Light at the end of the tunnel

It’s about time I updated my blog, It’s been about 3 weeks and it’s been a long three weeks at that. Let me give you an update on where we are at the moment. I’ve been through a rollercoaster of emotions over the last couple of weeks. I was depressed, unmotivated, sad, frustrated and angry that I hadn’t met the criteria for Commonwealth Games selection which is still grating at me a little bit. I totally appreciate that these things happen but what a pain in the arse.

Pain equivalent - heart attack (fact)

Why was I feeling like this well, what seems to be the trio diagnosis of my injury is torn cartilage, costchondral separation and to top it off… fractured ribs. I felt awful at my first day of work, I was struggling to move, breath and probably visibly distressed. I’m still feeling pretty uncomfortable now and I’m just sitting. Now the pain feels like a stitch that you get when you run but two weeks ago I went through some of the worst pain I have ever felt. Scary Pain! I was driving home after a Scottish Student Sport committee day and had a sneezing fit on the city bypass travelling at about 60 mph I almost lost control but managed to save it. The pain was a searing pain close to my heart, it felt like I had been stabbed, someone was squeezing my chest, the whole episode took me about 20 seconds to recover. After that incident, nights of restless sleep I decided it was time to pay the doc another visit.

The doc was pretty good, empathetic to my plight at least and unsurprisingly it was the first time he had ever written a prescription for the cause of Olympic Freestyle Wrestling. My main issue was that I couldn’t sleep which to me meant that my body wasn't recovering well or at the very least quick enough, my point being that I wanted to get back onto the mat as soon as physically possible. He did reckon that the sneezing fit had fractured a rib due to the lack of support from the separated rib. He prescribed me some Supradol and Diclofenac in its droves to control the inflammation and numb the pain. With the Supradol, it was predominantly to knock me out at night and it did the trick, hadn’t slept so well in weeks but it did mean that I couldn’t drive.

I’m upset that I’ve lost out on 3 weeks of training already, I won’t be ready to hit the mat again properly for another 8 weeks or so but next week I’m starting to build up my cardiovascular endurance again, nothing strenuous but I need to get back doing something. I did try this 3 days after injury and was ok, iced down the chest and did some really light exercises (3kg fly) looked like a real hard man in the gym lifting those bad boys.

So... it’s been a frustrating couple of weeks, next week brings a new dawn in the training, it is going to be tough, I’m running a kids camp at work for 23 kids but luckily team [EN]GAGE will be on hand to deliver a fantastic week of activities. but I will need to chuck in some training as well. The key to this is to avoid reccurance 

Global blog - pretty cool


I was a little bit down at the end of my last blog post, I thought of it as me being a bit of a realist and I didn’t want to have expectations of making the Games next year, it still blows my mind thinking about it. This quest that Michael Cavanagh mused on me has taken its toll, I’ve put a lot into it. Sure, there are times when I could have and should have done more but I am where I am and I’m pretty happy with that. I feel like I have sacrificed a lot for this, I’ve completely stripped my social life down to the occasional catch up with friends and probably lost touch with a few more mates than I would have liked. I lost a few at the very start who thought that wrestling was stupid thing to take up and that I wouldn’t have the ability or conviction to get there and that took its toll mentally. At the end of the day It’s been tough but I have had a fantastic amount of support from a lot of great people and I’m lucky to have them in my life. They know who they are but what is cool about keeping this blog, I can thank them publicly. I read it back and it’s been an interesting journey, it’s been read over 6000 times from countries all across the world. In the last month alone people have been reading from the UK, USA, Germany, France, China, Russia, Netherlands, Poland, Canada and Australia which is incredible.

So for all those people across the world and particularly to my friends and family, I am absolutely delighted to say that I had a moment yesterday that made the slog of #mission2014 and everything over the last 10 months’ worth it.

I was lucky enough to get an email yesterday from Colin McLaren, wrestling team manager for Commonwealth Games Scotland who informed me that I have been put forward as the 120kg potential competitor for the Commonwealth Games 2014. To top it off, my friend Martin King is the same boat. A lot of other people have been working a lot longer and I hope they get their just reward.

