Hi everyone,

Things are on a downer at the moment, with a series minor injuries occurring, while trying to manage a difficult amount of study, training and work.

Work had been extended two more hours and which meant I was working from 10pm until 5am and then waiting around for the bus which arrives at the near by bus stop, from 5.30-7.30am, depending on what time the busses start that day. I would have a few hours before training, which starts at 9.45. After judo training, a cardio session or gym session is to be done, finishing at about 1pm. I would then catch a ride home with someone and then sleep until my second judo session, which would start around 7.30pm, where I would catch a ride to town afterward to start work, to complete the cycle all over again.

My diet is co-ordinated between these times, where I often just forget, or neglect to eat, because I have study to do, or am just to tired. Study happens when I am not to tired, or miss training because I am to tired or injured from a training. A pulled muscle in my ribs was the most recent of minor injuries, and before that a shoulder injury which happened at the German Open.

I am now in the process of putting my university on hold for a couple of years because it is just to difficult to manage with everything else. Working hours have moved back to their normal times, which means an extra two hours sleep for me. I am still struggling for money as I have limited work hours doing security because my security license has not been processed yet, so have been working on the bar for the same club, but it just doesn't quite pay for very much. Being my first experience on the bar I just can't work the customers like most, focusing on not stuffing anything. Maybe with a little more experience i will get a few more tips. I hope I will have my insurance for my car through by monday or even by tomorrow (fingers crossed), so I am able to get to and from training and work, saving valuable time, which will help me get sleep and function as a normal human being.

I also lost my wallet on a sleepy ride home on the bus, which was luckily recovered. That very same day I lost my wallet, my phone also stopped working (thanks to the person who borrowed me another phone until i can afford another one) :)

If life gives you lemons, most would say pass the tequila and salt? but in my case I will settle for making lemonade, as I'm not big on drinking...

On the 25th of July I competed in Sindelfingen (Germany) at the German Open, which didn’t play out so well in terms of results, or training. The first round of the competition I was penalised out of the fight against belgium, leaving me knocked out of the running for gold from the very beginning.
The next day we started the training camp and through the first training I damaged my shoulder while fighting. I had attacked someone with a ko uchi Gari, reaping their leg with mine from the inside, pinning their right hand down, while driving them backward. As his back hit the ground I unhooked my leg from around his, preparing to stand back up again, but while we were still in momentum he decided to attempt to throw me after the finishing score had been dealt. He pulled me off to the side over my elbow, which was locked down on the right side of his body, while hooking the inside of my thigh with his foot to heave me over. My legs maintained a height over my elbow, which drew back as I was forced over and the shoulder strained until it came to rest behind my head

Looking back on the tournament in germany, it wasn’t a success for me, although it was a good for experience in terms of getting myself back on the mat. It’s the first time in 7 months I have had a chance to gage myself against some of my rivals.

This year has been far easier for me in terms of competition organization. I am entered in competitions, my flights are booked, and my itinerary is organised by the coaches and management team here.
In terms of competition preparation, the coaches give me a strict amount of judo to physically and mentally prepare myself for the tournament during the weeks leading up to the event. The intensity of training lifts and the amount and type of gym and cardio training decreases.
During the tournament I am given a warm up routine, which prepares me for my fights ahead, a player from the Scottish or British team will be my warm up partner and run through simple judo exercises that help warm the body, focus the mind, and alert the muscle memory.

This takes a lot of pressure off competing on the world stage...It was very difficult last year in Germany to plan and organise everything, travel alone and compete with no support or guidance

Special thanks to resigned New Zealand national coach, Brent Cooper.

He made time in his busy schedule to help those people who made an effort to help themselves.He has been always willing to help me while I was developing as an athlete and played a major role in getting me to where I am now.
He has spent a lot of his time sharing his knowledge and skill with judoka in New Zealand and I hope that his influence is not lost as he steps down from his position as head coach
On behalf of New Zealand Judoka I would like to thank Brent for his efforts and sacrifices, a large amount of which goes unnoticed and unacknowledged.

I wish him all the best for the future,

I received my university results for my first semester of this year. Two assignments within a sport science paper have been completely neglected a pass because a dignitary of the university has forgotten to accredit me with the extension I had been granted. I still have to ring the university about this to get it sorted, but my problem is, I ring from the other side of the world and get put on hold for so long my calling card runs out of money before I even get to talk to anyone about it. I also needed to change to a different communication paper, because I was not alerted to the fact that I would have to fly back to New Zealand for the contact course at the university.
I need to ring them about these issues in the middle of the night to find the most convenient hours for me and the university contact personal. Where does sleep come in?

I am now tossing up whether to continue my university, as I need more money. I just can’t earn enough money in one weekend to fund my living expenses for the week. The threat is, that if I do persist with the studies and work a few more hours, which may have to be full time, something will suffer and at this stage, it won’t be my judo, because that is my main priority and it won’t be my work, because I consider myself one of those honest, hardworking Kiwis and I will apply myself 100% at work because of that. I currently don’t have the money to spend on a degree when I haven’t got the time to make a decent job of it the money is gambled on uncertain results.

The reason I want to complete this degree is to contribute. I don’t see any point in being a security personal all my life, it just seems pointless. What I’m asking myself is, ‘where do I want to be doing in the future and who will I helping to achieve their goals in the process’. The reason I started my degree was to help people in the best way I can, which for me, sport comes naturally and the idea of facilitating the means and creating the opportunity for elite athletes within New Zealand to achieve their goals over all sports. I see a degree in sports science as a step in that direction. Although I am doing a part time degree, I estimated that it would be in completion before 2016 Olympics.
But for now it seems putting that degree on hold is the only way to fund my aspirations of winning a gold medal for New Zealand at Olympics.

The more I talk about this, the more I think I can eventually come back to the degree, but what job do I fall back on when I've achieved my ambitions for judo? I would like to start an occupation as soon as possible. I still haven't found the answer to these questions.

I have finally found some time to write another blog. Juggling work and study around my training schedule has been a hard task in itself, although I am determined to keep everyone up to date with my progress.

training has been going extremely well, I am really enjoying it and improvements in all areas of my judo have been coming on thick and fast.
I have had a lot of help from the coaches, Billy Cusack, David Somerville, and Graeme Randall, whose commitment to competitive excellence in judo is inspiring. I benefit from all their characters and the huge contribution they all bring to the running of this UK high performance centre for judo. I couldn't have found a place better suiting my needs as an athlete and a judoka.
I previously encountered a small injury to my ankle, just a bit of bone bruising, but the coaches managed to fit me in with a a great physio, who helped me get back on the mat within a week or so of injury. It is lucky that I have such huge support from the training institute here, as I could not afford to go to the physio otherwise.


I have received my tournament schedule for the year and on the 24th of July I will fly to Berlin for the German Open. I am really looking forward to it, as I haven't had a competition for a while now, being back in New Zealand after training in Germany last year, further hindered by the following two months it took to gain a British visa. I began a conditioning program when arriving here to get settled and to adapt myself to their intense training program, before competing in the top-level competitions such as the German Open.
After this competition on the weekend there is a four-day training camp, where I am looking forward to catching up with some of the judoka that I trained with most of last year in Cologne. It will be a great opportunity to gauge my improvements since last year.

Most, or if not all my competitions and training camps I will be attending, will be organised and coached by the coaches at this UK high performance institute for judo in Edinburgh, along with the athletes here, while I will be competing for New Zealand.