Tanswell’s Blog

This is what I woke up to this morning. The view in another hotel room. Be it a competition, fight show or seminar, being away from home is all part and parcel of the job. I’m sure I have a bit of gypsy in my blood. I start to get a bit twitchy if I wake up in my own bed for a few weeks on the trot. Good job really, because the next few months is an array of stops between Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and the USA.

I’m beginning to feel my life is a combined sequel for “the Truman show”, “Trains, Planes and Automobiles” and “Groundhog day”, directed by Thomas Cook.

My survival kit consists of a phone, iPod, travel guitar, portable studio and laptop.

My packing skills become ever more refined.

My office is wherever I am at the time.

My anticipation of adventures to come is great.

Sometimes you just have to take a step off the diving board and trust that the body will take over on the way down. The psyche’s a different matter, but I do believe they have medicine for that.

Happy travels.

Its so easy to get caught up in trying to fix everything. Someones balance in the striking game, posture in wrestling or the awareness not to leave the arm in when attempting to pass the guard. As a coach, i want to get it right. As a fighter you need to get it right. I sometimes expect people to get it right straight away. This impatience sometimes comes across as frustration towards the individual. Not so, i can guarantee it is my own frustration at not being able to communicate what i need to at that moment. Sometimes you just have to let them be there in the “shit ” so to speak! That’s the only way to get the reinforced experience of what not to do. Laws of nature, some will realise and some won’t. As a coach, i think i should be creating an  enviroment for exploration rather than a “flat pack technique” plan.

The beauty of the fundamentals approach, for me, is that once you have a grip of the fundamentals for each postion, adding tricks is a bonus. You use anything you find to tweak your game and not to redefine it. I can think of nothing worse than trawling the various forms of instuctional media. Listening to some conversations makes me think that thats all some guys do…. That search for the new magic, wonder technique or holy grail of jiu jitsu. All that intellectualising just has to take away from the beautiful physical process of simply rolling.

Dont try to work everything out. Put some blinkers on the monkeymind that seems to run a constant dialoge of why, what or how. In my expirience Eureka moments come when you least expeact them, least desire them and just be. Just be in the sense of having fun or when you have put yourself in a situation where there is no choice, like someone punching you in the head whilst stacked up into a cage.

As a coach or athlete it is appropriate to just observe. Simply watch your body, other bodys and the interaction between various bodys and don’t have to fix everything!

I ventured back out into the Submission Grappling competition scene again recently. I promised myself that I would behave and represent the gym in a good light. I became sick of this arena so long ago. Spending all your Sundays waiting around simply because people had not thought things through too well. Dont get me wrong , I understand how much work goes into organising these events. Our original event “The Sub League”, was hard work. It was also a big step in the evolution of the UK grappling scene. In fact that competition was the proving ground for a lot of the talent that went onto shows such as Cagewarriors, Cage Rage and the UFC. I still have stacks of video with all these guys on.

Some things I ponder at Sub Grappling events are….

If all entries have to be in 3-4 days before the event and there are no enties on the day, why is there not a general timeline available? It would be so much easier for the organisers to have that running order up somewhere. It has to be easier than answering the constant questions of the stange breed of anxiety stricken grappler.

Referees have a thankless task. I have been asked many times to ref competitions or MMA fights. Not my gig im afraid, but I am sure if it was that I would be wacthing the match at hand and not one on another mat or the backsides of the local talent (although that would be difficult). Don’t do it just to be involved. Do it becasue you sincerly believe it is on of the most important jobs in there.

Promoters at rules meetings who say “just have fun, dont take it too seriously” , need to remember that when they are counting there £25 entrance fees. It is a competition, if you are not going to try your best you are doing an injustice to your opponents. Decide what you want to do, work out what you need to do to get it and then venture in wholeheartedly.

