2013 MAT Review: A Little Bit of Trumpet Blowing at Christmas

Strange that, even though each passing year seems to fly by at lightning speed, when you sit down and try to recall events that were important to you, it's almost impossible to recollect them all correctly. Either you cannot remember them in the order they happened; or they seem to have occurred much longer ago than during the preceding 12 month period; or events from previous years encroach, invade and only serve to confuse recent memory further; or you just draw a complete and utter blank. However, I was quietly confident that I had a pretty good handle on things, so this morning, armed with trusty notepad and pencil I scribbled down the heading, "MAT 2013", confident that the year just about to expire would come flooding back to me with crystal clarity and flow onto paper like the waters of the proverbial fountain of knowledge........................

WRONGOHhh!!! Forty-five painfully long minutes later, all I had managed to put to paper was said heading - at least twenty more times - a few keywords and names intended to trigger memory and some childishly doodled boobs, random scribbles and perfectly spelled profanities. WHAT GIVES?!!! Realisation dawned. So much has happened in 2013, both at The MAT and in my personal life, that remembering all the highs and lows, turmoil and calm with chronological accuracy was going to be a far more difficult task than I first thought.

Time for coffee! For in Andy's world, with coffee, comes clarity....plus a really terrific buzz! Yeah man, coffee clears the fog and makes all things GOOooood with the world. So another forty-five minutes and three coffees later, not that instant rubbish mind you but, as Tarantino penned, 'some real gourmet shit!', it dawned on me that we keep a diary at the gym recording everything that happens there on a day to day basis. With me and Lew being such sticklers for accurate record keeping...................... Stopped laughing yet? As I was saying..... With me and Lew being such sticklers for accurate record keeping, everything I needed to complete this review would already be written down, so off to The MAT I went to collect our trusty diary.

With a fresh cup of "real gourmet shit" in hand, I settled down and starting to browse the year that was. Turning through the pages for January 2013 I found.....Nothing. Okay the weather must have been bad. Let's have a look at February 2013 then, bound to be something there....Oops! Must have been a worse winter than I could recall......

Then I turned to March and POW!!! What would seem to be a normal everyday Personal Training booking to anyone else was, I realised, the most significant moment of my year, probably my life! And I smiled.....

Anyway, after what was evidently, according to my and Lew's impeccable diary entries, a very quiet start to the year, things certainly began to pick up. Both myself and Lewis found ourselves up the wall with personal training clients all eager to fulfil their New Year's resolutions of: quitting smoking and drinking, getting fitter and losing all the excess "sluggage" gained throughout the Christmas festivities. Most, unfortunately but inevitably, fell by the way side, whilst the dedicated few stuck to their guns and made fantastic fitness gains or weight losses,with a few finding a new passion in the fighting arts. One notable client in particular, whom I'll come back to later, went on to achieve something he would never have dreamed when he started training with us.

Now then, we've always been been very proud and very vocal about the fact that despite being a very small club the quality of coaching at The MAT is absolutely second to none. Now for the first year that was pretty much me and Lew blowing the living hell out of our own trumpets and giving our BJJ coach, Rob Taylor's a hefty old blast as well. And why not?! We are as a matter of fact bloody good coaches. In 2013 though a couple of additions to our coaching staff absolutely confirmed that The MAT Academy was going places and would have a profound effect on our coaching, Lew's skill levels and absolutely confirmed our little dojo as THE place to train for MMA and individual arts throughout Cardiff and the valleys at least. Wow! Just call me Louis Armstrong eh!

In January, top Boxing coach and former WBU World Middleweight Champion, Gary "The Rocket" Locket, temporarily moved his team, including Gavin Rees and Enzo Maccarinelli down to The MAT while he waited for his new premises in Cardiff to be completed. Taking full of advantage of this opportunity we asked Gary if he could take the odd class for us and Lewis started having private sessions with the master. Recognising the talent that Lewis possesses, Gary very soon invited "The Foot" to put his hands to good use as a sparring partner for some of his contenders. This had a double effect on our club, giving Lew some top class sparring experience  whilst giving some of our guys a most welcome break from Lew's attentions and just a little satisfaction in seeing him on the receiving end of a punch or two for a change.

