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

Guest Christmas Blogger - Andy Grodynski

Being a master of persuasion, I managed to get Andy Grodynski to write me a little piece for the blog. Andy is a good friend who has packed up his life and moved to Australia which is a little sad as we don't get to see him much any more, still there is a holiday friend to tap up when I get to Oz! Andy has more passports than James Bond and Jason Bourne put together... He is a little bit British, Polish, Indonesian and Australian. Pick one of those four for a place to set up shop and its not a surprise he has headed down under to show them how to do some engineering. He is only back for three weeks and managed to get a wrestling session in, which was great fun.

Before I let you read any further I should state that Andy was "emotionally compromised" from excessive alcohol consumption at time of writing and claims to have been lurking in a dark place on Struggle Street. 

Thanks for doing the Blog Andy, I appreciate it and hope you have a safe trip back home to Brissy!

All the best

@shocksjr

Grod vs.Shocks but really vs. Simmo

Andy Grodynski        -             Shortround

Mike, or Shockers, as I’ve always known him, managed to appeal to my competitive side when he said Aran Simm’s guest blog entry would be a tough one to beat on the hits!  So, here we go… I’m Andy, otherwise known as Grod, or Short Round, due to my slight resemblance to Harrison Ford’s sidekick in Temple of Doom. 

I first met Mike nearly six years ago, making my debut for the Scotland U18s RL side, where he was part of the coaching staff.  I must have been doing something right because he encouraged me to get along to play for the Edinburgh Eagles and the Napier University side.  A handful of Student and Amateur caps and 4 Grand Final wins later, I’m now playing rugby league in Brisbane, and have much to be thankful to Mike for getting me involved in the early days.

I made the escape to warmer climates just over year ago and have missed a big year for Mike and his family.  I left not long before his son’s first birthday, missed out on his stag doo and had to be content with viewing his wedding through photos!  And then there was the announcement that he had taking up wrestling!

At first I thought the pressures of parenthood and married life had hit him really hard – so I had to Skype home to make sure he was feeling okay!  However a thirty minute chat, and a bit of assurance from Emma, it was clear to see he was intent on giving the wrestling a real go.  He has done really well to get a great back-room team up and running for him very quickly – he’s got fantastic facilities and a great team at work, and I know Emma and Cameron are rooting for him at home.

I already knew I would be home for Christmas, so as well as making sure I caught up with him and Emma, I was definitely going to get along to one of his sessions to see how it was all going.

Napier Rugby League league winners 2008/2009

I rocked up to the Friday night Wrestling session not really sure what to expect.  There was some chatter amongst the other guys about different techniques; ways to win points; ways to win more points; ways not to lose points; and very quickly I was aware I didn't have the slightest clue about any of the rules!  The speed of the session was good for me – after a quick warm up we went through an hour or so of technique work.  I was fascinated by a lot of the drills we went through, which ranged from take-downs, headlocks and some counter moves.  I had no idea that the sport was so technical, as I thought wrestling was just about throwing your opposite man into the ground.  Some of the techniques were transferable to rugby league, but I’m not sure how legal the headlocks are in my game!  I think I've forgotten a lot of the technique stuff already, and whatever I did manage to retain got thrown out of me when the session moved into a few bouts.  The bouts were fun to watch – there were an obvious variety of different fighting backgrounds amongst the other boys and it was interesting to see them fight against each other.  I was a bit apprehensive about taking on Mike as he’s got nearly 30 kilos on me in weight, but (I think) I held my own and came out in one piece!  As there’s no video evidence, I might try and tell people I dominated the bout!

Proof that there are headlocks in rugby league

I was very impressed by the session and the setup at the [EN]GAGE centre at Sighthill, and really enjoyed my short session there.  I’d love to be able to do more to support Mike his bid for a spot at the games - I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye out on his progress from across the globe.  Although his foray into the wrestling world may seem a bit left field to a lot of people, he’s made a huge amount of progress in a just a few months, and has a big year of graft and training ahead of him.  The Commonwealth Games in 2014 is a huge incentive for him, and I know he’s got the added personal incentive of doing it for Emma and Cameron.  

