TOUGH LUCK

Last night in Sarnia, Menna's House of Champs fighter Ashley Hall finally made her amateur boxing debut weighing in at 136lbs. Her hometown opponent came in at 141lbs. Despite a great performance Ashley was on the losing end of a 3 round decision. Both girls fought an action packed, entertaining fight to the delight of the crowd. Ashley fought a technically superior fight but her opponent was a little bit more active and threw more punches and that is what made the difference in the fight. Even though we were disappointed with the outcome I am still pleased with the performance and the mistakes that were made will be corrected and we will come back even better next time. At this stage of the game it is all about learning and getting better, win or lose. Congrats Ashley on a brilliant fight and we look forward to more great fights in the future.


Train to live, live to train TIP

ITS OVER ALREADY??

For the past week I have been away from work at All Canadian Fitness as I was on vacation. "A vacation?" you ask, not the type with warm sun and hot sand at your feet and and a scantily clad girl serving you shots of tequila at the poolside. No, not that type of vacation but a week away from work. Not that I consider what I do work but just a week off. And damn did it go by fast. However I did get a lot accomplished in those seven days. First off I continued to train my fighters, one of which is fighting in her debut this weekend, the other maintaining and preparing for her next bout. On top of that we met with our real estate agent about putting our house up for sale in the new year. In preparation for that I painted the upstairs bathroom and hallway and also fixed a plug in the bathroom that hasn't worked EVER in the 4 years we have lived in our house. In addition we went and had family pictures taken which we have never done before and they went off nice and smoothly without child meltdowns. I also purchased a great book on performance training for athletes which I found very interesting and found it had some useful info in it, so a good bulk of my spare time was spent reading. Spent time strategizing for my fighter and finalizing the match, read fight game news and had 4 outstanding workouts myself. And lastly and most importantly I spent lots of quality time with my family. Yeah I fit all this in a week, and there are probably things I left out. It was a great week and I feel rested, recuperated and ready to rock next week with my clients at All Canadian and to finish the year off with a bang. Looking forward to the New Year and the great endeavours that await.

On a quick exciting note, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather jr. have reached an agreement and will fight for the biggest purse in boxing history(Even split on $50 million) on March 13 2010 at a yet to be determined site. REALLY looking forward to that one. Can't wait for 2010

Train to live, live to train TIP

HARD WORK PAYS OFF

Last night in Niagara Falls one half of team Menna's House of Champs made her amateur boxing debut. Amanda Anderson weighing in at 110lbs handily beat her 115lbs opponent with a 3 round unanimous decision. Amanda came out blazing and set the pace in the first 30 seconds of the fight, taking control and never looking back as all the judges saw the fight in her favour. Her opponent was very tough and gave a good account of herself and also put up a great performance but Amanda was just too much for her. Congrats Amanda, all that hard work payed off. The other half of team Menna's House of Champs, Ashley Hall will make her debut next week in Sarnia and we are expecting the same impressive outcome. It was very exciting being in that atmosphere again, it has been awhile, I am on the other side of it now as a trainer and not as a fighter. I must say there was a little nervous energy there for me but not to the same degree as being a fighter but it was somewhat present, but as a coach you have to keep calm and composed for your fighter because they are feeling the nerves and you have to give them advice to keep them focused. All in all it was a great night and team Menna came through impressively and hopefully we will have many more successful nights in the future.

Train to live, live to train. TIP

THE BOSS

This passed Sunday I was treated to quite a surprise when my cousin asked me if I wanted to attend the Bruce Springsteen concert in Buffalo. I could not pass up this opportunity because I am a fan of the Boss and have grown up listening too him as my brother and cousin are huge fans and have been to many of his concerts.(3 already this year) What made it even more amazing is that is was my first concert EVER, unless you can count Sharon, Lois and Bram when I was 5 years old. What a phenomenal concert. I had a blast and even though I didn't get to bed until 1am and got up at 4:50am to go to work, it was well worth it. I was thoroughly impressed and would go again in a heartbeat if the opportunity arises. ROCK ON BOSS!!


Train to live, live to train

WHAT A BATTLE!!

Last night I watched the much anticipated fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto. It was worth every penny spent because I witnessed one of, if not the best pound for pound fighters in the world today beat another top fighter and a warrior of a man quite impressively and with that has potentially set up a huge fight sometime in the new year against one of the other pound for pound greats, Floyd Mayweather jr. After a few impressive rounds at the beginning of the fight Miguel Cotto succumbed to the vicious onslaught that was being administered to him by Manny Pacquiao and the fight was mercifully stopped by the ref in the 12th and final round. I had picked Pacquiao to win the fight but I didn't expect him to win so impressively. I actually thought that the fight should have been stopped by Cotto's corner after the 9th round because at that point he was just going backwards taking unnecessary punishment and was just trying to survive. I always liked Cotto and he is a fantastic fighter in his own right but Pacquiao was just too much for him. Great fight. Boxing needs more fights like this, but contrary to popular belief I don't think boxing is dead or dying for that matter it just needs some more high profile fights. What a battle!!

This week I got news that I had passed my Post Rehab Certification exam so I now have another certification to add and hopefully put it to good use with some clients. It would also come in handy with my fighters and other athletes as well as high intensity training over long periods tend to wear on the body and being able to identify and deal with certain injuries and how to correct or prevent them could make that much of a difference in an athletes career.

