Rehab ( I say Yes, Yes, Yes!)

Since my last match I have been focused on rehabilitation. I have learnt (the hard way) that rehab is soooooo important! Especially when pursuing life in contact sports. I dislocated my shoulder 2 years ago in BJJ. It was a freakish accident (aren't they all?!) that had me in a sling for a month and unable to train for 4 months (by doctor's estimation).

I have always been aware that these things can happen on the mat or in the ring. When you participate in sports like these, you do so with an understanding that injuries can potentially occur. Not to say that you should not take as many preventative measures as possible! train hard but train smart is a good motto to have!

I got back into training after only 3 of the 4 months advised by my doctor. Probably my first mistake!!! It is easy for me to sit here and write, "you should take the advice of your doctor, and when you sustain an injury such as this, take that time to heal properly...." but since most people reading this probably do the sport (or some form of sport) you will know how hard that really is!! It is so tempting to just get back on the mat or in the ring!! You miss it, you CRAVE it! and your shoulder feels pretty fine doesn' t it? (we are the masters at convincing ourselves that everything is just dandy!). I also slacked off a bit on my strengthening and stretching that I was instructed to do as well......

Since my last match and the problems with my shoulder, I have become very strict about this particular matter!!! I now do stretching and strengthening exercises twice a day (o.5 kg or 1kg weights - small for the rotator cuff muscle in the shoulder) and have become more interested in Yoga. I have also been away from training for the required 2 weeks (this time I was lucky!) and did NOTHING in that time!! Now I am back and feel better for it. I am still not hitting with my right and will not attempt clinch for another 2 weeks. I will also not be doing BJJ for another 2 weeks, just to give my shoulder plenty of rest. I can train Thai Boxing, but BJJ, as you know, requires movement of the entire shoulder and it is not something I am willing to risk right now.

My attention to Yoga due to this injury has been a blessing. So i can say that what could be a negative has turned out to be positive (or is that you can look for a positive?). Some of my friends have been turning to Yoga as well and I have been inspired by their comments too. I have a good friend at KDTA Gym in Malaysia (Vince) who is a kettlebell king and will give me some great strengthening tips with kettlebells too. I am inspired by Chakra Yoga at the present point in time. I am inspired to learn more and it helps with tuning into breathing more (with meditation) which follows on from my last post. Will keep you posted on updates from here on in :)

Some pictures from my recent fight in Hua Hin.

Breathe

Breathing. Something we all do, yet is something that we must constantly be reminded to do when playing both BJJ and Thai Boxing. I have started to take a keen interest in meditation practices for this purpose. It is important to know how to breathe properly, and many people do not know how to make the most of their breaths. I was fortunate to be taught a series of techniques by world renouned breathing master, Master Dominique Lonchant, a couple of years ago in Malaysia. His instruction has proved to be benefical to me now! I have gotten better at breathing in training and find that my staminia is better for it. However, during a fight, I constantly have to be told to breathe!!!

I had a fight just 5 days ago in Hua Hin. Whenever I got back to the corner, the first thing I could hear was, "Breathe!" and boy did it help! It is important to take deep breaths, especially when you find yourself in clinch and using your knees. This was my main weapon for this particular fight. It is a tough position as under the stress of a fight, it is very draining!

My focus in this post is on breathing and I love the title of the picture - Breathe: you are alive. It is a wonderful quote. I had just one week to prepare for this fight. That is, double training and focus on sparring and technique. I had the fitness behind me. I find this an important point to make. If you are serious about competing, you must maintain fitness no matter what. I do become relaxed about eating to a certain degree, but I never forsake my fitness regieme. I always maintain my daily runs and skipping. You never know when something might come up (as in this particular instance) and you don't want to turn something down just because you have been slack with fitness. Also, it is imperitive to be as fit as possible for fights. Fitness is a weapon that is often ignored and/or not mentioned alongside skill, techinque etc. Breathing is also key to fitness, especially on long haul runs!!!

Breathing also helped me change my outlook on the forthcoming fight. Adam was constantly telling me to breathe deep and from my stomach as opposed to my chest. My perspective changed. This was particularly important pre-fight. It really helped me to just relax and enjoy the moment. I felt great before this fight. I actually had fun when I was in the ring. It is quite hard to detail feelings in writing. But I felt great, even though it was very tough. The girl I fought was heavier than me and larger. Her main weapon was low kicks and they hurt! I can honestly say that I have never been kicked so hard in my life. It reaffirmed my belief that sparring can prepare you for a fight (and I totally believe you cannot fight without sparring) but that sparring is nothing like a fight!! This is what I love about the fight. It is completely different. You can go hard in training, but you can stop, or your training buddies will not be trying to knock your head off (most of the time!) the way an opponent will be in a fight! You need to breathe in order to get through this and more during a fight!! My opponent forced me into playing a different game to what I am used to and it was so good for me. I did a lot of flying kicks and knees in order to effectively "jump" over her low kicks to land in clinch. I believe my background in BJJ really does help my clinch work. Unfortunately my right shoulder popped out in the 4th round. It was a scary moment for me. Immediately I froze. For anyone that knows, when your shoulder comes out your arm feels like lead. Like it is dead weight and you cannot move it. I said, "stop the fight" but the ref just looked at me and the girl kept punching (she would not have known what was going on ) and then my heart kicked in. I did not want the fight to end this way. I just ran around the ring to evade her and wound my shoulder/arm around my head until the shoulder popped back in. I continued, but the stress popped my arm again! I couldn't believe it! My clinch work was out the window at this point. But it was a moral victory for me, I finished the fight!!

