En France

To complete my winter preparation for next season's World Cups I recently ventured to France for the French ranking event, St Jean de la Ruelle.  Just like Amsterdam I travelled completely on my own, but unlike then I also stayed completely on my own, as none of my other teammates or club mates were competing in my event.  I have to say though, I found it quite rewarding and exhilarating, travelling around Europe on my own to fencing competitions.  It was as if I was on my own Odysseian adventure, although thankfully it did not take me 10 years to reach home.  

As for the competition itself I was delighted to discover Glenn Sancroft and his new fiancee Jennifer McMillan, from Scotland were there, whose French language skills were slightly better than my Del-boy level abilities..'bonnet de douche, Rodney, bonnet de douche'.  Seriously though, I did perfect one sentence, "pardon,  Je ne parle français".  While Chrystall Nicoll and Jo Hutchison arrived later in time to fence in the women's event.  

The French events have a slightly strange format.  The top 28 on the French rankings (including any fencers in the top 50 of the world rankings) are separated from everyone else and fence in four poules of seven.  The rest (group B) fence their poules and then the results are amalgamated, with all of group A seeded above B (i.e. in places 1-28) and then the direct elimination begins.  I won 6/6 poule fights, which achieved my first target and was seeded 2nd out of 104, or rather 30/132 after the amalgamation.  As a result of this system it means that it is extremely difficult to break into the top 16 as the top seeds of B, will fence those of A who have done best in the last 32.  In fact one could argue that it is slightly easier to lose a poule fight and thus end up with a more middling draw in the last 32, of course though, it is harder to reach the last 32.  In any case, I fenced Haberer, an experienced French international, who unfortunately had too much for me on the day.  

However, I believe that the competition was a success.  I had achieved my two primary targets of winning all my poule fights and reaching the 32, and although 26th place does not sound all that good, I felt I had done well.  Before it was time to get the Eurostar back home I was able to watch Chrystall and Jo in the finals of the women's event, who came 2nd and 3rd respectively, which was good to see.  Most importantly the competition was good exposure for me to European fencing and is helping push me towards the big competition next summer.  Less than 7 months to go now, about 7 weeks until qualification resumes and let's just say its certainly very exciting....

Amsterdam

Last weekend I competed in the Amsterdam FIE Satellite Event.  This tournament was held on the same weekend as the Welsh Open, one of the largest UK domestic competitions, but for me, the choice to compete in Amsterdam as opposed to Wales was an easy one.  As I have mentioned in previous posts I have planned to compete in a few European events this side of Christmas in preparation for the second part of Olympic Qualifying.  This tournament therefore offered excellent practice of competing: in an unfamiliar environment, in a foreign country, against different styles of fencer, against (in general) a higher standard of opposition, and under the pressure of competing for World Cup points.  

As opposed to the ultimately somewhat lengthy trip I undertook to Belgium for the previous event three weeks ago, I decided to fly out late Saturday afternoon and return Sunday night so as to spend as little time away as possible.  To speed up my journey home in order to get as much sleep as possible before work on Monday morning I elected to use business parking at Heathrow T5.  Definitely the best parking experience I have ever had.  I had my own 'pod' to the terminal, and the entire transit was less than 5 minutes, with the service leaving upon demand.  I took a photo of the pod, here: 

 

And here is the link - very 21st Century. 
http://londonist.com/2011/09/heathrow-rolls-out-driverless-pods.php

The event itself had 74 entrants, meaning that the format was reduced to one round of poules, as a World Cup competition.  The field included fencers from Hungary, Italy, Poland, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Chinese Taipei, USA, Canada, Turkey, Spain, Israel, Austria, Switzerland, and several others.  In the poules I won all 6 fights, despite not being ranked among the top seeds, and I closed my fights out quite comfortably, feeling in complete control.  This resulted in me being ranked 4th after the poules, and so followed a five and a half hour wait until I would fence again! The draw was due to pit me against teammate Tom Mottershead in the last 32, however he lost to the Polish fencer, Cieszkowski in the round of 64.  I was able to convincingly beat Cieszkowski in the 32 and also an Italian in the last 16.  In the round of 8 I came up against Jo Polossifakis, a Canadian fencer, who I had beaten in the poule and who only last week had come 3rd at the Pan-American Games.  The match was tight, with both of us on top for periods in the first half but in the end I was edged out 15-14.  

Overall I was happy with the result. It was definitely a step in the right direction, post the Gent debacle, and I had fenced very well all day, especially in the poule.  I was able to maintain concentration over a long period of time and fenced as well as I had competitively in a long time.  The day was also good for Keith Cook.  At the same time as my event was a Men's Foil Satellite event, which Keith won (picture below), and I have to say it made a nice change to be at the event with the Men's Foil team, most of whom are centrally funded.  The competition also was a good experience for me as I was able to test out my new diet.  I have recently started seeing a nutritionist to try and squeeze that extra one or two percent out of my performance.  What I found in Amsterdam was that the foods I was eating did help my concentration, but did not provide me enough energy, so come St Jean in a couple of weeks I will have a new competition protocol as we look to get everything heading in the right direction before the serious business begins. 

Results of the competition:
http://www.fie.ch/Competitions/ResultsList.aspx?Key=A0E72808D46ECBA59CF8D1D169CD2ADC

Back to Europe

So, it has been a long time since I updated my blog.  The last month has been very busy indeed and only now am I finding a little time to gather my thoughts.  My last post reported my strong start to the domestic season; this blog aims to fill in the gaps between then and now...

A week after the Bristol Open, myself and several of the other fencers in the GB Senior Team headed down to Truro in Cornwall for the pre-Worlds training camp.  The Chinese fencing team, including 2008 Olympic Gold Medallist Man Zhong, were due to join us there in what promised to be a high level camp offering excellent sparring.  Unfortunately, the Chinese never made it and rumours reached us about visa issues.  While it was disappointing the Chinese chose not to come it was still a good opportunity to get the team together and to train hard for the week.  Unlike the Great Britain foil teams who are centralised, the sabreurs, and the men in particular, are scattered all over the country at our various clubs so spending the week together is a rare occurrence.  However, I think we made good use of our time and the week of intense sparring away from home was a good break from the usual routine - I think it is always good to mix things up slightly to keep things fresh and maintain intensity levels. 

After returning from Cornwall I trained through the next couple of weeks during the World Championships.  It is important at this time of year to get a really good training block under my belt in order to be properly prepared for February when my 'world championships' occur when Olympic Qualifying resumes.  I also started teaching at Brentwood School, covering some Classics lessons, which was much more enjoyable than I thought it might be.  After half-term I will be teaching Classics at Haileybury School on a temporary basis.  I think it is good to keep my mind occupied during the day to make sure it is 'switched on' when I go to training in the evening.  Also as a self-funding athlete it is good to have a little extra income, which will support me through the run of competitions I am currently embarking on.  

