Author Archives: Ryan Plessl

Battle Field Fight League In Vancouver

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Recently I attended a local fight night called Battle Field Fight League in Vancouver, to support two of my friend fighting on the card. The whole night and experience was one of the best event I have been too here in Vancouver so in this article ill be walking you through the whole event and why hardcore fight fans, casuals, and even people who have never watched a fight before should all attend the next event!

 

The night started off with prelims, which is a great intro to fighting if you’ve never watched before. Prelims are essentially two up and coming fighters testing their techniques against each other. However, often the prelims are just as exciting as the actual event itself as both fighters have nothing to lose, only to gain. My favourite fight of the night was a kickboxing match between two prospects fighting for a amateurs title and boy did they leave it all out on the line. The energy in the arena was electric as these two went back and forth trading blows. When the match ended the whole crowd gave them a standing ovation and the main card hadn’t even started yet!

 

The main card started with my friend Alana Cook facing Maria Demers. These two women did not disappoint. Alana started off the first round strong with great takedowns to dominating Jiu jitsu sequences. However, Maria caught Alana in a tight submission attempt that put a tremendous amount of pressure on Alanas arm. At that point in time I think I was sweating more then the girls fighting were, but Alana stayed composed and escaped the arm bar. She finished the round on top of Maria raining down punches, winning the round. The second round started and Maria came out with a vengeance, catching Alana with a great punch. Alana wobbled on her feet for a second but when Maria came in to finish the fight Alana countered back with her own punch. However, Maria recovered faster and won the round convincingly with great counter striking techniques. This meant that whoever won this final round would mist likely win the fight. Both girls came out to win and Alana once again got hit hard, knocking her back against the cage. I have no shame in telling everyone I screamed at the top of my lungs when that happened, but Alana once again quickly recovered and got a fast takedown. If Alana was going to win this fight, this is exactly what she needed to do. She got to a full mount position and started to rain down more and more punches. She stayed in this position for the rest of the round, and Maria proved she is one of the toughest women alive surviving that round. Alana won the fight 2 rounds to 1 and both ladies inspired everyone in the crowd as they were without a doubt the most badass fighters of the night.

The next fight was my friend “The Juggernaut” Josh Kwiatkowski faced a tough fighter named Ryan Rohovich. The whole entire crowd was in support of Josh that night and he started off the first two rounds dominating Ryan. I was shocked along with everyone else that Ryan survived the onslaught that the Juggernaut put on him in the first two rounds, as he caught him with multiple punches and knocked him down multiple times. However, Josh took Ryan down in the third which led to Ryan submitting Josh from his back with just 30 seconds left to go. The whole crowd exploded with boo’s as Ryan proved why he is a great showman and climbed the cage to showboat. Even if you aren’t a fight fan you cant deny that the underdog getting a win with everyone going against him is  a intriguing story. As for Josh, I can personally confirm that he is going to come back even stronger, and has another fight lined up soon. Josh is one of the most exciting fighters in the entire sport so don’t miss your chance to see him compete on the next BFL card.

The final fight of the night sure was a compelling one. Battle Field champion and grizzled veteran of the sport Dejan Kajic put his title on the line against undefeated prospect Saeid Mirzaei. Most people in the crowd had no idea how this one would play out and the arena was electric when these two fighters made their epic walkouts to the cage. The fight started slow and calculated, which was expected from Dejan but not Saeid. Suddenly Saeid threw a big punch that missed and he cringed in agony. Suddenly he started to run around the cage with his arm dangling at his side, as the lion Dejan went in for the kill. Saeid had dislocated his shoulder on the punch and Dejan went in for the kill. The referee luckily stepped in to save Saeid and the match ended with another win for the champion. However, I don’t think this is the last time these two will square off in BFL so make sure you don’t miss the next time they do.

 

That was my experience at BFL! It was a great time filled with amazing fights, compelling stories, and multiple potential fights set up for the future. Don’t miss the next time BFL comes to Vancouver July 7th!

Five Movies That Made Me Who I Am

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Movies can help shape peoples life through storytelling, cinematography and emotions conveyed by actors, directors and producers to the audience. Throughout my lifetime I’ve always had a very strong love for movies and I allow myself to take lessons from them to apply to my everyday life. Today I will be hoping through my top five favourite movies of all time and sharing the lessons I have learned from them.

 

Ford vs Ferrari is a incredible movie based on a true story that tells of how Ford enters a car into the 24 hours at Le Mans to try and beat the reigning champions Ferrari. The best chance Ford has is to work with Carol Shelby and his driver Ken Miles. However, Ken Miles is a non conventional personality type, sometimes hard to get along with, and not the type of man Ford is looking for. However, even knowing this, Ken never once changed who he was throughout the whole entire film. He stuck up for himself countless times mostly because he believed in himself and knew he could get the job done. At the end of the movie Ken controversially slows down to let his teammates catch up so they can all cross the line together. However he was tricked and the other teammates won the race. Even after this Ken stuck to who he was though, and still had the confidence that he was the best racing driver in the world. This movie taught me to believe in myself. Even though sometimes people in life will put you down or tell you that you’re wrong you have to have the confidence that you can accomplish anything you want to in life.

