May 2nd

We are into the last 8 weeks now. This last stretch is the most important. I've spent the last 3 weeks with the head in the books. Updating myself on step sparring, theory, theory of power, sine wave motion and all applications. I've also started the visualisations, I have Jaroslaw Suska on my Ipod. He's a good man to model, having won several world championships in patterns.

My only niggle is my hip. No point in lying about it, I got some news at the physio last week. Orlagh Sampson knows her stuff. She's being the physio to the Irish boxing team and the high performance training gym for years, she also physio'd for world level rowers and kayakers.

She identified a key issue for me. No lateral core strength. She gave me some pretty simple core exercises to do, and I couldn't do them. Therefore, when I use lateral movement with my legs, side kick for example, my core doesn't fire leaving the small hip muscles to take all the weight which in turn aggravates them and wears them out. So I've a pile of core building exercises that I have to do now for the next two weeks. She says it will build up in no time as I am 'hyper-mobile' - apparently!

The next few weeks will see an increase in aerobic training and a pile more studying. I will also have to press on with the thesis. I will also be doing patterns everyday, even if they are just in the kitchen. The next two months will fly by!

I'm getting nervous now!