New Video Blog

Check out my new WinkBall video diary that I shot a few weeks ago. I talk about what I like to do in my down time, my family and my sponsors. Click on the link below:

http://www.winkball.com/blogs/MTb7mE9jtlHG/claire-bennett-team-gb

Thanks for watching guys!

"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. Not in your environment; not in luck or chance; or the help of others; it is in youself alone"

Hello again! Forgive me, but it has been a rather long time since I last updated my blog. As usual, these last few months have been very full. There have been highs, and some lows, but in general, it has been a very positive and rewarding time.

Since my last blog, I went on from Shanghai to compete in our second Olympic qualifier in Seoul where I achieved my season’s best result. This result meant a lot to me. I knew that my preparation had been challenged due to an injury earlier in the year but I was determined to make the best of it and focus on what I had set out in my mind to achieve. I ended up reaching the last 32 of the competition and knocking out Ikehata (Japan) 15-14 after being 14-12 down. Like I said in my last blog, being out with an injury focuses your mind. I came back motivated, enthused and so happy to be back and performing on the World stage.

Next stop was St. Petersburg for the final World Cup of the season before the European Championships in Sheffield. Did anyone see the recent coverage of the European’s on Sky Sports 4? I don’t have Sky but I was told that it was a good two hour’s worth of coverage which is fantastic news. Unfortunately my performance at the European Championships was below par, I learnt a great deal from the experience, and now I face hard work in the coming months to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

If I had thought that the first three years of the Olympic cycle were tough going, the current Olympic qualifying period is proving to be even tougher with the realisation that everything that you do in training, in competition and whilst resting can ultimately make a difference between qualification or disappointment. The difference between success and failure is very slight. Preparation is paramount and with under a year left until the Olympic Games in London, I am committed to leaving nothing to chance. I want to give this my very best shot and have no regrets.

I am delighted to announce that my preparations have been boosted by the Women’s Foil team selection for the World Class Performance Programme. We have started a new training programme which has been going very well and I am looking forward to competing again going forward.

Thank-you for reading and I will write again soon, I promise!

Shanghai 2011

So what’s happened since my last blog? Shanghai, fortunately.

The aim was to come back fit and strong enough to fence in Shanghai. And so I was feeling pretty happy and relieved to be sitting on my BA flight to China.

Shanghai was a positive trip in a number of ways.

Although I did not achieve a result, I fought hard and was one hit away from getting through the poules. I have come a long way since I injured my foot on 1st March and being back in Shanghai for the start of the Olympic qualifying season has been a massive boost.

This competition has given me the confidence that I need to push on for the result that I want in the next qualifying event. Indeed, I am off to Seoul tomorrow to compete in another Grand Prix competition and I can’t wait to get back out there again.

Now that I am back, my aim is to come back stronger from my injury. I am so happy that I’ve got to a point where I am back, fit and more determined than before. Now I need to push on and get some more results!

I really enjoyed being out in Shanghai this year. We had 5 days of acclimatisation before the competition and we made use of those days to train and do a bit of sight-seeing in an afternoon off. We went to some beautiful botanical gardens called ‘Yu Garden’ and walked around the markets. I brought back lots of delicious jasmine and Chinese teas. I love a good cup of tea!

In general, we ate very well out in Shanghai though I discovered that even after three trips to China; I could still get it very wrong. One evening I ordered Peking duck and I was feeling pretty smug when the waitress brought out a whole duck to carve in front of the table. I was amazed to see the meticulous effort the lady put in to removing the skin from the duck, but to my horror, I was even more amazed to see her wrap the skin up into six pancakes and cart away my duck back into the kitchen! Skin is a delicacy in China you see. So my Peking duck turned into six duck skin pancakes and we all had a laugh!

The finals of the fencing competition took place in a shopping mall just five minutes down the road from our hotel. I thought it was a good way of bringing fencing to the people and the finals were shown live on a screen attached to the outside of the mall. It looked great and lots of passers-by were stopping to have a look. Check out a photo of it attached to this blog.

Thank-you for reading and see you in Seoul!

Fantastic new music video featuring fencing. Not to be missed! TWO SPOT GOBI - 'Simon's Song (Alright)'

Inspired to Perform - Team GB by adidas by Stella McCartney. Awesome new video - the excitment is building!

Road to recovery

Five weeks ago today I injured my foot in a training camp in Poland. Although healing, I am still tending to my foot. At the time, I told myself that is was nothing, and I was adamant that I was going to fence in a World Cup in Turin less than two weeks after my injury. It’s funny how your brain can convince yourself of anything if you want it badly enough.

Since then I have had to withdraw from another World Cup competition in Budapest and that was tough. I have been very lucky with injuries in my career. I’ve only had niggles and certainly nothing that would ever force me to have to withdraw from a competition.

What have I learnt from this experience?

Fencing for Great Britain can be stressful at times and tough to deal with but I know now that it isn’t half as painful as not fencing for your country. Sitting at home and watching the results online was not fun. I wanted so badly to be a part of the action and consolidate on my previous performances.

These are just some of the frustrations, but believe it or not, there are some definite upsides to injury.

First, you discover who your real support team are. I have had so much support from my physio’s, doctor, coaches, friends and family. Second, it allows you the chance to fine-tune and train certain aspects of your technique that you might not have had the chance to address in the past. Third, and I believe this to be the most crucial point, you miss it. Being out with an injury gives you that extra bite and motivation to come back stronger. You want to make the most of every competition and opportunity that comes your way.

So while I’ve been out of competitive fencing for the past month or so, I am yet to take my foot off the accelerator. My non-injured foot that is.

