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