The first weekend of half term was also the weekend of the Flemish Open, a competition I have done now for the last three years as preparation for the World Cup season.  It doubles as a European Satellite event and so there are also world cup points on offer for reaching the final tableaux, which are even more desired in Olympic year as it is. The individual event was on the Sunday, preceded by a team competition on the Saturday.  Last year, representing my club, Brentwood and fencing alongside Julian Ghosh, Alex O'Connell and Ricardo Bustamente we won this prestigious event; this year Julian and I returned to try and defend our title alongside my brother, Alex Crutchett and Tom Mottershead.  In total there were 26 teams including the Belgian, Brunei, Austrian, Swiss, Danish, and Belgian U23 national teams and two strong teams from Hungary and Poland.  After the poules we were seeded 1 and fought our way through to the gala final, where we were edged out 45-39 by the Poles who had a team that included Beijing Olympian Marcin Koniusz.  I fenced very strongly all day, finishing for the team, staying calm and controlling my fights.  While we went to bed disappointed not to win, I think we were also happy with how we had fenced throughout the day and realised that we had finished higher than a number of very strong teams.  

On the Sunday however I did not fence well.  I did not move up and down the pieste nearly as well as I had done the previous day and felt much more tense.  The result was not what I was looking for and I left bitterly disappointed.  However as a training competition I have to acknowledge what I learned.  At some point Saturday I hurt my left leg slightly, it certainly bothered me on Sunday, and reflecting back upon this I know I did not warm down after the team event and perhaps if I had it would not have been so painful the following day; the world cup competitions take place over two days so I need to remember to do this at these events.  In addition my new Great Britain tracksuit went missing early on during the individual event, this distracted me to such an extent that I partly forgot why I had come to Belgium and spent much more time searching for it and feeling angry about its disappearance than I did thinking about my fencing; the lesson to be learnt is to focus on what is important and block out the other distractions while I am still competing.  (As an aside rumour has it that my tracksuit might have been spotted in Brunei this week).  I am not making excuses for my performance which was still below par and well below my best.  Given the improvement I feel I have made over the last couple of months the result was especially disappointing and I let myself down.  It has taken me a week to recover from this event.  I was unable to train before Thursday as I was too exhausted, and emotionally I admit that I have been sulking a little all week.  However, come Monday I will have moved on and will be focusing on my next event in Amsterdam in a couple of weeks.  I will be doing a number of these events between now and February as I still have learning to do... 

 

And so it begins...

Come September, come the start of the new domestic fencing season.  It hardly seems a year ago that I was in this same position. tempus fugit.  The difference being that this time one year ago I was preparing to head out, in a little over a week's time, to Melbourne for the Commonwealth Fencing Championships, whereas today I am fully focussed on qualifying for London 2012.  Last year I used the start of the domestic season to prepare for winning Commonwealth gold, this time I am training through and looking to use my events as stepping stones, preparing me for the second half of the Olympic Qualifying phase in February.  This is all pre-season for then. 

Pre-season started in August, not the summer holidays, as I might have called it at school or university, but in fact a period of time spent working hard, reforming and refining technique, and getting stronger and fitter.  This included a trip to the Grantham home of the Royal Logistics Core.  Most of the elite fencers in the UK will have, at some time or other, been to Grantham.  For someone who has never been it is perhaps difficult to imagine, but I shall try and describe it to you.  Grantham is an army base, somewhere in Lincolnshire.  Normally it is deserted, check.  Food is military, check - lots of carbohydrates, little meat, and at odd times, 7.30, 12.30 and 5.  Exercise is scheduled for about 9 hours a day, check. S&C run by army PTIs, check.  Rooms of 20 in bunk beds, check.  Snowing - well, it was summer so it was raining instead.  In Grantham one trains, eats and sleeps. I certainly did not achieve anything else that week. There is also a man called Leo, who collects urine samples before and after every training session (at least three sessions a day), collects blood lactates from a cut in your ear during training sessions, and this year monitored your resting heart rate at the beginning of each day as well as during the sessions.  This year it was also a lot of fun! 

September holds two of the biggest competitions of the year, the Hamlet Open and the Bristol Open, on the second and third weekends of the season.  With my summer training block behind me I went into the competitions feeling strong and confident, despite not looking to peak at this time.  And the results were good.  3rd at Hamlet.  2nd at Bristol.  In the space of those events I only lost to one person, my training partner, and Beijing Olympian Alex O'Connell, to whom I lost in the semi-final at Hamlet and final at Bristol.   The signs are looking good.  I was particularly happy to back up a strong showing at Hamlet with my performance at Bristol and so in the flash of an eye my domestic season has started, and also finished.  Now it is back to the training salle and back to preparing for February. 

I was disappointed with how things turned out last year when I failed to build upon winning the Commonwealths and really underperformed.  Subsequently I have missed out upon selection for the World Championships.  The only thing I can do is keep my head down, keep working hard, keep pushing myself, let my results do the talking and push myself forwards for selection for the greatest show on earth - London 2012. 

New Partnership with NGM Bodywork & Performance

I am delighted to announce a new partnership between myself and NGM Bodywork & Performance.  Neil has helped me improve as an athlete over the last six months, dealing with any pains and niggles I've had from training and competition and he has also spent time working on muscular and neural activation.  Now my muscles are firing in the correct sequences and I am in a position to fight only my opponent and not also my own body! 

Neil Meekings had this to say of the new arrangement:

“NGM Bodywork & Performance are very pleased to announce our sponsorship of Olympic Sabre Fencing hopeful, Anthony Crutchett of Brentwood, Essex, for soft tissue musculoskeletal treatments relating to injury, rehab and maintenance in the build-up to 2012.  This is in part due to our continued successful working relationship over the last six months, which has proven to be highly beneficial to Anthony’s training regime.”

Links to NGM Bodywork & Performance's website and blog can be found below:  

http://www.ngmbodyworkandperformance.com

http://ngmbp.blogspot.com 

Viewpoint: The bright side of sport

The following is a little different from the usual fare you will find on this site. I am writing this blog is response to a recently published article on the BBC Sport website titled: Viewpoint: the dark side of sport.  Dominic Hobson asks whether over-competitiveness and professionalism in sport has ruined the experience for both fans and players.  My response argues that this is not the case.  

Let me start where Hobson starts.  He says: "sport is full of failure".  That much is true; a sportsman will fail more than he will succeed, that is the nature of sport.  There can only be one winner in any given field but it is the way in which we fall, and the way in which we meet that challenge which is perhaps the most important thing.  Legendary American Football coach Vince Lombardi said 'the greatest accomplishment is not in never failing, but in rising again after we fall'.  Sport truly is then, a test of character, a challenge of mind and body, and about learning how to get up.  So sport is not "a zero-sum game" as Hobson alleges.  What the one gains does not equate to what the other loses, both competitors must delve within themselves and for the champion that feeling of victory reigns supreme, while the defeated will give his heart and soul for that pursuit of greatness.  What is there more than that? 

