Thanks Shane. And if 20 is beast mode, that REALLY makes me feel awesome, haha.
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LoL. Sorry for the typo. I am not used to typing more than 20 on squats. 
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Have a blast! Looking forward to hearing how it goes.
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Good luck at the comp.
Quick check in: this morning I was almost 20kg/44lbs lighter than halfway January when I started the cut. Had a diet break of around 6 weeks in there. Implementing 1 cheat day now but still losing around 1kg per week. DL strength has gone up a bit, the relativly new SSB squat too. Bench and ohp has slipped back slighlty, but nothing too bad. Ran 531 w plus sets and fsl last cycle. Every cycle w a ton of supersetting. Since a few weeks I am inplementing more carries. Just started 5x531 (w 5 heavy sets) to shake things up a bit. Been following your blogposts about getting more conditioning in. Work capacity seems to be at an all time high, rarely feel sore and feel ready to go, even on a low kcal diet, a lot of the time.
I am playing w your idea of doing more ābad quadrantsā stuff: which are definitly squatting and pushing for me. This morning started of with JV keg clean and press and goblet squats. Looking forward to implement more of these tricks, and really bumping them up when i can finally gain again. I guess that will be somewhere this winter
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When you wake up 8lbs under the weight class, you get to eat like a warrior
Edit: Made weight with 2lbs to spareā¦in a full set of sweats. Game on
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Looking jacked and dangerous! Looking forward to your write-up.
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You look like you could hold a watermelon right out in front of you with one hand and break it apart.
Look at those arms!
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Nice job! Congrats on competing and bringing it.
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Looking forward to these
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@PowPowPunishment Hey thanks so much man! Youāve been following the martial arts journey since the beginning: itās so wild to think.
@tlgains Hah! I love that visual. Thanks man! And thatās the TORN bicep. But it being shorter helps it look a little bigger.
@antiquity Much appreciated man!
@dagill2 I got you covered!
First Match (Semi-finals: Loss)
Definitely a āblink and youāll miss itā thing. I think I genuinely need a ātune upā match before I actually start competing, because this same thing happened to me at the last comp: I come in slow, awkward, and wondering to myself āwhat the hell am I doing here?ā, and this time the dude on the other end sensed that and took advantage of it. He was explosive and game and quickly got my back, at which point all my years of wrestling took over, I got to my baseā¦and got choked the f**k out. I fought a little by tucking my chin, but I was just not thinking through the fight at the time. In retrospect, there were a million other things I could have done, but live to fight another day and learn.
Second Match (Bronze Match: Win)
I KNEW that I needed to win A match if I wanted to bring home hardware, since there were 4 competitors today. I didnāt actually get to see the other dudeās match, despite looking for him, as I was hoping to learn SOMETHING about his game before we rolled. But, as soon as I approached him, I looked at him and thought ālunchā. Once again, itās kinda cool that my killer instinct is actually coming out to play these days, because in my 20s I was too much a ānice guyā and really missed out on a lot of possible Ws.
We felt each other out at the start and I quickly realized that I was much stronger than this guy, so I played that to my advantage and broke him down standing as much as I could: fighting off his underhooks, getting better positioning, dragging him where he didnāt want to go. I tried some more aggressive takedowns, and even felt the instinct to go for a double leg at one point, but instead I ended up on my knees with him attempting to get my back. I managed to prevent that and get him onto his backā¦and thatās where most of the match went.
I am pleased at how I was able to impose my will on him the entire time. He never got to have a say in where we were, what we were doing, or how we were doing it. Occasionally, heād keep a guard longer than Iād like, or roll out of something, but that was about it. My conditioning was even better than last time, and his was significantly worse than anyone else, so I could feel his strength fading and it just got me to keep pushing even harder.
However, it was also blatantly apparent how undangerous I was. I kept going for the handful of subs I knew and none of them landed. I equated it to being like a Terminator robot who never got the combat programming uploaded into their CPU: I was relentless and unstoppableā¦and ineffective.
