Onwards and Upwards

I took great pleasure in reading ‘Sport’ magazine with Jonny Wilkinson as guest editor last week. I’ve always admired his professionalism, dedication and sense of intent. He simply never gives up. Despite critics and an endless succession of injuries, time and again, he picks himself back up.
Like all great sportsmen, he’s a perfectionist, and let’s face it, a little obsessive. But no-one can criticise his innate drive to get back fit and on the field again. He has constant faith. I’ve always admired that. It takes a lot to keep fighting on and literally smash through challenges.

The hardest part of sport is that, for all those immensely gratifying moments, you will experience defeat. But sport, as Jonny Wilkinson himself says, is a world of extremes and opposites - for there to be joy and success, you have to experience frustration and disappointment.

And so how do you keep on going when things aren’t going your way? You re-evaluate, re-group and have constant faith. If you have that instinctive drive and self-belief, surely your intent will be so well meaning that success will never be far away. And if not, then at least you know that there can be no regrets.

In my opinion, it takes heart and courage to keep pushing on through injury or setbacks. This weekend I had a pretty awful weekend with my fencing, it didn’t go my way and I must admit it was difficult walking into training with a smile on my face today. But I know that I cannot waste time dwelling on it, I need to confront it and move on.

Sometimes you don’t know just how performing and how powerful you can be until you have experienced the rawness of defeat or until you meet a big enough challenge. Just last weekend I had to fence the no.8 in the world and I stepped up to fence probably one of my best fights to date.

Countless athletes surpass themselves when all the odds are against them, why is that? Because the situation demanded it.

What is my point here?

NEVER SAY DIE.

Lloyd & Partners

To round up a rather long and cold, dreary January, I finished on a high and participated in a fencing demonstration for Lloyd & Partners – British Fencing’s new official partner. I had the honour of being asked to be ambassador for L&P on behalf of British Fencing and was proud to see that L&P had committed to supporting the British Fencing Team in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics.

It was a wonderful evening and opportunity to showcase our sport to the fullest. We had GB representatives from all three weapons and took it in turn to fence our respective weapon. Champagne and canapés were flowing freely (amongst the guests and not the athletes, of course!) and fun was had by all.

I have attached some photos of the evening’s fencing and would like to thank Lloyd and partners once again for their generosity and support.

Often the difference between winning and losing in fencing is minimal, and the reason on any particular day can come from any one of the following: fitness, technique, mental/tactical strength, nutrition, hydration and more. All of these things have to be worked on in order to achieve success, and that inevitably costs time and money. An elite athlete cannot hope to succeed without proper financial and moral support. And so thank-you Lloyd and Partners, your support means a lot.