Sport, as we know it, originated in antiquity as a practice for war.  Events at the first Olympic Games included: boxing, wrestling, chariot racing, spear throwing, and running races in full armour.  Thus sport is about war as Orwell wrote in 1945; competitors play to win.  The ancient Greeks awarded prizes not just to the winner, but it was the Olympian victor who was champion of men and treated as a demi-god winning great glory, kleos, for himself and his city.  Even then sport was competitive and professional; each city in Greece wanted to rival the other. Sport is a practice of war. Thus when was it ever non-competitive and amateur? In fact sport even precedes the ancient Greeks, fighting games, hunting games, rough and tumbling games, are clearly sport as metaphorical versions of the real thing.  Games played by all mammals, not just humans, as games of stalking, pouncing and scragging become for the lion not just sport but survival skills.  'Sport goes deeper than the mere human in us' says Simon Barnes, 'it goes to the heart of our mammalian selves'.  How then can over-competitiveness ruin the experience for fans and players?  It was never just a game, it was always more important than that. 

In his book The Meaning of Sport, Simon Barnes, a keen ornithologer, likens sport to a pursuit of flight. Gymnastics is about flying, diving is about controlling your passage through the air, if you cannot fly yourself there is joy in making other things fly: the javelin, discus, shot.  What benefit do we get from yearning to fly? Ultimately it is something that is inescapably human; a reaching beyond.  A reaching beyond that compelled the Wright Brothers to build a flying machine, a reaching beyond that compelled man to look to landing a man on the moon, during the space race.  Sport pushes us further. The unofficial mantra of the British Olympic Association is 'faster, higher, stronger'.  Sport is the pushing of boundaries: physical, mental, scientific - all in the pursuit of excellence.  What can be more aspirational or in fact integral to humankind? Competition breeds success, professionalism brings focus.  

Sport can be beautiful, "the kinetic has its aesthetic" as Hobson notes.  One only has to witness Federer, in his prime, who Hobson cites, or Barcelona playing 'the beautiful game'.  Yet neither Federer nor Barcelona set out explicitly to entertain; they set out to win, but it so happens that their methods create the illusion of art to the spectator, while aiming to destroy their opponent.  All spectators, whether fans or not, acknowledge that both these two examples mesmerise and enthral, and yet this enjoyment would not be possible without the hours of practice and the absolute dedication, or professionalism, to the task at hand, accounting for fitness, technique, diet, sleep and every possible contributory factor.  Sport takes us to new heights and to new Ithakas. 

Sport is not all about winning beautifully but fundamentally about winning.  Sometimes there is great satisfaction in eking out a result.  Sometimes there are unsavoury scenes in sport, but the stakes are high.  The reason athletes seek to win is the same primeval urge that drives us all on in life, business and sport, the desire to succeed, to reach greater heights and to push boundaries to see what we can achieve.  Sport unites and it differentiates.  Sport elevates some while others fall.  But sport is more than a metaphor of life. It is a part of life that is emotive, that challenges us and that causes us to reach beyond. 

Progress Check

It is now a little more than a year since I graduated from college and left the protective environment of a student to pursue my dream of competing in the London Olympics.  The last year, on the whole, has gone very quickly, especially the last five months, and has not been without its challenges.  Moving home after four years of living away took a little getting used to, probably for my parents too, who have been very supportive.  It was also not easy at first witnessing my friends, embarking upon careers in London, living together, earning and taking a very different path to myself.  The separation can be a little lonely but I do not regret my choice, for that is what it is, my choice.  In fact, I know several of them, chained to their desks, are envious of my journey and would much rather be embarking on something similar. 


The year has not panned out quite how I anticipated, that is for sure.  If you had asked me a year ago what my situation would be like today, my answer would have been probably something like this: I would be in the top 100 of the world rankings, having qualified for the European Championships, have a flexible part-time job which allowed me to go away when I needed to, but employed me for about 20-30 hours a week when I was home so I could support myself, and I would have been added to the British Fencing Olympic Pathway Programme (funded athletes), on the back of my results.  The reality is very different, I unfortunately have not met the targets I set for myself and consequently will not be competing in the upcoming European Championships. Similarly, having done a little of this and that throughout the year, most lately tutoring, to keep myself afloat I still do not have a part-time job (a real priority now) and I have received no approaches from British Fencing.  I am outside of the system, doing it the way fencers had to in years gone by, which ultimately is harder, but the ball is in my court, I have to do it, I cannot complain.  And thus the work goes on daily, behind the scenes, in the pursuit of my dream. 

The year has not been without successes, most notably my double Commonwealth Gold last October, and another highlight was winning Essex Sports Personality of the Year.  Furthermore I know I have improved immensely.  My conditioning has never been as good as it is now.  Similarly I have much greater control in my fencing and know I am a much better athlete and competitor.  The reality is that it has taken much more time than I thought.  At the beginning of the season, actually only my first full international season, I had false ideas about my readiness.  I was not at the level I thought I was, and had not made enough progress in the off-season.  A change of coach in Easter has reinvigorated me and in the second half of the season, the first half of the Olympic qualifying cycle, my fencing has steadily improved.  Furthermore I am enjoying it more than I have before as I have adjusted to this lifestyle.   

Not qualifying for the Europeans and being passed over for the World University Games has brought a premature end to my season, but that does not mean that it is now holiday time, just because I will not be competing for a couple of months.  Now is actually the time when the hard work begins, where changes of technique are possible and the greatest leaps made.  Not being at the Europeans makes it a little more difficult to reach London, but not that much more; with the right amount of hard work, focus and ultimately experience I will be ready next year.  I am fencing well, really well, I simply just need to remember how to win and close out more fights.  That is all.  I feel as if I've had a good foundation year and now I have a springboard to jump off and reach new heights.  Bring it on.

A New Story

Since I last updated this blog I have completed a training week in Madrid, had two weeks at home preparing for the Warsaw Grand Prix, competed at the Warsaw Grand Prix and subsequently the Hertfordshire Open.  Time is flying by. The last four weeks have been an absolute blur and my daily routine has been a little like this: wake up, eat, train, eat, sleep, train, eat, sleep, eat, train, eat, and sleep.  Or at least it was last week when a member of the French team came to train with us at our club to give us the intense and high level standard of training we need in order to succeed in these qualifying events. I have a feeling the next 408 days until the Olympic fencing commences at the Excel Centre are going to follow a similar pattern.  

