Some more updates on the new gym

I thought people might like to know how the new gym is progressing. I know I do so in part this is a nice way to keep people informed and have a quick recap for myself.

Things have been pretty crazy in the last while, as you can imagine I’m training for a fight, opening a new gym and running my current one so I’m pretty busy. Here’s a few bits of info for you all to drool over.

Grappling and MMA area: The new 14 metre cage wall is on order and being built in a plant in England as we speak. This will form a barrier on one side of the mezzanine to stop people falling to their deaths but also for training against as a practice cage. The other walls will be padded and the matted area squeezed in between them. All in all the matted area will be 14mX8m which means 112sqm. In other words, massive. To give you some perspective, that’s the length of the current mats, with almost twice the width, and it’ll be wall to wall with no gaps as we have now. There’ll also be a 3mX8m area at the end of the mats for storage, shoes etc. etc.

Muay Thai/MMA/Boxing: The ring is also on order and being custom made to our specifications. It will be ready for our show on April 25th and will have be a 20 footer. Under the mezzanine will be another huge class area which I’m delighted to announce will be the home of a brand new Muay Thai gym called Informed Muay Thai. Paddy has decided to take the bull by the horns (it’s a metaphor, that really happened though) and form Dublin’s newest Muay Thai gym. In addition, we’ll have the MMA fighters doing their ring and skill work from time to time downstairs. The area under the mezzanine (which is huge!) will have a matted area, plus heavy bags, speedballs etc. and we have several boxing coaches already interested in running a class or two there.

Sports/Agility: I went to view the artificial surface at Erin’s Isle GAA club in Finglas yesterday and was impressed enough to tell Will to go ahead and order it for our specialised area in the gym. It is fantastic stuff, about a million miles from the old “plastic pitches” that you may have played on or seen. This stuff is 3rd generation artificial grass and looks and feels like the real thing. about 100msq of our gym will have this surface and it’ll be used for agility drills, circuits and a variety of cool stuff we have up our sleeve.

Speed: I feel the need. I’m currently waiting on a courier to arrive with a sample of the sprint track we’ll be using for our 2 lanes of 25 metre track. Our athletes will be treated just like the most valuable athletes on the planet who also use this surface. I mean that literally, you will be getting the same treatment as the athletes that are worth the most money on the earth. Worth more than David Beckham, more than Michael Jordan in his prime, more than Usain Bolt. Have a guess at who these athletes are. I’d be surprised if you get it. I’ll give you a hint, they’ve often been accused of not being human.

Strength: We are going to have all the usual in terms of strength equipment. The racks and bars and benches. But all the cool stuff like sleds and stuff we’re going to make and have custom made for the gym is going to rock your world.

The Fight Team: I have finally settled on a name for the fight team. It will be called Wolfpack Fight Team and will showcase the fighters in MMA, grappling and Muay Thai from the gym. These athletes will get the very, very best in facilities, on mat coaching, and the very best in off mat strength and conditioning.

Not one if us?
I also want to open up the S&C programme to fighters from other gyms in Ireland to come and have a look at what we do. As someone who is acutely aware that it’s really hard to find the time and facilities to do the work you need to do as a fighter, I want to extend an invitation to anyone in martial arts in Ireland to come along and have a look at what we’ll be doing and how we’ll do it. The biggest thing that holds us back in Ireland is the fact that we’re a small country but we have big country divisions. We don’t train with each other or spar each other, and all of our individual pools are too small to get the sort of experience we need. So I want to offer Irish fighters the opportunity to work with a specialist strength and conditioning gym. I hope this invite is taken in the spirit of cooperation in which it is intended. However my experience with Irish sport in general is that people will think I’m trying to “poach” people. I’m not. You don’t have to train with Informed MMA to do this.