Lew's Thai coach, Joey Brincat, a former British Number 2 and Lupini Stadium fighter started delivering regular Muay Thai sessions taking the skill levels of not only Lewis but all of our Thai Class attendees to another level. Joey has got to be the most laid back and unassuming martial artist I've ever seen and is pretty much the same when sparring, but when it comes to the "Three T's" of Technique, Tactics and Timing, Joey is "The Man" and you just find yourself hitting thin air and your face and body feeling the sting of shin and leather!!!

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has really taken off at the MAT with many of our guys now rolling and competing at a very decent level. So much so that we are now attracting good level practitioners from many other clubs that enjoy the aggressive rolling style and great atmosphere at The MAT. Of course this is largely due to our main BJJ coach Rob Taylor but the introduction of our Open MAT session and the popularity of its coach, our very Wayne "Silverback" Samways has also had an extremely positive impact on BJJ at the club.
Both myself and Lewis cannot thank the big guy enough for his efforts and input throughout not only 2013 but since we opened our doors.

The final piece in our club coaching puzzle was to bring in Welsh National Wrestling Coach, Arash Shojaei. Now don't be mislead when you meet this extremely likeable, constantly smiling little Iranian dude with the the endearing lisp. He is an absolute animal! Built like a gymnast with explosive speed, power and incredible skills, he delivers fierce Wrestling sessions that have vastly improved the grappling game and stamina of everyone in the club and whether you like it or not you're going to receive some heavy impact conditioning in with the bargain.

To further boost the prowess of this incredible coaching team....I know what you're thinking.... How could the awesomeness of our coaches get any more awesome!...Yeah? Well listen to this. In August our very own "Obi Wan" of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Rob Taylor received his, in my humble opinion, long overdue Kuro Obi (black belt) from Braulio Estima, giving him the distinction of being only the second Welsh Gracie Barra black belt, along with his instructor Chris Rees. See! Even more awesomeness!! 

So with this AWESOME coaching team in place, who better to display the complete skill set delivered by them than our very own Lewis "The Foot" Long. Lewis was scheduled to have three fights on the excellent Cage Warriors promotion in 2013, the first being CWFC 54 in Cardiff on (to Rob Taylor's shear delight), Star Wars Day, May 4th. against the highly regarded Mark Glover. The second on CWFC 57 on 20th. July in Liverpool and the third on September 14th back in Cardiff against the extremely tough and experienced Tommy Maguire.

The first match couldn't have gone any better with Lewis overwhelming Glover with a Thai master-class, winning by unanimous decision and giving the fight scene a wake up call.

After what had been a pretty perfect fight camp, tragedy struck when, just two weeks out from the second fight in Liverpool, Lew cut his eye wide open during a Wrestling session with Arash and had to withdraw. Not letting this get him down we just cracked on with fight camp number three and began preparation for the Ginger Gypsy.

A small dedicated band of us still made the long arduous journey up to Liverpool for CWFC 57. All I can say is.... It was emotional! Is drunk an emotion?

As expected, the match against Maguire was a much, much tougher affair. This perfectly matched fight could have gone either way with both guys landing big shots but unfortunately for Lewis he got caught in a Gypsy Jiu Jitsu style guillotine choke mid way through the third round to lose by submission.

With no more MMA fights lined up for 2013, Lewis immediately set his sights on a new goal. That of getting as fat as possible, becoming a budding alcoholic and prolific gamer. Unfortunately, his ambitions were quickly halted when he once again pulled on the "Angry White Pyjamas" and black pyjamas and blue pyjamas and threw himself headlong into BJJ for the remainder of the year. By December he had won Gold in The British NoGi Championship fighting in the Purple Belt division whilst still a Blue Belt; Bronze in the extremely tough English Open at Blue Belt and finally a Gold at the Hereford Open in November where Rob Taylor immediately awarded him his well deserved Purple Belt. Blue Belts around the country were heard to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Time for the purple belt division to feel the horrific shoulder pressure that the evil little b**t**d relishes in delivering to the rest of us.

