Saturday 31 October 2015

Feel good about yourself, you are still under construction

Whatever we do in our lives, the way we feel about it is the main factor which is going to decide what outcome has that experience going to have on us.
Is it going to be positive or negative outcome ?!
Is it going to be our step up, step down or just another act of killing the time ?!
It is us who decides how much we are going to learn and benefit out of it.
We all have our own story and our own way of living. We are all having our own, individual approach to everything we do.
As a GMMA Academy fighter and martial arts instructor, guy who spends most of his day in the gym. I do look at training as a way of development of my life.
I do look deep inside of my own performance and performance of others. When I look at it I do see much more than just physical abilities.
I see it as a great example of human psychology tool.
Training with and around others everyday gives me great opportunity of meeting countless individuals with so many different approaches and attitudes towards their training and development.
I meet people who are coming to the gym only when they manage to get a bit of time off  from other duties,  once or twice a week. Most of those people  understands that it isn't going to be easy but still decide to do it as they believe in advantages of their training. Even though they are having hard time they are still happy and proud of their achievements.
I also meet people who train regular, at the competing level and they are being quite hard on themselves. When the struggle comes, pain kicks in and body slows down, they become to feel bad about their performance and excitement drops down.
There are people who come to the gym once in a while, with great enthusiasm which fades away as intensity of workout increases.
There are individuals who practise on general bases and understand that when struggle begins is when training really starts.
I have been wearing all of those pairs of shoes. I have trained less and felt positive about my progress, what was giving me that extra boost to train more and harder.
I have been training a lot and very hard then I have reached to a point when not only my body was fatigued but also my brain was telling me that I am useless and I should stick to do my work and train for pleasure only.
I am still learning and developing myself as a fighter/student/Instructor. I do really believe that I have got an amazing opportunity of doing something I always loved to do and improve my private life and my other passions at this same time.
Seeing it this way gives me that push to get out of the bed and hit the road for morning run, even thought I have slept very little and my body still hurts from last night's training.
It has been my own choice and it is the only way forward to achieve my goals.
Seeing it this way gives me a lot of positive energy and power to keep going even when my performance doesn't satisfy my ego.
I give myself credit, understanding that fighting and coaching is something that you never stop to learn. Believing in myself and the fact that I am on the right track.
It makes me feel good about myself.

  
photo
Krystian Ozog
Fighter/Instructor, GMMA Academy
     

Thursday 22 October 2015

Running on the treadmill

In general I am a great fan of outdoor running.
I do practise running everyday, sometimes twice a day.
Depends on the stage of preparation for upcoming fights I will vary the distance, intensity and techniques of my runs.
It could be long jog, medium or short distance fast run, twist of jog and sprints on the road, long sprints on the running track, hill or stairs runs.
All those options work well for me, I do love to push myself and shock my body with unexpected hit effect burst. Especially during my morning routine when my brain is still half a sleep and I am moving on the auto pilot.

There is nothing better than early morning run around the local parks with bit of shadowboxing and stretching surrounded by the nature. What makes it even more enjoyable is having a great company, partner and pacemaker, it could be human. My Running Buddy is my lovely dog "Rumba".

However, as I do practise my bag work, strength and conditioning and sparring in the gym daily.
I have been some of the equipment from the gym floor too. Every now and then I do pick some weights or pull myself up on the bar. For a while I have been also creating new challenges on the treadmill.

I was never big enthusiast of that great machine as I believed that it is much more beneficial to run outdoors. And I have always thought that it is a bit of paradox when people drive their cars to the gym to run on the treadmill.
My opinion hasn't really changed, I still prefer and continue my morning run around my area.
But at this same time I found Treadmill quite challenging and demanding tool for the second or third part of my daily routine.

Running on the treadmill you can't really cheat ( I haven't learnt yet :-) .
When you set up the work out, fix the pace, time and distance. Even if your brain and body is asking you to stop, unless you press the red button or you get off the running belt and step on the side rails, you've got to keep up.

This modern/advanced treadmills can be really fun and involving, as long as we use our creativity and allow ourselves for bit of hard time we can really make a use of this great invention.

