travel and training
I have a lot of respect for the people who want to go to a gym and train there. Any time I think I have dedication to the sport, these guys remind me that they have more of it. I find that I actually train the most when I'm in Vancouver or Hong Kong. There, I have my comforts. I sleep well in a mattress that I have chosen, eating the food I am accustomed to, keeping the hours that I want. When I have lived at the gym, such as in Ko Samui or Curitiba, I have done a lot better training. It's right there, after all, no excuses. But if you make me travel some distance to do it, I allow myself to get lazy.
And training away from a home gym is always a bit uncomfortable. It is always slightly inconvenient. I'm out of clean gis or gym clothes. I don't have all my protein and carb supplements. It's hot or humid, or I don't like the mats they have, or I hate using the bathroom there. Bitch, bitch, bitch.
It's not that I don't want to train hard, because I do. I have just gotten used to my safe, climate-controlled, first-world comforts. I'm writing this on my netbook in the Star Alliance premier lounge while others sleep on their backpacks in the terminal.
Actually, as poker players go, I'm pretty darn low-maintenance. It's just that as martial artists go, not so much. I may be transitioning from the former to the latter, but it's a process.
I like chatting with the other people who have traveled to the same gym as I have. One guy I met at Check Mat came from Germany. He's actually living in the favela "because it's cheap". Another guy, from Sweden, stayed at an infamously bad hostel in Ipanema for two weeks to save money. And I'm pretty damn sure not everyone is washing their gi after every training session the way I am. They are living in rough conditions, eating rice and beans and cutting every corner. I am upset when my twice-used Gatorade bottle has gotten sticky.
And training away from a home gym is always a bit uncomfortable. It is always slightly inconvenient. I'm out of clean gis or gym clothes. I don't have all my protein and carb supplements. It's hot or humid, or I don't like the mats they have, or I hate using the bathroom there. Bitch, bitch, bitch.
It's not that I don't want to train hard, because I do. I have just gotten used to my safe, climate-controlled, first-world comforts. I'm writing this on my netbook in the Star Alliance premier lounge while others sleep on their backpacks in the terminal.
Actually, as poker players go, I'm pretty darn low-maintenance. It's just that as martial artists go, not so much. I may be transitioning from the former to the latter, but it's a process.
I like chatting with the other people who have traveled to the same gym as I have. One guy I met at Check Mat came from Germany. He's actually living in the favela "because it's cheap". Another guy, from Sweden, stayed at an infamously bad hostel in Ipanema for two weeks to save money. And I'm pretty damn sure not everyone is washing their gi after every training session the way I am. They are living in rough conditions, eating rice and beans and cutting every corner. I am upset when my twice-used Gatorade bottle has gotten sticky.