate around. Man it was tough and it gave me a different insight into how mum copes. She is a trooper! My old man does a fantastic job looking after her and I don't think i've supported them enough over the last few years, which I do regret and am going to change. 

Another good thing over the last week is that my brother Adam in the USAF is now a major, that's pretty cool and congratulations to him. I'm really proud of him as well for that, he has done really well for himself after 10 years in the air force. Nathan his son calls me "muppet mike" after my brother taught him. Don't think that will ever change but at least he knows who I am and once Cameron is more coherent I'll get my revenge!

Back into the full swing of things next week with the exception that from tonight i'm going off the radar, a spot of annual leave it's my wedding anniversary this weekend so we are off to the highlands. 1 year of married life is the paper anniversary, nice of them to keep it cheap!

Thanks for taking time out to read

@shocksjr

Note to Self - gut wrenches are not good for the ribs!

After the IOC rocked the wrestling world there have been some pretty big movements on a political stage. Vladimir Putin is supporting a committee that has representation from Russia, the United States, Cuba, Iran and Japan. That's a lot of big hitters in the global community and as Michael Cavanagh pointed out "there aren't many things in the world that would get those countries on the same page" and he's right. Let's just hope the IOC take note and give Wrestling a reprieve in September. You've even had 2 Gold medallists from 1996 and 2000 send their medals back to the IOC in protest and I don't know what I think about that. Pretty extreme but they must feel strongly enough about it to do it.

Bulgarian Valentin Yordanov sends back his medal

Personally, I think the IOC would be pretty stupid not to give Wrestling its spot back, I was reading a blog by a guy called Willie Saylor and the stats he was quoting showed wrestling in a really good light and made you question what the real motives were to recommend Wrestling's removal. He actually highlights some of the things I was rabbiting on about but its worth a read. you can get the link here. One thing the decision has done is increase the profile of the sport.

My training has taken a little bit of a back seat of late. I was having problems with my side for a few days after the English Championships so ended up getting it checked out at the hospital. They reckon there is a cracked rib in there which Ross, my physio/masseuse agreed with. The medical stand point was "Nothing we can do, pain killers and keep mobile"so I continued to train. Problem was that I was getting gut wrenched and that hurt like hell. It must have been the Grecco Champion at the English Championships, he got a beautiful Gut Wrench on me.

On the home front, the family has been in the wars this week as well, Cameron has developed what looks a lot like Chicken Pox and Emma has a pretty bad chest infection, so its fun again this week in my household but on the plus side we are the happy owners of a new car! 

The Emirates Arena in Glasgow

I have had mixed fortunes in my training matches of late which has been annoying. I managed to get to the Emirates arena with Martin just after my last blog update. What a venue! it's an impressive facility and I haven't even sneaked a peak at the Chris Hoy Velodrome yet. The athletics arena is awesome and Wrestling is housed at the back on the balcony, you even get to watch the Glasgow Rocks pro basketball team in the morning sessions. It's pretty cool. I got some good one on one coaching with Vio and Vlad and I got some really good feedback about my speed in attack. That session I would say was the most useful I've had to date. They let me find what I was comfortable with and get my stance sorted before showing me the grips. That's what i've been missing. It's helped me massively, so much so that I finally managed to get a win on the mat against Steven Cote. It's been along time coming! not that I'm going to brag about it too much, that wouldn't be cool but suffice to say I was down by 3 and managed to get a double leg take down and then 2 rolls to win the bout 5 - 3. It was good fun. I could go on but if I was to do that i'd have to admit that Coach Cavanagh beat me the same day 5 - 2 or 5 -3 I can't remember, he is like a raging bull when he is losing!

My success on the mat didn't last long, back in Glasgow two days later I got my ass kicked by Zane and Pedram in a round robin one minute on and one minute off. That was hard going. I just couldn't find my groove and ended up head snapping Zane into my nose which didn't help matters. Still life goes on and I had a special visitor to Friday nights session, my good friend Callum Anderson rocked up for a bit of training and we worked on a move called the suicide throw. Sounds cool but its really just to use when your in trouble. The sneaky git, used it and scored three points to win the first round. Fair play to Callum, he got stuck in, learnt the move and used it well. Luckily for me, I managed to bring him down a peg or two in the next round with a  gator roll from standing. I think he enjoyed himself, might even see him again. 