My basic and favourite warm up of the evening session would be 20 minutes run with 1 km/h speed increase every 2 minutes, starting from 10 km/h. Last 4 minutes of the workout: 18 and 19 km/h is quite good pace to finish of the pyramid and move on to the rest of the training.

www.GMMA.co.uk


  
photo
Krystian Ozog
Fighter/Instructor, GMMA Academy
     
 

GMMA Academy MuayThai camp

http://thaiboxingcamp.gmma.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Screen-Shot-2015-10-21-at-15.03.38.png

Saturday 17 October 2015

Train to be patient

After yesterday's  GuruMuayThai training I've had a short conversation with a girl who was kind of interested in our classes.  
Quite energetic and  happy looking girl in her early twenties. 
I said; kind of interested, as she had a bit of self doubt. She wasn't sure if she has enough patience to train MuayThai. She mentioned that she likes when achievement comes quick and you can see the quick results. 

I do think that she was brave enough, by making this kind of statement.
She was cleaver looking girl and she agreed when I told her that it doesn't really matter what skills she would like to improve. If she wanted to learn: martial arts, foreign language, learn how to cook, dance, play the piano or make photography. If she wants to develop those skills to really good level she needs to learn how become patient, consistent and never give up.
On the other hand this kind of activities are also great tools to work on our attitude and skills of patience. 

It is very Important for us and our children whom are leaving in a modern world, to undertake this kind of activities, stimulate our brains and learn those precious values.
We all want things to come to us easily. We all like comfortable lives and we tend to look for a shortcuts.

But I believe that we will all agree that things which come easily don't carry so much value.
Our skills, our experience is something priceless.Something that no one can take away from us.
It will stay with us forever, is only us who can decide what level we are going to bring it to.

If there is something in your life that you belie is worth doing and you thing it is going to improve your life or lives of others. Don't matter how long you think it will take.
Begin today, so it will take one day less.

photo
Krystian Ozog
Fighter/Instructor, GMMA Academy
     

Monday 12 October 2015

Am I "There" yet?

As a human beings we have got an incredible gift from mother nature: our complex brains.
Depends on how we are able to use and control this powerful and still undiscovered part of our beings. Our brains/minds can be our best ally or our worst enemy.
We can create an amazing things, learn unusual skills, inspire others and achieve unreachable.
We can also leave our lives unhappy, depressed and saying no to every challenge or opportunity  we meet on our way.
It is us who creates our own reality and make decisions over our future.

Sometimes we decide to take some actions which we believe are going to improve our lives, bring some joy or simply will become useful at some point of our life.
Like sports, martial arts, languages, different types of courses etc...

When we get older we tent to rush things. We are looking for shortcuts, quick effects, and we are less patient with mistakes we make. This can happen for different reasons.
In my case it comes with my age.
I am thirty years old right now.
I dream big and have big plans.
I don't want to wait for those plans to be successful any longer, I don't want to be learning any more. I wanna be "There" and possibly just improve my success.

But then again, just like in my training.
I know exactly that there is still so much more I can learn and I am very keen to do it.
But when I am not able to perform the way I would like to. Doubt and self critic comes through my mind which says that I should already be "There".

The question I have to ask myself at those moments is: where exactly is "There".
What makes me think that it isn't where I am right now?
I am on the right path, doing what I believe in, constantly improving my skills and abilities.
It must be "There".
"There" wasn't my final destination at the first place.

Sometimes we have to step back and look at things from a different angle.
Sometimes we have to step back and look at the way we already made.

It would be nice if we could think same way as when we were children: without any time frame, not limiting ourselves, without any patterns.
I suppose we can't do that as a grow ups, but we can definitely stay positive,  learn and improve.
Be happy with ourselves, our lives.

www.GMMA.co.uk
  

Sunday 4 October 2015

B.I.K.M.A middleweight low kick kickboxing World Title fight.

