It’s been a while since returning from Poland and as explained before I went, I was using this event to gain experience from both the competition and the training camp afterwards. My competition did not go as well as I would have liked or expected. I lost my first fight and was out of the competition. My first fight was against one of the top seeds in the competition.

The seeding system works by gaining points from previous wins and then at any competition afterwards the top seeds are put against the low seeds in the early rounds.

Because this is my first year in the juniors I do not currently have a seeding place so consequently my first fights are always against one of the favourites to win the comp. This will change as I get the experience I need and desire.

In this instance I was drawn against the French number 1 player in my first fight and although the fight nearly went the full distance I did not fight as good as I know I can. I took an early knock to the mouth and caused a quite nasty injury, this threw me off my guard a little but such injuries are common.

None-the-less I had a really hard training camp afterwards and I know I have come away with a lot of experience and am a better player as a result. My next competiton to look forward to is a domestic competition in Kendal – The lakeland competiton.

I will post a report when I return.

I returned from holiday last Monday and had a week to get ready for the Lakeland competition. I travelled with my family up to Kendal ready to take on all comers, the Lakeland is notoriously a tough competition. On the day this year, I had four fights to win Gold. I now have to get ready for a weeks training camp at dartford. My fellow 55kg player Brandon Dodge is going to the European championships and I would like to wish him the best of luck along with the remaining squad, especially Freya Dechasterlaid who also trains at Wolverhampton judo club.

I’m currently in Dartford training with the junior squad who have been selected to compete at the European championships. Every time I have a training camp I think it can’t get any harder and then the next camp always seems to step it up a bit. Once again this camp is the hardest I have been to yet. Having said that it has also been most enjoyable, strange but the harder the training the more I seem to like it, although it doesn’t always feel like that at the time. I’ll be back home soon just in time for the Heart of England competition at the National Indoor Arena this coming weekend.