A new beginning

So here we are again. I consciously chose not to update this blog and on the recommendation of a sports psychologist last year, return to writing as that apparently encourages better memory retention, unfortunately handwritten diaries don't have search functions... 

I may stick to written format for my BJJ training, but for tracking S&C sessions and injuries, this has proven most beneficial over time. 

The main reason for this is that I have torn my left medial meniscus. I am guessing it happened around the time of the KLEOS NO GI competition on the 12th of July 2015. I am 3 months down the road and still no BJJ. I have competed a lot this year but missed a lot of competitions now, and as it stands it looks like I will have no more before 2016. 

Also a lot has changed in my personal life. I am single 6 months and living with my parents again. That has taken a huge amount of adjusting and affected my training somewhat - most definitely my already fragile mindset around competitions. I am hoping that when things settle and my injury heals, I will be back competing in a fresh state of mind and from a point of just wanting to showcase my ability and not putting undue pressure on myself in an attempt to prove myself to people that don't matter. 

Of course the other big change is that I am now training with East Coast Jiu Jitsu. This was a challenging move at first that felt strange but that was also at a time that my life was going on autopilot. As things have settled I have really been feeling the benefits of the move, to be surrounded by people that are as fanatical about BJJ as myself and to be in a competitive but supportive environment has been a huge change. It has also re-enforced the sayings that 'you are the average of the people that you surround yourself with' and the tired (but true) memes of 'surround yourself with lions if you want to be a lion' etc. - I can feel the benefits already and it has really prompted me to be extremely protective of who I let into my circle going forward and even to look for a similarly strong and productive environment in other endeavours - such as work and trying to learn from those that are where I want to be. 

I have been looking at what I can do to control as much of my 'controllables' as well as possible so I am now working with Mike at Unorthodox Nutrition to help with my diet and recovery. I have also subscribed to Yogaforbjj to try and address a serious weakness of mine with regards to flexibility and along with addressing my mindset, this will hopefully help with my recovery. 

It has been a period of forced growth and I am hoping this will reflect in my jiu jitsu and training when I am healed. 

I read the following bullet points in The Chimp Paradox and although at first glance they may seem defeatist or pessimistic, it is actually somewhat liberating and noting that how we feel is under our control and tempered by our expectations.

• There are no guarantees
• Life is unfair
• The goalposts change 

A sign of things to come