I hope a few more of his friends can get behind him and give him the support he deserves to ensure that the next time I’m back in Scotland, it’ll be 2014 and I’ll be cheering him on from the stands at the Commonwealth Games!


@the_grod

Getting used to wrestling and my SPOTY predictions

Its been a fairly quiet couple of weeks, I hit training again hard, had some great sessions in the gym and managed to get in some full weeks of wrestling, there is so much to learn and its all about figuring out and being familiar with what you can do when you're put into different situations. I am getting better every week and learning some new techniques. I was describing wrestling to someone last week and its really all about levers and momentum, learning how people move and how you can make people move. For example, when someone pushes against you, use that momentum to your advantage and drag them or manipulate them into a position where you have an advantage. 

I'm starting to get better with the moves from standing, I wasn't great with that and was more comfortable working on the floor using headlocks or gut wrenches, both perfectly good moves but I wanted to be able to take people down or get behind them to get more points in a match. I'm doing alright considering its only been 3 months.

I've had an interesting couple of weeks, the last Wednesday I was through in Glasgow - to start I got to do some video analysis on Nikos, my wrestling counterpart at [EN]GAGE he has been getting in some extra training! For the session,  I was again working with Sean Keogh, who was teaching me some of the basics and some new trip moves that I hadn't done before. He is ridiculously good at them and they are pretty uncomfortable. The latter part of the session was a circuit for the institute athletes and that meant that Martin and I got to work with Vio (Scotland Assistant Coach) who was showing us some things that we can do from standing, much like a rugby tackle. The feedback Martin and I got from Vio after the sessions was fantastic, Martin - I think is close to institute level, his commitment is outstanding and he is a very good wrestler. For me, the feedback was "You are beginning to move more like a heavyweight but more dynamic, I see a lot of potential." I was pretty happy with that. Vio is from Moldova and Eastern Europeans don't beat about the bush, so that's good feedback

Sean Keogh - headlocking

My heavyweight friends, or just friends in general are lacking a little at training at the moment, I could do with a partner to train against on a Monday and a Friday who is over 100kg. So I will put out a little plea to anyone who is available, if you have a bit of time get along to the sessions and help me out. The session on Monday, Michael Cavanagh (coach) was my training partner, that was an experience, its always a little daunting going against someone who is coaching you but we did all right, we even had a two minute bout at the end, I managed to score which was good but Michael shucked me and he managed to level, so in that fight we finished with a draw. I'm happy with that!  It was nice to see Scott Hislen trying his hand at wrestling as well. This Friday though, I've got Andy Grodynski coming down to Wrestle, He isn't in my category but he has been in Australia for the last year and wants to see what all the malarkey is like! There have been mutings that Mr. Gordon Cox will get down to training to complete his year of sport, but i'm not going to hold my breath, a former uni rugby player at school he moved to shooting, so I think the chances of getting him on the mat are slim to none!

Really want to wrestle Gordon
Friday Coxy?

Steve Cote, has been helping out a lot with the coaching, Steve did collegiate style wrestling in the states and has some beautiful moves that he has been showing us, there is some really good stuff in there that hopefully I'll be able to nail down and use. We also figured out that i'm a bit of an anomaly, my stance is left but I would attack with my right foot making me awkward (story of my life given that I run like a camel). We did the first session with the kids, they loved it and were trying to get back for more this week. It's just something different.

