Anyhow, I’ve had a few questions recently about self defence for women, so I’ve put together a short video blog with some of my thoughts. Let me know if you agree / disagree!

The Combat Sports Clinic project is one I’m particularly excited about. People participating in any sport occasionally pick up injuries, but those involved in MMA often have trouble finding a professional to treat them who really understands their sport, and their desire to get back to training. All too often, we’ve heard the advice “well, if it hurts then stop doing it” or “just rest it until it gets better”. I always believed that there was a better way, and it was this that originally motivated me to learn about sports injuries, and eventually to train as an osteopath. With Combat Sports Clinic, I’ve formed a small group of colleagues who share the same enthusiasm for martial arts and combat sports. The objective is to provide an online resource that deals with the physical issues that fighters may face, and also a network of clinics throughout the country for individual hands on treatment. To contact us, visit the website!

You know how frustrating it is when you go and see someone about that injury you picked up in training? Ever had that experience where you try to explain how you did it, while the person looks at you disapprovingly and then tells you to take 3 months off?

“Combat sports clinic” is a network of therapists who all understand and love your sport as well as being qualified to deal with sports injuries of all kinds. So you won’t get blank looks when you tell us that you hurt your neck when someone sprawled on you, or you injured your shoulder resisting a kimura in competition.

We’ve got people in Liverpool, Manchester and London, with more coming soon. I’m keeping this to a small group of therapists (osteopaths, physios and sports therapists) who I know personally to be good, as well as having a personal involvement in combat sports.

See the facebook page for contact details and locations

http://www.facebook.com/CombatSportsClinic

Full website coming soon!

On Saturday night, I fought Roxanne Modafferi in London on Cagewarriors 40. For me, it was a big night for a whole bunch of reasons. Modafferi’s a very tough, experienced opponent, highly rated and rightly so. It was also the first time I’ve fought in the UK in over 5 years – the last time being Cagewarriors Night of Champions in November 2005.

My first professional fight was in London on Cagewarriors 1, way back in 2002. At the time, I never imagined that I’d find myself where I am now, having had the opportunity to compete all over the world against some of the top women in the sport. To be asked to headline the Cagewarriors 40 card was a huge honour for me, and in a way it felt like coming full-circle. It was also great to be fighting on the same card as Paul McVeigh who’s helped me a lot in training for several of my fights.

The whole night was amazing. The show, the atmosphere, the fight itself. For many of my friends and family, it was the first time they’d had the chance to watch me fight live. I felt under a lot of pressure before the fight, coming in as the underdog in front of a home crowd, but at the same time I was confident that I’d done all the work in the preparation, and I had a great team behind me.

I’ll let the fight video speak for itself. I just want to add a bunch of thank yous.

Thanks to Roxanne for a great, really competitive fight, and for coming all the way from Japan.

Thanks to my coaches, Paul Rimmer, Danny Withington, Pete Irving. My performance owes everything to their strategy, gameplanning, cornering, coaching, motivation and hard work.

Ollie Richardson at Fighterstrength for taking care of my strength and conditioning program.

Thanks to my team mates, all the guys at Next Generation who’ve helped me train for this one. Paddy, for doing a really good imitation of my opponent and kicking my ass in sparring for the last five weeks. Joe, for letting me beat him up in the warm up. Matt, for helping me drill stuff at all hours of the day and night. Gaz for choking me repeatedly in new and interesting ways, Lloyd for always being there to help out.

Thanks to my friends and family for all their help and support.

My sponsors – PhD nutrition, who have supported me for several years now. Their products help me train and compete at my best. Rival boxing and MMA gear.

Ian and Graham at Cagewarriors, for doing such a great job of putting on the show and looking after all the fighters.

2010 was a rollercoaster of a year. Lots happened, some good and some bad. I qualified as an osteopath, then got knocked out on Bellator, and missed out on a spot in their women’s tournament. I came home, thought about what went wrong, made some changes and as a result found a new home at Next Generation. Somewhere along the way, I rediscovered my love for MMA and started to really enjoy training again, and finished the year on a high with a win at Cagewarriors 39 in Ireland.

Along the way, there’s been a lot of great moments. I’ve seen Luis learn to read and enter his first judo competition. I started work as an osteopath. I watched Matt win his first MMA fights. I’ve seen many of my friends and team mates produce great performances, and I’ve had the privilege to coach and corner for a few of them.

I’m not sure that I believe the cliche that everything happens for a reason. But I do think that as humans we have a particular ability to find reason in the randomness and make good things happen from bad situations. I probably wouldn’t have chosen for 2010 to work out the way it did, but in many ways I think I’m in a stronger position now as a result.

