I just uploadad the video of our fight night in England. It was a good event because it was run very much like a boxing night.
It was kinda fun and a bit different to warm up in a little room downstairs and then walk out and fight in front of people eating dinner and then go back into your room and wind down and do nothing.
It was almost like we were caged animals where you come out and entertain and then leave.
England won the night but it doesnt really matter for me personally because i fought ok and it was just good match practice before the worlds.
Here is the link to the fight sorry about the lighting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uURBrvHxt38
Have an awesome day
MAtt
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Travel to Rotterdam
Today has been an absolute killer, we got up at around 415am because our flight to Netherlands left Heathrow at 7am. I pretty much slept all the way as soon as I jumped on the plane, once arriving in Amsterdam we caught a bus 1.5hours until we got to Rotterdam.
It’s really weird to wake up early one morning and by 10am you are having a coffee in another country, only in Europe can you do that.
I haven’t done absolutely anything today; we waited at reception for a few hours before getting a lift to our hotel we are staying in. The hotel is really nice and I’m rooming with my mate Cooky again. We both fight on the same day (this Wednesday) so management always try to put people who fight on the same day together. This just stops one person from staying awake all night or coming home early in the morning while your roommate needs a good night’s sleep before fighting the next day.
Tonight though I went to the gym next door and got a good seat up on the bike and cross trainer for 40 minutes and then I did a few laps in the swimming pool to cool down and stretch. Then had a few baked potatoes for dinner and then watched a movie called The Island, I don’t know if anyone has seen it buts it’s pretty good.
Tomorrow we aren’t doing too much we will probably train in the morning and then I will hang out and watch a movie probably have a snooze before going to the sauna to make weight. I will probably hopefully only have to sauna 1.5kg.
Internet here is around about $16 a day so we will probably only buy it for a few days because we will be spending all day at Judo anyway so it may be a waste of money buying the internet, but we will see how we are going with money.
So not much else is really going on, Cooky and I are both very anxious to fight and step onto the mat with the best in the world and see how we fair. Like I was saying in an earlier post I am coming off a good win at the Pac Rim so hopefully I can keep the momentum going and string a few wins together.
The weather here in Rotterdam is nice today but it still rained twice, the only bad aspect of this hotel is the fact that a supermarket is 35 mins walk away and there are no restaurants anywhere nearby. We are seriously in the middle of nowhere. But we do get breakfast, lunch and dinner paid for here at our hotel so that’s pretty good as I will have to start saving money for Samantha to come to Samoa in a few months.
Have an awesome day everyone,
I will do a post the night before I fight as well.
Matt
It’s really weird to wake up early one morning and by 10am you are having a coffee in another country, only in Europe can you do that.
I haven’t done absolutely anything today; we waited at reception for a few hours before getting a lift to our hotel we are staying in. The hotel is really nice and I’m rooming with my mate Cooky again. We both fight on the same day (this Wednesday) so management always try to put people who fight on the same day together. This just stops one person from staying awake all night or coming home early in the morning while your roommate needs a good night’s sleep before fighting the next day.
Tonight though I went to the gym next door and got a good seat up on the bike and cross trainer for 40 minutes and then I did a few laps in the swimming pool to cool down and stretch. Then had a few baked potatoes for dinner and then watched a movie called The Island, I don’t know if anyone has seen it buts it’s pretty good.
Tomorrow we aren’t doing too much we will probably train in the morning and then I will hang out and watch a movie probably have a snooze before going to the sauna to make weight. I will probably hopefully only have to sauna 1.5kg.
Internet here is around about $16 a day so we will probably only buy it for a few days because we will be spending all day at Judo anyway so it may be a waste of money buying the internet, but we will see how we are going with money.
So not much else is really going on, Cooky and I are both very anxious to fight and step onto the mat with the best in the world and see how we fair. Like I was saying in an earlier post I am coming off a good win at the Pac Rim so hopefully I can keep the momentum going and string a few wins together.
The weather here in Rotterdam is nice today but it still rained twice, the only bad aspect of this hotel is the fact that a supermarket is 35 mins walk away and there are no restaurants anywhere nearby. We are seriously in the middle of nowhere. But we do get breakfast, lunch and dinner paid for here at our hotel so that’s pretty good as I will have to start saving money for Samantha to come to Samoa in a few months.
Have an awesome day everyone,
I will do a post the night before I fight as well.
Matt
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Sunday (Rest day)
I was going to go into London today and have a look around and had been looking forward to it for the last few days. But after talking to the guys apparently it takes 1.5hrs to get the train into London. I didn't know if i could be bothered to get more money out of the atm and then spend a whole day walking round London looking at stuff and so i decided to stay at home and chill out.
