So, for the last two weeks I haven't trained at all. I somehow was infected with the flu, and ended up with a wicked cold sore, so that made grappling impossible (yes I came to class two weeks straight, ill, but I was not contiguous at that time). It's 6:30am, just about, and in 2 hours I'm supposed to be taking part in a seminar with a world ranked martial arts champion, a woman who is considered the greatest in the world. Sadly, due to my fucked up sleep schedule, I won't be able to make it (and even if I had, the cold sore stops me from being able to roll). Normally I wouldn't worry about being sick, but I have not eaten at all for the last two weeks which actually is pretty scary. I have over trained myself to the degree that my muscles just tear apart, and die on me, so the lack of stable nutrition is bad.
Honestly I'm pretty pissed at myself for being sick. Not many people joined this seminar, and I wanted to make an appearance and let people know I respected the martial art we are all apart of, but sadly I can't. It's frustrating, essentially since the first seminar I ever attended, back in 2008, changed my life. On that day I decided to devout myself to learning the skills that are the form the basis for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and I also experienced first hand how the knowledge alone can be twisted, and a simple mistake and lead to darkness. I was hoping that this seminar, merged with my current choice of using only technique when I train, would lead to a breakthrough. Now I will have to wait, and possibly never have this chance again (though I can always facilitate it myself, since I plan on going to Brazil after graduation for a vacation anyways).
Since starting back up with training in October I have hit over 15 classes, which I feel is pretty successful. I am not losing weight but I am gaining muscle, which is nice. Aside from coming down with this flu, and suffering from a simple dislocation of my left elbow, I'm doing pretty good. I can't wait for Monday.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Update 10/30 - Getting owned all week, the one good day of training
So I've been training again for a little over two weeks, and I have to say my body is not fairing so well. During a hard training session on Tuesday I ended up with whiplash. The pain running down my neck to my back is a bitch to deal with. Right now I have two injured arms, my left knee is screwed, my right shoulder is dead to me, toss in the whiplash and shit just got real, so to speak. Ironically enough, even with everything going to hell I had the best day of grappling I could hope for. There were no warm ups today, we did a little technique and went right into sparring...and I pretty much owned. Generally after running half a mile and doing other shit I'm pretty worn out, and I'm unable to compete to the best of my abilities...but today I was fresh when I hit the mat, and it showed.
First off, today was a special day at the gym. This kid, who's name I can't remember, turned 15. What happens on such occasions is fairly interesting, we sit in a circle, with the person in the middle, and roll with him one at a time. Since this was his 15th birthday, he got to roll with 14 people in a row. Every time he tapped, or time ran out, we switched. Sadly, in what can only be described as bad luck, I was placed second to last in line. Essentially, this poor kid had to roll with 12 other people before facing me, and it was bad times for him. I took him down fairly quickly, established side control, and pressured him down. He tried a few times to escape, but it was in vein. Side control happens to be one the position that I excel at, so things went better then expected. I hit north south, where you essentially drag your gut across their stomach, and isolated one of his arms. After heading back to the side I took his only loose arm and snapped on a kimura, he tapped fairly quickly. After that I wished him a happy birthday, and when we got paired up to roll again I helped him work on his triangle choke. The only negative to the whole experience is that I fucked up his ribs, which has happened countless times before when I trained, but he seemed to be alright.
All week I got tooled, I was too exhausted to do anything, so Friday turned out to be a nice change of pace. That night only one person was remotely my size, and he was ranked higher then me, so when we sparred I was unsure what to expect. Suffice it to say I did alright. I was able to work some escapes and finally gain side control, but sadly he was able to slip to the side, during a scramble, and pull me back to guard. The dude was a beast, and rolled with his eyes closed...I felt underestimated to say the least. I was trying to determine if he was blind, and I had not noticed, or if he was attempting to sense the changes in pressure when I moved. Either way it was a cool experience.
