Lawrence Lindsay Surgery

I want to take second to encourage everyone to first of all pray for a speedy recovery for Lawrence Lindsay. He had neck surgery recently and as I understand it, this was a tough surgery. Lawrence we are all behind you, hope you recover fast and feel better than ever. Thanks to Tony Palmer for bringing this to my attention.

Lets email or call Lawrence with our support.

A Day In The Life

Today I was honored to speak to Cody Floyd who is a 20 year old native of Tupelo Mississippi. Cody graduated from Mooreville High School and has a fight coming up at Samstown Casino in Tunica Mississippi on August 1, 2009.

Cody's fight record is 3-0 and is a current title holder in the Gameness Series in Nashville Tennessee. He won his title fight in a very impressive fashion that has caused many to stand up and pay attention to this up and comer.

What Chris has asked me to do is to follow Cody's progress day to day up to the day of his fight to give you an idea of what a fighter has to go through in order to be at peak performance levels the day of the fight. Cody was courteous enough to agree to the experiment and I only hope I can do him justice through this blog and our newsletter.

We will be doing a profile of Cody tomorrow and it will be in the newsletter also so if you don't subscribe, email me at ken0021@yahoo.com and tell me to put you on the list. Tell your friends also, because we need to generate as much support for your Tupelo MMA fight team as possible.

Here is a short beginning to our series that will span from today until the August 1st. Cody got out of bed this morning at 8:30 because he didn't have to work today. His birthday is Sunday (he turns 21) and got the day off. Instead of laying around, this guy gets up and paints his garage! Good grief! I would still be asleep... LOL

Cody is eating a lot of protein via bars and shakes right now and training extra hard every day. he said he eats lots of fish for dinner and vegetables. He will be travelling to Corinth tonight to train at Paragon with Jonathan Burdine. Go get'em Cody. We are all behind you!

Check in tomorrow for the latest on Cody's training and preparations.

Intimidation

I am in my third month or so, dabbling, in MMA with Tupelo Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I promised to be honest with you about my feelings and experiences but I hope this post doesn't offend anyone. I will be honest.

Tuesday, I went to boxing class and the only people there were me and Tony Palmer. Chris Gates was the trainer for the day. Need I say more? Note the title above. Tony and I knew we were in for a "treat". We got a great workout and my abs are still aching. Tony told me later that he was really hating me up until I got there because I was late for class and he thought he was about to be pummelled by Chris. I think he was afraid there would be no one to drag him out to the ambulance, but that is just me. Either way, we had a great workout but I remembered on this day why some people either only come to a few classes or just don't ever come at all. This is a very intimidating sport. I was way past intimidated from the very beginning of class and just could not relax. Chris is great at talking you through things though and finally got me to settle down long enough to at least learn a few new boxing tactics. I can't say that I have mastered them, but I know a lot more now than I did on Monday. Chris's patience is unwavering and I am proof of that. Hey, I couldn't remember what punch was which. 3-2-3, 3-2-7, 1-2-3, etc... Heck I am still a little foggy on it. But Chris hung in there with me.

On the intimidation level, today was no different. Today was MMA class and just like Tuesday, it was me and Chris Gates, but instead of Tony Palmer (hmmm, wonder where he was....LOL) Jeremy Kilgore was there. Now if you haven't met Jeremy, you won't know that he is a very well trained young man. Just to look at him made me nervous. To make matters worse, (I think it was his little boy), his son of about 5 or 6 years came walking by me and I thought, "That little booger could probably take me out right now if he wanted to." LOL

Chris got me started on "pummelling" and Jeremy was nice enough to be my dance partner for a bit until I got the general idea. Once I got it down, I got to walk back and forth across the mats practicing the basic move for about 20 minutes while Chris worked with Jeremy on some arm bars and such. I felt like a dufus, but I think my antics and wobbly demeanor kept Jeremy's little boy entertained anyway. My point here is that even the simplest move in MMA takes a great deal of practice and effort. That in itself is very intimidating. Don't get me wrong, I knew I was learning and thanks to Chris and Jeremy, I felt good about just trying to get it down. To cap it off, I learned a lot just from watching them practice.

Not long after we started, Terry Robinson came in and helped Chris and Jeremy, videoed a few moves, and helped Jeremy see a few extra points. I jumped rope and wondered to myself, "What the heck am I doing here?" "These guys are so far out of my league that I am just in the way at best." Again, intimidating.

When we were about done, Terry asked me if I wanted to "roll" some. I said "sure, as long as you don't kill me." He thought I was joking..... I wasn't. He could do it if he wanted to and I know it but I was excited because I know Terry, like Doc, Chris, Lawrence, Jeremy, John, and Jay Bird, knows what he is talking about.

PAY ATTENTION TO THIS PART:

Yes I was intimidated from start to finish. But here is where TBJJ is SOOOOOOO freakin different from the other gyms I have seen. Terry Robinson, (who isn't getting paid) took a lot of time with me today just to show me the very basics. We worked on guard, and passing guard. That was it mostly but you cannot imagine the amount of relief it gave me. I was getting the basis for my future efforts in MMA, at my pace, and until I got it right. Not only did Terry demonstrate it, he talked me through why each part of each move was important while emphasizing the importance of just building on what you know.

After we finished, we sat and talked a bit and Terry shared with me that it really is about building yourself from the ground up. Take what you know and work on it, add to it, and build. He also reassured me that each individual at TBJJ has an important part to play so whenever I begin to think that I am just in the way, I need to adjust my attitude because that is just wrong thinking.

So, this post is dedicated to Chris, Jeremy, and Terry. Thanks guys for helping a guy who would have normally already found something else to do (like sit on the couch) see that it is definitely worth every trip to the TBJJ Gym. Words cannot describe how much I appreciate your efforts.

TBJJ is in the News with Christen Jackson of WCBI

TBJJ was honored to have Christen Jackson of WCBI Tupelo/Columbus Mississippi visit the gym on Tuesday June 30th. She did an interview with Doc and got some training from Chris. Jon Price and Jeremy Kilgore got some camera time also. Christen, Doc and Chris did a great job. Check it out in the link below.

http://titancast2.titantv.com/2c3203f5f85f45859f68df11094b301b/49842/share.aspx