Monday, August 17, 2009

Today I started my second week of fight training. last weeek was much tougher than I anticipated because I was so out of shape. Now, I am not going to tell you I am fat because that would be a bare faced lie but I did have the beginnings of a wee pot belly and I was certainly heavier. I weighed myself before starting training and I was shocked to discover I was about 90kg. That's around 14st or 198lb. Since I am fighting at 79kg, you can understand that I was amazed.

I am now around 82kg since I cut out a lot of crap in my diet and started traiining properly. let me tell you that crash loosing around 8kg is not nice! Every session last week felt like double what it was. At the end of an hour long class I felt like I had just completed two hours of hard sparring. My body was also starting to feel it as my left bicep and left shoulder started to give in. I rested well over the weekend and we eased off a little in sparring tonight so that my shoulder had an extra day but I think my body is adjusting to the harder training now.

I will not give away too much on what I am working on in my training sessions but I've only had one really bad session where I was in a foul mood afterwards because I felt I performed terribly, the rest have been fairly positive.

In training for my last fight I was focusing more on getting my body annd mind ready to fight, in that mental state where you can fight and not be self concious, as I found myself to be previously. That type of attitude is gone and I sorely want this one to end with my arms raised. My mental state has changed the way I approach training and in recognising this, my trainers have changed the training. last fight I only really went into that ring with my right hand, my right kick and rudimentary movement. This time however, I am training all my weapons and all angles. My knees are feeling really good from close, mid and long range. My hands are tighter and I am wasting less shots. My defence is feeling a bit tighter and can only improve as we get more sparring in. My kicks still need some work but they are perfectly functional. The fact that I am concerned more with correcting technique for the judges rather than power (of which there is plenty) in itself displays a marked improvement to the training for my last fight. I am satisfied with my progress and feel I am going to come into this fight a much better prepared fighter than last time. I am certain I will have no nerves this time and will win because I will be better prepared and in a better mental state than my opponent.

I said last time KO in the 3rd but my coach thinks that if I stick to the plan and don't lose my head  as I did last time then I could probably get a KO or TKO quicker than that. I certainly hope so. I want to make this opponent pay for my failure to win last time.

I am hungry.

Monday, August 10, 2009

I have been posting on this blog for  over three years now and this is my 100th post. So what have I done and what have I achieved?

Firstly, the main purpose of this blog was to encourage me to train more and to train consistently in whatever I was doing. At the time of starting this blog I was only training parkour. My first ever post has a good description of parkour if you want to read it.

The main thing I have gained from doing and studying parkour is that what I wanted from parkour was something to give my life purpose. I wanted to feel alive and get caught up in a moment rather than always be extremely aware of the long term.

Physically I discovered that without practice I have strong legs and decent balance and with training I have very strong legs and great balance. I also found out I needed to work on my upper body. I knew it was my weak point but I didn't realise how weak that point was!

After discovering the motto of "etre fort pour etre utile" I found that this hit a nerve with me and the quest to be strong to be useful will now stay with me for life, thanks to parkour and Erwan LeCorre.

Once this motto was a part of my self identity, I decided to take up boxing in order to supplement my parkour training but ended up accidentally taking up Muay Thai, and I have never looked back. Muay Thai took up much more time than parkour and eventually completely replaced it. I was immersed in studying and practicing Muay Thai. My main goals were to gain self confidence and keep fit. I never imagined I would fight.

Three years on from the start of my blog and my life is in a completely different place that I would have expected it to be. I gave up a decent paying job with good prospects and good security to return to studying and have now really discovered who I am. I will be attending Dundee University to start a three year MA Psychology (hons) in September and I plan on using psychology as a career in itself, either councelling or therapy of some sort so that I can continue to help people, but in a more effective way.

That theme of helping people continues in Muay Thai. I am fighting for the second time on September 19th so that I can help train other people for fights and so that I can tewach effectively and with the respect of my students. I do plan on becoming a Muay Thai instructor, which is actually within my grasp this year if I put my mind to it. My coach had nothing but good things to say about my future plans and even my planned foray into MMA competition even though he does not like grappling and ground fighting. It was he who has encouraged me to teach and to become and instructor, even going as far as saying that if time permits I should open up a club of my own in Dundee!

Although it is fractured and split over 100 posts and three years, you can look back over this blog and see me change. It is more apparent than ever that I am now a completely different person than I was when I started. I am no longer scared of physical confrontation and my instincts are changing from flight to fight. My diet is getting better and I'm starting to cut out all junk food and have found that I mostly don't like it at all, apples are way better than snickers! Lynn and I are about to celebrate our first year together as a married couple and we have a bright future ahead. I've even started to get a handle on my money and anyone who knows me will know that money doesn't just burn a hole in my pocket, it burns my pants right off!

In the future:

I would like to fight maybe 3 Muay Thai fights in total and a few MMA bouts.

I would like to have two children.

I would like to be a psychology doctor.

I would like to have a clean, whole food diet.

I would like to save 10% of each monthly income.

I would like to visit France, Germany, Iceland, Denmark, Russia, Brazil, Thailand, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

I would like to call one of the above "home"

These are my new plans for the future. The blog title "kieran in motion" remains because I would like my life to be constantly in motion and embrace change as the necessary force it is. I do not want to be come stagnant. I want to remain in motion.

Kieran