So it turns out I bruise easy. Getting up in the morning and looking at my new "pain mementos" spread liberally all over my body in the mirror is now becoming somewhat of a fun pastime of mine. Evidently this is what happens when you start heavy sparring...
There must be something seriously wrong with my kicks, because I keep bruising my toes - at the very least it's more of a reason to get my form right anyway. When I pointed this out to Owen he looked at me as if to say 'Obviously! ... You're kicking things/people all the time, of course there are going to be fucking bruises'. He didn't, gent that he is, and instead smiled and said "Yeah, that starts to happen all right."
I did have to miss a wrestling class in Primal last Saturday because of a back strain. I had a sparing session there on Thursday night (where I was slapped around by lads ten years younger than me) then had a
one on one with Owen in SBG the following day. Needless to say I was bunched. You see people taking body shots all the time in MMA - be it kicks or straight shots to the body - and for some reason they just don't look as devastating as a head-shot. Having taken a few recently I can confirm that they do in fact fuck you up royally.
I'm always invigorated leaving a
lesson with Owen - even if I was wrecked going in. I came back to the JOE office from
SBG City Centre last week and sat down at my desk; a couple of hours later and I stood up to a shooting pain in my lower back. Owen was correcting my wrestling because I was double-legging him the wrong way; lift with the legs an all that... Anyway, I obviously hurt my back while doing it arseways and paid the price after I sat down for a while. Again, until I start doing it right these types of niggly, but painful, strains are gonna be common.
Owen has signed me up for an 'MMA League' event in Belfast on July 27th, and those two, five minute long fights have no head-shots - hence the sparring we've been doing. The plan is still to fight at 77 kilos in September, but I may do the MMA League event a few under 84. It's more for the experience of competing than anything else and being that you weigh-in day of event, it's gonna be tough to be 100%.
Thanks a mil again to
SBG City Centre for having us and
The From Afar crew who are shooting a documentary on MMA and my fight for Setanta. Thanks too to the sound guys at
Bodyfirst in Clontarf for providing some much-needed supplements and advice.
Don't forget to 'like' Owen's
One on One page for personal lessons too. Great chance to train with an MMA champion.
