Well I did it! I survived Training Camp! I'm back and just a little bit sore, but what a blast. OK, maybe a little more than just a little bit sore. Here is a quick run-down of Thursday and Friday, with stories about Saturday and Sunday to come ....Thursday - I jumped in the Corvette and took off. I got to Vegas in about 8 hours and the car ran great. It loves to run at 80! I checked in to the Golden Nugget and took a nap. I woke up and went down to play cards at the El Cortez. It is kind of a dumpy hotel but they usually have $3, single hand blackjack. They have changed a bit. They had remodeled and made all of the tables smoke free. That was cool, but now they have double deck blackjack. Well I played for a couple of hours and dropped $50.
Friday Morning - Up early and off to camp. Friday morning wasn't part of the official camp, however, Campers were allowed to attend any other classes while they were there, so I went to a Muay Thai class. Muay Thai is a style of fighting that originated in Thailand. The basic premise is your body consists of 8 weapons. Your legs, your knees, your hands and your elbows. Muay Thai uses all these to disable your opponent.
The trainer was a pro-fighter named Joey Varner. I'd actually taken a class with him a couple of years ago. He claims he remembers me, but he was probably just being nice. He has fought in the IFO and is one of the very nicest people you will ever meet. This was a great class. We worked on conditioning, and lots of striking.
To warm up, he has us jump rope for 5 minutes, then do 20 push ups. Then he has us go back to the jump rope for another 5 minutes, then 20 push ups, and 20 sit ups. Then back on the jump rope for 5 minutes. We finished with 20 push ups, 20 sit ups, and 20 squat jumps. Man I was starting to get tired before we even got to the good stuff.
We spent the rest of the hour working on striking drills. We worked on mostly punches and side kicks, while working on the heavy bags. We finished with ..... more conditioning! Since we weren't even tired yet, we ran lots of sprints. By the end of class, by shins were black and blue and I had bruises all over my feet. I was ready for a nap, so I headed back to the Hotel. The official Camp starts at 7:00 pm.
Friday Evening - After a nap, a soak in the hot-tub and a few runs down the water-slide, it was time to head off. When I got to camp, it was apparent I was going to be the oldest Camper. The next oldest guy was 45. He was a professional Squash player from Ontario. His wife had given the Camp to him for his 45th birthday. There were people from New Zeland, Scotland, Canada and from all over the Country. Some were already pro fighters, some were amateur fighters looking to build their skill set to go pro, and there were a couple of guys like me with a little bit of training who just wanted to learn more. The average age was probably 25 with the youngest of 16. This evening, the focus was on Jiu-Jitsu.
Jiu-Jitsu is an important part of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). When the fight goes to the ground, wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu come into play. Jiu-Jitsu is a fighting style that relies on leverage and the applying of joint-locks and choke-holds to defeat your opponent. Going into camp, I had very little Jiu-Jitsu, having only learned a few things while training with Aaron. The coaches for this evening were Head Extreme Couture Jiu-Jitsu Coach Neil Melanson and Former UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion of the World, Forrest Griffin. Neil is the man who trains Randy Couture, Forrest and all the other pro fighters at Xtreme Couture and Forrest is well, Forrest. You couldn't ask for two nicer people or better teachers. The picture above is of Forrest and I.
We started by pairing up with someone about our same sizes. I paired up with a 38 year old guy named Mathew something. Mathew was almost as tall as me, probably 20 pounds lighter, but with a lot more experience. Mathew and I stayed partners for the entire camp. He was really an interesting guy. He was a writer. His first published book was about the Showlin Monks of China. He is currently working on a book about MMA, and already has a publishing deal set up. He has been traveling around studying different types of fighting. He has been to Rio to study Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Russia to study a fighting style called Sambo, and now he was at camp to train with some pros. He was already well known to the Camp Instructors.
We spent the next 2 hours working on a choke hold called a triangle, and how to escape the triangle when you are on the wrong end of one. The triangle involves the squishing of the arteries in your opponents neck with your thighs and calf muscles. When applied correctly, the hold cuts off oxygen to the brain, causing your opponent to black out. We took turns applying the move, starting at a very slow speed and moving up faster and faster until we could do it at full speed. The guy getting choked would tap out before loosing consciousness. I actually got to work one on one with both Neil and Forrest. It was really cool. I didn't think I could bend like that but it turns out I was actually pretty good at it. After this session, I was pretty sore so it was back to the Hotel for a quick water slide and a soak in the hot tub.
If you have never been to the Golden Nugget, you have to at least check out the pool. They spent $32 million to create the pool and water slide. The slide actually goes through the middle of a shark tank. You can see sharks swimming by as you go through the tube. It is really cool. You can check it out at: http://www.goldennugget.com/amenities/pool.asp
I'll try to post tomorrow or the next day to tell about Saturday and Sunday.
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