The 2024 Training Log- Part 2

Inspirational writing music- GO!

This week it’s Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins. Man, what an album. Okay let’s go.

Last week was not the best, but I got 2 quality sessions of each of what I wanted to do in, so lets’ call it a good week all the same. That being said, bad sleep (more on that in a sec), a couple of busy days, and a bit of back pain meant it was sub-par.

But 4 good training sessions and 2 crap ones? I’ll take it.

Monday

It was Bank Holiday, so no Jiu Jitsu. Now a lot of you will read this and say “but sure there’s open mats all over the camp”. I’ll nail my flag to the mast here. I don’t like Open Mats. I actually think they’re gick. In a room with 10 people, you’ll have 2 who want to train, 2 who kind of want to train, and 6 who only show up to open mat because on those days no one makes them train too hard. Some prick will try his “new move” on you (new move= something he saw on the web) and some bloke will be hungover stink of booze and be a waste of a 5 minute roll.

Now what open mat used to be was “Hey there’s open mat today, let’s go train together and we can focus on guard passing”.

Look I’m not moaning, let people do what they want, but I prefer structure, and I prefer working with like-minded, motivated people in the limited mat time I have. In general, I don’t get that at Open Mats. Maybe others do.

Another thing- limited time used to mean that I only had so many sessions I could get to in the week, but now it means I’ve only got a finite number of rounds in me before I start to red line and get sore. That’s life in your 40s. It’s fine, but I need to pick my rolls carefully.

So anyway- No Jiu Jitsu, but lifting. Last week of big numbers this week. Back off week from today onwards. Upper Body Monday- Incline dumbbell presses were the main exercise. I cracked it out in 40 minutes and then hit the sauna for 20.

Tuesday

Decided to get some NoGi in, but felt tight. Had a bad warm up and then stepped in for some Positionals. We were working on Crucifix and the moment I lay down and someone took top position, I felt my low back pull. I lasted a whole 15 minutes. Bad day.

Wednesday

No sleep thanks to my back pain. But luckily Graham (Doolan, Kyuzo resident manual therapist) had a free slot the next morning. I spent an 20 minutes in pain getting my psoas and hamstrings massaged, and then just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, he dry needled my hips. Fucking agony. If I wasn’t relying on him to pull them out safely I would have punched him.

And then I went to the gym and did some light lower body work and I silently thanked him for the pain. Still tight of course, but functional, and then I got some high quality sparring on Wednesday night. A great investment. I’m getting better at that- spending money on things that keep me on the mat. And Graham is a gift.

Friday

Ran to the gym first thing to get some work in before classes in a school. I had exactly 50 minutes so I lashed into a reps session. One of those days I was so busy it felt like I was in the last scene in Goodfellas. Henry Hill trying to make spaghetti sauce while trying not to get arrested. I’m always glad to squeeze in some training before I get busy on those days. Partly because it means you’ve trained, and partly because it makes you smug as hell.

Saturday

Bad night’s sleep (again with the back, which also gave me a headache) but didn’t make the same mistake as Tuesday, and after a long hip warm up and 3 cups of weapons-grade coffee, I sparred for an hour. Unusually for me I sat off 2 rounds with my headache, so got maybe 8×5 in. 3 of those were good technical quality, which is a win, and cruised the rest trying not to get hurt by wild whites and blues. Used those ones to work on some cross-body single grips I’ve been trying out.

Thoughts of the week-

Read less non-fiction stuff. The vast majority of the books that are called “Bleep- The Science of how your brain hears shit” or “Splat- The secret of professional athletes” are bollox. You know what I’m on about- the Malcolm Gladwell stuff. Remember that one- 10,000 hours? The one that taught everyone that doing a thing for a long time made you good at it, and that good practice was better than bad practice. Holy Shit! Malcolm! Forget the Pulitzer, get me the Nobel committee. Someone just discovered that practice is good. Remember those guys going around telling everyone they were getting their hours in?

Instead, read fiction. You learn more about people and yourself with fiction. Last week I read King Suckerman by George Pelacanos (he wrote for the TV show The Wire among other stuff). The great lessons I’ve learned in reading have been in literature. I understand all-consuming ambition better from having read Macbeth, or consequence from reading Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, and there’s more meaning in Blood Meridian than in a dozen “self-help” books. You don’t have to delve into literature though. A well written character in any novel is great to get immersed in.

People are too analytical, and they talk themselves into bad mental health.

Okay. I’m done here. I can’t believe you read down this far.