Its now 6pm in the afternoon and i feel like i made the right decision, i have had a pretty cruisey day i got a lift down to the shops and had a nice sandwich at a coffee shop and read my book. I finished the 3rd Genghis Khan book and it was fantastic. Now im onto a new one called 'This present darkness' by a Christian author Frank Peritti, it is written rather well and i am enjoying it.
I actually read it all the way on my 25 minute walk home and i nearly ran into about 3 pushbikes and a few poles while walking along the bike path. Lucky they saw me.
I fight in a few days time at the World champs and i am very excited i am coming off a good win at Pac Rim and another good fight on Friday night and i feel like i have matured so much as a fighter in the last year and a half.
I am very looking forward to competing i know i have trained hard and if i can get another good draw and a bit of luck i will be in for a chance at winning a few fights.
For people that dont know Judo has now changed their competition format it used to be if you lost to a guy that made the semi final (top 4) you then went on to fight everyone he has beaten along the way and try to make your way to 3rd place.
Then new format is knockout until the final 8 (or quarter final.) This makes it very very hard because if you draw the gold medallist first or second round and they beat you you dont get any more fights.
It makes it very very hard to place top 8 but it makes it alot easier for spectators and people that dont have that much of a great understanding of Judo.
When you are this close to competition you have to have alot of confidence in yourself to remain calm and not stress too much. Many people stress about their weight or who they are going to draw and are they going to get beaten or smashed with a huge throw.
But i always while training try to give 100% so that i fully believe that i have done everything possible in order to beat my opponent because i have taken no shortcuts along the way.
can say this with full confidence because, like i said i am coming off a good win and good training while being here in England.
It becomes quite hard to tell yourself that you have done all you could and you are fit as when you have had a very troubled lead up through injury or illness or just a bad comp and your on a low. But you must keep telling yourself that you are 'the best and fit and strong and trained hard and you are ready' and this takes alot of maturity and skill into being able to fool yourself in order to come into the fight with the right and positive mentality.
For example today i havent done too much in the form of exercise i walked for 25 minutes and that was a slow mosey while reading a book. But i need to have confidence in myself that i need a rest day and if i train today i may get sick and perform badly in a few days. This is why i need Sam here, she always tells me if i am tired whether i should or shouldn't go to training because she can tell wheather i am getting over trained or not.
Everyone has a different way to lose weight, a different way to diet and a different way to rehydrate and refuel and a different lead up to comp. I remember a few years ago i use to always have the day before competition off and let my body recover for the next day.
But at a comp in Tahiti our head coach Gavin told us that if we cannot recover overnight from a 45 minute short hard intense session by the next day then we are not fit enough to compete in the first place. I trained and fought really well (even though i didn't win.) but by training hard the day before the comp while you are competing your body had adjusted to the intensity to the day before and so your body is accustomed to the intensity of the competition.
This style of mentality got under a few peoples skin but for me it was like a lightswitch went of in my head and so every comp since then i have trained the day before and obviously i haven't won every comp since then but i have felt alot more confident in myself and physically i didn't get as tired.
So today i have restrained myself from doing any exercise (even though its such a nice day) but will smash myself on Monday and tuesday in Netherlands for me to fight on Wednesday and after i fight me and cooky are going to find a nice place that sells massive chicken Schnitzels and we are going to eat our heads off its going to be great.
Its now 6pm in the afternoon and i feel like i made the right decision, i have had a pretty cruisey day i got a lift down to the shops and had a nice sandwich at a coffee shop and read my book. I finished the 3rd Genghis Khan book and it was fantastic. Now im onto a new one called 'This present darkness' by a Christian author Frank Peritti, it is written rather well and i am enjoying it.
I actually read it all the way on my 25 minute walk home and i nearly ran into about 3 pushbikes and a few poles while walking along the bike path. Lucky they saw me.
I fight in a few days time at the World champs and i am very excited i am coming off a good win at Pac Rim and another good fight on Friday night and i feel like i have matured so much as a fighter in the last year and a half.
I am very looking forward to competing i know i have trained hard and if i can get another good draw and a bit of luck i will be in for a chance at winning a few fights.
For people that dont know Judo has now changed their competition format it used to be if you lost to a guy that made the semi final (top 4) you then went on to fight everyone he has beaten along the way and try to make your way to 3rd place.
Then new format is knockout until the final 8 (or quarter final.) This makes it very very hard because if you draw the gold medallist first or second round and they beat you you dont get any more fights.
It makes it very very hard to place top 8 but it makes it alot easier for spectators and people that dont have that much of a great understanding of Judo.
When you are this close to competition you have to have alot of confidence in yourself to remain calm and not stress too much. Many people stress about their weight or who they are going to draw and are they going to get beaten or smashed with a huge throw.
But i always while training try to give 100% so that i fully believe that i have done everything possible in order to beat my opponent because i have taken no shortcuts along the way.
can say this with full confidence because, like i said i am coming off a good win and good training while being here in England.