Finally, as a weird occurrence, I had to roll (as in wrestle/grapple) with a 10 y/o girl (honestly she was the only person without a partner, and she choked out the adults she trained with). Now, this was an odd occurrence for myself but I had rolled with women in the past (when I trained MMA) so I was fairly confident in my abilities to NOT crush her. I have never trained with little kids, so I tried to be as careful as possible to ensure I didn't break her. Honestly the first roll she tried to beat the hell out of me, she threw on about nine chokes (all of which I escaped) and finished the round with an armbar I decided to tap too. I was taking it easy, playing around, which seemed to piss her off more then it should...seeing how she weighs 60 lbs and I weigh over 300. During the second round I put in a little more effort, which seemed to placate her, and I didn't get my ass kicked.
Overall I got owned all week, but I was able to see what I could do when I'm not completely exhausted, and that made up for all the injuries and such that I've suffered. I feel pretty good right now, at almost 2 am, so hopefully Monday will be awesome.
First off, today was a special day at the gym. This kid, who's name I can't remember, turned 15. What happens on such occasions is fairly interesting, we sit in a circle, with the person in the middle, and roll with him one at a time. Since this was his 15th birthday, he got to roll with 14 people in a row. Every time he tapped, or time ran out, we switched. Sadly, in what can only be described as bad luck, I was placed second to last in line. Essentially, this poor kid had to roll with 12 other people before facing me, and it was bad times for him. I took him down fairly quickly, established side control, and pressured him down. He tried a few times to escape, but it was in vein. Side control happens to be one the position that I excel at, so things went better then expected. I hit north south, where you essentially drag your gut across their stomach, and isolated one of his arms. After heading back to the side I took his only loose arm and snapped on a kimura, he tapped fairly quickly. After that I wished him a happy birthday, and when we got paired up to roll again I helped him work on his triangle choke. The only negative to the whole experience is that I fucked up his ribs, which has happened countless times before when I trained, but he seemed to be alright.
All week I got tooled, I was too exhausted to do anything, so Friday turned out to be a nice change of pace. That night only one person was remotely my size, and he was ranked higher then me, so when we sparred I was unsure what to expect. Suffice it to say I did alright. I was able to work some escapes and finally gain side control, but sadly he was able to slip to the side, during a scramble, and pull me back to guard. The dude was a beast, and rolled with his eyes closed...I felt underestimated to say the least. I was trying to determine if he was blind, and I had not noticed, or if he was attempting to sense the changes in pressure when I moved. Either way it was a cool experience.
Finally, as a weird occurrence, I had to roll (as in wrestle/grapple) with a 10 y/o girl (honestly she was the only person without a partner, and she choked out the adults she trained with). Now, this was an odd occurrence for myself but I had rolled with women in the past (when I trained MMA) so I was fairly confident in my abilities to NOT crush her. I have never trained with little kids, so I tried to be as careful as possible to ensure I didn't break her. Honestly the first roll she tried to beat the hell out of me, she threw on about nine chokes (all of which I escaped) and finished the round with an armbar I decided to tap too. I was taking it easy, playing around, which seemed to piss her off more then it should...seeing how she weighs 60 lbs and I weigh over 300. During the second round I put in a little more effort, which seemed to placate her, and I didn't get my ass kicked.
Overall I got owned all week, but I was able to see what I could do when I'm not completely exhausted, and that made up for all the injuries and such that I've suffered. I feel pretty good right now, at almost 2 am, so hopefully Monday will be awesome.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Injuries
Sadly, I'm getting to this later than I had hoped I would. I had originally planned to update the blog this morning, at least it is getting done today.
