Just a quick add on from my previous blog - I came 7th in the Nationals.
Although this was my worst result within the past five years of me entering the nationals, it was actually the best I'd fenced.
Despite getting a bi into the last 32 and winning 15-2 and 15-6 on the way to the quarter finals, I ended up getting knocked out by the overall winner, Mary Cohen, 15-11. I fought hard throughout the competition, and have no big regrets in risk taking during the fights.
I enjoyed it from beginning to end. And although I snapped at my boyfriend -a bit - the day after, my overall pleasure of performing well outbalanced my disappointment of getting knocked out in the quarterfinals.
So, you could say - result!
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Saturday, 10 December 2011
The angle of approach
This blog is a reflection on my approach to competitions and training. Right now I'm training hard, enjoying training and improving in training. They say that a competition is just a marker of how your training is going. If you relax and let your training come out, the result takes care of itself. Lance Armstrong said that his confidence came from approaching the start line knowing he'd had trained harder than everyone else there.
I've had a strange approach to competitions through my time in fencing. The first angle was when I first started competitions. I liked not knowing what round I was in, who I was about to fence or where I was ranked. I then enjoyed surprising myself when I was told where I'd come (or easily forgetting my result when I didn't like the answer). I just enjoyed beating the person in front of me. And it was with this light hearted approach that I climbed up the junior, then senior and finally world rankings. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't light hearted towards training and fighting, but the results and rankings were less important to me.
This is a fine attitude to have as you're making progress and improving all the time. It had been enjoyable exceeding expectations and the pressure was minimal. My motivation to continue to train was almost entirely intrinsic. But once reaching high up into the rankings the approach took a very different angle. Suddenly the results were everything to me. They were so much to me that I didn't dare take any risks, and I never let my training come out. As you'd expect my results stopped improving and instead, worsened. Training and competitions were fuelled by extrinsic motivation. And I slowly built up an almost phobia of competitions, international and domestic.
Then, last weekend, something interesting happened; I'd applied to a relatively local, relatively small open in Hereford and Worcester. But, very unprofessionally of me, I got the days mixed up and missed it. I would have almost expected a sense of relief that I didn't have to put myself through the harrowing experience that I find competitions, but instead I felt a definite sense of disappointment. Thus, perhaps my self image of someone terrified of competitions is incorrect. And instead, I hope I have managed to grasp a more relaxed but excited approach to competitions once more. More perceptive than I originally was, but more relaxed than my recent approach. Somewhere in between my two previous angles.
I have the national championships tomorrow. There would have been times throughout this year, that I'd have made myself ill with worry. But now, instead I have nerves of anticipation and excitement. And I feel confident in myself that I'll let my training come out and, more importantly, enjoy the challenge.
I've had a strange approach to competitions through my time in fencing. The first angle was when I first started competitions. I liked not knowing what round I was in, who I was about to fence or where I was ranked. I then enjoyed surprising myself when I was told where I'd come (or easily forgetting my result when I didn't like the answer). I just enjoyed beating the person in front of me. And it was with this light hearted approach that I climbed up the junior, then senior and finally world rankings. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't light hearted towards training and fighting, but the results and rankings were less important to me.
This is a fine attitude to have as you're making progress and improving all the time. It had been enjoyable exceeding expectations and the pressure was minimal. My motivation to continue to train was almost entirely intrinsic. But once reaching high up into the rankings the approach took a very different angle. Suddenly the results were everything to me. They were so much to me that I didn't dare take any risks, and I never let my training come out. As you'd expect my results stopped improving and instead, worsened. Training and competitions were fuelled by extrinsic motivation. And I slowly built up an almost phobia of competitions, international and domestic.
Then, last weekend, something interesting happened; I'd applied to a relatively local, relatively small open in Hereford and Worcester. But, very unprofessionally of me, I got the days mixed up and missed it. I would have almost expected a sense of relief that I didn't have to put myself through the harrowing experience that I find competitions, but instead I felt a definite sense of disappointment. Thus, perhaps my self image of someone terrified of competitions is incorrect. And instead, I hope I have managed to grasp a more relaxed but excited approach to competitions once more. More perceptive than I originally was, but more relaxed than my recent approach. Somewhere in between my two previous angles.