I'm now two weeks behind weight training, which is annoying. I really enjoy the hypertrophy and am beginning to see the results, the guns are slowly coming back but at the same time, it is very difficult. I've had Alex pushing me on which is great but my shoulders from last week are still in tatters. I'm trying to get in as much as possible but there seems to always be something that gets in the way, work is essential but i've always said that Family comes first. Unfortunately the Bambino has had his first real bout of man flu and has been chucking up and his nappies aren't much fun, which has kept me busy, I was hoping to avoid catching it, its not been pleasant to watch but alas as I write my throat feels like its being stabbed in the glands, i've got a fever and generally feel crap! I did manage to present a break out with Iain Stewart from Strathclyde at the Scottish Student Sport Christmas Seminar about community engagement. We did a good amount of work on it, I felt terrible and my head was a little all over the place but got through it. It was at the Glasgow 2014 HQ in merchant city, pretty cool, decent offices, it was buzzing for the short time I was there.

So as we move towards Christmas, I will be watching what I eat. It's always dangerous when you head to your parents and in-laws for some reason people seem to like to make sure I have enough food which can result in overfeeding! i'm staying clear of that trap for Christmas 2012 and trying to protect my waist line, I do need to think of a clever alternative for training though because the centre will be closed for a Christmas!

SPOTY - Got to be Wiggo

2012 has been such a great year for British sport, you would think you would be hard pressed to pick an outright winner for SPOTY. Personally, I think it has to be Bradley Wiggins to win Sports Personality of the year, what he has done is incredible and think that although Andy Murray finally won a Grand Slam and Olympic Gold, Wiggo is still best placed. There is a lot of talk about Jessica Ennis, great athlete of course and again fantastic achievement but is it something that really beats winning the tour de france, not in my view. I think the Olympians did something amazing and wuldn't want to take away from that but I think you need someone who has personality and has done something truly incredible, hence wiggo! My second choice I think should be David Weir (Weirwolf) I really enjoyed watching him do his thing on the track and on the road, pretty impressive stuff. That said, im not sure if it was just the camera but the personality seemed to be lacking a little bit, was a bit boring to listen to but his accomplishments are amazing. Third would be Andy Murray, just to get a Scotsman in there! Its a tough one, but I know who I want to win!


I'm not sure if there will be another blog update before Christmas, so I will take this opportunity to say - Merry Christmas! hope you have a great time with family and friends. All the best for the New Year!

Thanks again for taking time out to catch up with #mission2014

Cheers

@shocksjr

Back to the grind - Money, Money, Money

This week has been okay. I say okay and not good because although I have done a lot of work in the gym trying to build some muscle, I haven't done so great on the wrestling I missed Monday's and Wednesday's session much to my dismay.  We did however have a cracking Thanksgiving Roast and we made it to Nicola Todd's 30th for a good catch up with folk in 52 Canoe Tiki Hut, Great bar by the way... So it wasn't all bad!

You may remember a few posts ago I mentioned that there seems to always be something to pay for, well last month it was the soccer mum car I drive (not complaining - but it is) this month, in the words of Champ Kind we have been hit by a Triple "WHAMMY!" - The Boiler packed in which left us £280 lighter than we would normally be, plus I had to stay home hence missing Monday Wrestling, then there was the TV license fee to pay George Entwhistle off. Finally, Cameron starts nursery next week at a cost of £45 a day. I was under the impression that kids didn't cost as much as people say, but i'm going to take this opportunity to make a sharp u-turn and join their bandwagon. They are cheap enough at home but as they get older, they get more expensive. It won't be so bad when I have to buy him a PS3 or an XBOX360.
Its funny how quickly your money goes, every month we budget and try to find ways to cut outgoings but there is never anything to cut and there is no way i'm getting rid of Sky. Anyway, I digress yet again from the point. 

This does relate to me not training... because I literally couldn't afford to spend the cash to get to Glasgow to train on Wednesday. Friday's session two weeks ago was okay as well but think it could have been better from me. Donald came along which as great, he took a bit of a push around and I accidentally injured him. He went for a leg attack and dropped his eye onto my thumb. Hope his vision is back to normal soon but it was at least a week off.

If only I could do this!

