Well, let's get started

So now that I’m officially a blogger, I suppose I’d better introduce myself, the blog, the gym, the athletes I work with and all of that stuff.

First of all, I’m 30 years old, and living the dream of running my own gym in Glasnevin in Dublin, coaching kids and adults. What this really means, if you read between the lines, is that I so pretty much fuck all until about 7pm each evening, then I do slightly, but not much more than fuck all until about 10. People pay me for the priviledge, which is the REAL dream.

Humour aside, I work a lot. Really. More than you might think.

I’ve started this blog for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I didn’t think there was enough of me on the internet. I mean, I’m present, but not ubiquitous, which is a dissappointment. The second reason is that I wanted a place for people from the gym to come on and maybe see some of the method (or lack thereof) behind the madness. It’s nice to know why as well as what you’re doing, so I’ve set myself the lofty goal of updating this blog after every training session (oh I won’t keep to that, give me a week), or at least as often as I can think of something interesting to say about a training session. I’d like to see lots of comments about each entry, how you felt about the session, my jokes, the music, whatever. That way we can use it as a bit of a companion to training. I was going to do this on the front page of our website but that has proven to be a bit of a pain in the hole, so I’m not doing it anymore.

Of course if you don’t train with me, a) you’re foolish and b) you’re also welcome to post and comment.

Anyway, on with the show:

At the moment we have 2 major goals in the gym. The recent formation of the Fight Team, and the running of our first fight show. Luckily, the two are coinciding as the major debut of the team is at that same show with about 9 fighters on the card of all levels. So at the mo I’m spinning plates trying to prganise the show and get the fight team prepared. I don’t know which is the bigger headache but I’m fairly sure I’ll lose some hair between now and then, which is a shame because there’s not much left to lose. Now I’m acutely aware that maybe potential opponents might look in and sneak a peek at some of the training that we’re doing, so I’ll be as detailed as possible without revealing weaknesses.

Currently, if you’re a fighter, your schedule looks like this:
Monday: Workout A, BJJ, MMA
Tuesday: Workout B, BJJ, Muay Thai
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: Workout B, Muay Thai, BJJ
Friday: Workout A
Saturday: Conditioning, Sparring

The workout A and Bs are prescribed exercises that deal with weaknesses as we’re currently in a pre-season of sorts, preparing the guys and gal for the work to come. This is the first time I’ve been able to put something like this into practise as previously I’ve only known whether a guy has a fight or not maybe 6 weeks in advance. This time we had 11 weeks so I got to put some flexibility and strengthening work in place in a 5 week pre season. It’s as much a learning experience for me as it is a good idea for them, I’ve been down the road preparing guys for all kinds of things now from taekwondo to pro MMA and I can honestly say I’ve never got it just right and anyone who says they have is a liar. The best you can hope for is that you get it pretty good, but there’s always something you do wrong and could improve upon. You might say that winning is getting it right but I would say that the result can gloss over your failings in certain areas. Losing is easy to diagnose because, well, you’ve lost and you’re in the mood for post mortem. When you win, you just go and get drunk and probably do the same next time out and maybe that time you see the failing in your preparation.

Of course there are other people in the gym, getting fit, maybe thinking about fighting in the future, maybe just keeping themsleves happy. I’ll be updating on people like that too not just the fighters. I mean, if I just blogged about the fighters and competitive guys then this would be a dull blog, no drink, no sex, no fun.

Be back tomorrow with what happened tonight.