Varsovie GP 

So, the Warsaw Grand Prix; yet another mixed bag for me.  I actually fenced very well when I chose to fence. Unfortunately, during the first three fights of my poule I tried to fight in the middle of the piste, not using the full 14 metres available to me, and thus played a game of chance rather than grabbing hold of the match and taking control.  Another early exit to the competition, eliminated after the poule stages with only one victory to my name, albeit with a much improved performance in the latter three fights, including a 5-4 defeat.  However, it is a tale similar to one I have told in this blog a number of times now and I can't have it any more. Thus I will head to New York in a week determined to write a new story in my next blog. 

Hertfordshire Open

In my calendar as a training competition, an opportunity to spar with a number of different people, try some things out and hopefully at the same time do well and amass some UK ranking points.  Looking back on the competition I do not actually believe I fenced all that well, however, one important positive to take out of the event was the number of fights I was able to win and grind out the required results, some more convincingly than others.  That said, I only really underperformed in one fight; the final.  Having got to the final, fencing through a field that included 6 of the UK top 12 or half our world cup team, I fenced a club mate and went 8-0 down at half time.  This has never happened to me before and was a bit of a shock as my mind had gone completely blank.  I managed to fight back strongly in a determined and spirited second half but the damage was already done and in retrospect too much to overcome.  Thus I left the competition in a mixed mood, extremely disappointed and angry with myself over my performance in the final, but satisfied with the day's work, outcome and having enjoyed the competition (credit here should go to the organisers who did a great job).  And furthermore, fortified with some extra competition experience, and knowledge of what I need to work on between now and New York.  

This season I have only two more events currently in my calendar.  The Newcastle European Satellite Event this weekend and the New York World Cup the following weekend.  Next time I will be writing a New Story.  

en España

Another Olympic Qualifier, another record: 196 competitors.  At the elite level, that means its pretty tough.  I think everyone has been surprised at how large the fields have been since qualification started, and despite the notable absence of the Georgians, Kazakhstanis and Greeks the competition was still pushing 200.  That meant for the second competition in a row, 26 poules in 3 waves.  This time, it was poule 18 and second wave for me.  Although the poules and schedule are published the night before it is always difficult to judge precisely when you will start fencing, often you are faced with the necessity of getting the bus from the hotel a little too early in order not to leave too little time to warm up properly, and, if you are not fencing in the first wave, you most likely face a battle for space in which to warm up.  In Madrid, for I think the first time ever, my warm up, including fencing, took place entirely outside. 

Unfortunately on the day of the competition I was struck down with food poisoning, and even now I am not sure of the cause, perhaps from the sandwiches I ate on the plane, perhaps from the hotel food the night before, or perhaps from the water.  To my memory I have never suffered food poisoning before, and I had a pretty horrific experience on Friday and know that I never want to suffer from it again - especially when I am fencing.  The illness left me very uncomfortable, sapping my strength and leaving me short of breath.  Having said that, I fenced much better than I have done in the competitions since Budapest.  I won two fights convincingly in my poule, but suffered my third painful loss of the season to the Brazilian, Agresta, who lives and trains in Italy (14-15 in the last 96 in Budapest, 3-5 in Athens, and 4-5 here in Madrid), squandering a winning position.  My good indicator after the poules ensured I comfortably made the cut, which actually proved to be a lot less brutal than the previous weekend in Athens, and was drawn in the 128 with the Belarusian, Alexander Buikevich.  

Buikevich, European Champion in 2008, has an usual and languid style, but having fenced and beaten him at the training camp in Almeria over Easter I knew I had a fair chance of proceeding.  He immediately got a couple of hits up and unfortunately that margin remained throughout the rest of the fight, my conditioning on the day fading as I was not able to put in the work required to win hit after hit.  So disappointed with defeat, but not too downhearted considering the circumstances of the day, I can look forward to fencing in Warsaw without the debilitating food poisoning. 

After the competition five of us have stayed out in Madrid for a week's training with the Spanish national team.  The facilities they train in are amazing.  The venue, INEF, is the centralised home to most of the Spanish Olympic teams, located on the site of Madrid University.  The complex has specialised facilities for all the sports located in the main building, including a state of the art fencing salle on the basement level.  It is great to have the possibility of using facilities such as these and to take advantage of the week out here, trying to make the small improvements demanded of us to qualify, and in time for the next event.

The Road to Qualification

I can't believe it has been a month since my last update. I guess I've been pretty busy and not at home much in that time.  Our qualification cycle started the day after the Olympic ticket window closed.  That day we were on a plane to Athens for the first competition counting towards selection: the Coupe d'Acropolis held in the Athens Olympic Park. 

I was feeling in pretty good shape prior to the competition having completed ten days of intensive but fun and rewarding training with the Spanish and Belarusian teams in southern Spain, and on the back of a third place finish at the Birmingham International the previous weekend.  There have been record fields at the World Cup competitions this year so we went expecting a large and tough competition with perhaps as many as 165 entrants.  There were 196. I was in poule 26 in the third wave.  70 athletes missed the cut, including myself and unfortunately none of the British team made the last 96.  It was strange to think that after that first day nearly 3/4 of the field were sitting in their hotel rooms unhappy at their result, again including myself.  Next time it will be more of the same, only I hope to be in that other quarter. 

I recently read a great article on the BBC Sport Website concerning Judd Trump's achievements at the Crucible in the recent Snooker World Championships.  The article deviates to discuss the existence and idea of talent.  Matthew Syed has taken the unusual argument that talent is false and instead greatness is built on hard work.  I certainly agree that the greatest players are often the ones who have worked the hardest. Success is never easy in any walk of life.  Watching Federer at his best play tennis is effortless; the same as Messi playing football, but each has put in thousands of hours of practice wanting to be the best that they can be and ultimately the best in the world.  

It is up to me to work as hard as I can, to realise my 'potential for excellence' and to persevere when things do not quite pan out as I would like.  Success is built and realised over time.  Without putting in the hours you cannot qualify for the Olympic Games, you have to want it, to believe it and work hard for it.  Between now and Madrid, you'll find me at training. 

The Easter Break

This season is a strange one.  So far it hasn't really counted.  A strange thing to say about the Senior World Cup Circuit.  But this is a strange year.  The Olympics are now just one year away; Olympic qualifying starts in little more than two weeks.  So we find ourselves now in our Easter break, a time for reflection on what has gone well, or not so well over the first four competitions and therefore what to take forward and what to change in the next four, the second half of the season.  It is also a time to have a little break and to do some important training.  During the competition cycle it is hard to change things between events as you have so little time, no more than 10days between coming home and departing for the next event, however the month now allows the opportunity to do things differently. 