It becomes quite hard to tell yourself that you have done all you could and you are fit as when you have had a very troubled lead up through injury or illness or just a bad comp and your on a low. But you must keep telling yourself that you are 'the best and fit and strong and trained hard and you are ready' and this takes alot of maturity and skill into being able to fool yourself in order to come into the fight with the right and positive mentality.
For example today i havent done too much in the form of exercise i walked for 25 minutes and that was a slow mosey while reading a book. But i need to have confidence in myself that i need a rest day and if i train today i may get sick and perform badly in a few days. This is why i need Sam here, she always tells me if i am tired whether i should or shouldn't go to training because she can tell wheather i am getting over trained or not.
Everyone has a different way to lose weight, a different way to diet and a different way to rehydrate and refuel and a different lead up to comp. I remember a few years ago i use to always have the day before competition off and let my body recover for the next day.
But at a comp in Tahiti our head coach Gavin told us that if we cannot recover overnight from a 45 minute short hard intense session by the next day then we are not fit enough to compete in the first place. I trained and fought really well (even though i didn't win.) but by training hard the day before the comp while you are competing your body had adjusted to the intensity to the day before and so your body is accustomed to the intensity of the competition.
This style of mentality got under a few peoples skin but for me it was like a lightswitch went of in my head and so every comp since then i have trained the day before and obviously i haven't won every comp since then but i have felt alot more confident in myself and physically i didn't get as tired.
So today i have restrained myself from doing any exercise (even though its such a nice day) but will smash myself on Monday and tuesday in Netherlands for me to fight on Wednesday and after i fight me and cooky are going to find a nice place that sells massive chicken Schnitzels and we are going to eat our heads off its going to be great.
Its always hard being away from home but i always talk to sam either on the phone or on facebook and she always knows what to say when i am down. On our nice new laptop i have the most beautiful desktop background that always reminds me that it doesnt matter what happens in life i will always have such a beautiful and wonderful wife and our wedding day was just the most amazing day in my whole entire life. Whenever i write ablog i always want to add a photo or video or something that people can look at so today im going to add my desktop photo on there. Its a very nice photo with a sick car to.
i might start packing my bags soon because we are leaving here at 5am in the morning tomorrow morning, our plane leaves Heathrow at around 715am and is 1.5hr trip to Amsterdam and then a 2 hr maybe bus trip to Rotterdam.
Sam told me that Rotterdam was completely flattened by Nazi bombs in WW2 and so its actually not an 'old' city as such compared to other places in Europe because it had to be all rebuilt so its quite modern. Although i have bneen told there is nothing to see or do there thats why the judo centre in Netherlands is there.
I dont know what the hotel facilites are like but we should have the internet so i can keep blogging my whereabouts and keep people upto date with everything im doing.
Have an awesome day guys Matt
Have an awesome day guys Matt
My Pac rim final
i finally figured out how to convert the file to a DivX file and then upload to youtube.
Here is my fight here on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_nyH0Su9Y4
Matt
Here is my fight here on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_nyH0Su9Y4
Matt
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Saturday
Today was a very intense day, we did alot of uchikomi and circuits in order to make us pretty tired so we can recover on Sunday and have a good couple of gtraining sessions before i fight in the worlds on Wednesday.
This morning at 10 we did a stack judo circuts and i sweated off a bunch of weight, i only weighed 61.8kg so that's pretty good.
After training i had a quick cold shower before we went down into town and had KFC. Although i haven't really been craving bad food i didnt want to just eat it because i could and so i went to the bakery and had a chicken salad sandwich while the guys who are good with their weight had KFC chicken and chips. Dang the KFC looked good.
Today was a pretty boring day for people regarding reading the blog because all i really did was Judo. Once we got home after lunch we had a quick rest of bout half hour before training again. We did a stack of power uchikomi and speed uchikomi to sharpen up as a well as doing a stack of shuttle runs and groundwork drills.
After our afternoon session we went down to the laundrette and washed all our clothing because i always want to have clean clothes before the flight home. I usually set aside some 'plane clothes' that i wear on the way home to that i am nice and clean and not to smelly.
I really cant wait to come home and come back to normality. As much as this is what i train for i still love nothing more than having a coffee with my wife Sam and just chatting away for hours ON end, Exactly the same as what we did at Mr Donut in Japan.
I cant wait to come home and sleep in my bed, use my own fridge and drive my own car. I cant wait to have a decent shower with some sort of hot water and cant wait to go to our awesome church in Monash again. and i cant wait to be able to clal my wife whenever i want rather than have to wait due to time difference to see weather she is awake or not.
But we are coming upto the business end of the trip, the main reason why i am here training and competing. I fight on a few days time at the biggest event in judo, the World championships, the biggest event in the sport of Judo besides the Olympics.