As some of you may know I battle injuries quite a bit, mainly because I push myself farther then I should. My most recent taste of pain came from torn muscles in my thigh, more specifically the satorious and the quadriceps in my right leg. I had been getting out of bed, and all of a sudden I could feel the muscles tear apart. Now, I wasn't weight lifting, I wasn't improperly carrying a couch, I was getting out of bed. Even though I am a large man, over 300lbs, I am young. The posibility of my leg being destroyed seemed unlikely, but it had to do with my diet. On average I consume around 500 calories, far below what I should be taking in just to be active. Essentially my body ate away at my muscles to the degree that by standing up they came apart like fresh made bread. The pain was excruciating, I screamed like a little girl, and had to take 2 months off from any type of exercise (aside from going to class, which is minimal walking). Now the two months is over, and ready to move past this stage of life.
Prior to getting injured I had trained consistently for a few weeks (a step in the right direction), and I had been committed to my weight loss. Even with the setback I was able to make a dent, losing 11lbs just by changing my eating habits.
Today was the first day I could get back to training, and I decided to wait a bit before getting back to the mats. I wanted to see where my body was at, so I went with something I had done quite regularly, yoga. Normally I would glide through the basic warm ups and movements, but in my current state my legs were killing me. After only 35 minutes of working out I was through. I had trouble walking, and was forced to rest myself before moving on to my next workout.
After 2 hours had passed I hit up p90x (something I hadn't used in a while). I went with the basic program, opting to work on my upper body. Things went well, I had problems doing push ups but I was able to lift what I wanted and complete the entire workout. While my shoulders were slightly sore, it was the core workout that killed me. My stomach, being so huge, was impending the bending. I was able to get through the entire thing but my abdomen was killing me.
The most important element of my weight loss happens to be the diet. I can force myself to eat all I want, but it's almost impossible for me to eat more then 1200 calories. I hit 1280 today, burning more then 5 times that amount, but it's barely enough to maintain my current muscle mass. I went through 110 grams of protein, and 130 grams of carbs. It was painful to ingest that much, which emphasizes my prior problems. If I can't hit 2000 calories it'll be impossible to obtain additional muscle, which will be an obstacle I'll have troufor ble overcoming.
I should mention that we've decided to document my journey to my goal weight, which is 240lbs. I hope to reach it by March, but we'll see how it goes.
Sorry for taking so long to update my blog, I was depressed and really just couldn't do anything. I'm happy I got to it today, they'll be another post next week. Have a good one all!
As some of you may know I battle injuries quite a bit, mainly because I push myself farther then I should. My most recent taste of pain came from torn muscles in my thigh, more specifically the satorious and the quadriceps in my right leg. I had been getting out of bed, and all of a sudden I could feel the muscles tear apart. Now, I wasn't weight lifting, I wasn't improperly carrying a couch, I was getting out of bed. Even though I am a large man, over 300lbs, I am young. The posibility of my leg being destroyed seemed unlikely, but it had to do with my diet. On average I consume around 500 calories, far below what I should be taking in just to be active. Essentially my body ate away at my muscles to the degree that by standing up they came apart like fresh made bread. The pain was excruciating, I screamed like a little girl, and had to take 2 months off from any type of exercise (aside from going to class, which is minimal walking). Now the two months is over, and ready to move past this stage of life.
Prior to getting injured I had trained consistently for a few weeks (a step in the right direction), and I had been committed to my weight loss. Even with the setback I was able to make a dent, losing 11lbs just by changing my eating habits.
Today was the first day I could get back to training, and I decided to wait a bit before getting back to the mats. I wanted to see where my body was at, so I went with something I had done quite regularly, yoga. Normally I would glide through the basic warm ups and movements, but in my current state my legs were killing me. After only 35 minutes of working out I was through. I had trouble walking, and was forced to rest myself before moving on to my next workout.
After 2 hours had passed I hit up p90x (something I hadn't used in a while). I went with the basic program, opting to work on my upper body. Things went well, I had problems doing push ups but I was able to lift what I wanted and complete the entire workout. While my shoulders were slightly sore, it was the core workout that killed me. My stomach, being so huge, was impending the bending. I was able to get through the entire thing but my abdomen was killing me.