I have the national championships tomorrow. There would have been times throughout this year, that I'd have made myself ill with worry. But now, instead I have nerves of anticipation and excitement. And I feel confident in myself that I'll let my training come out and, more importantly, enjoy the challenge.
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Further Fencing Fun
I have been taking my plastic swords to unsuspecting victims in the name of o2 again this week. This time, instead of call centres and head offices, it was primary school children from Oldham that got the opportunity to test their swordsman skills and their musketeer career potential.
The primary school children who swapped football and basketball dribbling for fencing lunging yesterday, usually have 3StyleSports running their PE classes but yesterday had the opportunity to fence their classmates in the playground as part of Coppice Primary School’s preparation for the Olympics. 3 StyleSports (@3stylesports) is a youth project that is supported by Think Big and ran by Andy Williams who I met at a Think Big residential I attended a few months ago. He uses the financial and business support Think Big give, to increase sports participation amongst youngsters in the Oldham area, who are given little opportunities to go to after school clubs and other sports clubs because of their financial restrictions.
With the run up to the Olympics, Andy’s aim is to get children involved in lots of Olympic sports so, to fire up their anticipation of the games, I brought some fencing kit for them to try the alternative sport of fencing. One of the great things I saw from the fencing session was the lifting of normal sporting stereotypes. Because there aren’t strong gender associations attached to fencing, unlike dance and football (also covered by 3StyleSport,) all of the kids took it on with a fervour that Andy said he rarely sees from both girls and boys in the same session.
This picture shows some of the children who took part, along with their very own, home-made, paper-mache London 2012 Mascot.
The primary school children who swapped football and basketball dribbling for fencing lunging yesterday, usually have 3StyleSports running their PE classes but yesterday had the opportunity to fence their classmates in the playground as part of Coppice Primary School’s preparation for the Olympics. 3 StyleSports (@3stylesports) is a youth project that is supported by Think Big and ran by Andy Williams who I met at a Think Big residential I attended a few months ago. He uses the financial and business support Think Big give, to increase sports participation amongst youngsters in the Oldham area, who are given little opportunities to go to after school clubs and other sports clubs because of their financial restrictions.
With the run up to the Olympics, Andy’s aim is to get children involved in lots of Olympic sports so, to fire up their anticipation of the games, I brought some fencing kit for them to try the alternative sport of fencing. One of the great things I saw from the fencing session was the lifting of normal sporting stereotypes. Because there aren’t strong gender associations attached to fencing, unlike dance and football (also covered by 3StyleSport,) all of the kids took it on with a fervour that Andy said he rarely sees from both girls and boys in the same session.
This picture shows some of the children who took part, along with their very own, home-made, paper-mache London 2012 Mascot.
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Fencing in Call Centres
Last week saw a day which I approached with both tension and anticipation. As an athlete, I am used to controlling feelings of apprehension when a competition nears and I need to perform at my highest. All athletes have their own way of preparing for competitions, from training themselves into the ground to taking a relaxing holiday. I think I am somewhere in the middle. I like to feel like I’ve done the best training and then make sure I do something completely unrelated to fencing the day before. As an athlete, you spend as much time as possible keeping control of the controllable to gain confidence in your performance and ultimately, the outcome.
Last Friday, however, I had to deal with a new nervousness I had not yet felt. This came from a situation whereby I was so in control of the outcome that I completely lost confidence in my ability to perform. I am building this day into something quite significant, however, for many people it is something they do on a very regular basis: organising a day of fencing sessions - I did this at Bury Call Centre to raise money for charity. The week leading up to the event, I ‘encouraged’ people to sign up for sessions, but couldn’t shake the feeling that because I was in control of the event going well, it would go wrong. As it was, all the sessions filled up and were a great success. Over £200 was raised for the charities, enthusiastic feedback given and even a couple of emails asking for the nearest fencing club were received.
