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

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