Volunteer 2014

I've found the last week really infuriating, because my rib is sore I've been over compensating on my left side which has destroyed my back, i've been having massive problems with movement so haven't been training which i've not been enjoying but managed to get on the mat earlier to be in the background for an interview with the BBC. Michael Cavanagh was getting interviewed about the closing of the Glasgow 2014 volunteers which is tomorrow (28th February) If you haven't filled in an application and you are in Scotland - you should get it handed in - there is still time http://www.glasgow2014.com/join/volunteering 

Anyway, Joanne Macaulay from the BBC interviewed me about Volunteering and my exploits on the mat so for all you early birds it should be on Reporting Scotland tomorrow morning. I'm well aware I should have had a haircut! I should say thanks to Alex at this point for letting me throw him around a bit. I got my volunteer application in this evening, I was a little late to the party, but better late than never. Hopefully I'll be competing in 2014 but if not I would love to be there as a volunteer. I can't see there being another Commy Games in Scotland in my lifetime but you never know.

This week, its back to training, I want to hit it hard and get to where I need to be for the British novices in April. I'm looking forward to that one and feeling a lot more confident on the mat!

Thanks for taking time out to read and if you are a heavier lad  at a loose end on Monday lunchtimes or Friday evenings, get yourself down to [EN]GAGE and get on the mat!

Cheers

@shocksjr

Thoughts on the IOC recommendation

I'm taking a break from my normal blog style of telling everyone else what I've been up to in my quest to get to the Commonwealth Games in 2014. Rest assured, it’s all good this week but there are more important things to discuss. I promise my break in normal themes hasn’t got anything to do with losing a match 5 – 2 to Michael Cavanagh on Monday. It was a sad day but great fun and absolutely nothing to do with a cracked rib!

International Olympic Committee

Of course the more important thing this week that I’m blogging about is the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) recommendation to remove Wrestling from the Olympic Games after 2020.That recommendation from the IOC has the potential to put Wrestling on the sporting equivalent of the endangered species list. You may think that's a tad dramatic but indulge me for a minute and I'll qualify that statement. 

First of all let’s take a quick look at Wrestling – Wrestling is one of the oldest combat sports in the world. Historians can track wrestling back 15,000 years but most noticeably and most relevant to this news is that Wrestling was the number one sport in the ancient Olympiad and has featured in every modern Olympic Games bar Paris 1900, that’s a pretty impressive track record. In one sense Wrestling has until now withstood the test of time, holds the traditional values and provides a link back to the ancient history of the games themselves.

Egyptian Burial Chamber drawing depicting wrestling from 2400 BC

The Olympics is steeped in tradition, I for one don’t think enough emphasis has been placed on the traditional values and the merits that the individual sports bring to the modern games. Not only that; but let’s look at the popularity of the sport. Those in the UK will say “What? popularity of Wrestling?” well you’d be surprised, there are over 200 countries across the globe where Wrestling is recognised, in the College set up in the US it is the 6^th most popular sport and their High School programmes last year alone had 280,384 participants pushing Wrestling into the top 10 sports. That’s just the US, look at Russia, Eastern Europe, India, Canada and Iran to name but a few and I’ll bet you have a hell of a lot of world wide participants. Granted the UK only had 701 registered Wrestlers last year but there were more who aren’t affiliated to the National Governing Body.

Here are my thoughts - In my view what makes the Olympic Games the greatest sporting competition in the world are the principles that they were founded upon. The Olympic Charter speaks of Olympism. They describe Olympism as a philosophy of life that combine the qualities of mind, body and will, blending sport with culture and education. The Olympic Charter goes on to state that the goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind and that the practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic Spirit. 

