That Was The Year That Was

It seems that this is the time of year for reviews, retrospectives and the like, and this blog is no different. So ladies and gents, kind readers of the blog, I give you retrospecticus- the IPMMA review of the year.

Now if I were to go into every tournament, event, fight and training session, this blog wold take a long time. So I won’t. Instead, here’s a short list of the top events of the year for Informed Performance MMA.

June 2009- The move to the new gym

This sort of goes without saying. The move was a massive boost for anyone’s training. The casual trainees benefitted from having more classes and a complete gym as an all in one. The fighters benefitted from having strength and conditioning sessions on their doorstep, more training opportunities, training in a boxing ring and a lot more. I think it’s also faor to say that there has been some drawbacks to training at the new gym too, the biggest one being how to fit it all in, but I’m sure we’ll iron all that out soon.

October 2009- Affiliating with Drysdale Jiu Jitsu

For a year or so now, the BJJ side of our gym has been cruising a little bit. Sure we’ve made some progress and we’ve had some great times training, but we haven’t pushed on competitively the way we have in other aspects. I think this was due to not really having a support structure in place. It became fairly obvious to me earlier this year that we needed to take a step in the right direction with this and I was delighted to meet and talk with Robert about it, and seeing him in action coaching the seminars sealed the deal. It’s hard to believe he’s a year younger than me. I think we’re in good hands.

June 2009 (again)- 3 for 3 at Rumble in Rush

This was a major deal for me personally as I think this was one of the only times I could say that preperation went perfectly, so coming away with anything other than a positive result would have been more dissapointing than a normal loss. It was also the first time that we had so many fighters away from home and to come home with 3 wins was superb, particularly given the manner that the three guys did it.

October 2009- The IP fight night

This was just great, and showed off the talents, the teamwork and the craic in the gym in equal measure. I had great fun organising it, running it and celebrating after it.

August 2009- The IP Submission Tournament

When I said I was going to run this, lots of people said I wasn’t going to get anyone into the gym during the summer months, that nobody was interested in Nogi tournaments and so on. We held a massive tournament and got great support from all over the country. we repeated the trick in December.

The Irish BJJ Open- November 2009

This was the first time we had done a BJJ tournament in force, and we did really well. We had been competing in the gi sparodically for about 3 years all in all but this was the first time more than 3 people competed at once.

December 2009- The night of 15 rounds

This was awesome. So awesome that I never want to do it again.

I’d like to hear of your favourite moments of the year, so feel free to post in the comments section. I’ll post again next week with a preview of 2010 and some the the events, seminars and other stuff that will be happening in the new year.

 I’m leaving out some personal highs and lows. I’ve been a lucky man this year for all sorts of reasons. Reuben, my second son was born in June. In May I moved to my new house, in September the boy started school and BJJ. On the negative side, which is a very small side, I broke my hand and mucked up my back yet again. I’ve also lost a fight and trained the least I ever have in any one year period since I was 19. So I’ll do some new year’s resolutions here and say that I plan not to break any bones and to look after my back in the new year. I also plan to train train train train train train train train train……….