Odawara

Chad George’s “Road to Japan” blog day 11 – last day of training

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Chad "Savage" George with the Roots Gym gang at his last day of training in Japan.

Projekt Label fighter Chad “Savage” George (10-4) was recently invited to Japan to train with the camp of Japanese Shooto legend Rumina Sato. Being that Chad has a fight coming up on Nov. 14 against Greg Guzman at “Called Out MMA 2,” he saw this as the perfect opportunity to train with some of the top lighter weight fighters in the world, and as a special treat for us he is keeping a blog of his trip. Be sure to check back each day to see how things are going with Chad during this very unique experience.

Day 11

Today was the last day of training in which will conclude the amazing experience I have had training in Japan. Today we woke early to have a light breakfast and coffee leading into the most intense day of training thus far.

Today we had Lion Takeshi Shooto lightweight champion coming in with several of his students along with Mamura to join us in today’s sessions. I can honestly say I think this was the most world champions in one room possibly ever!

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Chad George’s “Road to Japan” blog day 10 – up the mountain

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Projekt Label fighter Chad “Savage” George (10-4) was recently invited to Japan to train with the camp of Japanese Shooto legend Rumina Sato. Being that Chad has a fight coming up on Nov. 14 against Greg Guzman at “Called Out MMA 2,” he saw this as the perfect opportunity to train with some of the top lighter weight fighters in the world, and as a special treat for us he is keeping a blog of his trip. Be sure to check back each day to see how things are going with Chad during this very unique experience.

Day 10

Today was real relax aside from the casual grappling I did this morning for about an hour with Nobu. We woke today, had coffee, and then opened Roots.

After the light training this morning Rumina picked Nobu and I up from Roots with his family for a beautiful ride up the mountain. Once we got to the top, we had some delicious Udon and then saw an amazing waterfall at the camp site for the legend of Kintaro followed by drinking from a strength fountain!

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Chad George’s “Road to Japan” blog day 9 – more hard training and Sake

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Chad George along with his training partners from Roots Gym in Japan run the stairs.

Projekt Label fighter Chad “Savage” George (10-4) was recently invited to Japan to train with the camp of Japanese Shooto legend Rumina Sato. Being that Chad has a fight coming up on Nov. 14 against Greg Guzman at “Called Out MMA 2,” he saw this as the perfect opportunity to train with some of the top lighter weight fighters in the world, and as a special treat for us he is keeping a blog of his trip. Be sure to check back each day to see how things are going with Chad during this very unique experience.

Day 9

Today we got to Roots gym about 8:30 to go for the Saturday run. I am still all banged up from yesterday’s sparring, oh joy. We stretched a bit and then hit the road. After about a 2k warm up jog we made it to the same stairs as last week.

Time for sprints. Five sets of hard push sprints with push ups at the top. The length of the sprint is about 200 meters each. After the last sprint we shadow boxed at the top to cool down.

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Chad George’s “Road to Japan” blog day 8 – hard training

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Projekt Label fighter Chad “Savage” George (10-4) was recently invited to Japan to train with the camp of Japanese Shooto legend Rumina Sato. Being that Chad has a fight coming up on Nov. 14 against Greg Guzman at “Called Out MMA 2,” he saw this as the perfect opportunity to train with some of the top lighter weight fighters in the world, and as a special treat for us he is keeping a blog of his trip. Be sure to check back each day to see how things are going with Chad during this very unique experience.

Day 8

As the trip grows closer to the end, the training picks up. Today we slept in a bit and then had a light breakfast before going to Roots gym. Once at the gym we had some coffee and then I geared up for my solo run!

Taiki stayed at the gym while I took off for a nice long distance run around the city of Odawara. I believe in all, it was about a 10k run!

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Chad George’s “Road to Japan” blog day 7 – Tokyo

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Projekt Label fighter Chad “Savage” George (10-4) was recently invited to Japan to train with the camp of Japanese Shooto legend Rumina Sato. Being that Chad has a fight coming up on Nov. 14 against Greg Guzman at “Called Out MMA 2,” he saw this as the perfect opportunity to train with some of the top lighter weight fighters in the world, and as a special treat for us he is keeping a blog of his trip. Be sure to check back each day to see how things are going with Chad during this very unique experience.

Day 7

Today we left Odawara about 10:30 a.m. and headed to Tokyo for the long day ahead of us. Our first stop was at a TV station (Samurai TV) where Rumina and Takanori Gomi both were promoting their upcoming fights for Vale Tudo Japan.

Once we finished the show it was time for lunch. We walked around this famous strip in Tokyo, which by the way was flooded with foreigners (the first I’ve seen since coming to Japan) until we found this Soba noodle place Rumina wanted to eat at. Was delicious.

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Chad George’s “Road to Japan” blog day 5 – DREAM

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Chad "Savage" George at the DREAM Featherweight Grand Prix Finals.

Projekt Label fighter Chad “Savage” George (10-4) was recently invited to Japan to train with the camp of Japanese Shooto legend Rumina Sato. Being that Chad has a fight coming up on Nov. 14 against Greg Guzman at “Called Out MMA 2,” he saw this as the perfect opportunity to train with some of the top lighter weight fighters in the world, and as a special treat for us he is keeping a blog of his trip. Be sure to check back each day to see how things are going with Chad during this very unique experience.

Day 5

Today we traveled to Yokohama to train with the Grand Slam Gym (BJ Kojima Shooto Bantamweight Champion) and to watch DREAM.

The day started out with us taking the train to Yokohama. Leaving Odawara wasn’t that bad or crowded. But once we got into the city, holy shit that train got packed. Like Osaka, Yokohama is a big fast-paced city with people cluttering the streets during the end of the work day.

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Chad George’s “Road to Japan” blog day 3 – Shooto in Osaka

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Projekt Label fighter Chad “Savage” George (10-4) was recently invited to Japan to train with the camp of Japanese Shooto legend Rumina Sato. Being that Chad has a fight coming up on Nov. 14 against Greg Guzman at “Called Out MMA 2,” he saw this as the perfect opportunity to train with some of the top lighter weight fighters in the world, and as a special treat for us he is keeping a blog of his trip. Be sure to check back each day to see how things are going with Chad during this very unique experience.

Day 3

Today we drove to Osaka for Shooto. Nothing like getting up at 4:30 a.m. for a seven hour drive.

We left the small town of Odawara and headed to the giant city of Osaka. During the drive we stopped off at some really cool rest stops that had really good food and some stuff to look around at and buy. I also got to see a glimpse of Mount Fiji!

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