Unfortunately, In my view I don’t feel the vision and values that the Olympics and the IOC should hold to its core match the current situation that we find ourselves in today. Once upon a time the Olympic Games were about Amateur athletes coming together to compete for their nations but nowadays that’s been lost in the commercialisation of sport. Wrestling lost its place because the IOC deemed there to not be enough global popularity, the volume of ticket sales and its sexiness for a television audience. I’m paraphrasing of course but they could have just said... Money!

I would like to think that because I’ve not been involved in Wrestling for that long, I can take a slightly objective view of their decision but to be frank I think they have made the wrong choice. The IOC are trying to modernise, I get that. It’s essential for every organisation to move with the times, the Olympics is now big business with big sponsors and they can and need to continue to attract big television audiences and ticket sales, how do you maximise TV audiences and Sponsorship? you get the big names from the big team sports but I would argue that its taking away from the whole ethos of the Olympics?

GB had Andy Murray playing tennis, whilst it was great for GB to medal. I watched (on TV) Andy Murray play in the Wimbledon final three weeks prior to the Olympics starting. Don’t get me wrong, it’s done wonders for Tennis, but the question is, did Tennis really need the extra exposure of being an Olympic sport?

The question I would ask to the IOC is why do we need to lose any of the smaller sports, the IOC claim that the cap on sports is to allow for manageable organisation but surely Tennis, Rugby, Football and Golf all have their rightful places away from the Olympics. If I wanted to watch a contest of any of the above sports I could do so easily throughout the year, every year because they all have majors, grand slams, world cups and International Competitions. What’s next Olympic F1?

Save Olympic Wrestling

Back to one of my opening comments, the endangered species. Wrestling has the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games, yes it’s got Regional and World Championships in Europe, Asia and the Americas but taking the carrot of the Olympics away from Wrestling would be like taking away the Football World Cup. Wrestling is very much a development / grass roots sport and if you take away something as large as the Olympics, then what do the young one’s have to aspire to. You are almost guaranteed to see the world wide participation rates decline. For those nations not in the Commonwealth, what do they have left on an international profile raising stage?

You have to hope that the people at the IOC have thought about it and aren't just bowing down to the political, corporate and commercial pressures that have been festering within sport over the last few years. The IOC has an obligation to protect the autonomy of sport; that means to keep it independent, to me that means forget the politics and forget the commercialisation and let sport be sport. Let’s hope they see sense and keep Wrestling where it is...where it deserves to be. 


Thanks for taking time out to read

@shocksjr

The Baptism of Fire

With my inaugural competition out of the way, i've had a bit of time to look back and reflect about it. The whole purpose of entering the English Wrestling Championships was to benchmark against the best and figure out where I was standing in the grand scheme of things. As it turned out things probably couldn't have been much better for bench marking but it was a long slog and a tough draw.

With a week to go I knew that I had to get myself mentally and physically prepared. I treated it as if it was an important rugby match, that's all I really know and although I was happy with the prep there are things I would like to change for next time. 

The week leading up to competition I had all my sessions as normal, I managed to get in the wrestling, flexibility and mobility sessions, KCR and and had a really good massage off Pav, my hamstrings and quads were loose and my calves weren't too bad the only issue I had was with the small of my back, it was a little tight but all in all in good shape even after a light Wrestling technique on Friday night

Love a steak 16oz

My flight to Bristol was Saturday morning 8:45am meaning I needed to get to the airport for 8:00am, no problem except that Cameron has been suffering all week from a viral infection called slap cheek and was up every half hour through the night, I think I got 2 hours total. Not great two nights before competition. Anyway I made the flight and spent the day with Simmo helping him wit some rugby stuff in Bath and Bristol. What facilities they have down there, there Bristol Sports Academy and University of Bath - phenomenal! We had a good feed for lunch, I managed to devour 16oz steak no problem and probably couldn't have eaten any more on the Saturday after my chicken loaded pasta that evening. 