I thoroughly enjoyed the day, but I think it raised an interesting question – why spend all my time trying to gain control to perform at my best, when I panicked once all the control was in my hands? I think it’s important for anybody performing under pressure regularly, to be able to remain steady when under pressures out of their comfort zone (i.e. under different types of pressure). I think I need a bit of practice at this as I discovered the other day when I tried to reverse out of the (narrow!) drive in front of my family. One of my biggest learning points from the event was to embrace discomfort to build confidence.
Last Friday, however, I had to deal with a new nervousness I had not yet felt. This came from a situation whereby I was so in control of the outcome that I completely lost confidence in my ability to perform. I am building this day into something quite significant, however, for many people it is something they do on a very regular basis: organising a day of fencing sessions - I did this at Bury Call Centre to raise money for charity. The week leading up to the event, I ‘encouraged’ people to sign up for sessions, but couldn’t shake the feeling that because I was in control of the event going well, it would go wrong. As it was, all the sessions filled up and were a great success. Over £200 was raised for the charities, enthusiastic feedback given and even a couple of emails asking for the nearest fencing club were received.
I thoroughly enjoyed the day, but I think it raised an interesting question – why spend all my time trying to gain control to perform at my best, when I panicked once all the control was in my hands? I think it’s important for anybody performing under pressure regularly, to be able to remain steady when under pressures out of their comfort zone (i.e. under different types of pressure). I think I need a bit of practice at this as I discovered the other day when I tried to reverse out of the (narrow!) drive in front of my family. One of my biggest learning points from the event was to embrace discomfort to build confidence.
Sunday, 18 September 2011
Sports-Psychology-Cliches come to the rescue
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.
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.
Saturday, 10 September 2011
How o2 is helping me to pursue the best sport of them all.
Below is an article I wrote for an internal magazine at o2. It's a little bit about why Fencing is great and how my work placement with o2 has helped me stay motivated. I've edited it a bit for this blog to avoid too much repitition and it was also written specifically for o2 colleagues and so sings o2's praises, but everything I've written is genuine:
I started fencing at a small local club in Derbyshire when a friend asked if I would go with them. At the time I was competing in athletics and netball for my county and when I tried fencing, my first impressions were that it was a bit of an odd activity which, in my view, was hard pushed to call itself a “sport”. As I continued to go (partly for the social side and partly because I am competitive and there were people there I hadn’t yet beaten) I gradually realised that it is the most endearing sport of them all. The more you discover of fencing, the more fascinating it becomes. In running, and even netball, there is a limit to the creativity involved. Your aim is to be faster, more accurate, more powerful, but the creativity is restricted. In fencing, your power, strength and speed are important, but they can only get you so far. If someone can predict what you’re going to do, it doesn’t matter how fast your attack is, you’re doomed. For this reason the progression in fencing is infinite-a challenging feat for someone who likes to reach goals, but luckily I also like a challenge...
So this is my sport, and this is why I chose to pursue it as a full time occupation. When I moved to london in order to do this, I also applied for the o2 scheme to gain some extra work experience along with working towards London 2012. So far my fencing had gone from strength to strength and the transition from a 14 year old girl going to a small club of beginners to full-time athlete had been smoother than I thought possible. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to last as I didn’t enjoy living in London and although I was training hard, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to compete, which resulted in a poor season in the international individual events.
Although the team event was looking more positive for us with regards to going to the Olympics, this wasn’t to go smoothly either. Soon after gaining our highest ever world ranking following reaching the quarter finals in Rio, British Fencing went through some changes resulting in our national coach ending his time with us and a new Performance Manager being appointed. Due to the uncertainty of the team and my feelings towards living in London, I moved back up to Manchester to find steadier and more familiar ground.