We are currently in week 2 of Hypertrophy and wow! The first week almost broke me but especially as I'm still not feeling quite 100% I have got some type of lurgy, its not taken hold yet and i'm trying to break it through my current addiction to Yorkshire tea.
Hypertrophy! let me take you on a scientific journey back to Standard Grade Biology of why this stage of training is so hard and where a lot of people will throw the towel in. A wise man told me that If you aren't in pain during your hypertrophy phase then your training programme isn't working. 

For those of you who have absolutely no clue what i'm talking about allow me to elaborate. I'll put my Sports Science degree to good use:

Hypertrophy is effectively the term used to describe the increase and growth of the muscle cells. Initially when you start training, like I was doing for the first 10 weeks you get an increase in nerve impulses that cause muscle contraction meaning I was getting stronger but perhaps without any noticeable changes to the muscle size. 

I'm not going to go massively scientific because one, most people wont be interested and for some it won't be scientific enough but suffice to say Skeletal muscle adapts to regular increasing loads. Progressing that load means stressing the muscle and forcing an adaptation. It adapts by increasing the size of and amount of the contractile proteins (actin and myosin). These are in each muscle fibre which in turn increase size and strength. Russell et. al. 2000.

Crash course in SES.

Having missed Wrestling sessions earlier in the week I was really looking forward to Friday. We had a bit of banter on facebook as Simmo was back in town with his brother Dave and they were coming to wrestle. Dougie T threatened to come but was making a cake for Nicola and couldn't get there. To be fair to him the cake was pretty damn good.
We went through the basics and I was keen to see the two brothers wrestle, they had a wee dance around the place for the first minute, almost like a ballet. I wrestled Simmo, no video unfortunately and I think I got the better of him this time although to his credit, he managed to get a roll in. I was trying to do anything I would normally do, I couldn't gut wrench, I couldn't leg lace and I certainly couldn't roll the big fella so it was a case of pushing out and stealing a point here and there. Dave was really good, for a complete beginner he got stuck in is pretty strong and quite quick. I have since found out that two hands on the back of the neck is illegal, as is choking, as is palming in the face. Noted for next time! 

Dave Simm - Legend

Nikos, was there as well and we had an awful fight as you'll see. The stance was awful and we both picked up on that. I was having a nightmare with my leg attacks all night, they just weren't working and my gator roll on Dave failed, hence I left myself in a bit of trouble and gave a point away. 

Steven Cote, was coaching, he is a European Silver medallist and an awesome guy to have shouting instructions to you, his knowledge is fantastic and he passes it over really well. I'm going to do a little feature on him in the next few weeks, maybe even get a guest blog out of him. He has some interesting stories!

Now its probably worth noting again that some of the technique in these videos is absolutely shocking, this was after an hour of pretty intense training so we were pretty tired. The one thing I really want to draw your attention to is the end of the video i've posted and the direction my left knee folds - I put it in slow motion, its pretty painful watching back and I have no idea how there is no damage. I can pretty much guarantee that 3 months ago my knee would have blown out if it had been bent like and its testament to the programme that Alex has me on that i'm not currently on the waiting list for another reconstruction and this whole adventure would already be over. So thank you to him for that. 

The other news from the week was that I had an appearance in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Scotsman which was pretty decent, I had a phone interview with Nigel Duncan who wrote up the article and did a great job. I don't think I have ever been quoted so accurately but he was a little generous with the headline in the written paper "Wrestling is whole new ball game for Rugby League Star" - if you didn't see it on-line here it is - ARTICLE

After Friday I wasn't best pleased with how I had wrestled, every time I went for a take down I seemed to be getting caught and I couldn't figure out why. So I looked back at the videos and found that I was diving in like a rugby player to try and tackle and you can't do that in Wrestling. Its way too easy to defend. So on Monday's session Nikos and I wanted to practice keeping our wrestling "power stance" which we did quite effectively, I was much happier with this Monday session and think i've made progress in fact I loved Monday's session. I was working with Mark Ross and Michael Cavanagh gave us some really useful tips and we learnt the cradle pin which I really like, think it could become a stock move. Sport is a funny thing, one week your good and on form, the next you are struggling but i'm back to the good this week and much happier for it. I'm going to beast it in the gym as get to all three sessions - No pressure to actually make the Scottish Wrestling team now that the Scotsman have reported on #mission2014. I will up my game and train harder. That's a promise!