Early to bed and up at 5:30am the next morning for the 2 hour journey up to Wolverhampton. I have to say at this point that Simmo did me a solid favour over the weekend. He drove me up to Wolverhampton he then had to get to Bath for Rugby before coming back to get me in Wolvemhapton and taking me home again. 400 Miles in total that's the equivalent of driving from Edinburgh to London. Thank you very much mate! 

Aldersley Sports Village, Wolvermhampton - just before weigh in

I arrived in Wolverhampton in good time for Weigh in and despite my protein and carb fest the day previous I only managed to weigh in at 115.2kg - standard weight for me at the moment. I watched as the place filled up scouting out the heavyweights. The current British Freestyle Champion Chinu Chinu rocked in, he is a big man. I've been trying to find a picture but none really do his size justice. There were a couple of others 9 in total fighting in my weight category. 

It was pretty busy must have been 400 - 500 people there in total including 220 competitors meaning a lot of matches. The bouts were released and I got a bye in the first round which was fine and I got drawn against Chinu in the second. That meant that I would be taking on the British Freestyle Champion in my first ever proper wrestling encounter. It was a long wait, Chinu came and found me because he was a little confused that after my name came ENG and he didn't know who I was. I explained that ENG wasn't England and was in fact [EN]GAGE Wrestling Club. The prep before you fight is odd (well to me anyway), there are two extremes, those who are sociable and talk to anybody and then there are those who chill out and keep themselves to themselves. I watched a lot of wrestling and did a fair bit of talking, I was just trying to get a feel for the place but next time I'd like to focus a bit more on my matches. That said, I did have to wait 3 hours until I was on.

I sat down with my coach on the day and asked for advice, we joked and agreed the best thing to do was "run!". Seriously though, the recommendations were to stay away, defend and try to last out the round. That plan would have been good if Chinu hadn't been as strong and powerful as he was. Stepping onto the mat to face him was fairly intimidating, he is a bit lad and the lats on him we more like wings. Let's not beat around the bush, he dominated me and smashed me and i'm happy to accept that. There was no way I could have beaten him with my knowledge or skill

Chinu Chinu in blue (photo copyright Nigel Farrow)

I wouldn't go as far to say I was a bunny in headlights but I wasn't expecting the power that came from his head snap. He managed to head snap me and try to move around the back. Once I knew he was on his way behind me I went to default par terre postion, on my front on the mat. A good idea in principle but he managed to turn me and I was in a pretty crap position that I shouldn't have let myself get into. All in about 20 seconds! I was on my back, bridging, moving my shoulders off the ground, I could feel him pushing me towards the edge of the mat and the umpire about to call us back up after about another 20 - 30 seconds. Normally you would get called up after 10 - 15 unless there is scope for a pin. For a second my back was flat on the floor and the umpire called the pin. A pretty easy second round fight for Chinu and a massive learning experience for me. 

Wrestling is a lot more technical than most people give it credit for and I can tell you that rolling around on the mat under the weight of the British Champion only for 30 seconds trying to avoid a pin is physically and mentally draining. His power was something else and something that I really need to work on, I wasn't expecting the aggression that he had and have decided that I'm far too nice on the mat and need to find a nasty streak to start winning matches.

So that was the end of that. Chinu had in all senses on the word smashed me on the mat, it was good to get that experience but I was in effect out of the competition unless Chinu made it through to the Gold medal match. Which, of course he did. That meant Repêchage and another crack at the whip. I was only two bouts off a bronze medal but got drawn against the British Roman Grecco Champion who was trying his hand at Freestyle. He had done freestyle before and a bit of kick boxing so was expecting a quick exit. We got on the mat, had a scuffle and a bit of pushing, he tried the head snap, I defending this time and was doing ok but ended up getting gut wrenched stupidly 3 times in a row and that was the round! The second round went a lot better, I was getting pushed towards the edge and managed to get a throw in but was countered and lost that encouter. I did manage to get a single leg take down on the Grecco champ but didn't close it and hold him once it was complete so was a bit of wasted effort and got a pulled external oblique for my trouble. The round finished with another counter from him after I tried a throw and that showed that he was more experienced than me. I was a lot happier with that performance.