For my part I spent a week after Moscow refereeing and coaching at the Public Schools Fencing Championships with Brentwood School, an event the school won.  I started fencing at Brentwood and enjoy going back to help out, especially in this the most prestigious of school fencing competitions in which the pupils fence all three weapons, epee, foil and sabre over the course of three days.  The competition was held at Crystal Palace, the National Sports Centre and so I was able to do some training there in the gym and also on the piste later in the day with some other members of the Great Britain Senior Team.  After that I've had a break for a week to recharge my batteries.  One of the hardest things about the competition cycle is a lack of time for social events.  Away each weekend and training in the evenings it can be difficult to stay in touch with friends, who of course have their time off when its my 'time on'.  I believe it is necessary to try and maintain a balance so that you do not get all-consumed by fencing, at which point you'll start over-thinking things and make it more difficult for yourself.  The little time off has also considerably helped my body, allowing me a little period of rest to get over some little niggles I had been carrying. 

That time off all ended last Wednesday when I made my comeback at a brutal circuits class I walked into by accident, although admittedly it felt good to be back.  And now I'm off to Spain for 10days for a training camp hosted by the Spanish national team.  I'm really looking forward to it.  Getting away and training in a different environment helps liven things up and the extra depth in sparring is going to be really beneficial. 

After I get back from Spain I have 7 days at home to prepare for the Athens World Cup.

The venue: Athens Olympic Park. My destination: London 2012.

Moscow

Я люблю Москву

Last weekend, we, the GB Men's Senior Sabre team were in Moscow.  Warned of temperatures as low as -15 degrees Centigrade we'd all packed pretty heavily.  As it was, keeping cool was more of an issue than keeping warm! We were lucky in that it was never really below -5 outside, despite the 6ft of snow piled up next to the road and the fact it snowed each day we were there, but everywhere you went inside the heating was on full blast, even our room which had no obvious radiator or alternative heat source. So while we were able to deal with the cold, the heat, Moscow's extortionate prices (Moscow is the second most expensive city in the world after Tokyo), even the basic accomodation provided in our hotel, one thing near impossible to circumnavigate was Moscow's traffic.  I do not know how the city functions! It appears as though Moscovites have no regard for road traffic laws, traffic lights and junctions.  It took us 2 hours to get from the airport to the hotel, around 45 minutes to get the venue each morning and around 1 hour 45 minutes to get back - we later discoverd it was a distance of four metro stops, or around 5km.  Even going to bed in our room on the 25th floor we were cerenaded by the dulcit tones of car horns and the occasional 'smash' as a couple of vehicles collided.  

The venue: more like a Bond villan's hide-out than arena

The hotel itself did the job and little else.  Most confusingly we were due to stay in the Hotel Aquarium, or so the Russian provided details told us, however the bus dropped us at the Hotel Astrus, and that is where we stayed, the only indication that this might be the same hotel being on a pen at the alternative desk we had to use to check in.  I have included a couple of pictures from the hotel below so that, in case you had thought otherwise, you can see the glamourous lives we international athletes live. 

The competition itself did not go quite to plan.  I did not fence particularly well during the individual event and contrived to win no hits in the middle 4m of the piste and also go behind in each fight.  Unfortunately my team mates did not do too much better than me and no-one made the business end of the competition, the last 64 on the second day.  The results haven't been what we would have wanted this season so far, but I am sure we can redress this in the second half of the season, when it counts towards Olympic Qualification.  We therefore had a day off on the Saturday before the team event and for once did a little sightseeing.  We took the Metro down to Red Square where we all posed in front of St Basel's Cathedral, saw the Kremlin, Lenin's Mausoleum and also ventured into GUM - perhaps the most expensive and beautiful shopping centre I've ever been in.  We also featured in some sort of video saying the words Я люблю Москву (I love Moscow). 

Great Britain have not entered a Men's Sabre Team into an event for a year, despite it being an Olympic discipline, because of funding issues.  So with no ranking, but determined to do well Alex O'Connell, Neil Hutchison, James Honeybone and I took to the piste on the Sunday.  We fenced a tricky Japanese team in the last 32, overcame the differnce in seeding, hit them hard at the start, opened up a big lead and comfortably closed out the match.  In the last 16 we fenced a German side that included the World Number 1, and one which had come second at the last two World Cups, and despite another strong start the Germans were able to pull away at the end.  China, the 5th seeds, were our opponents in the first play off match, a team which included the 2008 Olympic Champion.  Again we started the match very strongly and were 30-30 before the Chinese's greater experience began to show and they pulled away to win 45-35.  After that match we had to pick ourselves up quickly to fence Iran.  This time there was a very different pressure on us, we felt we had to win and perhaps constricted by this got embroiled in a close match and survived a late Iranian comeback to win 45-44.  This led to a clash with perennial opponents Poland.  Unfortunately on the day Poland had a little too much for us and we lost 45-36 ending up 14th. A very respectable position considering we started the day as bottom seeds and certainly something we will be looking to build on in the future.  

I spent most of the team day as the reserve, subbing on from the bench, which means that I did not get to fence as much as I'd have liked to.  Subbing on is always difficult as generally you are trying to turn around a match, and I came on to fence Limbach (World Number 1), Hartung (former Cadet and Junior World Champion), Zhong (Olympic Champion) and Koniusz (European Olympic Qualifier winner and top 25 fencer) - certainly not easy opponents.  Now I need to get myself in the position where I'll be starting these matches.  

Breakfast!

Our room on the 25th Floor

Tickets

Only 500 days to go until the London Olympic Games get under way.  I can remember the moment London were awarded the Games in 2005 as if it were yesterday.  Time has flown past and the next 400 days we have left, the qualifying period, are going to go even faster.  

I thought I would leave a note here to say that should I make it to the London Games, I will be competing in the Men's Sabre (FE003) at the Excel Centre and possibly also the Men's Sabre Team (FE013), which in my opinion will be the most entertaining event to watch. I've copied the link to the Olympic fencing programme below, which includes ticket prices.  Right now our top fencer is Richard Kruse in the Men's Foil (FE007), and our Men's Foil Team (FE017) are regarded as our best medal prospect, but I'd quite like to steal their thunder there! You have 6 weeks to decide what you want, I'm hoping that I won't be needing my tickets! 

http://media.ticketmaster.com/en-gb/img/sys/tournament/london2012/oly-fencing.pdf

Inches

Life's this game of inches - Al Pacino (Any Given Sunday)

One year before Varsity, the captain of the Cambridge team made us watch the inspirational American Football film Any Given Sunday.  This perhaps would rank as a generic sports film if it weren't for Al Pacino's speech, as Coach Tony D'Amato, to his team at half time in the play-off final.  The speech has been widely reused in various contexts but usually, to my knowledge, by sports teams, like a Rocky montage, to inspire them before a big match such as Varsity.  After last weekend, the words resonate with me. 

Pacino's character describes life and football as a game of inches: because the margin of error is so small, I mean one half step too late or too early and you don't quite make it.  One half second too slow or too quick and you don't quite catch it before concluding that the inches we need are all around us.  