And one last bit of negativity for the competitors who confuse submission grappling with MMA. At a recent event one of our guys gained a point advantage. He was in closed guard bottom and I advised him to keep it closed and just hit closed guard attacks so that his opponent couldn’t pass and even the points up. There was just under a mintute to go. The opponent became very frustrated and began to “spaz out” and push his elbows and forarms in his face. Our guy simply kept him close and stayed cool. The dude obviously didn’t have a clue how to open closed guard. We went on to win.

About twenty minutes later I was taking a pee in the changing room toilet. I heard some guys talking but wasnt taking much notice until i heard, “I though fuck it I will just elbow this little fucker” (they were lightweights). What was even worse was his coaches reaction, “yeh, next time you have to do it like this” , detailing the elbow in a suposedly more brutal form. What a pair of pricks…. I have to say though, flushing the chain and walking out off the cubicle with a big smile on my face and dropping both a wink was very enjoyable.

After all that, why bother going?

 Experience, performance, fun and gold medals of course.

 Anna Mayne, over and under 60kgs champion; Anthony Griffiths, lightweight champion

Oh, and a simple environment for me to hone qualities of patience and non-judgement. Trust me, they need a lot of practice! No use being tempered in a warm oven, eh!

Not much going on here for a while. Mainly due to the fact that we have been working on a new deal for Rosi. It can be a real pain talking to people when you have signed a Non-disclosure contract, never mind writing in your blog and avoiding mentioning it. The news is out now, a huge 3 fight deal with Elite XC. Alot of work and patience paid off there.

The other reason for my sparcity is the “RESEARCH MODE”. Time to delve deep into the realm of untapped potential. This is important not only for the athlete but also for me as a coach.

Its not just about the winning (although that is a major factor). What are we learning on the way?

Every fight has exposed me to a whole new learning curve.  In the fight game it is about being adaptable, not getting stuck in your ways and truly being in the present.

Being around guys preparing for a fight is like being on a rollercoaster. The  Emotional Big Dipper , dealing with the  ups and downs at every corner . Being in this situation, if you really care, has the potential to drain you. It also offers the proving grounds for your high end interpersonal skills. Being firm without being dictational, understanding without patronising, confident without cockiness and  motivating without manipulation are all qualities that I for one am greatful for the practice.

This time around has been more testing. I am awaiting a knee operation that is preventing me from rolling as i would like. Absolute murder on the body chemistry . Looking at that as preparation for when i get older. This body wants a dignified demise and with the help of modern medicine it will be a while before i swop my shorts and rashgaurd for a stopwatch and clipboard totally.

Every fight of Rosi`s has offered unique problems.

Russia was all about weight cutting. If you have ever sampled Russian cuisine, in Russia it will make perfect sense when i say it became more an issue of keeping the weight on. We knew exactly what we could cut. Two months previous we were test cutting and measuring performance after the cut to work out optimum performance levels. Oh Yes, and as a bonus for the fight i learnt more about visa applications than i should ever need to know.

Vancouver and it was about jetlag and time adjustments. Carcadium rythms all sounds a litle new age, not so, there is some sound science in there. Making the adjustment into a new time zone is a major factor if you want to feel as close to your best as possible. Rosi wasnt feeling her best at 2am when she was being woken to a UVA lamp (specific kind) and dragged down to the gym for a session. A few weeks of nightshift at home definatly paid off on the West Coast.

Training and Competing in Extreme Enviroments was a book i alway knew would come into its own. Costa Rica offered the opportunity to put this into practice. Learning the difference between internal (core) tempreture and external tempreture is crucial in such heat. I am sure Rosi hated me for making her do conditioning sessions in a sauna suit. Especially in our un-airconditioned Manchester basement gym. We also got some strange looks working out in ice soaked towels at the beach resort venue.

Here we are again with a three fight deal. We’ve done all the preparation work for travelling, now what about the technical side of the fight. What about it? All you need is a good room, that meaning the people and not the walls, some good tunes, a work ethic and the fundamentals… let the body take over.

“Free from all doubt and uncertainty; positive, perfectly certain, decided”

Its that time again. Fight looming..