The most important element of my weight loss happens to be the diet. I can force myself to eat all I want, but it's almost impossible for me to eat more then 1200 calories. I hit 1280 today, burning more then 5 times that amount, but it's barely enough to maintain my current muscle mass. I went through 110 grams of protein, and 130 grams of carbs. It was painful to ingest that much, which emphasizes my prior problems. If I can't hit 2000 calories it'll be impossible to obtain additional muscle, which will be an obstacle I'll have troufor ble overcoming.
I should mention that we've decided to document my journey to my goal weight, which is 240lbs. I hope to reach it by March, but we'll see how it goes.
Sorry for taking so long to update my blog, I was depressed and really just couldn't do anything. I'm happy I got to it today, they'll be another post next week. Have a good one all!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Updates
Well, for the last 3 weeks I've been out of commission. It was pretty interesting, mainly because I hardly ever get sick. I'm known for being strong of body, meaning tough, and if I do catch something it only effects me for a couple of days. In this instance, I've been sick for almost a month. Thankfully it isn't swine flu, but seemingly it was the next best (or worst) strain of the flu possible. I'm slowly recovering, and sadly I haven't been able to train.
In my last post I brought up my lack of motivation to train, and I'm happy to report that is gone. BJJ, well fighting in general, is on my mind at all times. I think of it when I eat, go to class, or sleep. The only problem is that I've essentially gone a month without eating or drinking, working out hasn't been an option, my stamina has drained away. Though, oddly enough, I can fight longer than Rolles Gracie...In an effort to test myself I went 1 on 1 with the heavy bag, and a friend, and determined I can fight for about 5 minutes straight. It's a start, but I'm gassed and need an extended break when sparring.
In the next coming weeks I'll be posting more regularly, since I'll be building myself back up it'll be fairly interesting. Look forward to more posts, and thanks for stopping by!
In my last post I brought up my lack of motivation to train, and I'm happy to report that is gone. BJJ, well fighting in general, is on my mind at all times. I think of it when I eat, go to class, or sleep. The only problem is that I've essentially gone a month without eating or drinking, working out hasn't been an option, my stamina has drained away. Though, oddly enough, I can fight longer than Rolles Gracie...In an effort to test myself I went 1 on 1 with the heavy bag, and a friend, and determined I can fight for about 5 minutes straight. It's a start, but I'm gassed and need an extended break when sparring.
In the next coming weeks I'll be posting more regularly, since I'll be building myself back up it'll be fairly interesting. Look forward to more posts, and thanks for stopping by!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Motivation
Sadly due to the holidays I haven't really been able to train. It's been one thing after another and I am fairly disappointed in myself. I can feel my body weakening, and it's driving me crazy. There are two elements that are holding me back at the moment. The first being that my sleep habits have been totally destroyed. As of right now I fall asleep at 7 am and wake up at 3pm. It's horrible, and I really have no idea how to fix it. Secondly I have no real motivation. I've been training in many different forms of martial arts for the last 16 years, and I no longer know why I continued to do so at all.
Some people train in order to stay in shape, while others immerse themselves in the art. Initially I had wanted to be strong, but that goal is far to broad to specifically state why I want to be strong. I can already handle myself in a fight, and have been able to do so for a long time. Once you reach a goal, what do you do? I can't find that answer. I can continue to train and learn nothing based on my lack of motivation or I can stop for a bit and compose myself; neither seems like a good option. I want to compete, this year, but why? In high school I wasn't allowed to partake in sports, based on the decisions made by my mother it was what she felt would be the best for me. The fact is it wasn't and I missed out on quite a bit growing up in those awkward years. I do indeed wish to experience the camaraderie that comes with competing on the mat, but is there a better reason?
Hopefully, as I reflect on this problem this weekend, I'll come to suitable answer. I feel as though I've already grasped it, but I'm not sure I have the whole concept correctly placed in my mind. I hate myself when I don't train, but is that enough to ensure I do it as much as I should?