All in all a good day, the match against Chinu was a bit of a waste of time on the wrestling front but did give me a flavour of how powerful the best are and that's what this was about. I chilled out that evening with an uneventful night in Bristol, a couple of catch up pints with Simmo and the superbowl before passing out and heading home on Monday afternoon. Even got an easyjet upgrade (if there is such a thing) to better leg room seats, the flight attendant took pity on the two elderly ladies I was about to sit in between.

As Promised   singlet photo (ignore the socks)

So where does this leave me apart from in a bit of pain when I turn or rotate. Well, fighting the best was a privilege and showed me exactly how much I have to learn. I need to really hone down the fundamentals and develop the power. I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I may get the opportunity to compete in the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in July, for me personally; as much as I would love to, I think this would be a step too far, I'm not ready for that and I wouldn't fare to well against the best in the commonwealth but that's for the coaches to decide. I've got a lot of training to do between now and then and the first qualification event in June. 

How are my Commonwealth Games 2014 qualification chances looking? I'm under no illusion that things are going to be tough, realistically if I'm going to qualify it will be at the British Closed Championships early next year. That would give me a year to buck up and learn the basics well. I'll still be entering the British and the other events but you have to be realistic about what you can achieve and luck can only take you so far! 

The next event for me is in April in Manchester at the British Novices! Looking forward to that one and starting training again. 

Thanks again for taking time out to read, and thanks especially to Simmo for his efforts last weekend #headofmoral 

For those of you who don't know the UK that well this is the journey that the big fella racked up this weekend. What a trooper! I did give him petrol money! not that tight!

Bristol - Wolverhampton - Bath - Wolverhampton - Bristol = Edinburgh - London

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

It's a Happy New Year - 567 Days to go!

RAAAAR!

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Thanks to Andy Grodyński for taking time out to do the last blog update. I know what he is thinking, was his post more popular than Simmo's? the truthful answer at the moment...no... It's a dead heat at the moment. The most popular post is still of me doing my VO2 max, bunch of sadists who enjoyed watching that.

So what has my foray into the wrestling world come up with in the last few weeks. I guess first off to report, i was kindly asked by my employers Edinburgh Napier University to take some time out to do a podcast for them, it was pretty good fun, the interview itself was a good laugh, if a bit alien, not used to having someone ask you questions about what you a doing and why. Its weird to hear back because its only me talking, they cut out all the questions which is why its just me rabbiting on. I think it was alright, but you can decide for yourself. if you didn't catch it on Facebook or twitter you can have a listen here... Edinburgh Napier University Podcast 

The most exciting / scary thing in the last couple of weeks is that I now have my qualification targets for the year. I'm going to enter into 11 competitions over the next year. The first competition will be the British novices in April. It's great to have a target and puts things into perspective a little bit for me and will probably make the blog a little more interesting, knowing that there are actually competitions coming up. Training will have to be increased in the new year dramatically. This just got real!

Why is it a little exciting and scary? Well the reasons because I could potentially know if I'm going to be competing at Glasgow 2014 in June. That's only 6 months away! It's a mind blowing thought. If I'm not quite ready for those competitions though, it's not the end of the world as there are three Commonwealth Games qualification tournaments. The first is the British Open in June, I will be competing at that one, the second is the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in July, I would have to be selected for that by the Scotland squad to compete in that. Whilst its doable, I would have to become a lot more succinct in what I'm doing to compete properly and need a hefty amount of training and bouts under my belt before that would happen, so not pinning my hopes on that one.

The third is in 2014 itself and is the British closed championships, I'm going to be competing in that one too. For the British open and closed championships I need to finish in the top 3 British athletes. That means that I could for example finish 5th overall but if there is only a British athlete in 4th or higher and the rest are Iranian then I would qualify. They are the two events I'm hoping to target and get my qualification in. You can view the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Qualification document here if you re interested.

