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