As ever there is good news and bad news and I'll start with the bad news as it usually seems to be the most popular choice:
The team for the World Championships has been selected and to my huge disappointment, I'm not in it. Infact, two out of the four fencers of the previous Senior Team over the past two years have been deselected for this competition, which is a suprising decision for the Worlds before an Olympic Games, but one which I can't dwell on. And so, must focus on the good news...
My move back to Manchester has been a brilliant decision for my fencing and my wellbeing overall.Thoroughly enjoying training again has motivated me to get back into an effective routine and and to pursue all the support that's here in Manchester and Chesterfield. I am back to fencing at Stockport Sword Club in the week, and getting lessons from my coach at Wingerworth Fencing Club at weekends. I have returned to DNA Sports Performance in the Power Room for strength and conditioning (You should have a look at the aptly named Power Room )and I continue to be sponsored by Steria Ltd. and Brampton Manor of Chesterfield and supported by o2's athlete development scheme.
Importantly, all of these have contributed to my feeling positive about fencing, and I believe this has been the cause of my improvement in performance and ultimately, competitions. Over the past few weeks I competed at Bristol Open coming 2nd (improvement of twenty places from last year)and Essex Open coming 3rd (an improvement of more places than I care to count from before).
Now my main focus is to stick to all of the sports psychologist's cliches (which honestly do help) ...control the controllables...focus on performance... results will take care of themselves etc etc.and these will make sure I train hard enough, and right enough to make it back on to the travelling team, and be there, at the Olympics.
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