Preparing for the 3rd World Para Championships, Aruba!

I couldn't be more happy right now knowing that I'm about to board a plane. I can say the hard work has been done and it's been tough, grueling past eight weeks.

The hardest adjustment to my routine has been adapting to the new job. I knew when I took the position that the timing wasn't great, as my good friend and coach Adam said to me once "you want to be comfortable and stress free in all other aspects of your life, that way you are able to push out of your comfort zone and place yourself under a higher amount of stress when it comes to your training". What this essentially means is your body and mind can only handle as certain amount of stress. Reducing this in your everyday life allows you to focus your energy on training therefore getting the most out of yourself. Placing unreasonable demands upon yourself, training every day despite how "sore" or "tired" you are.

Preparing this time around, I'm lucky in the sense that I have gained two years experience on how to approach these championships. My intentions were to do four Taekwondo session a week, any less would not be enough and any more would be risky given my recent history of soft tissues injuries. That would leave two days free for gym / strength and condition / rehab if needed and one day to rest, where I could get a massage, go for a walk / stretch and most importantly sleep!

Looking back I can say that my preparation has gone pretty close to plan with only a few set backs along the way. There was a minor hamstring tear (the left this time thankfully) but I turned this setback into a positive. I needed a rest from Taekwondo because I had been training hard for that month and I found my output was steadily decreasing due to fatigue. This also gave me a chance to hit the gym, work on some rehab and strength exercises as well as something as simple as footwork. As one of the coaches, Paul mentioned, Taekwondo is 70% footwork, setting up your attack, motioning and creating pressure therefore forcing errors in your opponent and then capitalizing.

I met my coach, Master Park seven weeks ago where I explained the rules changes associated with Para Taekwondo. No head kicks and one minute rounds. With this in mind for most of the year I had shifted my focus to scoring onto the body, a hard task as I'm used to aiming for the three pointer head shots! Something I had never considered though was my blocking style. At open mat night both Master Park and Nick pointed out that I wasn't covering my body. Years of competing and training in the regular comp's I had adapted my style to block and avoid getting scored on the head, which inadvertently leaves the chest guard open.

Everyone has been asking the past few weeks if I'm excited but it's only now that work is over and Im not training what seems like every spare minute, that it's all starting to dawn on me. Im about to represent my country again, competing in a World Championships where I guess Im the favorite! So bring it on World, I'm ready!

And lastly, a thank you. So many people have helped me get to this moment, supporting me in many different ways. Coaches, trainers, therapists, suppliers, family, friends and even a few fans. I would really like to say thank you to you all and I really hope I can bring home the ultimate prize.