Uncategorized – Page 6 – gypsy girl in gi

Dream achieved – time to chase the next one.

Working on a top rating breakfast radio show in your hometown – it doesn’t get much better than that. Until it does – you’re moved to a top rating drive radio show in your hometown.

Hello sleep ins! Hello life!

That’s the bliss I have found myself experiencing this year, after three incredible years reading the news for the Matt and Jo Show on the Fox – and being a ‘Best News Presenter’ finalist at the 2012 ACRAs.

I’ve worked hard, I’ve moved states for job opportunities, I have set alarms for 2:32am (yes, newsreaders wake up even earlier than breakfast announcers).

I’ve loved every minute of my radio journey – from the clunky graveyard shifts at SYN, to walking to work at 2LM and ZZZ in Lismore with a torch to make sure I didn’t step on cane toads, to the bright lights of Bris (go Roar) Vegas and Nova – to (Melbourne versus) Sydney, and back home to Melbourne.

After I graduated Swinburne’s Commercial Radio course at age 20 and scored my first full time job, I told myself “cap city by 25.”

My welcome home party was also my 25^th birthday bash.

It’s a really weird feeling when you realise you’re working your ultimate dream job, the job you secretly think you may never get to do, but if you come close that’ll be pretty awesome.

And then you realise as awesome as it is, it’s also leaving you craving the next dream.

So I’m taking off in a few months time to chase it, so proud and grateful for everything I have achieved, and all the amazing friends I have made.

I’m nervous and excited – feeling those same emotions I felt when I sat behind a radio microphone for the first time.

Working out my Game Plan.

I am yet to enter my first Gi comp. I should, I know – but a combination of things have stopped me to date.

– I hadn’t been training much in Gi, working more No Gi instead for upcoming comps.

– I haven’t felt as ‘in control’ in Gi – all these grips that render me useless and find me tapping from chokes I never saw or felt coming!

– I don’t have a game plan.

The last one I’m only just getting my head around. At the last Gi round robin (where I spectated and thought later, ‘I should have entered’) I overheard a girl talking to her teammates about how their game plans were coming together nicely and really working for them, great implementation of their game plans etc.

What on earth is this game plan and how do I get one?!

I really didn’t know where to start.

I’m thinking about entering the Synergy Pro or a local comp coming up at Melbourne Uni – they’re not far away, and I haven’t been training super consistently, but I want to do one .. just to throw myself into another comp asap.

So I mentioned it on Twitter, and got tweeting @JiuJitsuJournal who has written this great post – exactly what I need to begin.

New attitude is go.. kinda.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself” – I get told that a lot.

Also not to give up, see it as winning or learning.. not losing, everyone’s journey is different, go at your own pace, keep it playful.

So from now on, that is what I’m going to do. Doing already actually, though starting tonight by joining a comp rounds sesh with blue belts may have been a bit ambitious!

I cried a bit (what is WITH that?), got hurt a bit, frustrated, made the usual scrambly and silly white belt mistakes.

But I’m actively going in to every class from now on with an overall personal goal (eg. keep your balance tonight, be faster, more aggressive or keep those damn elbows in!) that I hope will see me keep my cool more, and lose it less.

Head on the outside for this drill!Photo via Jess Fraser — Head on the outside for this drill!
Photo via Jess Fraser

** By the way yup I’m a newbie blogger, still setting up my page, so apologies for the work in progress.

I’m also keen to add other BJJ blogs to my reader, so please recommend. =)