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

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

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.