So, what next - well yesterdays session saw Mark Ross appear, again he enjoyed it. I learnt a lot including some new moves and had a great bout against Nikos, we have both been doing this for the same amount of time and are both progressing nicely. Hopefully we will continue to do so and that pretty much rounds up the last two weeks. Mixed fortunes I think, now I just need to win the lottery and Karma will be restored!

Thanks for all the support so far folks, I appreciate there is a long way to go but we are making progress. 

As always, feel free to share the blog and if you want to keep up to date you can follow me on twitter. Also, if you fancy coming along to a wrestling session you don't need any experience. We train on Monday's 12:30pm - 2:00pm and again on Fridays at 6:00pm - 7:30pm both at [EN]GAGE. Hope to see some more faces down soon.

Cheers

@shocksjr

Hypertrophy - good and evil!

Sorry for my lack of blogging last week, I'm trying to keep it interesting and last week, wasn't that interesting. Not much to feedback on. However, after my full on Wrestling week two weeks ago, I hit the wall over last weekend and ended up with a nice bout of man flu. I was off work for a couple of days and annoyingly I was supposed to be starting the hypertrophy stage of my training, but as I was away at the end of the week as well we decided to put that on hold until this week. So I did actually manage to get a rest week in...kind of...

My saving grace at the moment - Optumus Massage

The increase in wrestling sessions has taken its toll. I am absolutely loving it, I wish I had been introduced to the sport about 10 years ago but after that week I felt the beginnings of niggles creeping back in. After the Friday wrestling session at
[EN]GAGE with Ash, I thought I may have damaged my knee again. If you have ever had a knee injury you'll know all about the dread you feel when your knee starts twinging. 

Que - Pav (Optumus) to check it out and fix me up. As it turns out, the clicking that I was having around my knee was actually the origin of my calf (gastrocnemius) and that was causing me massive problems around the knee joint. Pav was barely touching my calf for a massage and through gritted teeth I was trying not to scream. Normally... i'm pretty reserved regarding my expression of massage. Meaning I don't let on if i'm in serious amounts of pain. I've seen my mate Giler get a massage from Pav before at rugby and he screams and I've always wondered whether it was low pain threshold or just incredibly tight. I now know! I wasn't far off his reaction last week. Pav sorted out my back and calves last week which have been much better and almost had immediate improvements in my back rotation afterwards.

The tension that had built up in my calves was simply because I had been doing a lot of work on the wrestling stance and been training in positional instances. The good news is its beginning to click and i've finally got a rough idea of what i'm doing. I can tell that i'm getting better each time  I go to training and start to do something, its all about practice, as i've said before practice makes permanent. 



Little Nicky having a snooze



The massage heralded the last of my proper training last week and it was deemed my proper rest week to let the body recover and just chill out. I headed out for my first night out since September and it got pretty messy as expected. It was the Bear's birthday and we hit the Grassmarket, Hanover Street before heading to Shanghai to see Stevie Winton (manager) the bear bought Vodka which was nice and we all got pretty steaming. Bear even posted a video on facebook of my passed out on his sofa. I was snoring like "Little Nicky". 