  

Last weekend, I fenced in the Budapest Grand Prix, traditionally always the hardest of the World Cup events on the calendar.  Furthermore, I fenced well with good intensity winning three poule fights of six, narrowly losing two.  My first fight was against the Frenchman Sanson, an experienced fencer, formally in the World Top-16 and who also won Gold at the Beijing Olympics in the Men's Sabre team event; I beat him comfortably. Getting off to a positive start really helped me and gave me a boost in confidence for the rest of the poule.   I received a bye into the last 96 where I met the Brazilian Agresta, who lives and trains in Italy.  Despite being 8-4 up at the break, I slumped to 13-10 down, before recovering to lead 14-13 and then fall at the final hurdle 15-14.  I was gutted, to come so close and not finish the job was devastating.  Reaching the last 64 and winning my first world cup points of the year was my primary target before reappraising on the second day.  To not achieve this was disappointing.  It also hurt a lot more than the disaster I had in Italy a couple of weeks ago. 

The truth is on that final hit I was probably one half step too late in stepping back and one half step too fast in riposting.  But the fight was not won and lost solely on the one hit but shortly after the break when he won a series of hits, that perhaps I should have stopped sooner.  However, such soul-searching cannot help me now, I must take the positives that I fenced an awful lot better than I have done all season and a couple of things are starting to 'click'.  I also know that Olympic qualifying begins in April and so this competition does not really count.  What is clear is that these competitions are harder than ever as we enter the Olympic qualification cycle and that the margins between us competitors are so small.  Probably three or four times as many fights are won 5-4 as 5-1 and 5-0.  On any given day you have to fence to your best and hope that you make use of the inches around you, and the truth is that the fencers in the last 64 are not that much better but rather they made use of those inches. 

In training this week and next, as we prepare for the Moscow World Cup and the end of the first half of our season I'll be looking for those inches because in the words of Pacino: when we add up all those inches its going to make the difference between winning and losing...

 

Varsity

It might sound ridiculous but the truth is, that sport in Cambridge exists to beat Oxford.  A year is measured by nothing more, nothing less.  That is all; all that really matters is beating the old enemy in the annual Varsity Match.    

Most sports fans in the UK will have heard of the Varsity Rugby match at Twickenham, the Varsity Boat Race (to give it its full title) on the Thames at Easter and even perhaps the Varsity Cricket match, held each summer at Lords, however it is possible that they do not realise that every sport has its day and its Varsity match, including Hang-Gliding.  For most sports that all-important match takes place during the traditional 'Varsity Games' period mid-February and fencing is no different.  Last Saturday the Exams Schools on the New Museum Site Cambridge played host to the 104th Fencing Varsity Match.  

In the run up the competitors eat Varsity, drink Varsity, sleep Varsity and live Varsity.  There is endless head-scratching, conversations about team selection, team order, tactics, targets, and permutations.  The preparation for the following year's Varsity Match starts the day after the next one.  How many sporting teams and captains are defined by their success in one match? The victors live on in perpetuity, their names as victors inscribed upon the Varsity shield since 1936; for the losers, nothing but forgotten. 

I only won the Varsity match once, when I was captain in 2009, by a record score in an undefeated season.  In both 2007 and 2010 we lost only one match all year, including in all the BUCS fixtures; we were recognised as the best team in the country, winning Southern Premiership and the BUCS Championship and yet we lost the Varsity match against all odds and the seasons were thus deemed a failure.  In 2008 under Alex O'Connell's captaincy we came so close it hurt, in a match we should never have been in; I still remember the bitter and harsh taste of defeat that day.  The pressure is immense; the rewards eternal; the day, beautiful.

This year the match was always going to be close, with Cambridge coming out as victors in their previous league match by just the one hit.  Sadly on the day the greater experience of the Oxford team shone through, particularly in their sabre team.  After a nervous and enthralling epee match, which in the end Cambridge edged 45-43, Oxford acheived a convincing 45-21 win in the sabre.  The Cambridge sabreurs came back strong in the end after being in a potentially lethal position at 30-8 but spectators were left rueing that a fine performance came too late.  That aside Cambridge had a much stronger foil team and confidence was still high, but the pressure was huge as Cambridge had to limit their opponents to 23, ultimately a task too great.  But the Cambridge boys can take comfort in the knowledge that while most of the Oxford team of Varsity veterans are likely to depart, the Cambridge team will be almost entirely unchanged, more experienced and hungry for revenge next year.  Supporting was strange but I am already looking forward to next year and travelling to Oxford to beat them there.  GDBO.

2009 Team and Old Blues

2009
A L Crutchett
L Cox-Brusseau
V Dalibard
Z Eaton-Rosen
T Most
A O'Connell
D Ryan
D Summerbell

An education

Losing is learning. Winning is normal.

Lately I've been doing a lot of learning.  Results haven't gone quite as anticipated and it has been more than a little disappointing.  It's even been difficult to write this blog post; I've been quite busy since I got back from Venice on Saturday evening but I've also been putting off writing this. Apologies, it might be a little raw.

Ever heard of the phrase 'train hard, win easy'? Well I've been training hard but am waiting for the winning.  This weekend I was feeling good: relaxed, confident and ready to go.  However, the word I would use to describe the start of my poule is 'brutal'. I got smashed.  No other way to describe it. I was moving up and down well but for some reason couldn't hit my opponent - kind of important to do that really.  I was cut after the poule.  I immediately knew that I would be cut, despite the third wave still to come and went outside to vent some frustration, at myself more than anything else.  Behind the venue was a reasonable size stream with a footbridge going across.  To release my frustration I decided instead of hitting anything, which no doubt I would later come to regret, to pick up a stick and hurl it into the water.  I missed.  Even more frustrated I picked up a stone instead; I missed again.  I feel that that anecdote sums up my day better than anything else. 

So where to go now? One or even two competitions does not change anything. The truth I know inside is that I am better than that. I am not going to give up as soon as the going has got tough.  At the weekend's competition 100 fencers didn't make the last 64 on the second day, including all of my British teammates.  Its a tough environment where the margins are so small, just a couple of nanoseconds either way.  I also know I have improved a lot over the off season, have changed a few aspects of my technique and that it will take time for it all to gel and the results to become clear.  In the mean time, just as a rider who has fallen off their horse, the show must go on, the horse must be remounted and training continued.  Now I have to work harder than ever and make sure that just as last time, I give myself the best possible chance of succeeding, this time in Budapest. 

Now I'm learning. Soon, I'll be winning. 

In Bulgaria

'When you are at your deepest, there is always good luck on the roads in Bulgaria'.  

An old proverb (perhaps) that we were told two years ago now, somewhere on the road between Sofia and Plovdiv. 

