Charlie Haas Seminar

Dear lord, where do I start? Let's go chronologically. Last night's Tommy Chong show was great! I thought it was better than the Steve-O show. Charlie Haas and some of the guys went to Graham's to hang out after, but I wanted to get to bed and be prepared for the morning. I didn't suspect drinking and being out late would be the best way to do that. I already expected to be wanting to puke; I didn't need more ammo.

Charlie's first task for us was some cross training. He set up 6 stations for us and had us do each one for 50 seconds, and then we had 10 seconds to go to the next station. After one full rotation, we had a 2 minute break. We did this for 5 rounds. This was the longest 40 minutes of my life. I still don't quite feel 100% (my head was pounding all of 2 minutes in) but to my credit, I never gave up or threw up. I was very much on the verge of purging, but I was able to push through. Fred heard my monster belching and was like "what the fuck was that, are you gonna puke?" I said "Well, not after that, I feel way better!"

Then we sat down and talked psychology. He broke down the match into parts and laid it all out for us. This is the segment I was really looking forward to. I'm not yet overly familiar with how to tell a story in the ring. He had us split into groups of 2 and work matches in small pieces. I teamed with Rooster and worked face. Part one was the beginning of the match, and he wanted us to stop right at the point where the heel starts to build up the heat. We did this by having him run out the ring, me chase him, and as he came in he "accidentally" bumped into the ref to distract him, and he'd kick the middle rope as I was stepping over them. Charlie was a fan of that. While we waited on food to show up we had some Q&A going on.

We had lunch at that point. Bridgette and my parents showed up and we all indulged. Unfortunately for us trainees, we had to get right back into the ring afterwards. In the middle part, he wanted the heel to take over and show intensity. He wanted to end at a double down to set up for a finish. So, Rooster started beating me relentlessly. His punches are quite stiff; he was knocking my head pretty good. I fought back some, but he'd get the better of me. Then he picked me up for a body slam, I slipped out the back door, and hit him with a Russian leg sweep. That was our double down. Fred loved it; he had been commenting that none of us never use that move.

As a finish, in quick succession I hit him with a clothesline, a back elbow, and a flying shoulder tackle. Then, I yelled out "LAST CALL!!!" (After all, I am the Party Boy) and hit him with a cross body for the finish. I was surprised at how well Rooster took to it. He's farther along in his training than I thought.

Charlie took pics with us all and gave us autographed 8x10s. I'll get those posted up soon. It was a great experience and helped clear up a lot of misconceptions I had. I believe we'll be incorporating the cross training into our routine. That will build us up like nothing else ever could.

Training will not commence tomorrow because all of us could be declared clinically dead. We should be good to go for Tuesday.

Alright, so I was able to get into the ring and do a decent workout today. I haven't been feeling 100% lately, so between that and work I've either missed practice or attended but barely participated. I'm still plagued by headaches and a general uneasy feeling, but I kicked that shit to the curb and didn't hold back. With Charlie Haas coming in two days and whipping all our asses, I can't exactly continue to sit back and take it easy. At some point you gotta bite the bullet and just go for it.

I am very excited about this weekend. Tomorrow we're all attending a Tommy Chong stand up show. Charlie will be with us, and my parents are coming into town as well. Then Saturday morning, Charlie is basically going to take us outside and shoot us; at least, it'll feel that way. We don't know what he has planned, but I do know I will half-ass nothing and intake all the knowledge I can. This is not an opportunity I will get very often.

2500+ views!

As the title states, I have over 2500 views on this blog. I guess some of you are reading! So please comment more. Let me know what you want me to elaborate on and what I can leave out. Yes, updates have been sporadic. Allow me to explain with the short version: I've been stressed and depressed. Some practices I've missed for legit reasons; especially being stuck at work all day and night. With Bridgette's stress level affecting me deeply, I had no willpower to do much of anything. She's getting better, and so am I. I went to practice Tuesday, but didn't really participate. Today I decided I had no good reason not to, so I stepped into the ring again.

Today was not a hard day, so I was able to ease back in. Jastin taught us some new exercises he had picked up, including new ways to roll. I feel like they're much easier to do and to pop up from. He also had us do a couple of matches. I've already uploaded it, so feel free to enjoy:

"Party Boy" Keith Crushridge vs. Chris Wolfe