What a day!

My first title as junior player and I could not have chosen a better time to win. I fought some of the very best lads around in my category and Saturday proved to be my day. Everything seemed to slot into place and I felt I could win the championship.

It was far from easy because all the competitors in my category are very good, but no-one said it would be easy and I’m incredibly proud to have fought as well as I did against such good competition.

I’ve just returned from Bremen after competing in the Bremen Under 20’s competition. My recent fortune came to a crashing halt when I was drawn against one of the top ranking players in my first fight. The fight almost went the full distance but I was losing on the score board to an earlier penalty. I had no choice but to move forward and attack my opponent to try and create a lead – but with just 13 seconds remaining on the clock I was caught with a counter throw and the fight was lost. I now needed my opponent to win his next fight to pull me back into the competition, unfortunately he lost his next fight and that was the of my competition in Bremen for another year.

Needless to say I am very disappointed that I didn’t perform better, however the amount I have learnt from this competition and also the training camp afterwards will be a tremendous help in my progession. My dad always says you learn more from a defeat than you do from a victory, I know I have plenty to learn still, but I do look forward to winning the top spot in the future.

Last week I travelled to Germany to compete in the under 20’s Bremen Masters competition along with some of the best Juodoka’s in the world. I competed on Sunday (see earlier Blog) and then attended a training camp Monday, Tuesday and all day Wednesday. Wednesday night we made our way home and our plane landed at Stansted airport at 9:25pm.

We then travelled home by car and finally reached my front door at 2:35am Thursday morning. Thursday evening I was back at my club and discussing the competition and camp with my personal coach Bill Kelly. Bill was happy with my performance at the comp and after watching the video (Bill wasn’t able to attend the event in person because he was in Thuringer accompanying another team mate) there are plenty of learning and tactical areas for us to work on.

Tomorrow is Saturday and I need to be out of the house at 5:30 am to pick up a fellow team mate and then make our way to Dartford for a full days training session. the sessions at Dartford are normally long and hard but very good and with a bit of luck I should be back home by 9:00pm.

Then Sunday I’ve arranged to take my grandma to the pictures so I can have a rest and she can enjoy a day out. It’s not all work!! Last night I was given a diary of events for the foreseeable future and it looks like I will be travelling to France, Holland, Belgium and Ireland over the next 6weeks as well as training at home. No it’s not all work and even when it is we still find time to enjoy it.

!(img-mid)/media/BAhbB1sHOgZmIisyMDEyLzAzLzAxLzA4XzEwXzU0Xzc4X0pvc2h1YV9IaWxsLmpwZ1sIOgZwOgp0aHVtYkM6FlJhZGl1czo6T3JkU3RyaW5nIgk1NDB4/Joshua_Hill.jpg (Joshua Hill)!

I’ve just been given the proposed diary of events for the next 5 weeks or so. It looks really exciting and I am going to be very busy to say the least. Unfortunately due to prior commitments there are a couple of sessions I won’t be able to do but even taking those out of the equation, my calender is filling up really quickly. Between now and the end of May I will be travelling to France, Northern Ireland, Holland – twice and Belgium. This is on top of my normal sessions plus domestice training camps and of course my college work. So I should have plenty to share with you soon – time permitting!!