Hidden nuggets of gold

I like running, but running on the road can be a bore, and here in Thailand running on the road is like running around in Grand Theft Auto. The roads are crazy. So I started riding out to a big dam that has a road the whole way around it, it's about 7km to run a lap and pretty nice scenery too. But today I had just started running a lap and in the strip of forest between the road and the dam I noticed a couple of little signs with arrows on them. After riding mountain bikes for so many years I know what it looks like when someone has marked out a race track, so I checked it out. Yep it was a beautiful cross country race loop, I was so happy. Running on trails is just great, so much more entertaining and away from the glaring heat of the road. Running trails is just better training too, the agility needed and the effort required for all the undulations. After running only on the road for the last five months this felt like a real treat, I ran two laps and I will definitely be back tomorrow.

Playing Sambo

Sambo is a quite comprehensive martial art. I made the mistake of comparing sambo with freestyle wrestling and Silviu was quick to correct me. Freestyle wrestling is grappling but sambo is fighting, it is combat. Sambo is used by military to stop an enemy as fast as possible.

For the last week and a bit I have been learning sambo with Silviu every day. That is barely enough time to scratch the surface of sambo, but I have learnt some cool things. We played around each day covering one or two techniques and then sparred for a while.

We practiced working from the clinch and building a sensitivity, for if I push my opponent usually pushes back and if i pull my opponents reaction is to pull back. Then the goal was to use this change in momentum to my advantage, to create an angle, to create an opportunity.

From here Silviu taught me a few different takedowns, a double leg, a big pick up on the shoulders and slam, a couple of nice single leg takedows. One that I really liked was a trip into a knee bar. Then we played around for a while with the knee bars, with different defences and counters. I loved learning the flow of the techniques. Starting with one takedown and if that doesn't work it would set me up for another then into a submission, a knee bar. And if he can defend that then he can grab a heel hook. And so on...

On the last day Silviu and I just went back over everything he had taught me, doing ten per side to help commit it to memory. Sometimes I wish I could spend a few years learning from this guy, but real life awaits.

Time flies

Where has my motivation gone? I feel like now that I have decided to go home I'm just going through the motions with my training. In three weeks i will be on a plane heading home. The last couple of months training have been great, mainly focused on boxing with Silviu. But now the end is near and my mind is thinking about riding sweet single track in Canada, and not thinking about blocking that left hook that's coming for my body.

The last couple of months Have been doing a lot of boxing training and many private lessons with Silviu. In any other sport that I have done I have never really been coached. Now I see the value in having a great coach. I am probably not a great student, I won't really take information on board unless I am told 'why' it is important. And that is exactly what Silviu has been doing for me. He explains every action in precise detail and then he tells me why. I've learnt a lot from these lesson. I love it when we talk a little about tactics and he goes on and on talking about so many little details and strategies, it's great. It seems like every week I am having an "ah ha' moment, first it was about footwork then hip movement and then i was trying to get more speed in the hips then that needed more fitness. Now it is balance and controlling the space in the ring.

In my last few weeks I am changing things up a bit to help me stay motivated. I'm going to be doing some sambo with Silviu, aswell as muay thai and a couple of lessons of BJJ.

Where am I?

I just threw together this quick vid from some clips i had from training....

Double Teamed

I got double teamed today, it was awesome.
I went for a run on saturday for the first time in the 2 months that I've been living here. I found a nice quiet, flat stretch of road that seems pretty safe to run on, some of the roads here are crazy so it's pretty important. I blasted out 4kms and felt pretty good. I knew straight away that I need to be doing this a lot more often. When i woke up on sunday damn my calves were sore, thats what I get for not hitting the pavement in so long. Today, yep still sore. So I went and got myself a Thai massage just on my calves. One lady started to do the massage and then when I was lying face down the other lady working there was either bored or could not resist my explosive calves (which, BTW are much more toned than Matt Johnson's) and joined in. Getting massaged by four hands at once; totally awesome!

