Just Joined Jiu Jitsu Jym

It's official. The free trial week is long over, and I've made the leap of commitment by signing up for a year of jiu jitsu classes at a real fighting gym.

I'm third from the left, back row.
Taken from http://canadianfightingcenter.com/

It's the Canadian Fighting Center here in Winnipeg, and they don't mess around. In addition to UFC fighter Joe Doerksen teaching here, they also have former K-1 and World Muay Thai Kickboxing Heavyweight Champion Giuseppe DeNatale (click his name to see a TKO victory of his). I'll be learning from Doerksen and others, but so far I've only had it severely handed to me from them.

One of my first three classes featured a lot of "rolling" (like sparring, but for grappling). The only catch was, it was all with instructors... or at least guys at a high level. When one was finished beating me up, there was another one anxiously waiting to take over. I got submitted in ways I never knew possible, with moves I had never seen before. In the end, it meant that the next day my throat hurt from being choked, my elbow hurt from being arm-barred, and my body hurt from doing that over and over.

But let's pretend I'm learning, and maybe by posting it on here it'll keep me honest and committed. "But Andrew!" you say, "Having this blog doesn't even keep you committed to posting on it!" And to that I say hey watch what you say... in a year I might be able to fight you for that.

Taken from http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/1579505.page

Cage fighting comes to Winnipeg.

Yesterday I went to a cage fighting event.

Cage Fighting Manitoba, Winnipeg’s newest MMA organization put on their first event, CFM 1, on Friday January 7 at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. Although I’ve been a fan of MMA for a few years now, it was my first time at a live event, so it was really interesting to see how it all goes down.

I attended the event with fellow MMA fan Dave Hollier, and we watched in shock as all nine fights ended by the second round! The night was nonstop submissions (2 guillotines, 2 triangles, and an arm bar) with a few TKO’s thrown in. This may have meant there were some mismatched battles, but it definitely made for exciting action!

The night began with a very strange match though, with Jessie Seberg falling down and verbally quitting after only 17 seconds and receiving four leg kicks from Alberta’s Daryle Pinter. Afterwards, everyone reacted very slowly: the fighters’ corners stayed out of the ring as the crowd softly booed in disappointment. Thankfully things picked up from there however…

1 of 4 leg kicks that ended the fight. Photo by JB Photography, taken from TopMMAnews.com

The crowd of over 500 was pretty relaxed until Winnipeg-based fighters made appearances, receiving such huge support from friends and fans that they seemed as recognizable as GSP. Lucky for these fans, four out of five Winnipeg fighters came out with the win. This included an impressive second round knockout by wild striker Gary Espinar with a hook that sent Saskatoon’s Micheal Glover’s mouthpiece flying. Also a notable hometown victory was Cory Houston’s TKO over Ontario’s Mike O’Neil, achieved after Houston took full mount position and rained down punches until the referee stepped in.

Espinar about to throw his knockout punch. Photo by JB Photography, taken from TopMMAnews.com

Click to see all the results.

Dear Garth, You can hear the Crickets…

Today I watched a cricket match.

       In response to Garth Hilderman’s challenge  to watch an entire cricket game this week, I stepped up to the wicket and swung for greatness by becoming a cricket expert for a day. (UPDATE: check out his challenge and get the backstory here.) Apparently to Garth, if you’re going to steal the credit for one of his cricket stories in the school paper, you have to know something about the sport. … Of all the nerve.

First of all, I’m not a big sports watcher. I like sports, but for the most part I’d rather be playing than watching. Other than the odd Bomber game, the only time I sit down to watch a 3-hour sporting event is for UFC every month.

        So you can imagine my chagrin when I found out that the game I would be watching was 3 hours and 42 minutes (I didn’t even know YouTube hosted videos that big!). But thanks to my blog research on Garth’s Tuesday Tutor section (here), I found out that some games can last days. Garth, thank you for your mercy in assigning me one lasting less than 4 hours.

        Alright, now to the good stuff: my thoughts on cricket as a whole sport, based solely on Garth’s blog and watching one game, the Kings XI Punjab VS the favourites, Mumbai Indians, in the Indian Premier League. I think that’s fair.

Got 3.5 hours to watch a cricket game?

      1. Cricket is detailed.

They don’t really have a lot going on, so they get REALLY in depth. Interviewing the captains after the opening coin toss: “You lost the coin toss, how do you feel about that?” I’m talking line charts of run and hit rates, and bringing hot actresses into the dugout to spice things up.

              2.  The uniforms are ridiculous.

Long time fans of me will know that I’m outspoken against sports that people play wearing pants. Baseball? Lame; there’s just as much standing around as there is playing. Golf? Walking around isn’t a sport. (Oh and if you’re wearing tights to hold your pads on to avoid serious injury, that’s a sport. Keep up the good work, football.) Cricket is no exception as one of these quasi-sports; there’s rarely any desperation or effort for longer than 3 seconds at a time, and it shows in their uniforms. What makes matters worse, all the batters are suited up like they're about to try getting a wild animal out of their attic. 

 

see 
the 
resemblance? 









Wide bats, big helmets, oversized shin guards and gloves- it looks like an outfit they threw together with sports equipment they found in their grandparents’ basement. Side note: the referees wear cowboy hats, which just brings the garage sale feeling to a new high.

      3. It’s actually nothing like baseball.

This is a misconception I had that was quickly proved wrong. The bowler (like a pitcher) runs as much as the batsman (batter) does, and if you hit a ball and don’t feel like it, you don’t have to run at all. This play-it-safe option puts an even weaker spin on baseball. Also, each team only got once chance at bat… and the first team finished their turn 146 points ahead.

      All in all, let’s just say the jump from UFC to cricket was a big step down in the excitement department (no one even got knocked out, even though they’re carrying bats the whole time!). I wouldn’t watch it again, nor would I recommend watching. Oh and just so the hardcore fans know, no it wasn’t because I didn’t understand it. I knew exactly what was going on, and it wasn’t much.

PS. Spoiler Alert: The Kings XI Punjab came back to win it! Although cricket counts down exactly how many runs they need to win, so you could see the comeback coming for 20 minutes. Less exciting. But boy the actress in the dugout was happy!