Asda Athletes

I was hoping to post some photo’s from the school visit and presentation, unfortunately I still haven’t received any of the promised pictures so am unable to share them with you.

Well my plaster cast has been off for a couple of weeks now and I have started training again ready for my next competition. Obviously I would of preferred more time to get ready and Judo fit once again but onwards and upwards I shall make sure I will be in the best condition possible given the time restraints. So I am hoping to have a practice competition in Lithuania to prepare properly for the London British Open – EJU European Cup Senior event in May. As part of my preparation I will be going to Dartford next week for a training camp. This will be my first training camp since my broken ankle so it will be interesting to see how it holds out.

Well hopefully I will have some more positive news for you shortly, when I do I will repost.

We are well into 2013 now and it has been a strange start to the year. In January, the Wednesday before the British Championships, I slipped whilst out shopping and broke my ankle, I managed to strap the injury and still compete but had to go to hospital the following day and I have had a plaster cast on since then.

I mention this because today I have been invited to talk at West Hill Primary School, in Cannock. When I was introduced to the children deputy head teacher Mrs Henderson asked the children if they could guess what I did? Obviously they had seen the crutches placed behind me and they guessed I was a Paralympian, this made me smile.

The topic of the assembly was sport and healthy eating, I discussed the sport aspect and Debbie my Asda co-ordinator talked to the children about the benefits of healthy eating and Asda gifted £100 hamper of fruit for the children to enjoy.

I would like to thank the staff and pupils at West Hill for a most enjoyable morning and hopefully I can return later in the year to do a demonstration as we originally planned. I have been promised some photo’s of the assembly and once I receive them I will post them in my next blog.

Yesterday I fought in the National Championships at Ice Sheffield. My progress in my new fighting weight continues and I won a Bronze medal. It’s still not the colour I was aiming for but I can see things are coming together nicley. A silly mistake in the semi final, during in “Golden Score” (extra time) cost me the fight and my place in the final. None-the-less a good day at the office and plenty of positives to take away and some weaknesses highlighted to work on.

So things will go quiet now until the new year, this time gives me a massive opportunity to work hard and prepare for the next competition.

I said just last week I was getting close to winning my first medal in the 66kilo category, now I’ve started I’m sure plenty more will follow.

Well I have now competed in two senior events at my new weight of under 66kilo’s. So far I haven’t won a medal however given my progress and how light I am at the moment, it is only a matter of time before I do. Currently I am weighing in at a very light 63 kilo’s, this means I am giving away a lot of muscle weight and strength to the other competitors, most of whom have to lose weight in the run up to a competition. This isn’t a moan, just an observation.

I was informed recently that the European Judo Association have decided to alter the age categories for junior events, this means that I can now fight to qualify for the European championships next year for under 21 year olds. As a consequence I am now having to back track and enter some events I thought were finished with. So looking forward to October when I will be fighting in the National Championships in Sheffield and also the Scottish Open (transport permitting)in Motherwell. Well I said at the beginning I am confident it is only a matter of time before I have some medal news for you, so I will keep you up to date.

Just a quick video to watch that has been compiled from some of my latest competition fights. It starts slowly enough showing the referees decision, then some standing techniques followed by some ground work, then some footage of me “getting off” throws followed by some more standing techniques. I hope you find this entertaining.

The competitions included are The Teams event, Heart of England and The Welsh Open.