Luckily I had booked in for some time off on the rest of the week and headed southwards to pay a visit with Emma and Cameron to her grandparents. It did mean a hung over / tired trip to Blackpool way. We had a great time down there but on Saturday, we had a slight issue that resulted in Syd (Emma's Grandad) being taken to Hospital, he is fine and on the mend but it was the event that kicked off a crap week. I should state that it was a crap week but on the wrestling front its been great. The reason its been so crap is that the freezer has packed in at home, probably the thermostat. I can live with that... it would be useful but its not the end of the world. Yesterday our Boiler broke, meaning no hot water, no heating and no washing machine. Rage!!! #risk25 sometimes you just can't catch a break bad things come in threes - and I didn't win the Edinburgh Napier Alumus of the year award last night either, although it was great to be nominate so i'm chuffed with that.

Anyway we headed back up to Scotland, late on Sunday night, I had the best sleep i'm maybe ever had that night and it was all back to normal on Monday. Wrestling on Monday was good fun, I managed to drag in Donald Grant, from the mighty Edinburgh Eagles Rugby League, he was training at [EN]GAGE anyway and he had his introduction to Wrestling. He was another one of the guys who loved the physicality of it and found it to be quite useful and transferable to rugby, think it was probably more physically demanding than he thought. 

I started phase 2 of my gym programme on Monday- Hypertrophy and it was straight in there with Squats, straight leg deadlifts, walking lunges and bench press to name a few all for four sets at varying weights and slowly to get a solid concentric contraction and activate the slow twitch fibres. It was physically exhausting and heavy loads with a decrease in weight but increase in reps. I had instant muscle soreness after day one, there was no delay making it OMS and day two Tuesday had me in pieces, I could barely walk up the stairs at home but the worst thing was the I went to the toilet at about 2:00am and ended up getting pins and needles in my legs which combined with DOMS is perhaps one of the most horrible experiences i've ever had. I was stuck for about 10 minutes before I made it back to bed. The best thing about it though was i've finally been allowed to do some bicep EZ curls and tricep push downs! brilliant! Love Beach Weights!

Sean Keogh (red) in action at 84kg

Wednesday had me back through travelling with Martin to the Palace of Art in Glasgow for some intense wrestling with the institute guys. No traffic this time but it did mean we got there about 45 minutes early. Only one thing for it, massive stretching session! I was happy to stretch and felt a lot better for it. I was in real pain. Vio (Scotland Assistant Coach) arrived and informed us it was a conditioning session for the evening which was fine, I was working with Sean Keogh (Finished 5th - 84kg 2010 Commonwealth Games). Was fantastic to train with him, he is a good guy and taught me a lot. He has come back from a series of injuries which is good, but he is back fit now and will be a medal hope for 2014. We worked on loads of stuff, mainly positional training, defence and attack which was great. This is where I realised that I actually knew more than I thought I did. We finished off the session with a 9 exercise conditioning set which we did twice with 3 sets on each exercise (all wrestling specific). I could have almost been sick and my legs were physically shot. I pinged my calf on the final exercise and I need to get that looked at ASAP but i can't tell if its just a strain or a relapse from last weeks tightness. The KCR from Laura, sorted me out and again there were some abnormal sounds coming from the hip flexors and back. I do rate KCR as a protocol, think it helps to relieve alot of the pressure.

 

In other news though, my friends Paddy and Louise had a beautiful little boy this week, which is fantastic for them, Congratulations to them and I wish them all the best as a new family and hope they enjoy parenthood. They are in for some great fun! Hopefully we'll get to see little Jack soon.

Next week we have Simmo and his brother heading up for a wrestle. I'm exciting about that one. Simmo was a guest blogger for me last month and Dave, his younger brother used to play rugby league with me and went down to Crusaders in Wales. My money is on Dave at the moment but you never know. For those that were asking, my first competitive match will probably be in April, i'm going for the British Novices and hoping to be in ridiculously good shape with some good Wrestling knowledge to do some damage and get a medal.

www.tysonfitnessnutrition.com

 Finally, Thanks to Paul Tyson fitness. I've just ordered my latest batch of supplements and they should be here soon. Thanks for your support. Its much appreciated!

Thanks for taking time to read, feel free to share and if you want to keep up to date you can follow on twitter @shocksjr

Cheers,