Some people train in order to stay in shape, while others immerse themselves in the art. Initially I had wanted to be strong, but that goal is far to broad to specifically state why I want to be strong. I can already handle myself in a fight, and have been able to do so for a long time. Once you reach a goal, what do you do? I can't find that answer. I can continue to train and learn nothing based on my lack of motivation or I can stop for a bit and compose myself; neither seems like a good option. I want to compete, this year, but why? In high school I wasn't allowed to partake in sports, based on the decisions made by my mother it was what she felt would be the best for me. The fact is it wasn't and I missed out on quite a bit growing up in those awkward years. I do indeed wish to experience the camaraderie that comes with competing on the mat, but is there a better reason?
Hopefully, as I reflect on this problem this weekend, I'll come to suitable answer. I feel as though I've already grasped it, but I'm not sure I have the whole concept correctly placed in my mind. I hate myself when I don't train, but is that enough to ensure I do it as much as I should?
Sunday, December 20, 2009
The grand opening of the new facility
It seems as though Sundays will be the day I update the blog, I was hoping to post more regularly but since Finals have been destroying my extracurricular activities there hasn’t been anything going on over the last few weeks. I figured since Matt Lindland fought last night today would be the perfect time to bust out this post, regarding the seminar I attended where both Lindland and Dan Henderson came to the gym. It makes sense since they both showed up on Strikeforce last night.
On December 5th I woke up far earlier than I normally would. Generally I sleep in till noon on the weekened, but today was special. It was the grand opening of Team Quest Redding, the fight club where I train whenever I find time to do so. Redding has been blessed with quite a few black belts spread between the two main gyms up here, so for the most part we are mainly grapplers. That was one of the reasons why this seminar was so important, with 9 BJJ classes (and two submission wrestling classes, making it of 11 grappling classes) a week, but only two classes for standup, means this would give everyone some much needed instruction.
Since the seminar started at 10am I showed up 15minutes early, in order to stretch and pump myself up. As I’ve stated in the first blog entry I haven’t trained in well over a year, my first class back had been two weeks prior to this event, and I was pretty nervous. Generally with so many people in the gym we wouldn’t do warm-ups, but for some reason we did. For a big guy, like myself, warm-ups are pretty dreadful in general so I was pleasantly surprised when I made it all the way through without having to slow my pace down. The only thing I had problems with was pushups, mainly because I fear I’ll dislocate my shoulder. After the warm-ups we paired up and got to work. Since it’s been a while I didn’t really know anyone, so I got paired up with this random guy. His name was Ryan, he turned out to be a great guy who came up from Santa Rosa to train with us. He actually trains at our Pure BJJ club down in Santa Rosa, which is cool. So we started off working on our Clinch game. Hendo was taking us through the steps leading into the clinch, and what to do after you’ve achieved the clinch. I learned some interesting techniques that I’ll probably use whenever I get a chance to do so. Sadly he didn’t go into takedowns, mainly covered the striking aspects of the clinch.
After a little over an hour of Hendo teaching the group Matt stepped in. He’s a cool guy, easy to talk to, and I’m wondering why he hasn’t started to focus on coaching rather than fighting. Matt focused primarily on the ground game, and how to deal with the BJJers…which is ironic for more than one reason. One of the youth instructors stepped in to demonstrate, and Matt was able to control him while on the ground fairly well. As Ryan and I worked on our skills something horrible happened, I ended up slipping on the mat, due to the ridiculous amount of sweat on the floor, and dropping my entire weight onto his ribs. Normally this wouldn’t have been an issue, but Ryan already had a preexisting injury so I ended up breaking his ribs. I felt horrible about it and Ryan if you read this blog I am sorry, though you’re probably tired of hearing this. So Ryan, being the trooper that he is, continued to train. I lasted the entire 2 and a half hour of training and felt pretty good aside from ruining my training partner. We took a team photo and called it a day.