Two years ago, after the conclusion of the Grand Prix event in Plovdiv, the British team, a couple of Germans, including world number one Nicholas Limbach, the Belgian team and a couple of Poles were squeezed onto a rather old bus to make the journey to the airport in Sofia, approximately a two hour drive.  The problem was in this instance that the bus was not very reliable and the driver did not speak a word of any language other than Bulgarian. The first half hour as we navigated out of the city and onto the motorway was fine, but then the bus began to break down with increasing regularity and every couple of kilometers we were cruising onto the hard shoulder with the engine having cut out.  The bus consumed all the available water the passengers possessed and a roll of duck tape that the Belgian fencer had but the problems still continued.  Soon we managed to stop at a petrol station, where driver fed the engine a couple of litres of coolant and we discovered that the nearest taxi station was approximately 50-60km away.  After another couple of stops it became apparent that making our flight was in real jeopardy as the bus pulled into a rest stop at the roadside.  It was at this point that, led by the German coach, we started making alternative travel arrangements.  The Poles managed to jump into a lorry cab, one of them spoke Russian, and the British managed to fit into two cars, one a taxi with only one passenger heading to a flat in Sofia and thereafter the airport, and the other a family who had been visiting their son and were driving near to Sofia.  Somehow, crammed into the back of these cars, with our fencing bags on our laps we made it to the airport in time to make our flight and we were told the above proverb, whatever it may mean!

This season our first tournament was in the town of Plovdiv, somewhere in central Bulgaria, and fortunately our transportation was much more reliable.  The same German coach commented last year that Plovdiv was 'the best Grand Prix', something we initially laughed at but perhaps have come to agree with.  The venue is spacious and light, the hotel is good and only a 200m walk, including facilities such as a swimming pool (not that I've ever used it) and everything you might need is close by including Happy.  Happy is a restaurant chain I have only found in Bulgaria.  The waitresses uniforms are 'interesting' and the menus of the picture variety. Culinary delights include Grandma's Meatballs, and Happy Bits with processed cheese.  Having said that the food all tastes fine and everything is quite cheap, although rather like a Wagamamas the food seems to arrive when its ready, so salad arrives with potatoes and once you have finished, the meat comes, or as happened to one of my teammates his starter arrived after his main-course.

In the competition I sadly did not enjoy the same good luck as we might have found on the road.  My poule was tough, described by a couple of my teammates as the 'poule of death' and unfortunately I was only able to win one fight and was thus eliminated before the direct elimination.  Having said that, there are no easy fights at this level and in my mind no poule that is harder than another; the simple fact is you must compete for each point with the same effort and the fights are there to be won.  Being critical I probably rushed a little and was a little nervous, however in parts I fenced very well.  Despite the disappointment of not performing how I expected I would, the competition was still good and certainly encouraging for the next World Cup event in Italy, in two weeks time.  There I hope to hit top form after another couple of weeks training and start achieving the goals I have set myself this year, setting up my bid to compete in London, next year.  

Fertig...los!

Hallo! Apologies for the slight delay since my last post.  The reason is simple, I've been hard at work, training.  My teammate, Alex O'Connell, and I have just spent the last week, living and training in Dormagen, Germany with the German national team.


We arrived on the Sunday, with the words of a couple of my friends still ringing in my ears, 'make sure you beat the Germans' (thanks Jamie and Dave) but did not start training until the Monday.  That was fortunate as although Dusseldorf is only 20 minutes from Dormagen by car, we were taking the train.  Dormagen is about 45 minutes from Dusseldorf Flughafen by slow train, in theory.  However, Deutsche Bahn told us to take the S11 to Koln-Mulheim before changing trains there and getting the slow one from there to Dormagen - in effect going from 12 on a clock to 10 clockwise and at this point in time we had not seen a map.  German efficiency = urban legend.  Needless to say, three and a half hours later, after delayed trains, and a fine for travelling in the Koln area without a valid ticket (we had the ones required for the Dusseldorf area), Deutsche Bahn were not our favourite firm and we were relieved to finally make it to Dormagen. 


Monday morning involved physisch mit Stefan who you can see in this YouTube clip doing some speed work with Jessica Ennis and Jermain Defoe at an Adidas launch. Monday evening involved a team event at the end of the session.  England vs Germany.  There were only two English men though, so we borrowed one of the Germans, Nicolas Limbach, World Number 1.  With the murmurings of Jamie and Dave in my mind, the pressure was on, Alex and I more than held our own and England had won, it was like 1966 all over again, only it was training.  A good first day set the tone for the rest of the week.  


The week concluded with a competition nearby(c.150km) in Koblenz.  We managed to get a lift there with the other fencers in one of the club buses.  The competition was a mixed bag for me, I did not fence too badly but neither did I fence too well and the day ended earlier than I would have liked.  However the whole experience was an enjoyable one and I feel like I have learned a lot from my time in Germany.


In German, the phrase fertig...los, means 'ready...fence', in other words it is what the referee says to commence the hit.  It does have another meaning though, literally, 'ready to go'.  I'm ready to go now, and we are off to Bulgaria on the 0600 flight on Friday morning for the first World Cup event of the season.  Fingers crossed that all my winter training will aid a positive result and solid start to the season.  

Sporting Heroes

In the poems of Homer a hero was a warrior chieftain of special strength, courage or ability.  Today the greats of sport walk among their peers as Homeric heroes, as godlike beings, seemingly unbeatable, and their very greatness transcends, not just their sport, not just sport, but the world as a whole; great sportsmen and athletes like, Jesse Owens, Muhammad Ali, Michael Johnson, Usain Bolt and Roger Federer. These are those who inspire the youth and through their very presence and their own immense achievements leave their sports and the events they touch, a real and lasting legacy. 

For my part, I remember the first time I saw elite men's sabre fencing.  It was at Brentwood School, and I must have been about nine years old.  James Williams, who coached my Prep School class, an Olympian in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney, showed us a video of him fencing.  I remember the speed, the aggression, the atmosphere and the intensity.  I was just getting in to fencing at the time and I thought, 'I would like to do that', from then on I was hooked. 

However, it is perhaps sporting greats in other disciplines that inspire me most.  It may sound almost cliched, if that shows the level of unanimous respect these athletes command, but three of my sporting heroes are Redgrave (Sports Personality of the Year 2000), Pinsent (2nd Sports Personality of the Year 2004) and Hoy (Sports Personality of the Year 2008).  Three great British men, who between them have won 13 Olympic Gold Medals and whose career achievements truly are, astounding.  

Simon Barnes, my favourite sportswriter, waxes lyrical about Redgrave in his book 'The Meaning of Sport'.  He says, 'Redgrave is not only a person. Redgrave is also a quality...Redgrave is the ability to go beyond yourself. It is the ability to go the full distance, Johnson-like and more. It is the ability to commit day after day, to the one goal of winning. It is the ability to achieve the ultimate goal: and to be unsatisfied. To want more. To demand more, to seek more and to get more.'    