 Weeks of doubting whether we have got it right. Weeks of doubting whether the athlete will be able to make it through my (well intentioned) narkyness. Weeks of doubting whether I can hide what I really want to say, as i know what i want to say is not always conducive to what I need to happen.

Response-ability. Basically the ability to respond to a stimulus that an opponent is giving, and then capitalise on it. The problem, if the opponent is of any worth , they will have developed unique disguises for  their methods of your destruction .

It is all the same. You can discuss “this one and that one ” all you want. Its not about different things…its about seeing the same things differently.

There is no doubt that the fight and fight preparation is an art. Not mainsteam, but a high expression of art all the same. They go together like a painter and a canvas, a composer and a musical note and the writer and the alphabet.

The heart of fighting is the creative process in its essence. Totally alive and dynamic. In the arena though, no room for….. painting over, ear plugs or an edit function.

The coach’s palette is the human body expressed through movement. The fighters melody is the total control of his aggressors rhythm. The canvas, that’s where combatants and corners ply there trade.

Looking forward to meeting the Picassos, Shakespears and Green Days of the future MMA scene!

Are there any Absolutes?

Not in this game !

But that just makes trying all the much more worthwhile…

The sun came out on Saturday, and so did Luis’s Chicken Pox. There we are resigned to the fact that “house arrest” was imminent. The socially conditioned Pessimist in me feels the dread. Luis is going to go crazy cooped up in quarentine for a day never mind a week! Although i adore him our personalities can lock horns after a couple of hours never mind days…And Rosi, how is she going to hit the training intensity in the living room two times a day.  Shit, this could be a long week.

The Optimist in said “wait a minute, you don’t do anything anyway. Now you have an excuse to do it and not feel bad”

So there we go. A week of reading, surfing, researching training methods, watching fights, talking crazy subjects with my girlfriend and playing the “chicken butt” game with Luis.

The break of routine sometimes helps you realise things.

I have a privileged life

I have a cool family

There are actually people I look up to

And who cares if you want to put your clothes on back to front?

Perfection is inhuman. Human beings are not perfect. What evokes our love-and i mean love, not lust-is the imperfection of the human being. So, when the imperfection of the real person peaks through, say, “this is a challenge to my compassion.” Then make a try, and something might begin to get going.

-Joseph Campbell

Pathways to Bliss

Anna Maine; Doing the background work as an amatuer!

So i just got back from Ireland where i was working the corner for some of Jon Kavanaghs Team Dublin. It was a great night of fights with all of our guys finishing their fights in the first round. Being there reminded me of something i wanted to write about from the last Cage of Truth event……….

The previous event i worked on with the team in Ireland was very labour intensive. Not only did we have one of our own female athletes on the card with her pro debut but also i had Gunner Nelson from Iceland staying with me finishing his last bit of preparation for the headline fight against Mikar Trump of Holland.

That night at the event with all the routine bits out of the way, doctor checks, music, rule meeting and the like, it was time to enter the dressing room for that final preparation. Now i have a love/hate relationship with the dressing room. I love the chemical cocktail, shaken and stirred by the atheltes and coaches. There is something about anticipation no matter which way the odds are stacked that makes me come alive. I have a desire to win and no matter how much i play that down somehow the chemicals always get me. Learning to deal with them at various levels no doubt helps me grow in a healthy way, even if not always initially apparent.

I hate (usually) the facillities and (always) the hangers on. The room because it is usually too small. Most of the nightclub venues were made for a crooner to warm up his vocal chords or a drag act to apply his or her false eyelashes and not for half a dozen fighters hitting thai pads, sprawling and pacing up and down, more often than not trying to avoid the ridiculous statements of “well meaning” hangers on, girlfriends etc who would be better served at the bar ordering their own cocktails rather than trying to sneak a sip backstage. It never ceases to amaze me the things people can say in this enviroment.

If you are not a Coach, Cornerman or team-mate there for warm up purposes , THEN STAY THE FUCK AWAY! Lets just say we simply dont have the room.