3 hours later I arrived in order to get a pair of Hendo tapout shirts signed, the line was pretty ridiculous. There was free food and drinks but no one really took advantage of it, rather we all waited in line to get our stuff signed. After 2 hours of waiting in line I wanted to hang myself, but finally made it to the table. Hendo was cool, even remembered my name…though I do standout, it was neat. Carlos, the gym owner, tossed me the Gi I had ordered weeks ago but had arrived the day before, and I made my way home to sleep. It was a great experience, and I can’t wait for the next seminar.
On another interesting note last week I won some Manto gear from FightTrends.com. They do drawings every few weeks and it’s a great chance to get gear. There’s a few different ways to enter, and it looks as though Hayabusa or Jaco will be next manufacturers for the equipment. Check it out; Cody is the administrator and posts regularly on the Sherdog.net forums. Happy Holidays, I hope you all get in some training because whenever I don’t I feel horrible. Till next time, be safe.
On December 5th I woke up far earlier than I normally would. Generally I sleep in till noon on the weekened, but today was special. It was the grand opening of Team Quest Redding, the fight club where I train whenever I find time to do so. Redding has been blessed with quite a few black belts spread between the two main gyms up here, so for the most part we are mainly grapplers. That was one of the reasons why this seminar was so important, with 9 BJJ classes (and two submission wrestling classes, making it of 11 grappling classes) a week, but only two classes for standup, means this would give everyone some much needed instruction.
Since the seminar started at 10am I showed up 15minutes early, in order to stretch and pump myself up. As I’ve stated in the first blog entry I haven’t trained in well over a year, my first class back had been two weeks prior to this event, and I was pretty nervous. Generally with so many people in the gym we wouldn’t do warm-ups, but for some reason we did. For a big guy, like myself, warm-ups are pretty dreadful in general so I was pleasantly surprised when I made it all the way through without having to slow my pace down. The only thing I had problems with was pushups, mainly because I fear I’ll dislocate my shoulder. After the warm-ups we paired up and got to work. Since it’s been a while I didn’t really know anyone, so I got paired up with this random guy. His name was Ryan, he turned out to be a great guy who came up from Santa Rosa to train with us. He actually trains at our Pure BJJ club down in Santa Rosa, which is cool. So we started off working on our Clinch game. Hendo was taking us through the steps leading into the clinch, and what to do after you’ve achieved the clinch. I learned some interesting techniques that I’ll probably use whenever I get a chance to do so. Sadly he didn’t go into takedowns, mainly covered the striking aspects of the clinch.
After a little over an hour of Hendo teaching the group Matt stepped in. He’s a cool guy, easy to talk to, and I’m wondering why he hasn’t started to focus on coaching rather than fighting. Matt focused primarily on the ground game, and how to deal with the BJJers…which is ironic for more than one reason. One of the youth instructors stepped in to demonstrate, and Matt was able to control him while on the ground fairly well. As Ryan and I worked on our skills something horrible happened, I ended up slipping on the mat, due to the ridiculous amount of sweat on the floor, and dropping my entire weight onto his ribs. Normally this wouldn’t have been an issue, but Ryan already had a preexisting injury so I ended up breaking his ribs. I felt horrible about it and Ryan if you read this blog I am sorry, though you’re probably tired of hearing this. So Ryan, being the trooper that he is, continued to train. I lasted the entire 2 and a half hour of training and felt pretty good aside from ruining my training partner. We took a team photo and called it a day.
3 hours later I arrived in order to get a pair of Hendo tapout shirts signed, the line was pretty ridiculous. There was free food and drinks but no one really took advantage of it, rather we all waited in line to get our stuff signed. After 2 hours of waiting in line I wanted to hang myself, but finally made it to the table. Hendo was cool, even remembered my name…though I do standout, it was neat. Carlos, the gym owner, tossed me the Gi I had ordered weeks ago but had arrived the day before, and I made my way home to sleep. It was a great experience, and I can’t wait for the next seminar.