https://youtu.be/UkoE4gif_EY

Do your best everyday / every round

Three, Five, ten or twelve...
It doesn't really matter how many rounds is your next fight if you are not going to put all your work right from the beginning  it is going to be extremely hard to change the verdict even if you pick your work rate up in the later stages. Basically you are counting on luck.
By taking your time and holding back you are giving room to your opponent which I presume is hungry of winning  and will take every opportunity to convince the judges that he deserves that win more than you.
He will take every opportunity to weaken you up and finish the fight before time.
Some of the fighters staying in the safe distance at the beginning of the fight to save their energy for later rounds. But as I believe we have cleared this in one or two of my previous posts, there might not be later rounds, if you give your opponent room and he will use it correctly.
He might basically stop you before you even start executing your plan.
He might stop you before you put in work something that you have been preparing for by spending your precious time and energy.
All hard work in the gym as on the road ( running etc. ), all your dedications and sacrifices might simply be vanished ( or better said: remain in progressive  ) by you holding back.
I have always believed: that it is much better to loose while doing all your best than while not doing anything.
It is more honorable for a warrior to die in a clean battle than being killed while a sleep.
If you are going to loose in a process of doing your best, you learn the lesson and come back better, stronger, wiser.
Other ways you just delay your success and slow down your own progress.
I would say you are sabotaging yourself.
I've been watching some boxing fights today at amateur boxing championships of London . And I have seen many good and skilled fighters.
A lot of boys with great heart and strong mentality.
And above all skills, those factors have been mainly deciding about the outcome.
As the level of competition was very equal, skills were very similar.
What was really taking over was the drive of the boxer, was the hunger of the success.
Just like in the life.
We are all making our own decisions.
Waking up another morning it is us making decisions how we are going to spend the day.
It is our decision if we are going to use all the experience and opportunities we've got, to lift our hands up in the victory at the end of the day.
Or we are going to postpone our progress, our success.
Value yourself, value your work, value your life and life of your close ones.
Give your best everyday, every round.


photo
Krystian Ozog
Fighter/Instructor, GMMA Academy
     

Thursday 1 October 2015

"You got a dream... You gotta protect it"

I am well behind when it comes to movies.
Only recently good friend of mine, great film connoisseur has told me that i should watch one of his favourite storytelling movies, released in year 2006.
Movie featuring Will Smith, "The pursuit of happyness ".
As usual I couldn't watch it in one whole piece. It took me almost four days to watch it all, mainly while having a meals.
But I was really absorbed by the depth of this film, which has happened to be based on a true story of San Francisco homeless salesman Chris Gardener.

Chris was extremely hard working man. Husband and father.
As everyone of us Chris had his own talents, he was very smart and persistent.
However he was lacking of higher education or diplomas so he was trying to make his leaving by selling medical supplies ( in the film he sales bone density scanners ), strongly believing that through his hard, honest and restless work one day he will achieve comfortable life for him and his family. 
His vision and believe in his own ability as well as hope of getting better life for his son ( in the film 5 years old ), would carry him through the struggle of improvement time.

Chris takes an actions which we would normally ( especially social workers ) call irresponsible, and by doing this he takes massive risk of loosing his son. 
Even thought that his sons good is main reason of his risky choices.

I am writing about this film for couple of reasons.

The main reason is to provide you with great quote, piece of conversation between Chris and his son Christopher. When Christopher tells his dad his dream of who he would love to become ( professional basketball player ) when he gets older and his fathers first expression was that he should probably concentrate on something more salutary.

Christopher Gardner: Hey. Don't ever let somebody tell you... You can't do something. Not even me. All right?
Christopher: All right.
Christopher Gardner: You got a dream... You gotta protect it. People can't do somethin' themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want somethin', go get it. Period.

I found very inspiring and very true.

We do limit ourselves in what we can do a lot. When we see some extraordinary plans of others, something that we wouldn't be able to commit to,  we look at them skeptically.
We only admire them when we see the end result. 

Another reason is that I would like to allude to Chris's character as a real warrior.
He shows how persistence in achieving our goals through ups and downs of difficult life circumstances makes us stronger and wiser. Having the right motivator gives us incredible strength to create great victories. 

Even Chris while going through rough times, looses his faith for short time, cries, breaks down and feel powerless. 
Even Chris tells his son that he shouldn't dream as in the above quote.

It is natural that we are going to doubt, and fear.

Outcome depends on what feelings we are going to allow to outweigh: Our fears, self doubts, etc...

P.S Irony: while writing this post I am listening to the concert of another great, inspiring human being, an artist, singer, songwriter: Ed Sheeran. Ed just like Chris Gardener has lived on the streets of US and struggled a lot while chasing his dream. 

  
photo
Krystian Ozog
Fighter/Instructor, GMMA Academy