With his skill levels on a continuing upward trend, his coaching skills in increasing demand and at least three more fights on Cage Warriors and a whole bunch of BJJ competitions lined up, 2014 looks like its going to be another busy but brilliant year for Lew.

The middle of 2013 was a pretty tough time for The MAT. With many people taking advantage of the fantastic summer this year, numbers dwindled and just for a while there, I really thought we'd have to shut up shop as overheads weren't able to be met. The weather may have been glorious but unless something was done fast, the outlook for The MAT was looking decidedly gloomy indeed. A good old brainstorming session was needed. Ideas for new classes, events or functions had to be found ..PRONTO!

Perhaps we could diversify and utilise the building as: A brothel?A Crack House? Or for Naked Mud Wrestling? What about Lap Dancing, underground unlicensed fights or even Death Matches? All were put on the table, discussed, but alas, eventually dismissed. After all none of them had worked for us previously so something even more drastic was going to have to be implemented. What on earth could be more drastic than opening a crack house? I hear you say. Well, and I still can't believe I did it and still do it to this day....... From July, I started to creep out of the house at five o'clock every morning to deliver early-bird Warrior Bootcamp sessions to the ever so slightly insane social outcasts that actually enjoy training at this godforsaken hour!!

Oh! Before I continue with Warrior Bootcamp, I'd like to say a massive THANK YOU to AXA Insurance who, on the request of my then PT client, Dione Smith, sent their Bristol office team along  in July to paint our building as part of their Hearts in Action initiative. For a few bacon sandwiches, tea, coffee and a lot of Stella Artois they, begged, borrowed and, being an insurance company, more than likely stole, everything needed to brighten up the building.


Alrighty then, where was I? Ah yes! As it turned out, Warrior Bootcamps have been one of the major successes of 2013. Every Bootcamper makes a  financial and sleep-depraving commitment at the beginning of each camp to turn up at 6am daily and go through as horrific a session as I can dream up. I'm proud to say that every single one of them, mental though they may be, has made huge strength and conditioning gains and those who have wanted to lose weight have all done so. On the same weekend in November, two of our Bootcampers proved to themselves and to everyone else how much can be achieved when positive mental thinking and an unflinching training ethic is instilled and implemented. Oh! And the importance of high quality, incredibly motivational coaching of course! (toot-toot).

On November 15th, Jon Roberts, the PT client alluded to at the beginning of this article, participated in a charity White Collar Boxing event at the Vale Hotel winning his fight within two minutes of the first round with the first knock-out ever seen at this event! Jon's first visit to The MAT was on a bitterly cold February night to share a Personal Training session with his partner. Now this is a guy who had never dreamt of pulling on a pair of gloves other than to keep his hands warm but, after a few rounds on the focus pads, it was evident that he had some natural talent and Jon became hooked on boxing training. Within just a few weeks Jon had started having a crack at sparring and once the initial shock and fear of being punched in the face and body by both Lewis and myself had been overcome there was no holding him back. Only one question remains.......Will Jon fight again? Watch this space.


Jon became one of the first to sign up for Bootcamp along with a talented young girl that he became quite fond of.. .......punching......hard!

Now that may at first imply that Jon was some kind of female thumping bully. Far from it, as I can tell you from experience and having sported a beautiful black eye or two as proof that if you take it even a little bit easy on one Anya Baker, she will quickly take full and brutal advantage of it. This attractive, extremely talented girl with the Lara Croft pony tail, possesses the cheek of the devil, punches with incredible power and can kick like a cranky kangaroo.

What Anya did lack massively however, was self-belief and confidence in her own ability and it took a long time to instil it. In fact it was only two weeks before her fight on November 16th against the very tough Zoe Card that I actually saw that self-belief shine through. On the night, her performance exuded confidence and she completely dominated in an absolute gem of a scrap to win by split decision, granting me one of the most satisfying moments of my coaching career so far.With some technical fine tuning, this girl could really go places.

To cap off this extremely busy weekend, a small team of us took part in the Movember 10k race on Sunday 17th November. Sporting finely groomed moustaches, and that's just the girls: Myself, Lewis, Martyn Meyers, Dione and Jenny spent a wonderful hour or so belting around Bute Park..... Nah! Let's be honest here....It sucked ass! However, it was for an extremely worthy cause and hopefully a bigger team will enter next time.


