Dealing with pre-fight nerves
I’ve been going back through my blog archives and revisiting some of the things I’ve written over the years. I’m going to be re-posting a few of my favourites. This one is from 2010. Someone asked me a question this week about how I deal with pre-fight nerves. It’s something that’s individual to each fighter, […]
Speech to Green Party Autumn Conference 2020
I never meant to become a politician. That wasn’t in my game plan. I first joined the Green Party, perhaps like many of you, because I saw the urgency of the environmental crisis we were facing, and that this wasn’t being prioritised by any of the other parties. Then a few years ago, a local […]
Politics media articles
Local Government Chronicle, March 2022 – Interview: The cage fighter with the good fight https://www.lgcplus.com/services/health-and-care/interview-the-cage-fighter-with-the-good-fight-14-03-2022/ Left Foot Forward – Leadership pitch: The Green Party needs to represent ‘the outsiders’ https://leftfootforward.org/2020/07/leadership-pitch-the-green-party-needs-to-represent-the-outsiders/
Life after fighting
Three years ago, I retired from MMA competition. My last fight was on Cage Warriors against now UFC champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk. I knew at the time that it was probably going to be my last outing; after 12 years in the sport, it was time to move on and do other things. 2016 has seen […]
It’s a long way down…
“The next time someone says to me ‘oh, it’s not hard, it’s just sustained’, I think I’m going to punch them in the teeth” – Steve, 3rd belay point. Well, we did it! It took longer than we were expecting, and it wasn’t pretty. There were a few belay change overs that… let’s just say, […]
Dam(n)!
After arriving in Milan airport this morning and then driving up to Luzzone, we got our first look at the dam this evening. This is what we intend to climb tomorrow (although if the weather isn’t good, or anything doesn’t go to plan, we’ve left Friday as our backup). I’ve been meaning to write a […]
Nearly time…
Just a few days left before we fly out to Switzerland for the assault on the dam…. so here’s a little of what we’ve been up to over the last few weeks. Aside from our regular sessions at the local climbing wall, where we’ve been climbing lots of laps for endurance, we’ve also made a […]
Training update – Luzzone Dam trip!
With the end of July approaching fast, things haven’t gone quite as smoothly as I’d have liked. Business has been hectic these last few weeks (I’m not complaining – please don’t stop booking in to see me!), but it’s meant a slow start to the training plan. I got up to Awesome Walls in Stockport […]
The tallest climbing wall in the world
I know things have been a bit quiet round here. I’ve been meaning to reboot this personal blog for a while, but now I have a good reason to. I’m mostly keeping a record so that in a few months time, when I’m inevitably wondering “why on earth did I let myself get talked into […]
Another way life mirrors jiu-jitsu
There are some people you roll with who are focused on getting it right; they’re the technical guys and girls who’ll push you, but you always feel like you’re getting something out of it. If you’re training, they’ll be good training partners and if you’re competing they’ll fight hard but cleanly. And then there are […]