On the horizon - fingers crossed

it’s by no means a definite that I will be competing at the Commonwealth Games, Glasgow 2014. I have to get a podium finish in the British Closed Championships next year to earn my place in Team Scotland and even then I think that Team Scotland will have to approve everything but I’m closer than I was and that’s the main thing. That said hearing that I have been officially put forward has renewed my motivation, passion, vigour and to have a target is and always has been important in this. It’s amazing to be recognised as having potential to do something and its thanks to everyone who has supported me thus far and for the coaches and management of Scottish Wrestling for seeing a bit of potential that they can work with. My thanks especially has to go to Michael Cavanagh and Steven Cote for the hours of coaching they have put in and the things they have taught me. Final shout out goes to my friends and family, guys who have taken time out to wrestle and the support of family and family in law.

Still lots of work to do but we are back on track and it feels amazing!

As always, thanks for taking time to read.

Cheers

@shocksjr

Scottish Wrestling

Back again - Day 2

The Goal

As you can probably tell, I'm really excited about this new venture into the Wrestling world and am really positive that I can qualify for Glasgow 2014. I can't wait to start training properly. It's been ages since I've had a proper focus for sport and ages since I've had the motivation to do something. Almost feels like a switch has been flicked and my focus completely restored. I have got too many people involved with helping me get to where I want to be to pull out, so either way this is going to be happening.

I've been doing a bit of research into how things work with the Wrestling and think I've managed to get my head round what needs to be done. I'm hopefully catching up with Michael Cavanagh tomorrow who will be able to give me some guidance and make sure i'm on the right track. 

At the moment my target is to compete and win the Scottish Open Championships in 2013, then Finish in the top 3 of the British Championships in 2013 before finishing top 8 in the Europeans in March 2014 before the Commonwealth Games in July 2014. That should allow me to qualify for the CWG... in theory although the official seclection criteria is still to be realeased.

So, that gives me a year to learn the ropes of wrestling and get into really good shape to be able to compete.

My training is officially starting on 13 August with fitness testing. VO2 max testing, anthropology and 1 RM testing. I'm dreading it a little bit... haven't done a VO2 max since my second year in uni almost 10 years ago. Plus I know that I'm not that fit and am sporting more fat than I would care to have for this sort of testing. I suppose the final thing is that I haven't been hitting the weights very hard over the last couple of months but can probably still shift enough to get me started.

Alex Rawcliffe - my S&C coach

It's all relevant anyway, everything will give me a baseline a that will gauge my progress and in that sense I'm looking forward to it.

My new training diet also starts on the 13th, a friend of mine who is clued up in that field in sorting me out with that side of things.

Tuesday the 14th will be the first day of the programme and my S & C coach Alex hasn't given me any details except to say that "he is going to break me in that session." Which is fine. #gohardorgohome

James Millar - my Grappling / Throws coach

Tuesday also sees my throw coach coming in to burst me on the mat and start to give me some basic know how on grapples and throws. James Miller is my throws coach, he has represented GB judo on a number of occasions and is a good friend of mine. Looking forward to working with him. Jig as he is affectionately known is a lot smaller than me, but I cant wait for him to put me through my paces.

Wrestling itself in Scotland is a bit of an anomaly, I want to join a club but the nearest one is about 60 miles away from me in either Stirling or Glasgow but needs must and I'll be joining one in January to improve my wrestling skills and of course learn the rules! That is of course until we have a club set up out of [EN]GAGE in Edinburgh.

I'll get my first taste of wrestling coaching tomorrow and see what's what and how its done. very excited about that and the next few weeks.


Twitter: @shocksjr

Where better to start than at the start!

Well... This is my Blog - i've never done one before so we shall see how it goes. 

This is all about the journey i've decided to embark on to try and get myself to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games as a Wrestler in the 120kg weight category. 

A bit about me and why i've decided to do this? 

I would class myself as a very average guy, there isn't really anything special about me. The basics are that i'm Scottish / American (My old man is from Edinburgh / and my mum from Kansas), I'm 28 and married with a little boy. I'm 6'2 and a little bit over weight, the last time I had a 6 pack I must have been about 8 years old. I'm a graduate from Edinburgh Napier University in Sports Science and one of the few to work in my chosen field in the Sports Sector. My mates call me "Shockers" after my brothers before me and I suppose the other thing that makes me normal is that I have financial worries just like every other new family man. Pretty bog standard.

