A big ask

A big ask indeed. I remember turning from 17 to 18. It's a time of many wonderful freedoms, but for the Taekwon-Do competitor, it means the big step from the junior ranks to the seniors. The senior ranks can be a scary place to be. It's where the big boys hang out, and for the new kid on the block, it can be very intimidating when you now have to mix it up with the lads that you only enjoyed watching in the past.

I've come across many black belts who have stepped across the Rubicon to senior level, and who unfortunately, decided to pack their bags and leave. That's their decision of course.

One of the lads from the club made the big change over this year. If you follow our website, you'll know who it is. I admire this young lad. His first tournament at senior level wasn't only the Leinster championships, nor was it the Dublin open, it was an international fight night. To stand on the mat for the first time as a senior and against what could be the best another country has to offer takes steel.

I admire him, not only for his guts, but he has a good way about him. He's always ready to help, always ready to train. I've never heard an excuse from him not to train, or to compete. He'll go along way in life. Maybe it's his eastern European upbringing, tough times in the old bloc no doubt. New kid on the block? Maybe new kid from the bloc? who knows, either way, his performance last night at the international fight night warrants a mention within these ramblings of mine.

Back to my own training, another trip to the gym today went well enough as the cardio improves. The treadmill is now on incline runs. I prefer it that way for some reason, tough and all as it is.

Funny watching the fights last night, or any fights for that matter, you always get the urge to put the gear back on and compete. It's all about finding the time though, the training is demanding for that level. Maybe I'm just making excuses. I did say to hell with it a few months ago after a let down regarding my position on the senior team. Unfortunately, the many miles between my home and the training hall in Cork stood in the way. Such is life and it goes on.

My mind is focused on coaching at the moment. The IMAC sports council recognised coaching courses were a big help in this regard. Unfortunately, no matter how much knowledge or experience you have, nothing matters a care if you're not the right degree for coaching in Taekwon-Do. Not that you have to be of any particular degree, fact is, as long as there are degree holders higher than you, they automatically assume these positions, irregardless of experience. Such things like this represent one of the many contradictions of a military martial art, now being practiced by civilians. Experience, past record, success, means náid, nada.

Either way, ours is not to wonder why.

The real coaching for me is done in the dojang. That's where it all happens, and that's where it will continue to happen.

I think my own club now is in a very strong position. The young lads and lassies training with me at the moment have all huge potential, this is what keeps me going, thoughts of future titles are inspiring. What makes it harder for these bunch of kids is the times they are in. They're all in the teenage years. So many demands, so many problems (perceived of course!), so many challenges and so many distractions. Sure weren't we all there in the past.

Getting through these years, remaining focused and dedicated to your dreams is what it's all about.

It's easy to get distracted, there's no challenge in that, you just float down river pulled along by a peer current, you don't have to move, you just follow. There's no challenge in smoking, until your in your 40's of course, when the challenge is to breath easy. There's no challenge in binge drinking, until your liver challenges you to a life or death duel. There's no challenge in stealing some one's bike, or maybe their car. That's easy, any idiot can do that. Any idiot who wants to waste their time and cause distress to others.

There is challenge however, in staying fit, staying healthy and most of all staying focused. Avoiding the current is probably the biggest challenge of all for teenagers. To all those young people out there who independently decide to live by their own guidelines, and not by some other punks, I admire you. You will ultimately be what you want to be, a world champion or even better.

Anyway, enough rambling, this is meant to be about MY grading.
Bloody teenagers!

Tá an lá go hainnis.
And so it was, the day was terrible. It's hard to motivate yourself for anything when you look out the window and see that it is well and truly 'weather for ducks'.

None the less, it was off out the door just before 7am for the gym ritual. Todays focus would be on shoulders. Again the workout was light, and it will be for the first and second week. It's always best to ease yourself back into the swing of things. Injury is always lurking around the corner, although I've been lucky injury wise the last while, where's that proverbial wood when you need it?!

A quick burn up on the shoulder region from dumbbell pressing at an easy pace with 20kg's in each hand and then some standing military press's. This was followed by lateral raises and rear shoulder shrugs. The cardio ensued as did the stretching.

I had a bit of space this morning to run over Yoo Sin quickly. It has 68 movements, but even still it is quite an easy pattern to remember, probably down to the easy symmetry of the diagram, or in other words, you do something on the left then you do it on the right. I have all three 3rd degree patterns learned. It's a matter of just perfecting them, if perfection is ever achievable.

In the news is the ICTU march on November 6th. Probably another pointless exercise. Who's in charge of that Congress? Oh yeh, it's the Grand Old Duke of York.

I bet those ducks are happy.

Early mornings

So the early mornings have begun.

I thought pushing my usual 7am start back an hour was going to be easy enough.

When the alarm burst into its early morning frenzy at 6am, the first thought to enter this drowsy mind was, 'not already'.

'Already' it was, and I dragged myself up to tackle the day with a visit to the gym.

There is now a separate more immediate reason to up the fitness levels, Tomaz Barada is returning to Ireland on November 7th and 8th for a series of sparring workshops. His sessions demand that you have a fairly decent level of fitness. Fitness for him comes as a given, the man walks around with a heart beat of 36 beats per minute. Similar to the folk who live on 'the roof of the world' in Tibet. He is probably the man I most admire in the field of Taekwon-Do and sport in general, he leads by example.

For training in the gym, it's easy to disregard cardio work. To say 'Ah sure I'll lift a few weights, that'll do me' is missing the point of training for a specific anaerobic sport like Taekwon-Do. Sure lifting weight is productive, lifting them functionally even more so, but skimping on cardio work will leave you gasping uncomfortably during a Taekwon-Do training session.

Fuelling me for the work out was 4 pineapple rings, 2 rice cakes and a mix of protein isolate. Nothing too heavy for that early in the morning, and that soon to a work out. As for energisers, Im a big fan of the amino acid citrulline malate and the natural stimulant caffeine. I did contemplate the Rocky approach to early morning workouts, a few raw eggs, a couple of chin ups and a dirty black hat, but I'm passed that stage already!

Caffeine is a really effective stimulant. However its over-use is non productive. The nervous system slowly gets used to the effect of caffeine, which in turn means the user has to up the dosage, of course addiction then ensues. The key is using it sensibly.

The workout itself was light. Some chest pressing with 25kg dumbbells, cable cross overs, dumbbell flys, and then into the triceps for a burn. Triceps are best hit with heavy compound lifts or pushes. Weighted dips are very effective.

As is good practice, the session was concluded with a good run. I'm not incorporating sprint work just yet, I'll wait until i'm a bit more at ease with the pace.

The session, just under an hour, finished up with some dynamic stretching. Those that suffer with stiff hips, dynamic stretching is a super way of loosening them out, here comes the caveat, you will have to stretch up to twice a day. It's worth it, or as the glamorous hair ladies might say...you're worth it!

The recovery meal is as important as the workout. No point in training your body to be a high performance sports car, then dousing it with green diesel. Only the best fuel should follow a session that is tiring. My recovery meal was as follows:

100g of raw oats, yup uncooked. Topped with blackberries and raspberries, soaked with rice milk.

4 Spirulina algae tablets and a sachet of a very powerful multi-vit and multi-mineral called Genesis by Universal.

That's me propped up for the day, and it's only 8.30am.