For December we laid on a two week, late evening, Ladies Only Pre-Christmas Bootcamp, which also turned out to be a huge success. The girls attending all saw a huge difference in there body shapes in just the ten days training and all of them have signed up for a post-Christmas, Detox Bootcamp and have vowed to continue their training at as many of our morning and evening regular ladies classes as possible.

As well as the Bootcamps, Wayne and in particular Lewis, have been laying on both regular and ad hoc wrestling, BJJ and sparring sessions during weekdays which have turned out to be far more popular than anyone expected. Don't any of you guys work or what?!!

If there is an aspect of our timetable that I would say has slightly disappointed me, it would have to be our Junior Class section. Karate as always seems to be very popular, particularly with parents looking for a means for their children to gain discipline and learn respect. For some reason though BJJ and Thai seem to hold some sort of mysterious fear for them. Didn't we all wrestle as kids, that's pretty much what BJJ for kids is but in a controlled and safe environment with one of the very best instructors in the country. I teach junior Thai with the same rules of discipline I use in my karate classes and the kids that attend absolutely love all the pad work.


So come on parents!! In 2014 get your kids out from in front of the TV, haul them up to The MAT and let them try every class we offer.

Not all of the arts may be for your little Jonny or Jenny but more often than not they will find one they enjoy and get a lifetime of learning, enjoyment and good health from.

So, there it is. With an amazing team effort from all of our incredible coaches and fantastic membership we have managed to struggle through some pretty hard times this year and things are now looking amazingly healthy for 2014.

More and more of our guys are out there competing on the inter club scene and particularly on the BJJ circuit. Lewis, Jason Gardener, Brad Short and young Luke Thomas have all medalled at tournaments with many others knocking on the door of the "shiny-shiny". Even I, at 47 years of age, answering a challenge thrown down by Rob Taylor, have started competing and am loving it. To feel the adrenalin rush and nerves of taking to the competition mat was something I thought was long behind me.

As a result of this exposure more and more people are hearing word of the The MAT Academy. From kids and adults just looking for a different way to keep fit; to professional fighters looking to expand their skills to a level they previously thought unattainable. Rumour of the top quality coaching team and friendly atmosphere of the little Martial Arts Dojo in Pontypridd has spread far and wide in 2013 and believe me when I say that 2014 and beyond is going to get better and better.

Alright! I'm putting down the trumpet now......

If for some reason I've missed anything out of this review that you feel should have been mentioned, I apologise. Just blame it on the diary or our impeccable record keeping, then pop a little note in the comment box. Take a leaf out of my book and do a little "trumpet blowing" for yourself and for The MAT.

On a personal note. It has been a pretty tumultuous year for me also, having to end a failing relationship and loosing a good friend in the process was extremely tough. Now us Martial Artists are a funny bunch in that the only way we can show gratitude and affection for each other is with a firm handshake, the obligatory back-slapping man-hug or by kicking the be-Jesus out of each other. Words are rarely exchanged other than the occasional 'Cheers mate' or friendly exchange of profanities and matriarchal insults. So this is my opportunity to say thank you to my family and friends for all their understanding, help and support throughout the year.

In particular though, I have to blow a big sloppy kiss to Lewis Long who gave me a place to crash, someone to talk to and it has to be said, fed me well, and without him things could have been a whole lot worse for me. So Lew, from the bottom of my heart, 'Cheers ya twat!' No matriarchal insults though....Bette would kill me!

There is a happy ending to this story though. A very good friend became a best friend then a whole lot more and this time next year Lewis and I will be having a Civil Partnership........ JOKING!! 

On 20th December 2014 I will however be getting married to the very good friend who became a best friend and will become my wife. Dione Smith has made what could have been the crappiest year ever into the best of my life so far. Even knowing the ribbing I'm going to suffer for it I'm still going say publicly....

I Love You

 Okay, before Lewis turns up and slaps me, enough of the soppy stuff!! All that it remains for me to say, as this festive time of the year requires is: Have an Incredibly Merry Christmas and a Bloody Brilliant New Year ....Now.......LET'S DRINK!!!