Training has been going well, I've been doing a few private lessons in western boxing with one of the trainers at Tiger Muay Thai. Aon has been spending a lot of time teaching me to slip outside (to the left) and follow up with various counters. At first I was stepping way to far outside, but Aon has fixed it and has me stepping forward at a 45 now. It's pretty hard mentally to step forward into a punch like that. Other than that we've been working on balance and torquing my shoulders and hips correctly with each punch.

For now training is on hold. Some how I have picked an infection on my neck. It feels like a cross between fire and mosquito bites. It is dying down now that i have the correct medication for it, but I'm thinking it's gonna be a few more days at least until I hit the mats again.

 

I've been getting the start of some cauliflower ear on my left ear. Nothing serious, it just feels sore and swollen after training wrestling or jiu jitsu. So I decided it was time to drain it and relive a bit of the pressure in there. After getting a few vague instructions from some guys I train with I just went for it. I went to the chemist and bought a syringe and some alcohol and then home to operate. Actually I was a bit nervous about jabbing a needle into my ear, but I just did it and it was instant relief. It has swollen up a little bit since then so I might give it another crack soon.

So happy new year!
Stay Awesome!

Ups and Downs

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. Well not really, but living here if you can't train it gets boring pretty fast....
So I had a few small injuries that kept me out of the gym for a bit and I started going clinically insane. But things heal up and training resumes and Dan is happy again. Yay!
I did and MMA class where the focus was alot more on ground and pound rather than wrestling. Man thats like an all new sport. It was crazy, coach really pushed us to our limits. It was great and i definitely learnt alot, and as coach said it is important to push your limits. During the the ground and pound drills/ sparring I was submitted a bunch of times when I was on top throwing punches, and I have a nice bruise on my head from being on the bottom defending punches.
And jiu jitsu has been incredible. I love it. I had this big monster sitting in my guard and he was trying to work. I was doing something but whatever it was Silvio was watching and called out to me to switch to an arm bar. I flicked my leg over the guys head to grab the arm bar, but the guy rolled and I ended up face down on the ground but I still had the arm tight. I gave it a crank and I got the tap, it was beautiful. Silvio was happy with me, and it made me proud to get the thumbs up from him...

Ah Rest Day

Yesterday was sunday, my day off. And it felt great to be incredibly lazy for a day. I added it up and I spent 19.5 hours training last week, mostly classes but also including hill sprints and some conditioning work to prevent injuries to my cannon ball like shoulders.
So after this big week it was great to head to Phuket spa with a couple of pals and kill a few hours going back and forth between the herbal sauna and the pool.

Over the last couple of weeks my goals ad priorities in training have changed quite a bit. Just taking there natural course I guess, as I find what suits me the most. Initially I had planned on training mostly muay thai and western boxing, but it's just not happening like that now. I am totally addicted to jiu jitsu now. Every class is better than the last. Maybe it's because the learning curve is so big right now, but I'm finding it so satisfying. I lie in bed at night running through moves in my head.... haha. I think alot has to do with professor Silvio who teaches the class. He loves to teach and he brings alot of enthusiasm and charisma.

The jiu jitsu classes have a good crew in them, a few French guys who all got skills and me and a couple of other Aussie boys who don't got skills but we are learning. There is a few things that are starting to click for me, I love taking the back and i'm always looking for it. Every time I roll with French guy Romain, he always grabs my back and then transitions around to an arm bar. I'm going to get Romain to show me this after class today so I can try it when I can't sink a choke in.
And then there was the Gi class. It was like starting all over again wearing a Gi. I had that same feeling of being a little kid and getting messed around with and not being able to do anything about it..... Ahhh love it!

I never really got it back at work when people would ask 'are you living the dream?' I thought it must be some kind of cruel joke that everyone else got except me.... Well now I am living the dream. At night I am looking forward to the morning so I can wake up and learn some more.... It's great.

Dan is happy!