An Impossible Challenge?

I've been training for a long time..... a very, very long time! At almost forty-seven years old I've been training in Shotokan Karate since the age of four, competing in countless tournaments quite successfully and attaining the very senior grade of 6th Dan for my efforts; I played rugby from the age of nine years old to thirty-six years old and proudly represented Wales at Under 19 level, played senior rugby to a decent level and ended my career coaching at Glyncoch RFC.

I've dabbled in or done: Muay Thai, Boxing, Jujutsu, BJJ, Wrestling, Fun runs, Mountain Runs,10k's, Half Marathons, Full Marathons, Circuit Challenges, Cycle races, Outdoor Pursuits, Conkers, Snakes and Ladders and Scrabble...but now...

I'M BORED.....

I lack drive, motivation and inspiration.... I'm never going to compete at any kind of level at anything ever again or reach any kind of decent standard at anything new at this point in my life ...

SO WHY BOTHER?

The above tirade is how I've been feeling of late. For most of 2013 I've had a goal, not my own mind you... No... My goal for the past year has been to help keep my good buddy Lew Long in the best physical shape possible, maintain his weight and keep him from sugary temptation with varying degrees of success. To do this we've done thousands of bag and skipping rounds, run 21 miles per week,hammered out gruesome sprint sessions and travelled the M4 both sides of the bridge looking for decent sparring for him. The result of this was that at forty-six years old I got into the best shape of my life...There was even a slight hint of abs reported!!

Now though, Lew has no fights until 2014 and has reverted to being a fat ninja for a while and whilst I still have plenty of other coaching to do, which I thoroughly love, the level of physical involvement is nowhere near the same....

Now as anyone who is used to doing regular rigorous physical activity will know full well....when you stop, you descend into a spiral of being annoyed with yourself for not training, which in turns darkens your mood even more and you become even more determined to do no training, which makes you loathe yourself even more which in turn darkens your mood even more, which in turn makes you impossible to be around, then the loneliness darkens your mood even more, which culminates in you beating a loved one or sends you looking for a length of rope or an edged weapon....... Ooh.....Ahem! Or is that just me?

Anyway, you get the picture. So with my training mojo well and truly gone and me spiralling toward possible domestic violence (that is just a bit of MAT humour by the way), I turned to the last bastion of common sense left to the human race, the only place I could possibly find someone to drag from my training depression, that place where the finest human minds congregate and cooperatively answer the great riddles of our time like:

Name a Fish Without the Letter R in it ... and to warn us all that:
If you don't share this Post with at least 30 friends SOMETHING BAD WILL HAPPEN TO YOU!

Yes.On the 10th October 2013... I posted my feelings to Facebook!!! the post simply stated:

NEEDS INSPIRATION

In return I received some of the most heart felt words of advice from friends... some I didn't even know I had!

Tanya Merrett Move your fat arse that motivational enough? 
- Beautiful

Lew Long Smoking is fun!
 - Inciteful

Rhys Owens Your not to old to compete!!! Why don't you enter a bit of WKF Competition
 - Deluded!

Robert Traylor How about bare knuckle fighting round the back of the council car park?
- Illegal

Dione Smith You know if you get fat I will too....
- too late

Lew Long If you get fat I won't love you!
- NEVER EVER SAY THAT!!!!

Philip Controversial Davies I have to say, as someone who is both fat and a smoker, both of these hobbies also get boring too.
I'm looking forward to being a slim, non-smoking fighter.... lol.

If you need motivation dude just think of the kids you train and how much they look up to you, if you quit then you'd fuck both of my kids heads up - so you're not allowed lol.

- SHUT UP PHIL

Lew Long Shut up Phil 
-SEE

Lew Long Andy you sound like a 10 year old girl having her first period!
_ Nice :/

Then finally, as I was about to step off the stool and end it all, I saw something that made me look twice. An actual challenge, a martial arts gauntlet slapped me across both cheeks and hit the ground at my feet. A challenge too tempting to turn down:


Rob Taylor - Start training in the gi. Get yourself another black belt  Pretty big challenge.
- You're on!!

So tonight, 17th October 2013 the almost impossible challenge set by Rob Taylor begins. Am I looking forward to it? Not one bit.
Do I ever expect to complete it? NO! My personal goal is to get a BJJ Blue Belt before my fiftieth birthday then we'll take it from there.

Watch This Space!