On another interesting note last week I won some Manto gear from FightTrends.com. They do drawings every few weeks and it’s a great chance to get gear. There’s a few different ways to enter, and it looks as though Hayabusa or Jaco will be next manufacturers for the equipment. Check it out; Cody is the administrator and posts regularly on the Sherdog.net forums. Happy Holidays, I hope you all get in some training because whenever I don’t I feel horrible. Till next time, be safe.
Monday, December 14, 2009
A little bit of background
In all honesty I have no idea if anyone reads this blog, and perhaps no one has even looked at it. But if anyone is keeping an eye on it, well I apologize for the late update. For those of you who attend college you all know how hard it is to deal with finals, and since I am transferring to a University it makes things even more Hectic.
In this update I’ve decided to talk about my background, as well as the experience I have when it comes to fighting. Some of it is bad, some of it is good, but it all comes down to your opinion. For me “fighting” really began to take over my life in Elementary School. We all know how cruel children can be, and when I was growing up I was picked on quite a bit. After more than a few school yard fights I asked my Uncle what I should do, this turned out to be my first mistake. Over the following weeks my Uncle taught me everything he had learned on the streets, from the basics of how to throw a punch to fighting multiple opponents. Probably the best piece of advice he gave me was: “Break the knee.” (Kind of like “sweep the leg”). Essentially these “lessons” led me to hurt a few kids pretty badly, which ended up mentally harming me as well.
A few years passed and I was fairly introverted, the other kids knew what I had done so I was left alone for the most part. During this time of “peace” I experienced something that haunts me to this day; a cousin of mine had lost control and ended up strangling me until I was unconscious, and held on well past that point. I was more than a little depressed after that incident, and the school councilor picked up on it. After my near death experience I changed, whenever someone hit me I’d black out and come to standing over someone. I didn’t tell anyone about it at that time, since I didn’t realize what was going on, but my Mother decided that it was time for me to learn martial arts, thus I started TMAs.
TKD was essentially the first step in my evolution. Growing up in the Bay Area there are number of gyms, fight clubs, and health centers and you really have your pick of what you want to do. The academy I ended up going too was merely close to home, but it ended up teaching me something. By doing TKD and Capereira (poor spelling is a failing of mine) I learned that I actually liked training. But it only took a year for me to become bored, mainly from the lack of progression at the gym, and I started to sample other things.
High School was a fairly boring period in my life; I was still dealing with being traumatized when I was younger, so I kept to myself. A friend of mine taught me some Aikido, but aside from that all I did was brawl when I had too. There was no certain style that I favored, there was really nothing to me other than taking shots and keep on going.
After High School I experienced a cooling off period, I really just hung out and lifted weights. My cardio was fairly poor, but it really didn’t matter to me at the time. It wasn’t until I was 20 that I discovered Mixed Martial Arts, and more specifically my love for boxing and Muay Thai. My first MMA class occurred at MODCOM, a great gym in Berkley near UCB. I was only there for a week, but I learned the basics and continued to hone them on my own. The reason I only stayed there for a week is simple, I had quit my job to explore other options and ended up moving up to Redding. It was essentially three years of drilling by myself, working on my stance and my striking while I lifted. When I turned 22 I decided to return to “normal training”, but ended up studying Shotokon Karate while I searched for the perfect gym. This actually had some good effects on me; it allowed me to be an overweight guy that had some decent cardio.
Once I found Axis Academy, I was sure I wanted to train there, and in the sport in general. I had come to the realization that MMA was something I needed, and I couldn’t be without it. I had six great months of training at Axis, ending with a seminar by Saulo Rebeiro which is one of the greatest moments of my life. Then, as it usually happens, I ended up getting injured. Within the span of a few months I was hit by a car, and also fell on my head which resulted in neurological issues. Essentially was screwed. It took me over a year and a half to get myself back in order, physical therapy and building enough confidence to come back took some time. I did learn something important though, I am not invincible, just close to being so. On a more serious note, I learned that I hate myself when I don’t train, and that’s not something I enjoy.