Now I’m looking ahead to next year, and it feels as though everything has come together at the right time. I’m looking forward to getting some great fights next year, against some of the top names in the women’s division. My training is the best it has ever been, I’m surrounded by great people and a great family, I love my job and I have some exciting plans coming together. If life is about doing the best you can with the cards you’re dealt then right now, going into 2011, I have an awesome hand. There’s a lot of hard work to come – but it’s definitely all to play for.

The thing about fighting is that it really makes me appreciate the good stuff in life. After all the training, dieting and being tired and sore all the time, the little things that usually you take for granted start to seem so much better.

So this week has been pretty damn good.

Things I’ve been enjoying… eating toast with chocolate spread, drinking creme brule lattes, spending time with Matt, eating pizza, walking Luis to school in the snow, curling up on the sofa watching episodes of The Wire, sleeping during the day… and did I mention eating?

All the same, I still have some work to do. Vikki Watts, one of my training partners, is fighting Michelle Tyler down in London on Saturday night. I’m looking forward to that one!

It’s been an amazing weekend. I’m still coming down to earth. I’m going to keep it brief for now – more thoughts, photos and video may follow!

On Saturday night, I fought Sally Krumdiak from the US, who’s ranked number 7 at 125 lbs at Cagewarriors 39 in Cork. This was a big fight for me, and I had a lot riding on the outcome. It was also my first time fighting out of Next Generation.

To keep it brief – I won by 2nd round TKO.

Sally was a tough opponent, put up a really good fight in the first round and had me in an arm bar that had me worried. I have a few lumps on my head and a sore elbow to show for it. I didn’t get to speak to her much before or after the fight, but I’ve got lots of respect for her and wish her all the best for the future.

Paul Rimmer, Pete Irving and Danny Withington doing my corner – I couldn’t have a better team behind me. They did an amazing job. The preparation for this fight has been, without a doubt, the best of my career so far.

The show overall was without a doubt the best run European show that I’ve been to. From the weigh in onwards, everything ran like a dream. The Cagewarriors guys really looked after us well too. This is only the second show they’ve put on under the new management, and I’m excited to see what 2011 holds for the promotion.

Cagewarriors went out on a limb in putting a female fight on as the main event. It meant a lot to me to be given the opportunity to headline a show of this calibre – and I hope my performance justified their faith in me.

More thank yous..

Ollie Richardson at fighterstrength takes care of my strength and conditioning program. The work he’s been doing speaks for itself.

All my training partners. Especially the guys at Next Generation, Vikki Watts, Gaz Pilot, Lloyd Cooper, LJ Adams.

Bellator, for giving Cagewarriors permission for me to fight on their show.

My sponsors. PhD Nutrition, Rival Boxing and MMA, Fight Chix. I spoke to Todor from Rival Boxing after the fights, and he’s really excited about getting involved with MMA and the new products they have coming out next year. I’m looking forward to trying them out.

I can’t sleep. I’m thinking fight thoughts. I have to be up anyway in a couple of hours to drive to Leicester for my last conditioning session with Ollie before the event.

Exactly five years ago, I was also not sleeping. I was a week out from my fight at Cagewarriors, Night of Champions. That fight was one that I remember as a turning point in my career, and one that I’ll always be proud of.

Before that fight, the pressure really started to get to me. It was my first fight back since my son was born, and I was fighting a tough opponent who was tearing up the European grappling circuit and had just come off a KO win. I had a lot to prove.

I remember lying awake, trying to get my head round it all. I don’t remember everything I thought at the time, but eventually I wrote in my diary: “I didn’t get into this sport to retire undefeated with a perfect record. I got into it for the experience and the challenge. I wanted to know how good I can be. So I’m going to go out there and have the fight of my life, and as long as I do that I’m happy to leave the outcome in the hands of fate, the universe, or whichever deities happen to be watching.”

As it turns out, I won. That was the start of a whole new era of my career. I fought internationally, eventually putting together a five fight winning streak including matches in Bodog, EliteXC and Bellator. Then things got kinda rough. I’ve been through most of that already, so I won’t repeat the story here. Along the way, I learnt a huge amount, but it was obvious that if I was going to compete at a world class level there were some things that needed to change.

So here I am again, five years later. I’m fighting a top level opponent on Cagewarriors 39 in Cork in 8 days time. And I can’t sleep. A lot has changed since that last fight. I have a new relationship and a new career. My son who was six months old back then now tries to read my Fighters Only articles and asked me this morning if I can help him work on his armbar. I’ve found a home at Next Generation, and I really can’t say enough good things about how much they’ve helped me and moulded me into a much better fighter.

This is just the beginning, the start of another new era. It’s an important fight for me and the pressure is on to show what I can do. I’m confident that I’ve done the work in the gym and I’m as prepared as I can be, so I’m going to go out there and have the fight of my life. Whatever happens, happens.