BUT, the advantage of that is, when the timer ran out, overtime decision gets to go to the aggressor of the match, and there was no question that it was me. In overtime, both competitors get a chance to escape from the other competitor while they try to submit. I knew the other guy was exhausted, so I chose to be on defense first, knowing I could escape from him. He DID try to get in a choke, but in 22 seconds, I was out.
From here, I knew that all I needed to do was hold onto the dude and squeeze the sh*t out of him so that he couldnāt escape in 22 seconds, and thatās exactly what I did. His conditioning fell apart and he had no strength to deal with me, and eventually time ran out for him and I walked away with the win.
Some of the things I pulled off that Iām happy with: I actually employed some of my old wrestling tricks here, specifically the cross-face cradle. That was my go to in high school, and it still works to get positioning. I also was fighting for subs the ENTIRE time, up until the last secondā¦to include what Iām pretty sure was a backwards set up for a triangle choke. I also was pretty creative in applying pressure from the top and just plain making the other dude uncomfortable. And again: Iām VERY pleased with how my conditioning held up. I actually felt better this time compared to last, where I was MORE focused on conditioning training. Iām thinking taking this week a little lighter in training may have helped.
Oh yeah, and let me just pat myself on the back for being the oldest dude there. The first guy I competed against I was 17 years older than: final dude I had 9 years on.
I kinda want to write about the whole day at some point: waking up, crushing that breakfast, zero issues with weigh in, but I feel like this is the most important part.
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Nice work on the day! Thanks for the write up and especially the videos.
Thereās definitely something to breaking in a good āgrappling sweatā if you can before your first competitive match. Competing cold was a major mistake throughout my competition years.
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Much love @burien_top_team ! It means the world to me when dudes like you, @twojarslave , @creative_name and @freshyfresh swing by and share your knowledge with a scrub like me. I SERIOUSLY need a training partner, haha. There IS a way for me to get reps in if I want it: I just need to make my schedule work.
There is another one of these on 8 Dec. I already plan to sign up and get the early bird deal.
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Outstanding.
The first guy saw the window and got your back. That will happen a LOT if you train more. The windows are just everywhere.
That second match was great. Have weapon, will hunt all right. Some of your attempts were sort of lost causes but I loved that you were attacking and always always working. Thats not ideal from a technical BJJ perspective, but it is 100 percent ideal from a putting up perspective, when your Fighterās Fortitude is your biggest advantage.
Training with my coach, or any good coach who is as good of a technician AND strength athlete, could have you slicing through guards like that in short order. You would 100 percent be a belt-breaker, even in your near-geriatric state. A blue beltās most despised roll is a good thing to be, in my opinion.
Iām excited to see whatās next. Congratulations!
Edit: Iāve also got to add that your hip and core strength alone will make you an extremely difficult person to pin in fairly short order once you learn how to use them. Hips are also the key to many back control escapes. Your hips can create so many problems.
Double Edit: Iāll also add that while you shouldnāt feel good about giving up your back so easily in match 1, you should definitely feel good about giving that kid the opportunity to compete against you. Youāre the guy itās supposed to work on, and it did. I can guarantee that he was riding pretty high from getting the tap on such a goon.
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Hey hey donāt go too far lol
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Oh man, thanks for the video shares mate. Great work here.
You āalmostā had a triangle submission at the 6.05min mark, alas your leg hook was the wrong way around. Interested to know how much grappling there in in Tang Soo Do, as with some work in bjj grappling youād be even āmore of a handfulā in these kind of comps. Always great to hear junior and your Valkryie in the background cheering you on too.
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@twojarslave You really were instrumental in my decision to sign up and step up a level on this one, and, in turn, signing up for the NEXT one in Dec, haha, so thanks for that. Your support and enthusiasm has been huge. Very spot on assessment in many regards: Iām still a wrestler playing jits, and I come in with that wrestling mentality of āexplode for 2 minutes 3 times and then go off somewhere and dieā. And with the longer rounds, it plays out interestingly, but as long as I can have slightly more conditioning than the other dude, it seems to work IF I can trick them into playing my game.