This would have a been pretty tough if it hadn’t been for another aspect of my life which was becoming increasingly more positive and exciting, and here I am referring, of course, to my work placement with o2. This new opportunity was providing me with the perfect antidote towards feelings that I’d wasted my time and efforts training so hard for the past 4 years. I had been given the chance to learn and work for a stimulating business who wanted me, as an athlete, to become involved in their journey through HR. With o2’s flexibility, I was able to very easily transfer from the Slough Office to a Bury site and over the past few months, the stability I‘ve gained from working with the Policy Team has allowed me to build up a training regime here, in Manchester. I’m now training hard and positively again and started the domestic season well, coming 3rd at Essex Open at the weekend, despite driving down at 4am and feeling sick with nerves after “bouncing back” from my time in London. Any day now I will hear the team selection for the World Championships and as a squad, we are all working hard to qualify for the Olympics over this coming season.
I started fencing at a small local club in Derbyshire when a friend asked if I would go with them. At the time I was competing in athletics and netball for my county and when I tried fencing, my first impressions were that it was a bit of an odd activity which, in my view, was hard pushed to call itself a “sport”. As I continued to go (partly for the social side and partly because I am competitive and there were people there I hadn’t yet beaten) I gradually realised that it is the most endearing sport of them all. The more you discover of fencing, the more fascinating it becomes. In running, and even netball, there is a limit to the creativity involved. Your aim is to be faster, more accurate, more powerful, but the creativity is restricted. In fencing, your power, strength and speed are important, but they can only get you so far. If someone can predict what you’re going to do, it doesn’t matter how fast your attack is, you’re doomed. For this reason the progression in fencing is infinite-a challenging feat for someone who likes to reach goals, but luckily I also like a challenge...
So this is my sport, and this is why I chose to pursue it as a full time occupation. When I moved to london in order to do this, I also applied for the o2 scheme to gain some extra work experience along with working towards London 2012. So far my fencing had gone from strength to strength and the transition from a 14 year old girl going to a small club of beginners to full-time athlete had been smoother than I thought possible. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to last as I didn’t enjoy living in London and although I was training hard, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to compete, which resulted in a poor season in the international individual events.
Although the team event was looking more positive for us with regards to going to the Olympics, this wasn’t to go smoothly either. Soon after gaining our highest ever world ranking following reaching the quarter finals in Rio, British Fencing went through some changes resulting in our national coach ending his time with us and a new Performance Manager being appointed. Due to the uncertainty of the team and my feelings towards living in London, I moved back up to Manchester to find steadier and more familiar ground.
This would have a been pretty tough if it hadn’t been for another aspect of my life which was becoming increasingly more positive and exciting, and here I am referring, of course, to my work placement with o2. This new opportunity was providing me with the perfect antidote towards feelings that I’d wasted my time and efforts training so hard for the past 4 years. I had been given the chance to learn and work for a stimulating business who wanted me, as an athlete, to become involved in their journey through HR. With o2’s flexibility, I was able to very easily transfer from the Slough Office to a Bury site and over the past few months, the stability I‘ve gained from working with the Policy Team has allowed me to build up a training regime here, in Manchester. I’m now training hard and positively again and started the domestic season well, coming 3rd at Essex Open at the weekend, despite driving down at 4am and feeling sick with nerves after “bouncing back” from my time in London. Any day now I will hear the team selection for the World Championships and as a squad, we are all working hard to qualify for the Olympics over this coming season.
Monday, 18 July 2011
Brampton Manor
I am really pleased to say that I have started a new sponsorship with Brampton Manor, as an addition to the support I receive from Steria Ltd. Brampton Manor kindly allow me access to their facilities and so I will be visiting it frequently to use their squash courts for fencing lessons, their gym and the swimming pool (and probably the sauna and jacuzzi - for performance reasons only!). I am really pleased to become a member of Brampton Manor, not just because it is a central hub of the community, but also because Brampton Manor was the first business who supported me as part of the Going for Gold Scheme for school children in the area in 2005/06.
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