Barnes was also in Athens and saw Pinsent win his fourth consecutive Olympic Gold.  He describes Pinsent's journey that Olympiad as an echo of the Odyssey, the story of a ship cursed by the gods.  Pinsent's boat had been a pair, which won everything until inexplicably coming fourth at the 2003 World Championships.  The boat was made into a four, which didn't work.  A man was dropped.  Another injured, and eight weeks before the Games, Alex Partridge suffered a collapsed lung and dropped out.  The crew had just seven weeks to prepare as opposed to four years.  The race was neck and neck and was won only in the last ten strokes.  Won by 0.08 seconds.  In the words of Barnes, 'Pinsent took the crew over the line by means of a massive outpouring of the self.  He refused to accept the plain and obvious fact of defeat and remade reality in front of us'.  Pinsent seized the time to succeed and came through, giving everything to the effort.  Pinsent bared his soul and his emotions overcame the body he had moulded as a machine through his years of rowing.  

And then, Chris Hoy, the fastest man over 1000m, winning Olympic Gold in Athens.  He had to deal with adversity a different way.  His event was dropped from the programme in Beijing, forcing him to look elsewhere to satisfy his insatiable hunger for success.  He returned from Beijing with three gold medals.  

These men, heroes to me, perhaps not so much because of their success but because of the quality that Simon Barnes describes as 'Redgrave' alive in them.  The ability to bend events to their will, and the ability to triumph in the battle of wills.  Barnes describes 'Redgrave' as 'not the quintessence of sport, but the quintessence of victory'.

I remember watching BBC Sports Personality of the Year at Christmas and feeling inspired. I felt that I wanted to win, I wanted to prove myself, I wanted to give reign to the 'Redgrave' in me. At the weekend I discovered that I have been nominated for Essex Sports Personality of the Year.  It was a complete surprise and was very touching. I'd like to think that perhaps I too could be a role model for young people finding their way into sport just as Redgrave, Pinsent and Hoy and perhaps one day might be able to join that pantheon of champions.   

On a different note, I would like to mention the news that Beazley, the specialist Lloyd's insurer, have entered into a five year partnership with British Fencing, as principal sponsor.  More details can be found at http://www.beazleybritishfencing.com/   This is great news for the sport in this country and will hopefully make a massive difference, and I just wanted to thank Beazley for their investment in our dreams.   

Away from those lights

"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights." Muhammad Ali

Fencing is, just like boxing, a combat sport. The preparation for the big competitions happens in private; behind the closed doors of the fencing salle and the gym in my high street.  It is at this time of year when training should be at its toughest, before easing slightly during the season.  It is at this time of year when you must challenge yourself, to jump further, lift heavier, run faster, be sharper.  It is at this time where techniques can be reconstructed, actions taught afresh and tactics improved.  This is the preparation.  Some days its tough.  Some days can be a struggle, but they will be worth it in the end under those lights.   

One of my new year's resolutions which I've pinned to the wall, as one of my most organised friend's did last year achieving a considerable amount of success, is to learn how to skip.  Skipping has been proven to enhance coordination and rhythm between hand and foot movements and also increase stamina and endurance.  It is actually good preparation for fencing.  Skipping should be fast and explosive, and so are the movements required for fencing as one moves up and down the piste.  Improving coordination between hand and foot is also important as while your feet are the vehicle allowing you to pursue an opponent, the final action and the landing of an attack occurs with the hand.  So skipping will hopefully make me more agile and improve the co-ordination of my attacks.  Right now my training partner laughs at my frustration, although he did also admit that my skipping has improved ten fold over the last week. 

However, perhaps the most important reward I currently acquire from skipping is the absolute concentration required to succeed.  Certainly at my level of skipping, if my mind starts to wander I make a mistake, the rope stops.  Total concentration is required.  And total concentration is what is required once I am on the piste.  One lapse could mean a hit against.  One hit the difference between winning and losing. One hit the difference between qualification and watching on TV.  None of the top fencers give away hits and so with stronger powers of concentration I hope to make the transition this season and not allow my opponents the chance to get ahead or beat me, through such lapses.

Muhammad Ali is one of the greatest sportsmen to have walked the earth. His name one of the most famous in the world.  Nicknamed 'The Greatest' and referred to as 'The Champ' he made a mockery of his opponents with his trash talking.  But under those lights the truth is that not many were better than he.  That fact is testament to the hard work he put in behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, away from witnesses and before he danced under those lights.  He possessed drive and determination, just as I, and I hope that soon, I'll be ready.  

Setting out for Ithaca

Welcome to this, my first entry of my new blog. Thank you for reading and I hope you will keep following me through the duration of my journey.  I will attempt to keep you updated with my progress towards London 2012 and offer a snapshot in the life of an aspiring Olympian; in as informative and entertaining way as possible.  One thing is certain though, the next 571 days are going to be some of the best and most exciting days of my life as the anticipation builds and the preparation climaxes ahead of the lighting of the Olympic Flame on 27th July 2012. 

So why have I titled this blog 'My Journey to Ithaca'?  The reference is of course Classical, and I myself studied Classics at Downing College, University of Cambridge, between October 2006 and June 2009.  But you do not need to be a Classicist to have heard the story of Odysseus, the eponymous hero of Homer's Odyssey.  A Greek warrior king, who having fought for 10 long years at the Trojan War, journeyed for a further 10 years to reach his wife and son and reclaim his rightful rule of the island, Ithaca.  Thus Ithaca is the destination point, the goal, the ultimate aim.  My Ithaca is the Olympic Games in London a year and a half from now.  The time in between, what remains of my journey.

Constantine Cavafy starts in his superb poem, 'Ithaca': "When you set out for Ithaka ask that your way be long, full of adventure, full of instruction".  My odyssey started at Brentwood School, aged just 8 when, encouraged by my mother, I picked up a sword for the first time.  The sword was a foil, and I did not think I was very good.  After a year I switched to sabre, only because the rest of my class did and since then I have not looked back.  I first competed for Great Britain at age group level when I was 11, heading to France for a competition and before long had found myself in the U17 and U20 GB squads as well as the England Youth set up.  By the time I left school I had become a multiple international medallist, won the U20 Commonwealth Games and competed in three U17 and U20 World Championships.  Little did I know at that point that a few years later I would have competed as part of the GB team at the World University Games in Bangkok, been a member of the Team GB support team for the Beijing Olympic Games and won double gold at the Commonwealth Games. 

A good friend of mine once told me "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars".  I am doing just that. This blog will chronicle what remains of my odyssey and the experiences that will no doubt give me a wealth of enjoyment, thrill and delight.  While all the time I am aware that despite all the hard work and effort I am putting in, I might not ultimately succeed.  But not for one minute do I wish I had taken a different path and missed out on one single step of the way, not for one minute...

   

 Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don't in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn't anything else to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn't deceived you.
So wise you have become, of such experience,
that already you'll have understood what these Ithakas mean.