In 2007 there was 201 countries entered in the Judo World championships, so this year should be very simialar. This is the biggest part of the year so i must perform at my absolute best in order to get a good result.
I am keen as to compete again at the highest level possible and to terst my skills against the best in the world.
Tomorrow is our rest day but im looking at getting up early and going for a jog and a bit of a stretch, My legs have been very tired lately and thats pretty bad for a lightweight. This is because if your legs get tired then you cant move every well around the mat so you start using your arms. and then your arms start getting tired and couple that with your tired legs you just get pounded throw after throw into the mat.
So i really try to maintain and stretch my legs so they dont get too tired throughout training for the rest of the week.
Due to the fact that tomorrow is a rest day i think a few of us are going into London to do a bit of
sight seeing have a look at big Ben and the London eye and whatever else is around there.
ill post some photos if i get any good ones
Have an awesome day guys
Matt
This morning at 10 we did a stack judo circuts and i sweated off a bunch of weight, i only weighed 61.8kg so that's pretty good.
After training i had a quick cold shower before we went down into town and had KFC. Although i haven't really been craving bad food i didnt want to just eat it because i could and so i went to the bakery and had a chicken salad sandwich while the guys who are good with their weight had KFC chicken and chips. Dang the KFC looked good.
Today was a pretty boring day for people regarding reading the blog because all i really did was Judo. Once we got home after lunch we had a quick rest of bout half hour before training again. We did a stack of power uchikomi and speed uchikomi to sharpen up as a well as doing a stack of shuttle runs and groundwork drills.
After our afternoon session we went down to the laundrette and washed all our clothing because i always want to have clean clothes before the flight home. I usually set aside some 'plane clothes' that i wear on the way home to that i am nice and clean and not to smelly.
I really cant wait to come home and come back to normality. As much as this is what i train for i still love nothing more than having a coffee with my wife Sam and just chatting away for hours ON end, Exactly the same as what we did at Mr Donut in Japan.
I cant wait to come home and sleep in my bed, use my own fridge and drive my own car. I cant wait to have a decent shower with some sort of hot water and cant wait to go to our awesome church in Monash again. and i cant wait to be able to clal my wife whenever i want rather than have to wait due to time difference to see weather she is awake or not.
But we are coming upto the business end of the trip, the main reason why i am here training and competing. I fight on a few days time at the biggest event in judo, the World championships, the biggest event in the sport of Judo besides the Olympics.
In 2007 there was 201 countries entered in the Judo World championships, so this year should be very simialar. This is the biggest part of the year so i must perform at my absolute best in order to get a good result.
I am keen as to compete again at the highest level possible and to terst my skills against the best in the world.
Tomorrow is our rest day but im looking at getting up early and going for a jog and a bit of a stretch, My legs have been very tired lately and thats pretty bad for a lightweight. This is because if your legs get tired then you cant move every well around the mat so you start using your arms. and then your arms start getting tired and couple that with your tired legs you just get pounded throw after throw into the mat.
So i really try to maintain and stretch my legs so they dont get too tired throughout training for the rest of the week.
Due to the fact that tomorrow is a rest day i think a few of us are going into London to do a bit of
sight seeing have a look at big Ben and the London eye and whatever else is around there.
ill post some photos if i get any good ones
Have an awesome day guys
Matt
Friday, August 21, 2009
Fight Night
Well first off England won the night 6 fights to 1.I didnt win my fight the only aussie to win was our 52kg girl rocket.
I fought pretty well and was happy with how i went, Tonight was really good match practice for the world championships especially with my gripping and game plan. I sometimes when fighting overseas have a game plan but then halfway through the fight change it and then thats when i lose. But tonight i kept to my game plan but couldnt finish all the good opportunitis that came my way.
I losed by a yuko that was a rather soft yuko that was scored of a running footsweep that my opponent caught me with and i thought i spun onto my face but the refereee thought otherwise.
(I will post the footage of the fight here when i get it.)
I am also trying to load my pac rim final on youtube because everyone has been asking for it.
Now im off to bed as its 12:30am and im tired as. We have training at 10am
so good night
Have an awesome day
Matt
I fought pretty well and was happy with how i went, Tonight was really good match practice for the world championships especially with my gripping and game plan. I sometimes when fighting overseas have a game plan but then halfway through the fight change it and then thats when i lose. But tonight i kept to my game plan but couldnt finish all the good opportunitis that came my way.
I losed by a yuko that was a rather soft yuko that was scored of a running footsweep that my opponent caught me with and i thought i spun onto my face but the refereee thought otherwise.
(I will post the footage of the fight here when i get it.)
I am also trying to load my pac rim final on youtube because everyone has been asking for it.
Now im off to bed as its 12:30am and im tired as. We have training at 10am
so good night
Have an awesome day
Matt
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