I’m excited. November and December are looking like being an interesting time for female MMA in the UK and Ireland.

Obviously the biggest event for me is Cagewarriors 39 in Cork, Ireland on 27th November. Cagewarriors are putting on two big female fights on 27th November in Cork, Ireland. I’m fighting number 7 ranked Sally Krumdiak (more on that later), and Aisling Daly is fighting the always tough veteran Molly Helsel. Both are very competitive matches and have the potential to be great fights. This is the first time, as far as I’m aware, that this part of Europe has seen international female fights at this level and on a personal note it’s also my first time fighting this close to home in over five years.

There’s other events going on too. One of my training partners, Vikki Watts is fighting London Shootfighters’ Michelle Tyler on UCMMA on December 4th. It’s both girl’s pro debut, but both have many years experience of combat sports and are exciting prospects. I’m expecting fireworks. It’s also being filmed for an ITV documentary about female MMA.

Then at ECFF on 20th November in Norwich. Simona Soukupova (KO-MMA, London) is fighting the experienced Celine Haga. I’ve seen Simona fight, and she’s a very talented striker. Definitely one to watch for the future.

Having this many well matched female fights within a few weeks of each other shows how far female MMA has come in the UK over the past few years. It’s an exciting time to be involved in the sport.

Someone asked me a question this week about how I deal with pre-fight nerves. It’s something that’s individual to each fighter, and that comes with experience. Here’s some thoughts about the way I approach it and the tools that I’ve found useful in dealing with it.

Before some of my fights I worked with a good sports psychologist. Once, when we were talking about what I wanted to improve on, I mentioned that I wanted to be able to “deal with my pre-fight nerves”. He asked me some more questions, trying to get me to think about exactly what I meant by this. I’m paraphrasing here, but I think I’ve caught the gist of it.

“How do your nerves affect you in a fight?” and “when you think about your best past performances, how nervous were you?” he asked. When I thought about it, I realised that in general, being nervous before a fight hadn’t stopped me performing well. In fact, I tended to do better in high pressure situations.

“So, what’s the problem then?” he asked. I thought for a bit. “Uh, well, it’s kinda uncomfortable. I don’t like the feeling”. It sounded lame as I said it. “Well, how comfortable are you when you’re doing five rounds of hard sparring, or when you’re doing a conditioning circuit? It’s not about being comfortable, it’s about performing at your best. If you want to be comfortable, don’t be a fighter.” It was a valid point.

That’s the single most useful piece of advice I’ve had about dealing with nerves. A lot of my problem came not from the way I felt before a fight, but from the struggle against that. Realizing that it was ok to feel uncomfortable made it easier to deal with.

That’s not the end of the story though. For many people, and for all of us some of the time, nerves can interfere with performance. In fact, there’s a pretty complicated relationship between anxiety and performance, that’s worth looking into. (For example: see here)

Too much anxiety can stop us from doing our best work. The question is, how do we know how much is too much? If comfort isn’t a good guide, is there a better one? The optimum level of anxiety seems to vary depending on the task. In general, higher levels of anxiety seem to work better for things involving endurance and persistance, but less well when high levels of skill or mental ability are required (see here). How this balances out in MMA – a sport which requires strength and stamina but also a huge amount of technique, tactics and strategy – will be different for every individual fighter.

And even when we’ve worked out the perfect level of adrenaline, how do we get our body to cooperate?

A sports psychologist often uses a “performance profiling questionnaire” to identify an athlete’s level of anxiety (and various other factors) in different situations and at different points before and during competition. This allows them to identify the difference between when they are performing at their best and switched on, and when they’re either too anxious, or flat – not nervous enough. This can give a good idea of the ideal level for that particular athlete.

After that, there are various skills and strategies for the athlete to use to control his or her levels of anxiety and confidence. There are “psyching up” and “psyching down” strategies. (In general, psyching down is much easier than psyching up. Going into a fight flat or under-psyched can be a real problem.)

The specific strategies that I use aren’t any big secret – they’re standard sports psychology stuff: centering, positive self-talk, visualization, use of music and cue-words and so on (for example). But as with any other kind of technique, unless you practise them regularly, in  realistic situations, then they won’t be there for you when you need them. I wasn’t that taken with them at first, but once I’d developed the habit of using them I was surprised how much difference they actually made.

Experience definitely helps. I don’t get any less nervous for my fights now than I did when I  started out – as my skill level’s improved, so has the difficulty of the competition, and the importance of each fight. But at the same time, I know that regardless of how bad I feel beforehand, once I get in there my body and my training will take over. My confidence comes from trusting all the work I’ve done in the gym with my coaches and team mates.

In the words of Ali…

“The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”