Fractured is a movie about a dad who tragically lost his first wife and daughter in a car accident due to drunk driving. He has since remarried and has another daughter. One day on their way home from a family dinner the family stops at a gas station where the daughter gets badly hurt. They rush to the hospital and everything seems to be okay. When the dad wakes up from a nap his wife and child are nowhere to be found though and the hospital says they have no record of them. The dad believes that the hospital has kidnapped his family. The dad goes on a rampage throughout the entire hospital in an attempt to uncover illegal activities. This movie is filled with twists and turns that wont be spoiled in this article but it showed me that family is the most important thing in the world and there is no length to what someone will do for their family.

 

Shutter island is a movie about a detective who was sent to an island to find a missing patient from a mental hospital. Along the way we learn more and more about mental health issues as most of the patients are on the island after suffering a life altering event or trauma. As the detective grows closer and close to finding the missing patient, he begins to realize the real reason hes on the island. This is another movie with plenty of plot twists that will not be spoiled, but the message is clear in this movie. Treat others equally. You never know what someone has gone through or why they are the weary they are. Having prejudice is not okay and you should form an opinion for every person you meet individually, don’t generalize because one day, you could be in the same situation.

Creed is a continuation of the very famous Rocky  series where Apollo Creeds son, Adonis is trying to become a famous boxer and enlists the famous Rocky Balboa to do so. Along the way he faces some major challenges because of his name though as people find out that he is a illegitimate son of his dad, and a product of an affair. Adonis has to prove he is worthy of the Creed name when he faces the #1 pound for pound boxer in the entire world. He goes out to the ring with only one mission, to prove hes not a mistake, and knocks down the pound for pound #1. He loses the fight but at the end of the match the fans chant his name, Creed. This movie taught me that you decide your own destiny. It doesn’t matter where you start in life, its up to you to make your own fate.

 

The final movie on this list is without a doubt the best one. Cars follows the story of Lightning McQueen a young racing driver who is arrogant, cocky, and doesn’t care about anyone but himself. The final race of the season ends in a three way tie that needs to be decided in L.A. However, on the way there lightning McQueen gets lost and ruins a small town while driving through it. This small town is called radiator springs and while there he is taught how to be humble, and makes lots of friends that like him for who he is, not because hes a famous race car. At the end of the movie one of his competitors crashes out and even though hes about to win lightning stops and pushes his competitor across the line. This movie taught me that it is not all about winning. Being humble, having friends, and helping others is much more important in life, and all three of those themes can be seen throughout the course of this movie.

Movies have the power to influence and change perspective on peoples life. That’s what these 5 movies have done for me.

My Ghost

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My whole entire life I never believed in ghosts. I’m a very realistic person. But a couple months ago I had quite a few situations that could not be explained by any realistic or logical reason.

 

It  started in February, 2:00am in the morning. I had just got done hanging out with a friend at my house and after he left I sat downstairs by myself for ten minutes. Now pay attenuation because this time line is important. 5 minutes after my friend left my cat ran downstairs and started to aggressively rub against me and howl, like she was crying. 5 minutes after my cat had run downstairs I heard my parents scream as loud as they could, then call out my name multiple times over. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could to see what was wrong and they told me they had heard a loud crash somewhere upstairs. Instantly my ind raced as to what it could be. Did they hear my friend leave? No, he had left over ten minutes ago. Was it my cat? No she had been downstairs for a solid 5 minutes. I told my parents I would be back, put on my big boy pants and went to investigate. The first place I checked was the upstairs bathroom. It was pitch black so I turned on the light to look around. Its not a massive bathroom, but it has a shower, toilet, and sink. The usual things. There were three towels hanging up on the shower curtain rod but you could see clearly that their was no one in the shower so I left the towels alone. I exited, turned off the light and moved across the hall into my moms office. Once again I turned the lights on and saw nothing. Suddenly I heard a loud thud come from the bathroom I had just checked. I like to believe I’m a brave person but that noise scared the crap out of me. I could hear both my parents instantly ask what the noise was and I slowly moved to the bathroom to once again investigate. When I flicked on the lights, the bathroom looked the exact same, except for one minor detail. All three towels had fallen down at the same time. Now I know what you’re thinking, that’s not to scary, and this can indeed be explained! My mind goes to the window being open that night, and maybe the wind knocked them down. But that doesn’t help explain where that first loud crash came from, and my family still has no idea what it was to this day.

