Asia Tour Week 3

end of week 3 and the Japan leg

It's the end of the third and final week in Japan and we all met this morning at 7 to get the bus to the airport. The last couple of weeks we've been training at Teikyo university which has a very good reputation for women's judo. It was usually a 15min bus journey to get there, some of us would tape up on the way or watch/listen to our i-pods. We were made very welcome at the dojo, and soon got into the routine. Quite a lot of the girls we knew from the last time we visited but there were a lot of new faces as well. There's normally about 50 girls on the mat and a whole range of weights, shapes and sizes and they all like to fight hard on the mat but are generally very friendly before and after training. By the end of the 3 weeks we were exchanging a few small gifts and getting lots of pictures. The sessions at the uni were between 3-3.5 hours long. They would start with a long stretch and warm up then we would go on to do 15 mins of newaza, then into Tachiwaza (randori). If you got given a red belt you were out in the front for 8x5mins and there was normally 3 sets of this. Most of the sessions followed this format but then on Thursday with two sessions left to go about 30 more high school girls turned up so the sessions got even longer! They were obviously a different standard to the uni girls but they were all fresh and raring to go. Physio Ben joined us on Wednesday and it was time to say bye bye to Physio Soph whose hard work really helped the team a lot. We were also joined by Coach Luke who seemed to be impressed with the work we were doing on the mat and helped spur us through the last couple of sessions. We had had coaches Billy and Go visit us from the boys side when there wasn't a clash of training times. Coach Kate was always keeping an eye out despite having a slight football injury!

We were all loving their old school, rocky style weights gym they have.  Nothing fancy just a proper working gym.

Packing up to leave was a little bit of a mission as some things seem to have been acquired over the course of these last three weeks so every nook and cranny of baggage space was being needed. Most people were lighter in another area though having gone through most of their porridge stores and protein bars, just enough left to take on to the next place. Korea here we come!

European and Olympic Preparation

Asia Tour part 2

Woke early this morning craving a cup of tea for some reason. Didn't want to make one in the room as it would disturb my roommate so got up and went for a little jog round the park whilst I waited for McDonalds to open. Got a gym session to look forward to a little later this morning and possibly some football in the park this afternoon. No judo today as the university we are training at have a rest day today. Yesterday was a total rest day (much needed!) for us and I did a recovery bike session in the gym followed by a shopping/eating trip in Tokyo central. I tried Unagi (eel) for the first time and loved it. "Good for power" our Japanese coach Go Tsuanda told me. Good to catch up with him and team mate Colin and find out the gossip from the boys camp. We followed up with a Starbucks coffee then spent a good couple of hours wondering around Harajuku. Faith was in good shopping form buying lots of little gifts for people back home. I didn't do very well but enjoyed just browsing although it was packed with people down there. Remembered it was mother's day back in the uk so scored some brownie points by skyping when we got back. This was after finding an amazing noodle shack for dinner time.

It's been one judo session a day this week with some weights and CV work fitted around. The sessions continue to be marathons - 3 hours long, 90% randori and it's as much a mental challenge; staying focused for that long; as it is physical. There's about 40 Japanese women on the mat, then the 7 of us, and we have been joined by 2 Swiss girls and a Austrian who are also training out here. The atmosphere is good and we are all fighting/training hard. I feel the team is giving each other plenty of support and it is motivational to see the girls pushing hard and being determined and that helps me get through those rough patches where occasionally I need a bit of a lift. Had a good team building football match at the beginning of last week which gave me an excellent ab work out due to plenty of hilarity. And laundry time was made into an experience as well with Sally managing to shrink her socks to the size of a one year olds. The Teikyo university girls have made us very welcome and it's great to meet up again with Akina who can to love and train in the UK with us for 6 months.

Highlights

Browsing the supermarkets looking for bargain gyozas and interesting Japanese treats.
Having an orange brûlée frappacino at Starbucks.
Laughing at the pictures on Facebook.
Making endless cups of tea in the room.
Eating Unagi.
Training with world champion Matsumoto.
Football in the park.

Lowlights

The cold.
The price of an orange brûlée frappacino.
Sore fingers.
Washing (clothes not me! I don't mind that so much and feel its better for my social acceptability if I do occasionally wash).
Tiredness - ok when I sleep well but not always the case.

