Layout Image

I’m sure you’ve all heard the phrase “failing to plan is planning to fail right?  Well, besides being a nifty little saying for coffee mugs and desk calendars, I’m here to tell you that this statement has a lot of merit.

My training for next year’s freestyle judo national championships began this week  and I don’t think I need to tell you guys that I want this pretty bad. So, instead of just amping up my training, I decided to be more analytical. I sat down  and watched old DVDS of my matches (painful as it was) and from there I began to make a list of all the weaknesses that I saw in my “game”. I was BRUTALLY honest with myself and then after I recognized the weaknesses, I listed ways, in which I can overcome those weaknesses,  then I set a time frame for me to show improvement, after that I met with my  coach/best friend and we went over it together and I have to tell you, so far, I feel pretty good.

Yeah I know, it’s only been a week,  but coming into practice with a set plan has really allowed me to get the most out of what I’m doing and has helped to reinforce the “style” of play that I wish to compete with.

For the first time in my six year judo “career”, I feel like I have some direction to developing my competitive “game” and I think freestyle nationals being so far away has really helped that. I LOVED competing on a monthly basis, and I really do miss it, but a lot of times I think  my focus was just on winning the next tournament and not improving on what needed to be improved on. Now, I have time to be more focused on development and practicing Hard AND Smart.

I really recommend all competitors (or non competitors) sit down and create the same type of plan that I did. It really opens up your eyes and offers a tangible analysis of where you feel you’re lacking. But Remember: you need to be totally honest or  the exercise won’t work . writing  things like WEAKNESS: “sometimes, I’m just too good” will feed your ego  but won’t help you become a better competitor.

If anyone would like a blank copy of the sheets I used or if you want me to put them on the site leave me a comment or send me an e-mail. I’d be glad to.

So, there you have it one week almost in the books and things have been good.  To paraphrase a great American, Lt. Colonel Hannibal Smith “I’m going to love it when this plan comes together”

*lights cigar*

Later guys,

Matt

Post to Twitter

Categories : Uncategorized
Comments (0)

Two posts in Two days is kind of a rarity here on Disabledgrappler.com but I was sent something yesterday and I had to share it with you guys. Some of you may be familiar with the Story of  Kyle Maynard, for those of you who aren’t, Kyle is a congenital amputee  meaning he was born without arms and legs. Incredibly, despite this  disability, Kyle was a state level wrestler in wrestling, wrote a best selling book, No Excuses: The Kyle Maynard Story, owns his own Crossfit gym, No Excuses Crossfit in Georgia, won an ESPY award for best athlete with a disability, is an accomplished motivational speaker, and yes, an MMA fighter! Now, Kyle has taken the next step and will soon become a television star. His Documentary: a fighting Chance, which chronicles his journey to becoming the first amputee to fight in mixed martial arts, will premier on ESPN in the fall! However, in a cool little Move, Kyle has released The FULL Movie on Hulu for the next 8 days (or August 26th 2010) at  this link:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/170590/a-fighting-chance

If anybody is having a tough day, watch this video, I guarantee that in a minute you’ll be saying “what the hell am I complaining about?” it is amazing to me that Kyle and I have two totally different disabilities but our lives share such parallels that its freaky. There were points in the video where Kyle is talking about dressing himself, difficulty dating girls, and his passion and love for the combat sports and I’m sitting here saying “yeah, exactly” in fact I’ve said that word for word  and I’ll be honest my eyes are brown but when I was watching the video, they were green. I have no  problem saying that I am jealous of all that Kyle has accomplished he is “living the dream,” he’s living MY dream

I will also say that I have no problem saying how proud I am of Kyle. He is the prototypical story that everyone I, and everyone else can follow  which if you want something bad enough, and you’re willing to work hard enough regardless of your situation, you can reach your goals.  Which is exactly what I plan to do.

For more information on Kyle Please visit: http://www.Kyle-maynard.com or http://www.noexcusescrossfit.com

Post to Twitter

Categories : Misc
Comments (0)

“Two a days”, for those of you not in the US, is a common phrase used by football teams  to describe the practice of having one training session in the morning and then coming back and having another training session in the evening. With football season just starting, I think it’s appropriate that I get back on my “Two Day” schedule so for the first time in a little while, I was at  my dojo, the warpath academy in Dunmore PA at 8:15 in the morning  drilling Gracie Jiu-jitsu and it felt great.

