Work on your strengths, dont worry about your weaknesses (for now)

January, time of new years resolutions and setting goals for the next year. Here's my top tip for you: work at your strengths and dont worry about your weaknesses (for now).

Now I'm not talking to the complete athlete that has dedicated themselves to mastering all aspects of their sport. Those with that level of dedication and the goals to match will do what they have to to become competitve at an elite level.

No Im talking to myself, or the 30 something enthusiast with a limited time budget for training and recovery, someone who has to make the most of a little.

I know my weaknesses very well, any crossfit workout that has me going overhead for mulitple reps is a nightmare, becuase I just cant jerk! Likewise, anything with runs in it is a huge pain, and will see me at the bottom of the whiteboard.

My number one strength is strength, I can deadlift, squat and clean a lot of weight pretty quick. When it comes to WODs with weighted movements and heavy lifts, I excel (most of the time).

So for the next 6 months Im going to focus on making myself as strong as possible. My targets are a 2.5x body weight deadlift, 2x  bodyweight squat and 1x body weight overhead press. Am I going to ignore everything else? No, I will run, do olympic lifts and gymnastics as well. I Just wont prioritse these in my training, I will "play" at them when and if they come up, but "work" on my strength, i.e. follow a regular program and devote energy and recovery time to it.

What are your strengths and weaknesses? Are your new years resolutions and goals focused on covering the gaps or making the most of what you are good at? My advice is to make the most of your time and energy on pushing your strengths as far as they can go, then and only then worry about your weaknesses.

Crossfit and BJJ in Istanbul

I'm a big fan of training when I travel, its a great way to make new friends and enjoy your trip. I was in Istanbul a week ago, and decided to take some time to train at www.crossfit34.com, a combined BJJ and Crossfit gym, and the first actual affiliate in Turkey.

Crossfit 34 is located on the Anatolian side of the Bosphorous, in a dense residential area called Kozyatagi. Its a 30min to an hour journey from most of the touristic and historical areas of the old town, and a bit more than an hour from the main International airport. One of the upshots of going across the bosphorous is getting to travel on the historical ferries as they not only get you there in style, but give you free sight seeing tour of Istanbul. If you havent been to Istanbul yet you really are missing out, its a vibrant metropolis with great night life that also offers truly magnificent culture and history as well.


The facilities are excellent, owner Mehmet Kilimci and head coach Firat Tarhan went to great trouble to stock out the large gym floor with a Rogue pull up rack and Rogue gymnastic rings, as well as getting IWF quality Werksan bumper plates(www.werksan.com.tr). On top of that the matted area is big enough for about 20 people to have a BJJ class in and its nice and clean and brand spankling new. They hang up heavy bags and a few tear drop bags for mma/boxing classes. Quite luxurious!

I managed to sample a few different classes over my stay. BJJ is relatively new in Turkey, but Ertan Balaban and his student Ahmet Fedai have done an amazing job of creating a great bjj culture here and spreading the word. Ertan is a purple belt under Igor Silva and has a solid MMA record (got to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXYL64Bykzk for his WFC fight against Jetmur Emruli, sweet RNC), Ahmet is his young apprentice and a very capable blue belt, as well as being a solid instructor and coach.  The level of the class was very good, and everyone was super welcoming so once again thanks guys! Oss!

I also did a crossfit WOD with Firat. The WOD was a 1-10 up and down ladder of 1 push press, 1 SDHP and 1 burpee. Of course being the show off that I am for some reason I decided doing 100 push presses with 50 kg was a good idea. Well it wasnt, it sucked and I wondered at several points if I could just walk out of the gym and never come back! Ladders are always tough, but Firat was there to give me a cheer and count me through the reps so it got done.

Overall my experience at crossfit Istanbul (crossfit 34) was excellent, very glad to have met all the guys there and I wish Ahmet Fedai the best of Luck at the IBJJF Europeans in Portugal. Look out for him!. Thanks to Mehmet, Firat and Selcuk as well for being so welcoming. Look forward to seeing you guys again soon.

PS: If you do decide to make a trip out there, drop Mehmet and Firat an email (http://www.crossfit34.com/iletisim) for directions. Taxis dont know street names in Turkey so everything works by local landmarks and references. In the case of crossfit 34, I found that navigating from the KVK building (pronounced KAH-VEH-KAH BEEN-AHSEE) worked pretty well.

Yeah its the gentle art, but not THAT gentle

I didn't manage to medal this weekend at the English Open, but I did get lots of good feedback on my game, attitude and fitness.

A while ago one of my training team mates mentioned that i should get more aggressive and explosive during the stand up/wrestling phase. Nonsense I said, you get injured or injure others like that, lets play nice and gentle and tie up with grips in a civilised manner before gently taking each other down...

Well guess what he was right, I was way too passive in the stand up portion of my matches. First match I go for a really sloppy shot ( if you can even call it that) ...and end up getting put in an anaconda choke! I don't know what I was thinking guess I thought he would just let me take him down or something.