Japan/Korea training week 1

We've just completed the first week of the 4 week long Asia tour so time for a quick recap. The women's team have been training at the National Training Centre where for the last 5 days their top women plus about 300 other judoka from various university teams have been training as well. Talk about throwing us in the deep end with a bunch of small but very nippy piranhas all trying to take chunks out of ya! And it has been very intense, each session 2 1/2 to 3 hours long, 95% randori (the other 5% warming up or cooling down.) everything is sore now; skin, fingers toes and muscles, joints; thankfully we have a couple of days off now whilst we move across Tokyo and station ourselves at the next training centre. Team physio Sophia has been doing a great job helping us keep on top of any grumbles and general maintenance. My left shoulder and elbow have started to niggle a bit and i have to keep on top of that plus some chronic wear and tear in my right elbow. I've done 3 gym sessions this week involving speed, power and core training but mostly focused on specific rehab/prehab. Recovery between sessions has been key but difficult as by the time you've stretched, showered and eaten you're generally ready to crash out. The food has been excellent (for those of us who like our food and are not picky anyway, not like coach Howey!) and most of our meals have been at the NTC where we eat in the Athletes section along with the other sports such as weightlifting, table tennis, wrestling and gymnastics. The hotel room also comes equipped with its own water boiler and fridge so it's easy to store drinks and snack and I've been drinking so much green tea it's coming out of my ears! Think of those anti-oxidants though....

Highlights
Strangling 2 people and arm locking 1 and holding down 8 in one newaza session (bearing in mind the previous one my total ippons were nill: they're hard to catch on the ground!)
Green tea hot chocolate.
Green tea ice cream.
Green tea and strawberry kit kat chunkys.
Green tea McVites digestives.
Hot coffee out of the vending machine.
Getting to use the amazing facilities at the NTC.
Catching up on some TV series, How I Met Your Mother and Homeland.
General banter with the team.
Coin washers and dryers in the hotel.
The the small but lovely deep bath tub in the room where I can wind down.
The food.
Last nights feast at Sizzlers.

Lowlights
Shin bruises; the Arnica cream has come in handy!
The rain: had to purchase an umbrella.
Taping - fingers and a thumb. It's just hard work getting it all off again!
Blood on my kit from a cut/graze under my chin where people have been trying to strangle me! Now having to soak the jacket in the sink to try and get it out.
Soreness.
Jet lag - they say it takes a day for every hour of time difference to get yourself fully into sync. We didn't have time to mess around though so have had to cope and some people have been struggling with their sleeping patterns. I've struggled a little bit but getting enough to keep the engine running.

Pre Japan

Mr Ling chillin before heading out on his first big adventure - will he look as fresh after a month in Asia?

Training Japan

Well day 5 and 5 training sessions in and am definitely feeling the burn. Been having some great randoris - about 300 girls on the mat which is amazing! So plenty of judo and plenty of noodles and rice! And green stuff, green tea coming out of my ears. Absolutely wiped out right now so time to stick some washing on then crash out and hopefully sleep all the way through having just about kicked the jet lag. Sayonara.

Moving on..

Last week was the German GP and training camp in Dusseldorf. I had a tough draw - one of the top players first fight. However, you gotta beat em all! I lost on a couple of penalties which was frustrating but there were a good number of positives to take out of it, mainly I felt physically fit and ready, showing the preparation had been right this time. A better tactical fight on my behalf would have made the difference this time as there was little chance of either of us scoring - we both were pretty cagey - and her tactics were better than mine. Afterwards we stayed out for a camp and I had some great training sessions but it's really being able to make that hard work count that matters - the final result. So after a week of rest a select team is off to Japan for 3 weeks followed by a week in Korea ahead of the European Championships in Russia in late April. Time to knuckle down and focus on the weeks ahead.... got my monkey Mr. Ling to help with the knuckling... ;)

Some chillax time

Been spending the weekend doing some rebalancing and exploring some of the local Kent countryside. Been good just to slow things down for a couple of days. Focusing on next weekend and the German Grand Prix now but got to get the prep right this time.

Fresh morning jog

.... followed by brown rice, eggs and veggies for morning stimulation, mmmm. Off to London to get a new passport today. Gonna hop on the train and watch the world go by with maybe some Jamie Woon for company.

Paris training

Tough few days sparring but took time out last night to visit a bit of Paris I've not seen before. Some downtime then back to training on Monday to prepare for German grand prix in dusseldorf next saturday.