I’ve written a lot  about my desire to get better in my matwork (in judo, ne-waza) and especially with freestyle judo they allow more time on the ground so  I need to get my game super tight. I would also really like to get my blue belt but that is not my ultimate goal. My ultimate goal is, that while I might not be able to do every single technique, I want to  get every technique that I CAN DO Razor Sharp

If I am successful in my goal, I will say that it is 100% because of where I train. The Warpath MMA Academy  is hands down the best place to train in northeast PA. Not only do I have my  two best friends, Tom McGuire and Tim Muenkel, two very good blue belts in their own right, helping me out but I also have Warpath/Gracie NEPA Lead jiu-jitsu instructor and Royce Gracie Brown belt, Jeff Reese.

Jeff is a phenomenal instructor, BY FAR the best “ground guy” that I have ever trained under. Every time I have a problem with something, Jeff is there to solve it,  when I need an adaptation of a technique, he’s there with one (sometimes two) and as frustrating as Jiu-jitsu can be, and believe me sometimes it is. I don’t think there is anything I enjoy more than training and “putting the puzzle together” and trying to beat this thing.

I’ll be back at the academy tonight for judo. Unlike past iterations   when I did two sessions a day, I don’t believe I’ll post twice a day.  One, because there’s not a whole  lot of new things that come up in practice, my practice is pretty much the same stuff over and over and two, I don’t want to put all my “trade secrets” and strategy on display for the whole world just yet, you’ll see soon enough J

They say that “A journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step” well this morning  by starting “two a days” I took my first step in my 1000mile journey of becoming Freestyle judo National champion

Later guys,

Matt

Post to Twitter

Comments (0)

There seems to be a growing trend  within MMA clothing companies of throwing as many skulls, pit bulls, crosses, aggressive fonts, and whatever else they can think of, on a t-shirt and then selling it for $45 to people who have never trained a day in their life but will gladly pay the money  because they think it makes them look “cool” or “tough”. I’m not into that at all, I believe you should train hard enough and long enough to BE tough, not open your wallet to LOOK tough. Which is why I’m proud to announce my new sponsor, a clothing company which bucks all the trends of MMA clothing companies, Six Deuce Gear

I first met Craig, the owner of Six Deuce, on the underground forum a few years ago  and the first thing that struck me was  what a down to earth dude he is. He has some experience with cerebral palsy in his family and we just took some time and talked back and forth about experiences that we each had me, as a person with CP and him being close to someone with CP and by the end of the conversation, this guy who I didn’t know from Adam, felt like an old friend and that is the one thing which I believe sets Six Deuce apart from all the other big name gear companies, they care.

Six Deuce’s designs are simple, they’re high quality, sometimes funny, but they are ALWAYS Affordable. Craig  takes the time to always go the extra  mile to ensure that he delivers the BEST customer Service often times including a hand written note thanking customers for their purchases.

When I told Craig about my plans for the freestyle judo nationals, his response was quick and it was short and all it said was “I’ll sponsor you in a heartbeat” and how can I say no? in the big world of MMA gear companies, this small business out of Ames Iowa is the underdog which is a role that I am  all too familiar with playing, not only in judo, but for my whole life. The way I see it, this is a marriage made in heaven.

So, if you guys are in the market for any kind of MMA gear, click the logo in the right hand corner and check out http://www.62gear.com and please tell em you read about them on disabledgrappler.com

Talk to you soon,

Matt

Post to Twitter

Categories : Uncategorized
Comments (1)
Aug
11

New Look, New Focus

By Marcinek · Comments (1)

What’s up guys?

Welcome to the All NEW DisabledGrappler.com. I hope that you like the new look and feel that I’ve come up with. As you can see, there have definitely been some changes made, starting with all of the  posts from the old blog are gone and for good reason. Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of coaching and while I love it I’m still young (27 next week) and I don’t want to be done with competing. So, what I’ve decided to do is, refocus and start training  with the goal of competing in and( hopefully) winning  the Freestyle Judo national championships next September/October in Missouri and I want to use this blog as my journal of all the ups and downs that I go through throughout my journey.

For those you who were readers of my last blog, you’re probably saying “yeah, sure this is probably just like every other “mission” or “operation” that he wrote about before and didn’t follow through with and that is definitely a fair criticism,   but all I can say is, for whatever reason, this feels different. Which is why I got rid of all those old posts everything that was written in them is in the past, all the bad feelings that I wrote about are gone. This is right now, this is the future and I really don’t want to look back.

Some of the other changes, I’ve added a brand new section for sponsors, but I’ll be going more in depth on that in a post  later this week or early next week, also I’ve included buttons to my facebook and twitter profiles  as well as added a button to my Youtube page, which will be up and running soon and I invite you to “follow” me on all of these social media, if you don’t already. The only thing that I ask is if you send me a friend request on Facebook and I don’t know you, PLEASE send a small note along with it saying that you read my blog or else your request won’t be accepted.

Well, that’s about all I have for today. I’ll talk to you guys real soon.

Post to Twitter

Categories : Uncategorized
Comments (1)