The second part of this story happened just a month later. It was night time, around 8:00pm and I was home alone. My parents had been in Hawaii for a couple of days now and weren’t supposed to come back for another three. I was once again upstairs, this time getting ready for a shower in that same bathroom as the first story. I had music playing of course, because who doesn’t shower listening to music. Suddenly I heard a loud crash, similar to the one my parents had described  a month earlier. This time I knew where it came from though. I turned and looked at the office door, no question in my mind something had fallen in there. The door had been shut though when my mom went away, as no one had any reason to be in their. The second I looked and turned at the door though I saw something so terrifying I was glad I had just gone pee. The door knob physically turned and the door slowly creaked open. Now this part of the story is a bit embarrassing but in my underwear I quickly sprinted downstairs and set my house alarm. My poor neighbours probably thought I was scared of my own bathroom. I set the house alarm though so that if their was someone in my house they wouldn’t be able to escape. The alarm is triggered from the outside and inside so if anyone was going to leave I would know. I then went back upstairs and slowly crept towards the office door. I pushed it the rest of the way open and turned on the lights. Their was on one in there. For the next twenty minutes after that I searched every corner of my house. You probably guessed their was on one in the house right? But how do you explain a turning door handle? Wind cant turn a door handle. Animals could not physically turn a door handle. Only two things can turn a door handle. A human, or a ghost. You already know which one I think it is.

So do you believe in ghosts? If you say no I strongly would have agreed with you a couple months ago. But at this moment in time almost nothing could convince me that I don’t have a ghost somewhere in my house.

My Time Running Evolution 107.9

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Ever since I was little I had a very unique love for music and radio. I would always be listening to music no matter what I was doing, and when I grew up and started to learn how to drive my love for music and radio grew even stronger. No matter what time it was, or what my mood was, I would always play music in my car, blasting the volume, and even started to talk over intros and extras to songs, pretending I was already a radio personality. That’s why when it was time for me to apply for school, the radio and broadcasting program at BCIT caught my eye almost instantly. I signed up, got accepted, and of course completed the courses this year which led me to practicum. When I saw that I had a personality on air job I was delighted but also nervous for the week to come. Here is my week in review running evolution 107.9.

Sunday night came around and I had prepared my material. However, the whole weekend I had been suffering from a terrible upper respiratory infection. At times I couldn’t go two seconds without terrible coughing and as much as I looked forward to being on air, I knew waiting a day to recover was for the best. Disappointed, I spent my day Monday lying in bed, listening to my classmates do a great job running the station.

 

Tuesday morning I felt better but still had a bit of a raspy voice. Being on radio itself wasn’t too scary for me, but the fact I was going to be doing it with a tiny cold was a little worrying. I didn’t want to slip up and have a lingering cough on air, as I knew a lot of close friends, family members, and professors would be listening to me. However, I remembered the teachings I had learned so far throughout the term, and remembered that freeing my naturals voice was one of the most important parts. I tried to be as relaxed as possible and when it was my time to go on air I cracked the microphone, sat back in the chair to help myself relax, and just talked as if I was talking to my best friend. It was one of the more enjoyable moments of my life, and I cherished those first three hours. I knew Tuesday would be my day to make mistakes, and boy did I make mistakes, but I figured this was natural on my path to becoming a potential radio personality in my future.

Wednesday came around and I decided I was going to act the part today. I cant confirm or deny looking up  radio hosts on Pinterest and taking outfit inspiration from them. I arrived two hours early to prepare for the day, and my voice was feeling much better, leading me to believe it would be smoother sailing. Once I got into the station and sat down in the chair I was once again filled with happiness and I feel as though that’s was conveyed every time I cracked the microphone. I wanted to be there, and I wanted the audience to know that every time I talked. In between talking parts, when I would sit back in the chair, music in the studio up to the max, I thought to myself, “yeah, I could do this the rest of my life.”

 

Thursday was for sure the hardest day of this process. After feeling very confident on Wednesday I thought Thursday would be more of the same, but I had what one would call an off day. I felt as though their were multiple stumbles in my script and talking, I made some mistakes when clicking music, and even my stories felt a little dull. I couldn’t seem to understand why, as I was just as excited and motivated as Wednesday but just couldn’t put it all together. I decided for Friday I would need some help and advice if I wanted to close on a strong note.

Friday morning I showed up three hours early for my shift, and went to go see Todd Hancock, my mentor for the week and practicum. I asked him for advice as he had been in the business for a long time and I really respected his opinion. What he shared with me was a half an hour of amazing knowledge and a dive on how I could do better on air. He talked to me about how to hook a audience, how to engage for every quarter of the hour, and so much more. I took this advice to my script and when I took to the air on Friday I had never felt better. Friday was my favourite day of the week, as I had fun trying to tease the audience at stories coming up, I was dancing to the music in between talking points, and felt constant serotonin every time I cracked the microphone. When I was done at the end of the day, I felt sad, however, I knew that this week was a great chance for me to practice what I love to do.

