Although there is a certain confidence that comes from knowing you can hold your own in a fight, that isn't the point of combat training - not for me, anyway. Recently, whilst training, I was struck by how odd what I was doing must seem to people who have never trained in combat. I thought it woul...
Continue reading ...I was born in High Wycombe. I grew up in High Wycombe. Between 2005 and 2009 I lived away, then I came back. Not through choice, I should add. All my life, I've known about Wycombe Judo Centre. When I was a tiny child, my mum took me there to learn gymnastics. (For those who are interested, I ...
Continue reading ...As part of the Gold Challenge, I have to do some gymnastics. Officially, they want me to do trampolining, but it's just not as easy as you might think to find a nearby trampolining club that is also happy to let hairy, angry-looking men stroll in and 'have a try'. Instead, therefore, I set myself...
Continue reading ...Firstly - for the sake of accuracy - my stance in this picture is not en garde. It is the cool and far more effective stab-le-camera stroke, of myth and fable. I am one of only 17 people in England to have mastered this attack in the last 300 years, one of whom was Sir Richard Francis Burton (aka ...
Continue reading ...As I sit here in this gym, I have no shits left to give. Every miniscule amount of progress I make is either immediately lost or falls by the wayside, as I struggle to improve elsewhere. Inside or outside my training, I'm starting to feel totally numb to everything. For every month I spend hit...
Continue reading ...It's true what they say, you know. You get nothing for nothing. Unless, of course, you are Ryan Air. In which case, you get £160 for doing absolutely nothing whatsoever. That is how much money it has cost me to delay my outgoing flight to Portugal by 24 hours, so I can attend the Gold Challenge Ol...
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Thanks to some incredibly generous donations, I have now raised enough money through the Gold Challenge that they are going to let me run do my 100m sprint event in the actual London 2012 Olympic Stadium, in front of 20,000 people! Do I know how to sprint properly? No. Will I learn how to sprint ...
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So it turns out I'm still one of the Gold Challenge's highest fund-raisers so far. That's pretty cool! I haven't quite reached the heights of the guy raising money to save the rhinos, but I'ml making good progress. However, it also turns out that, if I raise £500 more (bringing my total to £150...
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[caption id="attachment_619" align="alignleft" width="179"] I had no relevant pictures, so here is my enormous drinking horn.[/caption] Good news! Somehow - don't ask how - I have been confusing my body weight conversations (from stone to kg) for the last year or so. I can now say with certainty ...
Continue reading ...You have to check this out!! Watching this video makes me genuinely proud to have been part of this madness. Totally, totally awesome :) <iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/36682151?byline=0&portrait=0&color=d42a44" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscre...
Continue reading ...A while ago now (last September), I was lucky enough to be interviewed by Olympic Silver Medalist, Gail Emms on BBC Three Counties Radio. Unfortunately, I managed to lock myself out of my house beforehand, so had to take the call late on my mobile. Even so, it worked out alright and you can hear it...
Continue reading ...Anyone wondering what I looked like as I crossed the finish line of Tough Guy 2012? Well, wonder no longer - here is the very sight, in all its unimpressive glory: [youtube height="472" width="620"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DM6izaNeqfs[/youtube]...
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Tough Guy 2012 was 9 days ago. Since then, all the exercise I've managed is a couple of hours of submission wrestling on Thursday, a deadlifting and back session at the gym on Monday and a bench press and chest session this evening. Hopefully, these pictures will explain why... [gallery order...
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I did it. I am now, officially, a Tough Guy. This year was the Year of the Lion Heart...which is just about the only thing that got me to the end. It wasn't fitness and it certainly wasn't preparation - it was nothing but grim, visceral determination and a lifetime's worth of being-an-idiot rolled ...
Continue reading ...Today, I intended to take things easy. Today, I wanted to do a light workout, to make sure I'm full on energy for Tough Guy at the weekend. Today, I did not want to deadlift... ...but that was before somebody told me I couldn't. "You'll never lift that" was the exact expression used. "N...
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I am very excited to announce I have received my various paperwork for Tough Guy next weekend. Well, 50% excited and 50% worried... I mean, check out how much they sent me... Each of those pages is double-sized and FULL of instructions. Start times, locations, safety instructions, kit list...
Continue reading ...Last night, I returned to London Shootfighters for three hours of combat training. For the first hour and a half, I was taught Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by a three-time world champion (everybody at London Shootfighters is pretty much the best at what they do). Step by step, Simon and I were taught how...
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For some reason, I'm still not sure why, I have signed up for Tough Guy Winter 2012. When the organisers describe Tough Guy, they do so using one word: deprivation. They then use 200,000 more words, to boggle the mind and utterly confuse anybody taking part as to what is actually involved!...
Continue reading ...One of my many New Year's resolutions is to become schooled in the art of combat. To achieve this, I have decided to start attending London Shootfighters - a fantastic gym and MMA school in West London - with my friend and lifting nemesis, Simon Lowe (aka Grand Vizier of Murderbeers) Last nigh...
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