It was a “smile and carry on” kind of week
“Why are you always so happy?”
I get that a lot. I’m not always happy. I just try and use thinking techniques to see the good in situations (Pollyanna’s Glad Game anyone?).
Last week, for example, was terrible for me. However, I have family, friends, and my home, so it’s nothing compared to what people in Texas or Florida or the Islands south of there are going through, so let me just get that out of the way and say best wishes and safety to them.
When I got back from the Ultimate Fighter, I found the Syndicate training schedule had been changed. My recovery periods, sparring days, massage days, and physical training days got all discombobulated. I’ve been trying to find a new balance and for the past two weeks, I haven’t been successful at all. It has been sucking…..
Captain stopped teaching jiujitsu classes at Syndicate. That was the biggie of the week. I am pretty upset to put it lightly.
Hopefully he’ll be able to focus more on his MMA training because I’m sure it was a hard schedule for him to teach morning and evening in addition to training. I really like Casey’s jiujitsu classes, so that’s good. Tom Lawlor teaches a great no-gi class. See how hard I’m trying to be positive? I also consider Captain a fight trainer since he corners me and makes an effort to teach me jiujitsu for MMA.
I lost motivation to train last week, which never happens, and actually went home early on Thursday because I just couldn’t. I did a lot of strength and conditioning, though. That’s good.
On the positive side, I’ve taken a few private lessons with Captain and they were RIDICULOUSLY USEFUL. I started implementing all these little details and I’ve gotten a TON of stuff on various people over the past week! That’s really really important and good!
Every day I have to get stronger and better somehow! It’s a race! Every day is a race.
On another positive side, I’m home at Syndicate instead of being locked in the TUF house. I have my car, my friends, my head coach, etc. One of my sick family members is doing better lately, so I’m relieved about that.
I’ve been talking to my Aunt Mary more, which is really nice. I’m trying to keep in touch with my extended family more now that I’m an adult and not in Japan anymore, but it’s still hard, you know?
I’ve been talking to my dad more, which is nice. Same deal- he’s so busy he doesn’t call me that much, and I don’t want to bother him. But I miss him! Lately I’ve been trying to call more.
I made phone dates with my mom to talk every Sunday at 3 PM, because with our schedules, we just weren’t talking AT ALL, which is unacceptable. Now it’s weekly! 🙂
My computer stopped erroring and making me restart it.
I’ve been doing a lot of strength training lately.
My cardio suffered a bit…well, maybe that was because I didn’t do ANY SPARRING CLASSES LAST WEEK. Which was my choice, of course…. or not. I’ve been doing stairs regularly! A few of my training partners went out of their way to say I felt stronger and I hadn’t even been talking about the training I’ve been doing! So that’s good. I guess I can’t do everything. Maybe these past few weeks were meant to be the “strength training.” I’ve gained some weight but not a lot.
I’ve been enjoying watching The Ultimate Fighter episodes. I’ve gotten some nice fans reaching out and writing to me! thanks guys! I’ve also been getting a bunch of foot fetish people…. ummmmm I know I post pictures of my socks all the time, but I didn’t realize it would bring those guys out. Well, feet are great! I really love my feet. I don’t think I’m at the “fetish” point, though. One guy wrote about how he loved my ‘beautiful pink soles.’ um, I don’t know who’s feet you are looking at because they are obviously not mine. My feet are gross fighter’s feet, yellow skin, calloused, with super short nails because they keep breaking. Don’t look at my feet. LOL
My kids class has been good.
I’ve been now running into the problem where my best students don’t want to train with each other. WHY NOT? Because they are 5 or 6 years old, and there is no good reason. “I don’t like him” or ” I don’t wanna” or “he’s goes rough.” yeah, he’d say the same about you. But I want them to go because of size, strength, and skill. The second I stand over one pair for too long, somebody off in the corner gets bonked and starts crying. “Oh you clunked heads and bit your lip. Where is your mouth guard? Home? THEN TOO BAD! Suck it up. -_- ” But I can’t say that. Then if I go try and comfort him, (I say ‘him’ because honestly I haven’t had many female tears. Just saying) I hear some commotion and somebody’s goofing off or going too roughly. So there’s a skill in managing a big kids class. It’s not easy. I venture to say that I’m good at it. It took A LOT OF WORK to become good at it. Some kids ask me, “Can we free roll now?” but that’s actually my least favorite time of class, because I can’t just pair them up and say “Go.” I have to make sure they are paired with partners they will actually do jiujitsu with. Not grab by their hands and swing around, or run around each other in circles. LOL
Oh, the joys of teaching 5-7 year olds. It’s either get student complaints (why can’t I go with him!?!?!) or get parent complaints (he was going too roughly on my daughter). So obviously, sorry kids, do what I say because I’m twice your size. 🙂
I’ve made rules I try and repeat a lot at every opportunity, so hopefully they’ll hear my voice in their sleep. For example, no fighting until I say ‘fight.’ (i.e. You there, near the wall! Stop trying to choke Jet! It’s only warm-up time!). Never complain about your partner I assign to you or I’ll make you sit in a corner, because it’ll hurt their feelings. And I don’t care what you want.
I punish them mercilessly for those two things.
oooooookay anyway.
Last week, I went with Serena to Texas De Brazil for dinner.
It was a really expensive Brazilian BBQ restaurant that I love but never go because I could do a lot of things with $100 besides have one dinner. hahaha but I always think about it before every fight. “Man, I’m training so hard, with my next fight money, I’m gonna go!” but I never end up going. But Serena was also having a crappy week, so we went, screw it!
Serena and I also hung out at Captain’s to watch the UFC this weekend. That was great!
When Coach John walked in the gym yesterday I felt the biggest wave of sweet relief wash over me. ;_; He was away for a full week cornering Cory Hendricks, who won by sweet head kick to GNP. yay
So my mood was crap literally every day last week and I had stress dreams. But so many good things happened, as I listed. You need to list and fully appreciate and savor the good things, to help your brain not focus on the bad things. It’s not like you are ignoring them. You have to deal with the negative, but just keep on reminding yourself of the positive.…