 

It was nowhere near a perfect week, and I still have lots to improve on. I want to be in the radio industry in my future and I know to do that I have to take the advice of my instructors very seriously and account for everything they say. However, this week felt like a good start and I cannot wait till I get to do it again. Ill close this article with how I closed most of my on air shifts. “This has been Ryan Plessl and you’re listening to Evolution 107.9!”

My Mornings As A Fighter

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“Most guys run from fights. Because they don’t want the answer to the inevitable question. Am I one of the weak? Or am I one of the strong? Where do I line up in the pecking order?”.”- Alvey Kulina

Fighting is one of the toughest sports in the world. When you’re winning matches in front of plenty of fans it seems like all sunshine and rainbows. But not many people see the countless hours and hard work, the pain that goes into being a fighter. In this article we take a deep dive into my mornings as a fighter.

 

A 5:00am alarm call rings through my room and enters my entire body as if shaking me awake. I open my stiff eyelids and stare at my ceiling, questioning my entire existence. Every single morning without fail the doubts creep into my mind. “Do you want to do this? wouldn’t staying in bed be so much easier? are you ready to face the cold outside world?” These thoughts keep me in bed an extra 30 seconds upon waking up. However, I think back to my goals I want to achieve in fighting. Being a world champion, being a 5X North American Grappling Association champion, and winning the olympics of grappling ADCC. I quickly rise out of my bed and start to get ready. At this time of morning there is no need to shower or time to do my hair. I quickly brush my teeth and strategically throw on three layers of tops, a t shirt, a hoodie, and a winter jacket. I then throw on some track pants that will remain on throughout the whole entire training session. It is way too cold to wear my usual fight shorts at this time. I exit my house and the cold air slaps me in the face. The shivers start instantly and I rush to the warmth of my car. Sadly upon entry I realize my car is not much warmer. I start my car up, and start my 5 minute drive to the gym. The roads are basically empty which is nice, and I blast my music to get me in the right headspace. Fighting is a hard sport every single training session, and if you aren’t ready to go serious injury could await you. I arrive at the gym around 5:30 am and sit in my car for a couple minutes. Training starts at 6:00am and I’m in no rush to sit in a cold gym.

At around 5:40am I head into the gym and crank the heater up to its maximum potential. The gym is in a warehouse type building so the  mats are hard as rock as they are yet to heat up from being frozen over night. One by one my training partners enter, usually around 5 people. All 5 have their own reasons for being there but most are consistent with mine; we want to be the best. My first layer is removed and now I’m in just a hoodie and track pants. Mornings usually consist of 5 minutes of sparring with a 1 minute break for an hour. I start my first round, and my body starts to heat up. The first round at 6:00am is always the worst round you will ever have. Your muscles ache, you have no blood flow in your body, and your mind is still waking up to the movements. After this round though things start to get better. I begin the  second round and the hoodie comes off. I’m more into the movements now and my body feels more ready. In fighting your mind actually doesn’t do most of the work. Once you reach a certain point your body is programmed with reactions, its just muscle memory. That’s why once your body is warmed up you start to preform. The third starts and I’m a lot more into the movements, my body is moving with lots of fluidity and motion. I’m picturing the iconic Bruce Lee “be water my friend.” My mind also goes to my goals and I envision myself accomplishing them. In my head I’m telling myself I’m a world champion, as I slip out of submission attacks and come back with my own. The rest of the rounds I am in my element, and I attack with relentless pressure. I lose some battles but that’s part of the journey. I lose a round and come back stronger then ever, learning from my mistakes. The hour ends and its now 7am. I am exhausted and covered in sweat. The mats are no longer solid, they are soft and squishy as they have been heated up just by the pure temperature of people in the room. I lie there with my teammates staring up at the ceiling. This is why we do it I think to myself. Nothing replicates the feeling of training hard, being part of a community, and winning.

Its my job to close up the gym so once the mats are soaked in mop water and the fans are turned on to help dry I turn off the lights and exit the building, still in my workout gear. There is no need for a hoodie anymore as I am warm from body heat. The sun has started to rise and I hop. Into my car, plug in my phone and listen to some music, which is usually “California Dreamin’.” I arrive home and instantly hit the shower. The warm water washes off all the sweat and also comforts and sores or injuries I have sustained that training session. I hop out of the shower and make myself a protein shake, sitting down at my kitchen counter to drink it. I think to myself about how much I love fighting. I know the next day I’m going to have the exact same morning thoughts as before;  “Do you want to do this? wouldn’t staying in bed be so much easier? are you ready to face the cold outside world?” I don’t care. I love this sport and ill continue to do it every single day for the rest of my life. That’s my morning as a fighter.