I've played sport as long as I can remember, rugby was my forte but I was always pretty good at Athletics in particular the shot putt and discus. Towards the latter days of my school career I played for Fife Chargers in the county rugby set up and played midlands rugby union before getting dropped just before the making a regional team called the Caledonia Reds. To be fair I had a shocker of a game and that was the end of my climb up the rugby union ladder. 

My brother Adam after a tour to France

My older brother Adam used to come back from uni with all sorts of cuts and bruises and once with a broken thumb and that got me interested. He was playing rugby league for Scotland Students and got me involved in the first ever Scotland Rugby League under 18 squad. We played France in Peebles and got humped by about 40 points, but it was a good experience and since I went on to play for Scotland Rugby League about 60 times at various levels. Never made it pro though.

I've had my share of injuries. I'm 28 now, 11 years ago I had my first keyhole surgery on my knee which was a bit of a bugger, it set me back a little bit having my cartillage out. I made it back to form and to a national level and blew my knee out completely in 2005. I was playing for Scotland Students in the World Cup in Australia against New Zealand. 

When you get an injury like I received that day everything happens so quickly but I seem to remember it in slow motion. This monster of a kiwi came running towards me I stepped forward, planted my left leg and threw my shoulder into him. This guy was a mutant and just ran over me, I remember trying to pull him down, realising my leg was stuck, it hyperextended as I fell backwards and twisted, completely tearing the ACL. very painful. If you ever see a footballer on TV rolling around, you know they aren't really injured. When that happens and you hear your knees cracking, you don't move a muscle.

Anyway, I made it back to play for Scotland and it was a great achievement for me after thinking I was done. Actually my comeback was a complete fluke, in 2009 I was helping out with the coaching of the Scotland A squad and we had a few injuries which meant I was drafted into play against Wales, did alright and that was me back in the fray.

Playing for Scotland 'A' against England (2010)

In 2010, after a fantastic international and domestic season I was playing in the Scottish Grand Final for my club "Edinburgh Eagles" and in the last moments of the game jarred my knee against someone. It was sore but not too bad, on MRI I found out the PCL had torn and from then I decided my competitive sporting career was over.

In fact, it was over until about a month ago when I decided to play Rugby in a friendly match. I miss playing competitive sport dearly so it was nice for a run out. I managed to show the young bucks how its done a little and like anyone else, its nice to know you still have it! Anyway, I played my last game of rugby last week for Edinburgh Eagles 2nd team and got hammered 84 - 4. You'll never guess where the 4 points came from!! 

More to the point though... Wrestling!

I know pretty much bugger all about it. All I know is that Michael Cavanagh who is the Chairman of Commonwealth Games Scotland and a wrestler himself popped in for a meeting at my work about setting up a wrestling club, he was looking for a 120kg man with a sports background who might take up wrestling as we (Scotland) haven't really got anyone in that weight category. 

I joked with him about me getting back into training and going for it and his parting words were "aye, see you at Glasgow 2014". I went home reflected on it, spoke to the wife and a couple of others and now here I am, ready to start training for the Commonwealth Games 2014. 

I've managed to get myself a Sport Scientist, Strength and Conditioning Coach and even a nutritionist and a throwing coach to start me on my quest. So i'm all set and the 13th August is my start date.

Honestly, I have no idea how it will go, I dont even know the rules of the sport or what style i'm going for... but what I do know is that i've been inspired by the Olympics and inspired by my friend Euan Burton. He won't know this but he is a two time Olympian and his commitment really is inspiring and I want to have that. Euan has had a tough time at London 2012 but he'll bounce back. I'm 100% motivated to do this and want to compete for my country but most of all I want to try a new sport and fall back in love with competing. I've never really done any individual sport, so this will be a test but I'm confident I can make it!

So to sum up - I'm an average bloke, who has been inspired and is motivated to try this and see if its possible. I don't have a clue really about the road ahead but for me all signs are pointing to Glasgow 2014 and that's where I want to be in 2 years time!

watch this space!!

Oh and you can catch me on Twitter - I've only just set it up, hence hardly any followers: @shocksjr