This show was different. A Sports centre venue and we had a huge changing area normally used for the pool (yes, showers too). What’s more was the fact that i knew everyone in that dressing room, all 12 fights worth. I had fights 3 to work that night, Anna Maine, Aisling Daly and Gunnar Nelson. Anna is an athlete from SBG UK and had travelled over with me to make her pro debut against a more experienced Dutch fighter and Aising, her team mate, was fighting in a high profile match. Gunner was to fight the very experienced and unbeaten Dutch fighter as the headline fight. Tough night, and for me too as Anna would be one of the first few fights, Aisling would be in the middle of the card and Gunner at the end. There was a toilet in the dressing room which meant i couldn’t even elaborate a prostrate problem in order to keep whipping out to catch the fights.

When i entered the dressing room at the start of the evening it was full of bustle and apprehention. Guys learning the trade and guys plying the trade. Always eager guys with an abundance of kit to supply the procorners who have become hardened by years of chasing their scissors and tape around the dressing room. The banter is always good, but if you get involoved be prepared to be slayed if you are not sharp enough. My advice, concentrate at the job at hand…literally. Wrap the hands and switch on to work mode. This part of the day is what i term a “GO” signal. Time for fighter and corner to tune into their respective roles (another blog) and time to forget what anyone else thinks.

When i left the room for the evening it was quiet, still and as cold as the water in the pool that closed five hours ago. When you are working with a fighter and you start headlining shows most of this part of the gig has become ritual. What used to need to be driven home at every available oppurtunity is now communicated with a nod of the head or a reassuring tap on the shoulder. If they don’t know how to prepare themselves by now or don’t have any degree of self-reliance then they haven’t been facing the right challenges.

It has to be about the process.

On this night in Ireland and with the subsequent realease of the DVD (www.ringoftruth.info) I had the chance to get another insight. A few weeks after the event a envelope landed on my door mat. Could have been one of many things, a dodgy pressure point dvd that someone has sent me as a joke (at least i hope its a joke) or some hippy shit i have won on ebay. To my surprise it was the Cage Of Truth DVD. Ironic really and aptly named. The Truth will always out in the cage, or so we would hope. I began to watch and soon came to the realisation that the truth doesnt always out in the dressing room…especially after a loss!

I was in the backstage area all night, apart from when our guys were fighting of course. I was there when every fight went out to the cage and i was there when every fight came back. I had had a run down of all the fights i was watching on the DVD (well really, i was just listening in on conversations). 

“That ref was shit, i wasn’t in trouble then….,” well not really, I’d say more like doing his job. Being tough isn’t the same as intelligently defending yourself.

“The judges have no idea…..”, not what i heard you say when they gave your teammate the thumbs up in another fight.

“Fuck, i wish i would have trained for this one properly” ah yes, and then maybe you may not have wasted so much energy showing everyone in mission control how powerful your rockets were.

I have to say that sometimes the fighters and corners interpretation of what goes on can be somewhat “screwwiff”. In fact thats what I am going to order in the cocktail bar next time things just don’t go our way..

Sandbagging….

The basic tactic of lulling the oppostion into a false sense of security. A dangerous game when you consider the varients on perception of level.

Also so much easier for the sandbagger to fail after after he has manipulated everyones expectations of his abilities in a downward spiral. Are you really putting your self on the spot and taking FULL responsibility?

You can only use it a few times anyway!

Modesty….

In the society we live being good at somehing can really piss people off, weird i know but so true. Thought about Sandbagging for yourself, now consider this. Modesty = how you deal with your performance after its over. Blaming something other than yourself for your ability to suceed comes in many forms, “ah it was as hard as everyone thinks” or “i just got lucky dude” .

Sometimes just enjoy the win for what it is!

Self Handicap….

How many time just before you spar or roll have you detailed some Flu your getting over or my knees really bad or my Grandmas Cat has died. All well and good if you are genuinely making someone aware of a potential injury risk.

Is doing this every roll the crutch you need?

Anticipation, risk and surrender,

Endorphines,Adrenaline and Dopamine,

Awareness, non judgement, acceptance,

All seems like a good day to me!