Now I am back, though I am only cleared to do BJJ, and I am training again.
Next post will cover something that happened last week, the seminar I attended that was taught by Matt LIndland and Dan Henderson.
Sorry for the long post, but yeah. I think it had to be done.
In this update I’ve decided to talk about my background, as well as the experience I have when it comes to fighting. Some of it is bad, some of it is good, but it all comes down to your opinion. For me “fighting” really began to take over my life in Elementary School. We all know how cruel children can be, and when I was growing up I was picked on quite a bit. After more than a few school yard fights I asked my Uncle what I should do, this turned out to be my first mistake. Over the following weeks my Uncle taught me everything he had learned on the streets, from the basics of how to throw a punch to fighting multiple opponents. Probably the best piece of advice he gave me was: “Break the knee.” (Kind of like “sweep the leg”). Essentially these “lessons” led me to hurt a few kids pretty badly, which ended up mentally harming me as well.
A few years passed and I was fairly introverted, the other kids knew what I had done so I was left alone for the most part. During this time of “peace” I experienced something that haunts me to this day; a cousin of mine had lost control and ended up strangling me until I was unconscious, and held on well past that point. I was more than a little depressed after that incident, and the school councilor picked up on it. After my near death experience I changed, whenever someone hit me I’d black out and come to standing over someone. I didn’t tell anyone about it at that time, since I didn’t realize what was going on, but my Mother decided that it was time for me to learn martial arts, thus I started TMAs.
TKD was essentially the first step in my evolution. Growing up in the Bay Area there are number of gyms, fight clubs, and health centers and you really have your pick of what you want to do. The academy I ended up going too was merely close to home, but it ended up teaching me something. By doing TKD and Capereira (poor spelling is a failing of mine) I learned that I actually liked training. But it only took a year for me to become bored, mainly from the lack of progression at the gym, and I started to sample other things.
High School was a fairly boring period in my life; I was still dealing with being traumatized when I was younger, so I kept to myself. A friend of mine taught me some Aikido, but aside from that all I did was brawl when I had too. There was no certain style that I favored, there was really nothing to me other than taking shots and keep on going.
After High School I experienced a cooling off period, I really just hung out and lifted weights. My cardio was fairly poor, but it really didn’t matter to me at the time. It wasn’t until I was 20 that I discovered Mixed Martial Arts, and more specifically my love for boxing and Muay Thai. My first MMA class occurred at MODCOM, a great gym in Berkley near UCB. I was only there for a week, but I learned the basics and continued to hone them on my own. The reason I only stayed there for a week is simple, I had quit my job to explore other options and ended up moving up to Redding. It was essentially three years of drilling by myself, working on my stance and my striking while I lifted. When I turned 22 I decided to return to “normal training”, but ended up studying Shotokon Karate while I searched for the perfect gym. This actually had some good effects on me; it allowed me to be an overweight guy that had some decent cardio.
Once I found Axis Academy, I was sure I wanted to train there, and in the sport in general. I had come to the realization that MMA was something I needed, and I couldn’t be without it. I had six great months of training at Axis, ending with a seminar by Saulo Rebeiro which is one of the greatest moments of my life. Then, as it usually happens, I ended up getting injured. Within the span of a few months I was hit by a car, and also fell on my head which resulted in neurological issues. Essentially was screwed. It took me over a year and a half to get myself back in order, physical therapy and building enough confidence to come back took some time. I did learn something important though, I am not invincible, just close to being so. On a more serious note, I learned that I hate myself when I don’t train, and that’s not something I enjoy.
Now I am back, though I am only cleared to do BJJ, and I am training again.
Next post will cover something that happened last week, the seminar I attended that was taught by Matt LIndland and Dan Henderson.
Sorry for the long post, but yeah. I think it had to be done.
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