Wrestling finished up at [EN]GAGE a week before Christmas and it was the same in Glasgow, so I'm tried to do what I could at home whilst there isn't any wrestling training, that included a couple of flexibility sessions and body weight sessions, I could have done more my immune system seems to have taken a pounding and I spent the majority of the last week in bed.

Scottish Wrestling Association

The last wrestling session was great. Ewan Maddox 96kg commonwealth hopeful was my sparring partner, he is similar to Martin, albeit a lot bigger. he is a former rugby lad who has been Wrestling for 3 years or so. He showed me some good stuff, we had a good bout at the end of the session, he beat me (not surprisingly) but it was a closer contest than I thought it would be. It's tough fighting the smaller guys, they are quicker than I am and it's not too realistic for a 120kg contest, so I still haven't got a bench mark.

Truth be told, I can't wait to get back to work so I can't really start hitting the training hard for the next 6 months. The last 4 months have been physically and mentally demanding, there have been times where i've wondered what the hell I'm doing, is there any point? Or i've been so unmotivated that I've just wanted to call it quits and find something a little easier to take up but I find wrestling easier and less frustrating than golf!

That said, I've developed my mental strength, fought through and trained when I really didn't want to train, I guess that's part and parcel or trying to do something like this. No one has ever said it was going to be easy and I wasn't under any illusions. Life for me at the moment is great, despite the financial burdens of everything I've moaned about over the last few posts. I'm in a good place and really happy, wrestling definitely has something to do with that.

I'm well aware that some "friends" may think I'm a little dull or boring because I'm not going out as much or getting pissed as often as I used to, and still think I'm wasting my time with the wrestling: simple facts to ponder: you have to grow up at some point, children are expensive and what's wrong with having a goal? even if I don't make Glasgow, I'll be looking for a spot in 2018. Fact of the matter is I've managed to find a sport I really enjoy, I love the respect that comes with it on and off the mat and the people involved, only regret is that I didn't have the opportunity to take it up earlier.

Leon Rattigan - English and GB wrestler at 96kg and commonwealth bronze medallist, I take a bit of inspiration from him and like him mantra on life.

Leon Rattigan - 96kg Commonwealth Bronze Medallist

I enjoy Leon's words of wisdom on twitter @LeonRwrestler he quoted Eleanor Roosevelt last month and its something that resonated with me.

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

Nothing could be more apt.

Leon is offering his expertise for coaching in wrestling and MMA clubs, would love to have him up in Edinburgh but if your interested you can find out more and how to contact him here


Anyway, Christmas nights out have come and gone. The importance of any training programme is to have a break every now and again and rest up, people seriously under estimate the importance of rest.  I had a brilliant night out with the guys from the [EN]GAGE wrestling club including our two coaches Steve and Michael. Was great to hear about their experiences and have a bit of banter over a couple of pints. I took advice from Alex and didn't go crazy and I didn't get drunk, so don't worry.

NEENAW

Christmas was spent at home in Tranent with my wife and kid, first one on our own and it was brilliant, very chilled out but great to see the little guy on Christmas Day, having a child brings back the excitement and magic of Christmas. I helped Santa put together Cameron's new "Neenaw". we travelled to my folks on Boxing Day, caught up with the brothers abroad  on skype and at home and I even defeated my old man at trivial pursuit. Somehow lost to my mum in Tripoli... Unbelievable!

We spent a couple of days in Pittenweem before heading up north to visit Emma's folks and sisters, it's always good heading up there, big fire in the front room, well fed and a couple of whisky's. I've even managed not to overindulge myself, by steering clear of the dreaded bowl of chocolates! Cameron cleaned up on the presents as normal and i've spent the majority of my time either in bed or on the sofa trying to get rid of this infection!   

2013 heralds a pretty big year, there is a lot to look forward to and I can't wait to get stuck in there and give this year everything I have. Emma mentioned to me last night that she thinks I could give a little bit more to #mission2014 and she wants me to do it and work my ass off the next year and a half to qualify! So that's that, if that's what the boss says, who am I to say no!

Thanks for taking time out to read the blog and Have a Great 2013! 

Cheers

@shocksjr