That first match was what Iāve been expecting from day 1, so when it finally happened it wasnāt too big of a shock. And at least that dude went on to win the division, so Iām happy about that.
I AM getting the itch to train grappling in some capacity again. Iād love to make the time. I need a place that works with my hours, because I have TONS of opportunities around here, but Iām not willing to set aside the time. Maybe itāll have to be a post retirement thing.
@freshyfresh Game recognizes game man. Iāve always been a combat scrub: just relying on my size, strength and conditioning to overcome my goonery.
@raven78 I am glad SOMEONE appreciated that line, because I chuckled quite a bit to myself when I came up with it, haha.
I TOTALLY realized I had the triangle backwards after I gave it a try, only to be too little too late. For Tang Soo Do, thereās no āaliveā grappling, as Matt Thornton would refer to it (thereās a throwback for you, which speaking of, @twojarslave and other oldies out there are bound to appreciate my 2005 era āSprawlā shorts that I wore to the comp to specifically show off my cobwebs): any manner of grappling is trained on a compliant opponent. The principles are ok, but we donāt have any real opportunity to drill them in a useful way. It would certainly be nice to actually get in some reps beforehand, but maybe Iāll have to just Evan Tanner it and teach it to myself, haha. And appreciate the kind words for the family! They were incredible: right after the event we actually had to make it BACK to the Dojang to celebrate our accomplishments in our summer competition (my kiddo got 3rd place there, so it was a bronze medal kind of day), so we got up, all had breakfast, got to the grappling comp, got in my matches, quickly drove back, got changed into DIFFERENT martial arts clothes and went to another venue. Wild day.
Another great Sunday. Got up, got in some push ups and squats, Valkyrie made me breakfast, took the dogs for a 1.5 mile walk, and then got in my deadlifts
9+3+3x425
These are actual deadlifts, off the floor. For the end of the cycle, I would have liked a higher number, but this is post grappling comp and honestly unplanned, but my hip was actually feeling pretty good, and this didnāt beat it up too much. I DO think Iām gonna make this my last heavy deadlift before my strongman comp on the 14th. I was pleased with my ability to break the weight off the floor so many times, and the control I had over the bar.
After this, got some lunch at Culverās (4 burger patties with butter, and then another patty with some cheddar cheese leftover from my kidās lunch), got home and broke out the 200lb sandbag before I mowed the lawn
This did NOT feel great on my hip, and Iām definitely good putting this on hold until comp day. I get a feeling the sandbag has really been whatās been bothering my hip so much. It tends to blow up my connective tissues: typically itās my elbows, but Iāve managed to spare those in place of the hips. Perhaps my switch to high bar squatting has helped there.
Mowing the lawn ended up being about a 4 hour ordeal. I havenāt been able to mow it for 2 weeks because weāve been getting new siding and the dudes have been working all over the yard, so it was like a jungle and I have a battery operated mower, so the batteries kept dying from the sheer labor. Iād have to let them recharge. During recharging, I took the puppy for another 2ish mile walk, then also just went on a walk on my own, and even had dinner (made some sirloin caps from Costco, alongside some full fat cottage cheese and a handful of cracklin for myself, made mac n cheese for the Valkyrie and the kiddo as a side), and FINALLY got it finished in the 3rd attempt.
So lotta activity AND some training today, with lots of great food. THIS is living. I love this.
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Now THATāS a name for the OGs! RIP Champ.
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I think youād really dig training more. Everyoneās learning curve is different, but I think your strength, conditioning and your analytical ability will give you some pretty big advantages right out of the gate on top of being familiar with grappling to begin with.
Being of advancing age will also keep things like wellness and family at the front of your mind, which can lead to fewer pointless battles during your first months on the mats, which leads to an absence of injuries.
Depending on coach, curriculum and quality of room, I estimate youāre a year away from being an insurmountable handful for 99 percent of the population. If you moved to Portland, Maine and trained where my coach does you would quickly become the pet project of multiple talented coaches who would take great delight in unleashing you amongst the blue and purple belt population.
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