Speaking of injuries, I have not mentioned that my daughter Rayna broke her clavicle(collar bone ) about 4 weeks ago and is making a fast recovery. She never complained about the pain and only cried when it initially happened(she fell out of bed) and dealt with that pain and the pain from getting her H1N1 shot in the opposite shoulder about a week later. Now she is carrying on with regular activities as if it never happened. What a little warrior.

Finally, it looks like my fighters Ashley and Mandy are going to get there first fights. Both are fighting on separate shows although I would have like them to fight together. The fights look pretty much definite but as we know anything can happen in this game. Both are ready to rock. We just have to wait and see what happens.

Train to live, live to train TIP

RICH'S RANT. AND THE ZEN MASTER?

My post is going to be two-fold and almost a contradiction because I am going to rant and rave about some fights in the combat arena that occurred this weekend and on the other hand I am going to talk about practicing zen meditation and about being calm and cool and not getting upset and stressing all the time. Yeah quite a contradiction.



The All Time boxing greats like Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey must be rolling over in their graves after this weekend in the combat world. First and foremost, my love, the sweet science had a heavyweight title fight this weekend. Now even for most casual fans or if you even somewhat follow boxing probably didn't even know it was happening. Remember the days when this event was bigger than the Super Bowl. This particular match featured a 7 foot 2 inch 320 lbs giant Russian who cannot fight worth a lick but is somehow the WBA heavyweight champion of the world. The challenger was a brash, trash talking fighter from Britain who was former cruiserweight world champion and has moved up to the heavyweight division. After just 2 meaningless fights at heavyweight and after backing out of 2 undeserved title shots against both Klitchko brothers, somehow gets this title shot. He won via Split Decision which means 2 judges gave the fight to him and 1 judge saw the fight a draw. I briefly saw highlights and this guy fought going backwards the whole fight throwing a few punches here and there and boringly, if it is even a word, won the fight. Un F'n believable. What heavyweight boxing has come to. Now in the MMA world there was a fight between the so called greatest fighter pound for pound in MMA and possibly ever, fought some guy with 10 fights and who a year ago was changing tires for a living. Now I wasn't that thoroughly impressed as he was taking some punishment before landing a shot that knocked his opponent down and as he jumped on to finish him with a couple of useless slaps the ref jumped in and stopped it. Again I'm not bashing as I frequently watch and follow MMA but websites I see where guys try to compare the two sports and their respective athletes is ridiculous, and I know that MMA is still in it's infancy but their sports all time great against boxing's all time great, which in my opinion is Sugar Ray Robinson is not even close. 2 different sports, 2 different stages of their evolution lets just leave the debating to rest and let the 2 sports co exist, end of story. The era of the true warrior, where no one ducked anybody and actually fought their way to the top is now over and guys looking to take the path of least resistance to the top is apparently evident nowadays. If that's what these guys want to do fine, but don't call yourself a great.

Now that I am done ranting( I did it in a calm, meditative state) I actually am trying to control stress and the rigors of every day life with some time for meditation. I have actually read some books on Zen and meditation and I believe if done right and often enough, could have some benefits. For myself just trying it and changing my mindset on some things has already made a difference and I feel calmer and able to handle situations better. Now I am no Zen master by any means but starting with just 5 minutes a day, sit in a quiet place, breath deep and try to think of absolutely nothing. Concentrate only on your breathing. Just enjoy the moment and let the stresses of your day slip away. In this age of hustle and bustle and having no time for anything this could be difficult, but just give yourself 5 minutes of nothingness. Try it, maybe it will work for, maybe it won't. What the hell do I know I'm not a Zen master but it sure beats the way some people deal with stress.


Train to live, live to train TIP

Boxing Updates

Just some updates this post with regards to the sweet science, both in my life and the world boxing scene. My fighters, Ashley and Mandy continue to train diligently for there debuts. We are gunning for sometime this month and hopefully the beginning of December and then we will shut it down for the rest of the year, enjoy the holiday season and start up for the tournament season in the new year. Training is coming along very well with constant progression and improvements being made daily. I can't wait to see them perform and put all that knowledge to use in the ring. I continue to train fairly hard and have continued with some basic boxing training and strength training to keep myself fit. I still have that lingering debate in my head as whether i should give it just one more shot. I don't honestly believe I could go onto some super stardom or a world title but I think I still have enough in the tank and some skill and reflexes to do fairly well, maybe even win a Canadian title or something. But, of course, there is the "Menna Luck" looming above my head and the fear of being let down and disappointed yet again. At 32 I don't have that much time on my side or much luck for that matter so I highly doubt that I will try for it again but you never know. I guess I'll keep myself and whoever else cares in suspense.

On November 14th Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto will wage war in a highly anticipated match. I am really looking forward to this one as both fighters display tremendous heart and warrior minds and with that will put on quite a show. I am going to go with Pacquiao on this one just because he has had a better run as of late however both are great fighters and this should be a good one. I think I might even pay the pay per view cost and watch it from the comfort of my home.

Lastly, I believe I have mentioned in a past post about the importance of rest in fitness training, as well as proper nutrition, make up important pieces to your optimum health and fitness puzzle. I cannot stress enough that just as important as actually getting your ass into the gym and putting in the hard work, we must make sure that proper pre and post workout meals are being ingested for the energy factor and for the recovery factor, and sleep as well(7 to 9 hours a night)
for energy and recovery factors as well. And I know it is often neglected with some of the people I work with. Again with all the pieces of the puzzle fitting together you will see your health and fitness goals attained faster.

Train to live, live to train TIP