Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
New Direction and The Contest
NEW DIRECTION
On January 3rd, 2011 I gave my notice that I was leaving my full-time job in finance to pursue martial arts full-time. I started working on making this move after September 2010 when I returned from a trip to Tokyo. I was there to train and to help corner my coach Darren Uyenoyama when he fought (and defeated) Shooto Champion Shuichiro Katsumura. During that trip I met so many incredible people and started to believe in myself more as a competitor I trained with and met many of my heroes (including the incredible Rumina Sato and wise Hiroyuki Abe).
This has allowed me to focus on training as well as any other martial arts endeavors. In order to support myself I instruct martial arts, do office temp work, and tutor highschool students (so its not all fun) but I very much enjoy teaching! Also the flexibility of my new schedule allows me to adjust very quickly when I need rest and also ensures that I maximize my time by getting the best quality training (partners, time of day, etc). Also the ability to make my primary focus of the day MMA just makes a huge difference in mental performance.
Its only been the first month and I've been able to get in much better condition (thanks to strength and conditioning coach Chris Shah at Ground Up Fitness and the diet and supplement regimen I follow through Dr. Melissa Ponce). I have also been able to really improve my technical game by being able to train with a wider variety of sparring partners. Finally it also allows me more time to communicate more frequently with my mentors Darren Uyenoyama and Edge Brown which is a huge benefit in addressing my strengths and weaknesses.
I cant wait to see how I perform in this next fight and the next few months, I feel stronger than ever and the best part is I know I have so much more to improve!
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN FIGHT
At the start of 2011 joined a video blogging contest called "so you think you can fight" on bj penn.com. The prize for the winner? A chance to train for two weeks in Hilo Hawaii and then to fight on March 5th at bj penn's jut scrap event. The contest requires participants to upload a series of video blogs twice a week over a six week period. These vlogs were then viewed on Bjpenn.com and revolve around the topic of training to train for two weeks and the fight. In the final two weeks of vloging Bjpenn.com posted a survey monkey poll where viewers voted on their favorite fighters.
I decided to have a theme for each of my vlogs (conditioning, working and fighting, diet, etc). They can be found here. We shot at multiple gyms, home, the office, my car and even the grocery (where we were told not to video tape!). We even had Dream fighters Wicky Akiyo and Takufumi come train with us at FTCC for two weeks during the shoot!
I received a huge amount of help from my teammates, my girlfriend Jenny, coworkers, and most of all from my training partner and resident FTCC Pro MMA Fighter/Purple Belt/Video Guru Taylor McCorriston who helped me put together the shots and edit the videos (THANK YOU T). The process of filming the videos was actually helpul as I started thinking a lot about each component of my training and how they all fit together.
Promoting myself and getting votes was a whole other process in itself. I posted on several online forums in addition to the bjpenn website. I sent out mass emails promoting my videos and the voting process. Of course I used facebook events, messages, and wall posts. My girlfriend even sent daily reminder emails to her friends to vote for me. I am sure I was very annoying to many people during this time! It made me extremely thankful for being blessed with great friends, teammates, and mentors.
Awaiting the Decision
Voting ended on February 11, 2011 and the results are announced tomorrow. My team has put in a ton of work in the gym, on the computer, behind the video camera and now we just have to wait. I am anxious, hopeful, and very thankful. This is a huge opportunity for me to fight and learn from one of the best in the sport. If chosen, I know I will make the best of it and put on a great show!
On January 3rd, 2011 I gave my notice that I was leaving my full-time job in finance to pursue martial arts full-time. I started working on making this move after September 2010 when I returned from a trip to Tokyo. I was there to train and to help corner my coach Darren Uyenoyama when he fought (and defeated) Shooto Champion Shuichiro Katsumura. During that trip I met so many incredible people and started to believe in myself more as a competitor I trained with and met many of my heroes (including the incredible Rumina Sato and wise Hiroyuki Abe).
This has allowed me to focus on training as well as any other martial arts endeavors. In order to support myself I instruct martial arts, do office temp work, and tutor highschool students (so its not all fun) but I very much enjoy teaching! Also the flexibility of my new schedule allows me to adjust very quickly when I need rest and also ensures that I maximize my time by getting the best quality training (partners, time of day, etc). Also the ability to make my primary focus of the day MMA just makes a huge difference in mental performance.
Its only been the first month and I've been able to get in much better condition (thanks to strength and conditioning coach Chris Shah at Ground Up Fitness and the diet and supplement regimen I follow through Dr. Melissa Ponce). I have also been able to really improve my technical game by being able to train with a wider variety of sparring partners. Finally it also allows me more time to communicate more frequently with my mentors Darren Uyenoyama and Edge Brown which is a huge benefit in addressing my strengths and weaknesses.
I cant wait to see how I perform in this next fight and the next few months, I feel stronger than ever and the best part is I know I have so much more to improve!
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN FIGHT
At the start of 2011 joined a video blogging contest called "so you think you can fight" on bj penn.com. The prize for the winner? A chance to train for two weeks in Hilo Hawaii and then to fight on March 5th at bj penn's jut scrap event. The contest requires participants to upload a series of video blogs twice a week over a six week period. These vlogs were then viewed on Bjpenn.com and revolve around the topic of training to train for two weeks and the fight. In the final two weeks of vloging Bjpenn.com posted a survey monkey poll where viewers voted on their favorite fighters.
I decided to have a theme for each of my vlogs (conditioning, working and fighting, diet, etc). They can be found here. We shot at multiple gyms, home, the office, my car and even the grocery (where we were told not to video tape!). We even had Dream fighters Wicky Akiyo and Takufumi come train with us at FTCC for two weeks during the shoot!
I received a huge amount of help from my teammates, my girlfriend Jenny, coworkers, and most of all from my training partner and resident FTCC Pro MMA Fighter/Purple Belt/Video Guru Taylor McCorriston who helped me put together the shots and edit the videos (THANK YOU T). The process of filming the videos was actually helpul as I started thinking a lot about each component of my training and how they all fit together.
Promoting myself and getting votes was a whole other process in itself. I posted on several online forums in addition to the bjpenn website. I sent out mass emails promoting my videos and the voting process. Of course I used facebook events, messages, and wall posts. My girlfriend even sent daily reminder emails to her friends to vote for me. I am sure I was very annoying to many people during this time! It made me extremely thankful for being blessed with great friends, teammates, and mentors.
Awaiting the Decision
Voting ended on February 11, 2011 and the results are announced tomorrow. My team has put in a ton of work in the gym, on the computer, behind the video camera and now we just have to wait. I am anxious, hopeful, and very thankful. This is a huge opportunity for me to fight and learn from one of the best in the sport. If chosen, I know I will make the best of it and put on a great show!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
boxing
of all the combat sports i have done i have to say the least likely sport i thought i would like would be boxing as it seemed so limited. but over the last year I have come to respect the sweet science more and more and not just in video games. i truly believe knowing how to box can help in any ring sport.
one of my goals in the next two years aside from winning fights and a better grappler is to be a SOLID boxer. Technical and calculating. ah more and more work to be done.
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