Inspired by a Paralympian...Never Give Up!

Since the novices at the beginning of the month i've been riding a bit higher than normal, it gave me a great boost and a confidence lift that I needed, I know it wasn't the biggest contest in the world but i'm still chuffed to have got a W on the board. 

The last few weeks at wrestling have been great, I've been going back over some of the moves that I was a little rusty on, gator roles, gut wrenches, head locks and leg laces all of which i've enjoyed. My body has held up alright, leg laces are horrible things and wrestling the guys who have been down Craig, Callum, Danny and Dave all of whom love an arm drag has left me covered in bruises but other than that i'm doing fine.

I finally managed to drag my ass back to the Emirates for a spot of wrestling. I haven't been able to fork out the extra cash for a 120 mile round trip but I happened to be in Cumbernauld on Tuesday presenting a breakout session  for the Scottish Sports Development Conference afterwards I was sitting listening to the key note speakers in the afternoon and was inspired. So much so that i'm almost re-energised to increase my efforts and get to the end goal of the Commonwealth Games. It's got me excited again.

David Smith MBE

I don't think that happens all that often... getting inspired or enthused into doing something but I was listening to David Smits' paralympic journey and how they secured a gold at the Paralympics and was pretty much blown away by what had happened to him. In a nut shell, he was in the GB bobsleigh team for the winter Olympics before heading down to the paralympic open day, basically if you have a disability you can do some testing and they match you to a sport. David was born with clubfoot and therefore qualified for paralympics and tested really well for rowing. It's a little more complicated than that but basically he had been feeling not quite right for the 19 years he had been doing sport and was finally diagnosed with a spinal tumour. After surgery he had to reboot his nervous system and teach himself how to walk again amongst other things and wow that was some story. 2 years later he is winning gold. If you ever get the chance to hear him speak, he is a very humble guy but his story is pretty incredible. 

Perseverance is the key

After David Smith there was a talk by David Grevemberg (chief executive Glasgow 2014) about the "legacy" of the games and building a sporting community, inspiring young people. Unfortunately, the speech didn't quite hit the spot for me. I've heard David speak before about the Power of Sport and he was very good, this time it almost felt scripted and lacked a bit of passion but it didn't matter I was already inspired by Dave Smith. Finally to top off the day we had Doctor Andrew Murray to close the conference, he is a great speak and another one I would recommend. He is an ultra marathon runner and is threatening to try out all the commonwealth sports before Glasgow 2014 comes about. I was chatting to him briefly afterwards and we might even see him on a Monday down at the Edinburgh Wrestling Club. The key message I took away from his speech is pictured to the right. Hopefully he will come down to Wrestling...

So I had a revelation that my training kit was in the car and decided to head through to the Emirates after the conference to make a much needed appearance. I text my mate Dave Simm to see if he was about and luckily for me he was and was keen to get down. It was a pretty full on session lots of technique work and Dave is a lefty, which I find horrific to fight against. I can tell that i'm getting better and I think Vio (Scottish Assistant Coach) was relatively pleased. Even better i'm going to head down every Tuesday and that will be my session in Glasgow to keep me in with the coaches. Vio gave me some really good feedback again and whilst I don't want to pre-empt anything, I know know there is still a lot of work to be done its looking possible that I will be making my debut for Scotland in July at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in Edinburgh. That's a really exciting prospect and of course gives me the third platform to qualify for Glasgow 2014. 

So onto Glasgow 2014 itself, people keep on asking me what the likelihood of this actually coming off and me making it to the games. I take an objective view to it. At the moment i'm enjoying the training, I need to work on a few things and find a bit more time to train but overall I think we are still in with a tangible shot at making it. In case you have forgotten how it works. I have my first qualification event in June at the British Championships. If I finish in the top 3 Commonwealth Athletes I have met the qualification criteria. The second is the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in July, I have to be selected to compete in that event but there isn't any reason to suspect I wouldn't be selected at the moment, if nothing else to give me more experience competing against the best in the Commonwealth. If I finish in the top 8 or top 2/3 or the field then I meet the criteria and the British Closed in early 2014 if I medal I will make the criteria. Lets assume I make one of those criteria or lets assume I don't I still have to be nominated by Vlad and Vio to represent Scotland and the final decision is then taken by Commonwealth Games Scotland. The maximum number of competitors is 7 males for wrestling but they could double up a category if they wanted, which they might well do if there is a better chance of a medal. I don't know who we have at what weight category so its hard to say but I'll keep on trucking till I know. Most likely will be British Closed next year but we will need to wait and see you never know, I might get a good draw and qualify before then. It's exciting!

How good does that look!

To finish off i'm going to plug a couple of local companies / organisations in Edinburgh the first is the zoo, great training venue, get yourself a 28 month old and a buggy and go see the big cats. That is a great workout. I was in Leith in Edinburgh over the weekend, my cousin Sheila turned an unspeakable age on Saturday and had a get together party in Wild Creatures, really cool little bar on Leith Walk. The real company I want to mention is the one across the road. I managed to get across the road to Los Cardos for a burrito after the party. These things are amazing. If you are ever on Leith Walk and need a good feed...No... wait... if you are ever in Edinburgh and need a good feed you need to get to Los Cardos It is the bomb!! www.loscardos.co.uk If I could I would eat there all the time.

Thanks to all the guys who have made it down to training over the last couple of weeks and to those who are going to come down, look forward to seeing you there and thanks for the support. 

Thanks for taking time out to read the blog

Cheers

@shocksjr