The same match turned out to be the highlight of my tourney  though as I managed to survive the choke, get out and then win by baseball choke from knee ride! I felt pretty proud about sticking it out and then having the wherewithal to win. 


(By the way I'm the dude with the caterpillar stuck under his nose in the video below. Thank God Movember is nearly over!)

Ended up fighting the same guy in the bronze medal match and it was a back and forth war (at least that's what it felt like to me). Nearly got that knee ride and collar grips a few times but he could see it coming so he made sure never to let me get comfy and my opponent won on points when the time was up. Hopefully will get to fight him again at a tourney soon, great opponent and good sport too!

I cut about 7kgs over a couple of months for this tournament, and was still not eating much or doing a lot of conditioning outside of bjj ahead of the tourney. Now the task is to settle into my weight, (or maybe loose a little more so I'm comfortable making weight next time) and get back into conditioning.

And finally congratulations to all my team-mates, who put up a fantastic fight that weekend! And thanks to the guys at Carlson Gracie Team for running a really sharp tournament, pretty much all the brackets started on time, which in my experience is pretty rare.

Expressing Fitness: Crossfit and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Crossfit is a great program for general physical preparedness (GPP) but what are you getting prepared for?  My sport of choice is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), a martial art with a competitive yet very close knit culture very similar to that of Crossfit. In my first post on this blog I want to tell you a little more about the sport, what to expect in a class and in competition, and why I think its a great way to express the fitness you develop through Crossfit, for both men and women.

BJJ is a grappling based (i.e. no punching or kicking) martial art and sport derived from the samurai martial arts of Japan, but with a distinctly Rio de Janeiro feel. Judo is a very close cousin and, similar to the Olympic sport, BJJ matches start with two competitors facing each other on a mat wearing Gi, the commonly recognised pyjamas worn in Japanese martial arts. The aim of the game is to execute a well timed throw or takedown, secure a dominant position on the mat, and finally get your opponent to say "uncle", or give up (also known as tapping, or tapping out). The amazingly sophisticated ways in which this can be achieved, and the difficulty of developing the timing, coordination and chess-like strategic mind-set to get there is what makes the art one of the fastest growing sports in the world. And given its hot blooded home in Rio de Janeiro, practice and training is for the most part informal, friendly and strongly community based. (For more on the sport and its history, and the Gracie family which is credited with creating it go to Slideyfoot's fantastic blog.)

Classes usually consist of a gymnastics and callisthenics based warm-up, practice of chokes, escapes, holds and sweeps and, finally, sparring. Sparring consists of several 2-5 minutes rounds where you face a separate opponent of different shape, size and ability every round. These bouts mimic a BJJ match but at a lower level of intensity, where the goal is to train the techniques learnt during the class under pressure conditions. Can I really apply an arm lock from this position against a fully resisting opponent? Sparring is where you find out, and its also where you have to leave your ego off the mat and realise that accepting your limitations and learning from your weaknesses is the key to getting better. Sounds a lot like Crossfit, doesn't it?

How does your training in Crossfit prepare you for BJJ classes and competition? The successful application of BJJ techniques is based on coordination, balance, agility and strength. The hip mobility and power developed by squatting, cleaning and snatching is mirrored in many movements and techniques seen in the sport. And finally the work capacity built up by Crossfit WODs will give you the conditioning to be successful at sparring and competition. In fact, one of the signature benchmark workouts, Fight Gone Bad, was developed for one of the greatest fighters in the world and former UFC champ, BJ Penn. After completing the workout, he was asked how it felt... "It was like a fight gone bad".

Just as Crossfit is scalable, the weight and age category system in BJJ competitions means that you can find the right category for you, for instance I compete in the male white-belt masters category (i.e. above 30) as a super-heavy weight. This means I can test my skills and face opponents at a level that will help me to progress in the sport. Also, the environment at competitions is very supportive and inclusive, with good sportsmanship being very much the rule. BJJ is still very much under the radar in the UK, but there are competitions held pretty much every month a train's ride away from London, open to both men and women of various skill levels and weight categories.

What about women? There is a growing and vocal community of female BJJ players, represented both at academies and tournaments. There are also women only classes and "open-mats" for women who practice the sport to come together. As with most things, social networking and blogging are helping the process along, and female bloggers are spreading the word. Take a look at Megjitsu's blog, she runs a fantastic blog about her experience in the sport.  She also organises a regular open mat gathering. In fact, there's an open mat coming up on the 4th of December.

There are many places to train and learn the sport in London, as a quick google search will show. I train under Eduardo Gonçalves, a Brazilian black belt who is part of the Carlson Gracie/ BJJ Revolution team. If you do decide to give the sport a go, it makes sense to try a few different academies and see what works for you. Team and family is a very strong part of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and the camaraderie of the BJJ academy will be very familiar to Crossfitters coming from a competitive, yet friendly and supportive, Crossfit box. Having the encouragement and support of your team and instructor gives you the confidence to test yourself and push your limits.

If you're looking to "learn and play a new sport", BJJ is a great option with a community and culture that will be very familiar to Crossfitters. Get in touch if you have any questions or want to learn more.