I did have pre-fight jitters. I get them all the time. I would not believe someone if they said they don't get nervous!! I am not too bad. I am pretty calm until I enter the stadium, then nerves flood throughout my entire body! My breathing techniques helped by preventing me from drowning in nervousness!

Breathe. You are alive. I am alive. I am alive and living my life to the fullest. I am in love with what I am doing and could not envisage doing anything else at this point.

Some pics from training and my last fight (since i've been slack on writing...)

Bjj Pics!

Giving it up for the girls!

As women, we are often asked why we want to train and compete in such intense full contact sports such as BJJ and Thai Boxing.

Both remain male dominated sports, but more and more women are getting into them, which is an encouraging sign, and these women are good!

A whole entry (and more) can be dedicated to the why?? question, and this is something I would like to explore later. However, for now, I just wanted to shout out to all the gals and potential gals looking to get into these sports.

Having women to train with makes a difference. Rolling with a woman is slightly different to rolling with a man. It is often difficult for a woman to find a man of equal weight to roll with (though not impossible, especially if you are like me and weigh 62-65kg!) and the strength factor can come into play. I can't put my finger on it - and perhaps people may have some insight into this that they can share - but rolling with other girls just feels different. Don't get me wrong, it is still tough! I am sure there are many guys out there that can testify to the fact that rolling with women can be hard! Especially when they are very technical! Which I think is something that women have to be. We may not have the overall strength (but can still be strong ;)) so we rely on technique! Especially when rolling with guys 20-30 pounds heavier.

When it comes to training the perfect environment is to have both men and women. I love all the guys at my clubs. I love training with them and rolling and sparring with them. I believe that they make my game(s) better. But I also love training and sparring with women as well. Recently there have been female visitors to both my BJJ and Thai Boxing gyms and it has been so good! A friend of mine who trains and fights from my Thai Boxing gym has been away due to injury and I have missed having her to train with so much! (she is due to be back in the next week or so! yay!) so having a girl come to train and spar with was a wonderful experience for me. Also, we had a Brazilian couple from Japan come visit our BJJ club. I am pictured with Vanessa above. Vanessa is a blue belt with great technical skill and very strong. I had an awesome time rolling with her and it was great that we are of the same height and weight! Though we train for fun, we train hard and this gives some nice insight into how you feel and deal with competition too.

It delights me to find more and more women in these sports. I love reading blogs or articles from women and this both inspires and educates me in one go!

I am developing interviews with some of my female friends and fellow BJJ and/or Thai Boxing fighters which I hope to post here soon, so keep an eye out for it!

cha-ching! (with a bit of luck....)

I had a moment the other day in training.

I call it the lightbulb moment. Where I felt that perhaps a piece of the puzzle has come together for me (perhaps!).

In competition, your mental training can affect how you play and how you play can affect your mental state. This happened to me in my last fight.

I was feeling fine. I was fit, I felt strong, I felt confident in my abilities at this stage. Yet, in the ring whenever I attempted to close distance I felt frustration. This happens. Your opponent is obviously applying all they know in order to score points on you, but upon refection I now see that my frustration affected my mental reasoning and prevented me from attempting certain moves.

It came down to technique. I relied to heavily on my jab and didn't utilise my cross enough. But my technique was off. You have to be confident with your punches and just launch them with enthusiasm. I was on the backfoot too much and this resulted in my punches being too long and my body was leaning back instead of being slightly hunched and moving forward. This is not such a big deal and can be dealt with in training, but for the fight, it was a huge point.

It affected my mental status. I was frustrated and kept thinking, what's going on.....and whilst I felt strong, my position looked weak and you cannot afford to look weak in front of your opponent or the judges. My technique (or lack thereof) made me look timid and it made me feel timid. There was a raging conflict inside of me! This led to me being too cautious (being too cautious can be detrimental I believe) and I just didn't have enough Grrrr in this particular fight as a result.

Back at training now, I am really working on what I learnt from this fight. I thought perhaps I had issues with my mental training, but now I believe it was the technique that was off that affected how I felt. These small details are magnified 10 fold in a fight environment! I am now working on tehnique and repetition of drills, and also the trainers are now pushing me by always being on top of my- hitting me, pushing me to move and think under pressure. I am excited and I am looking forward to stepping in the ring again to try out all that I have learnt. However, I am aware that this may not (and probably won't!) come together for the next few fights! But then, this is what this journey is all about!

Repetition

Repetition of drills is important to me.

Though it may seem tedious at times, I have learnt its value with regards to body memory/conditioning.

I have spent countless hours on the pads working the same movements over and over again. Likewise, I have spent much time on the mats repeating drills, that seem to come into play or into my game perhaps 3-6 months later!

This idea came to me last night in BJJ. I was drilling with a partner and we just went over the same movement again and again. Of course, just drilling the same movement over and over would be redundant if you were not given the opportunity to try utilise it in anyway, but that's when sparring or rolling come into play.

Perhaps you may know of some people who just like to wrestle or spar without drilling? For me, I like to have a balance. I like drilling and repeating the drills, and then I enjoy the unknown factor of rolling and sparring.

Personally, I feel that the repetition of drills and padwork and so forth, has really helped me when in competition. The repetitiveness allows for your body to recall certain movements subconsciously, which is definately needed when under pressure! You often don't have the time to think (especially in the early stages of fighting) you have to react. And this is where your body has to rely on its conditioning and memory.