Unfortunately, not a joke

This left me almost speechless.

Zen and the art of swimming

Image © Speedo, photographer unknown

I forgot how much I liked swimming. I used to swim a lot, but stopped and never really got back into it. I was too sore from a jits session on Monday to train last night, and even though I spent plenty of time on my new foam roller (oh god how I love this invention) I was still a bit banged up and decided to give them gym a miss tonight. Not wanting to stay home and do nothing two nights in a row I headed to the pool, a 50m Olympic standard pool that thankfully was split into two 25m lengths.

It’s a well known truism that swimming is very similar to grappling - the way you need to move as efficiently as possible, the control of your breath, the coordination between limbs, the relaxed tension… And the zen-like state you hit after 30 or 40 lengths where all you think is “breathe, stroke, kick, breath, stroke, kick…”

Ice baths suck

I’ve been doing some pretty intense training the last few days… Lots of kettlebells, running, cycling and a return to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (on the hottest day of the year - it was like rolling in the fires of Hades).

The soreness in my legs was getting too much to bear so an ice bath was in order. Don’t watch if you don’t like swearing.

Edit: Watching it back I only just realised how much I sound like one of the members of Dirty Sanchez when I’m swearing (not surprising - me and Dainton went to the same school, he was a few years above me).

I needs my fix, man!

Due to a cascade of drama, crises and a shitload of work, I couldn’t get into the gym all week.  It’s rare for me to go a few days without a session on the mat. From Saturday through to Sunday I barely made it out of the house, let alone to the gym.

This much became clear.

• Working out by yourself is shit in comparison to the kind of exercise you get when pushed by others
• Not training for more than three days is enough to drive you crazy
• Taking a week off does not necessarily mean you lose your edge.

I’m going to try to get into the gym a bit more often next week. This has been probably the most difficult week I’ve had in ages. From dental surgery to drama, relationship issues to flooding in my house, it’s all come at once.  Oh, and work’s been a bitch, as usual. But hey ho, on we go.

The Ultimate BJJ playlist

As promised to Matt, here is the track list. For what it’s worth, I NEVER train without music. It’s just weird.

1. Ian Brown, Golden Gaze
2. Brazilian Girls, Don’t Stop
3. Herbaliser, Eight Point Agenda
4. G. Love and Special Sauce, Honour and Harmony
5. UNKLE (feat Josh Homme), Restless
6. Mos Def, Ghetto Rock
7. Kasabian, Doberman
8. The Desert Sessions, I Wanna Make It Wit Chu
9. Hot Chip, Boy from School
10. Massive Attack, Risingson
11. Johnny Cash, Personal Jesus
12. Madvillian, Rhinestone Cowboy
13. Smoke City, Underwater Love
14. Dilated Peoples, Back Again
15. UNKLE, Unreal
16. Brazilian Girls, Dance Till The Morning Sun
17. Mylo, Sunworshipper

As you can see from some of the artists, this is by no means a hardcore workout CD - instead it’s a great mix of grooves, ‘coming up’ tunes, laid back vibes and stuff that helps you flow.

Maybe I’ll post a stand-up training playlist some time soon as well, although that one needs tweaking because people complain about some of my more bizarre choices!

Readers: Know your blogger

Rolling, rolling, rolling

I learned something from one of Ross Enamait’s recent blogs: Don’t assume anything about your readers. If you think they read your blog and as such know everything about you / are part of the training community / know what you’re talking about, then you could be setting yourself up for a fall.

With that thought in mind, it’s probably a good time to set something straight.

Highs and Lows

One of those days…

Everyone knows you can’t always be 100%.

But when you’ve been riding the wave for a couple of weeks, slaying people on the mat left right and centre, it’s hard not to feel like you’re pretty invincible. But it’s never permanent. Every high is balanced out with an equal or greater low. Peaks and troughs. That’s life, baby. Jiu-Jitsu is full of metaphors.

Big Strong Guys

Straight Blast Gym coach and Ireland’s first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt John Kavanagh coined a term: BSGs.

BSG’s are Big Strong Guys. You know the sort. They’re gnarly, always use 100% strength, and want to tear your head off during every roll or sparring session.

Why we do it

We don’t do it for money. We don’t do it for recognition. We don’t do it out of duty or obligation. We don’t even have to do it, but we choose to.

BJJ is full of wankers

A gym thankfully free of wankers

If you’re new to Notes from Ringside, and to be honest as I only started this blog a few days ago, you’re all pretty new, I apologise. Prepare yourselves for my first public rant.

The subject that has irked me enough to write about it here is probably quite a contentious one, for it involves many, many people who run blogs. At the risk of severely pissing off a sizeable portion of the blogging community here goes.