So one of the first posts I ever did on this blog was about whether or not to share my goals. I’m still not specifically sure which approach is best but after chatting with friends and my other half it would seem silly not to share my plans. Not least because I don’t want to leave you would wonder why I’m writing half of the stuff I do as my blog is pretty much influenced by what’s happening at the moment and what’s on my mind!

So my next big goal has been decided and it is……………………….

The IBJJF World Masters Championship in Las Vegas

One of my bucket list goals since I started doing BJJ was to compete at a IBJJF World Championship. Although I also quickly realised that if I was going to do the Worlds then I would be much more suited to the Masters – not only because it’s my genuine age category but also the shorter tournament lends itself much more to having a great holiday and getting the time off work! Whilst obviously I’m going to take the competition seriously if I am using my annual leave and  travelling around the globe then I’m planning to enjoy myself too!

I entered a while ago (which was lucky as the event has closed nearly a month early due to reaching capacity!) and I would love to say that my plans for Vegas have been done with military precision but that hasn’t been quite the case. Work and life have done a good job of messing up my best laid plans! But I have done some good prep work so far:

1. I’ve done a few competitions – in my first months of being a blue belt which I’ve blogged about. I thought it was important to break the belt in but also to use them as a learning experience and to identify key areas of improvement moving forward.
2. I’ve changed gyms – as I mentioned in my blog last week. Its not an ideal thing to do this close to a competition but its actually had some really positive impacts on my game. I’ve got some tough new training partners for competition sessions as well as a host of new people to roll with that don’t know my game. It’s really helped identify my strengthens and some new areas for development.
3. I’ve started to look after my body more. Prehab is cheaper than rehab so I am going to be cautious and get those massages etc regularly. Being injury free can be never guaranteed but at least you can work towards it. I blogged recently about massage in BJJ and so far I have stuck to my mini personal target of getting massaged and checked out at least once per month.
4. I’ve started to look at my diet – Ok this one is definitely work in progress! I love food, I love alcohol too. In fact I simply love things that are bad for me in large quantities! I have a target weight to fly out on (to allow for wiggle room whilst away – flights, bloating, food control etc.). But to reach that I need to behave a little bit. I’ve stopped drinking and have generally looked at my diet. Not only to help with weight loss but to enable to keep up my training volume. I’ve re-jigged my general meal planning, I’ve added some recovery shakes (to aid recovery but more to stop post training snacking) and I’ve now started cutting down my sugar and refined carbs. I may be slightly grumpy for the next few weeks!
5. Create Game Plan 2.0 – I had a solid game plan but I’m treating it like a racing car. I’ve gone back to my coaches, got some private lessons. I’ve added a few new parts and I’m now doing a lot of cleaning, polishing and tweaking to ensure peak performance 😉

I’ve mentioned in a previous blog that I would love to add in some strength work to my training. Realistically its just not happened as I’ve just not had the hours in the day. However, I have started to add some yoga in as lower intensity session to not only help with recovery but my flexibility and stretching. From my first couple of sessions its become clear that it will also help my strength through time due to the various balances and support positions but more on that coming soon!

So for the next few weeks I’ll have a pretty one track mind when it comes to BJJ and suspect some of my blogs might reflect that. But at least now you know why!!