I have been having standing (static) fencing lessons most days and have consistently been hitting a fencing target. Hit, hit, hit. Slow and then fast. Fast and then slow. You get the idea. I have been improving my parries in my lessons and getting my hits on at close quarters which has been fun!

Thanks to my recent sponsorship from Balance Physio, I have been doing a great deal of cross training and strength and conditioning as well as finding new and fun ways to minimise muscle loss during my rehab period. One of those being the ‘War Machine’ - also less scarily known as the ‘CrossCore.’ ‘War machine’ sounds harder though so I’ll continue to use that.

It is in fact a suspended pulley training system which was initially created for the military, elite athletes and trainers but is now open big time to the public. Check out a couple of photos of me doing various exercises on it in this blog. I cannot recommend it enough. The constant rotational movement of the pulley system means that I have to engage my muscles, particularly my core, twice as hard to keep it steady and stable. Resistance for most exercises can be increased or decreased according to your level and I had fun suspending my feet in different ways, taking the weight off my foot when I wanted to do exercises that would involve using my feet. It is hard work but so rewarding. My muscles feel strong and conditioned after a session on the War Machine and it definitely gets my heart rate going.

The other very exciting piece of machinery that I have been using is called the Alter-G or G-trainer. There are few available in the country and I am lucky to have one right on my doorstep at Balance Physio in Clapham.

It is an anti-gravity treadmill often used for patients recovering from injury or surgery. It is a revolutionary piece of equipment. I am told that marathon runners also use it to help with their training as it takes the weight of their joints and can help them run for longer periods of time.

The first time I took to one, I was told to put on the rather fetching pair of lycra shorts that come with the machine. These zip you into an air-tight chamber surrounding the treadmill and once the machine registers your weight it blows up to whatever amount of weight you require off your feet. I opted to train at just 30% of my body weight. 20% apparently equates to the same feeling you get from walking on the moon. It was fun. I jumped (or should I say floated) from one leg to the other (in my air cast boot) and it felt great to give my quads and calves a work out. Yesterday I actually zipped myself into the machine backwards and managed to do some fencing footwork and lunges. Next time I’m going to bring in my foil and simulate visualising a proper fight whilst I do my footwork on the machine. I’m going to look crazy.

My boxing trainer has also been strapping weights on to my ankles and we have been doing leg strengthening exercises from sitting down as well as plenty of upper body circuits. He always has new and exciting ideas up his sleeve and it has made my rehab period more fun and bearable.

Apart from that, I have been reading lots, keeping my spirits up and feeding myself positive thoughts.

I intend to be back to fitness in time for the Asian tour in Shanghai which kicks off at the beginning of May.

I know there will be challenges to overcome over the next few months but who said it was going to be easy? Nothing worthwhile is ever easy.

Which sport will you watch at the Olympics?

Now that Olympic tickets have been on sale since Tuesday 15th March, you’ve had the time to think about which tickets you might like to buy. Here is my guide to buying (fencing) tickets.

Biased, me? Never.

Ticket prices for the London 2012 Olympic Games range from £20.12 to £2,012 – see what they’ve done there? There are 8.8 million tickets up for grabs and 2.5 million of those tickets are priced at £20 or less.

In athletics, the men and women’s 100m final will cost you a hefty £725 per ticket and in diving the 10m final for men and women will cost a surprising £450, whereas the fencing finals will cost just £95. I say ‘just’, but in comparison to many other Olympic sports, fencing is one of the sports which I believe to be good value for money.

See where I am going here? I know I am blatantly biased towards fencing, but I do believe that the Olympics is a great opportunity for you to see sports that you might never get the chance to see outside of the Olympic Games. I will always be a great supporter of minority sports, coming from one myself, and this is our one day to shine.

I believe fencing can be spectator-friendly. It will need knowledgeable commentators and enthusiasts to sell the sport during the Olympic Games. But ultimately it will be about enjoying the atmosphere, the tension, the passion and the sheer determination of our Olympic fencers battling it out to be the best.

I do not believe you need to be a fencing expert to enjoy the sport. There are many sports that I watch where I have little understanding of what is going on but I can still appreciate them. Fencing is fast, challenging, gripping and a combat sport. Many people can relate to that.

As an athlete striving to make the Games, I wouldn’t want to tempt fate and buys tickets a whole year in advance. I am glad the London 2012 Olympics organising committee has reserved a pool of 70,000 tickets for qualified athletes.

Athletes will be allowed to buy one to two tickets each from this pool. I believe one to two tickets is an absolute minimum. If I did qualify, I would buy these tickets for my parents who have supported me both emotionally and financially since I started fencing at the age of ten.

I am glad that a ticketing strategy has been introduced to help ensure athletes get the chance to purchase at least one ticket – even if I’d like to push for more. It may sound trite but without the athletes there would be no Olympic Games in the first place.

Ticket allocation should be transparent and fair. Hopefully this will be the case at London 2012. Lord Coe believes that it will be “the daddy of all ticket strategies.” I hope so too because unless enough fair priced tickets are allocated to sports enthusiasts, they will not be seen as the Games of the people but the Games of money and big corporations at a time when the city is under the spotlight.

Surely the Games should be more about Great Britain and her athletes and less about corporate entities who may buy up large quantities of tickets, and not use them. It would be a travesty to see empty seats. Let there be no repeat of the sea of empty seats that were visible at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Crowd support can take you to the next level and can make the difference between success and failure. Its power should not be under-estimated.

So get buying and support our Great Britain athletes in London 2012. And if in doubt, fencing is always a good one to go for. Honest.