New challenges always accepted!

Another year another major international tournament. Bulgaria awaits us this coming Monday 14th May 2012. I have mixed thoughts on this one. This tournament promises to be tough, it promises to be bigger than most and the standard promises to be top class.

This will probably be our toughest tournament to date, new challenges like this always bring with them anticipation and of course excitement, new challenges are always accepted.

After the six competitors were selected to travel we began training back in early February. Like any good coach would do, I opened the training diary and made a log of the initial session and marked in my own thoughts on where each individual's head was at. We had a lot to work on, but we got down to brass tacks and started to make progress. Preparing for any major tournament takes time and dedication from everyone involved, not only for all that extra training but there were also a sizable amount of tournaments needed to benchmark our progress. Luckily for us tournament happy TKDists we had a plethora of events lined up, mostly kickboxing fights that helped us identify weak points and enabled us to build on the strong points as the training progressed.

Every competitor brought their own strengths and weaknesses, all except Neidin and Lauren (both having extensive foreign tournament experience)  were brand new to this level of training and participation. Some of the guys needed to be worked under pressure, piecing together tactics for operating under duress while keeping the head, others had to work on footwork to aid using the angle which then brought in reaction speed while being offensively defensive as I like to call it.
 We needed Dylan to develop a dominant game plan instead of being reactive,  Laura needed to get those hands working faster and straighter with the legs under pressure, same for Lauren Russell who also needed to build speed into that crazy side kick she has, Leon needed to keep his head up and develop impact in those kicks, Neidin needed to think more about evading that lead leg and Lauren had to step up her speed and reaction timing. So with all the SAQ coaching material, pads and power bands out and ready, we began our work.

We also took time out to study the opposition, we got some clips of the Bulgarians and the Russians, we studied their form and their tactics, we've seen them before in Italy 2008, Croatia 2009, and the Russians had a big team in Korea in 2010. We know they're good but with the right mindset anyone is beatable, we needed to stay positive in our approach to training for this tournament without underestimating the strong teams from the former Soviet Bloc.

Fast forward from February to May, we had our final training session on Friday night and I have to say, on the floor over the past week were six different competitors to what we started off with. All six have improved speed, power and fitness with improvements documented for all to see in the training diary, result times were shaved off drills left right and centre. The last couple of tournaments were testament to their new found levels of performance. The last kickboxing show we entered was a very tough and high paced event. All six recorded wins. The training was paying off. All those stomach churning hill sprints were worth it, all those viper cord power and speed drills were now making sense and in the ring, all those sessions involving ring tactics were working. Anyone that has trained with me they'll know I base my training for tournament on principles and concepts, from there everything else follows.

So we leave for Bulgaria on Monday. I am nervous for them, like any coach would be, especially as I'll be on the side lines and not available to coach ring side, but for me a good coach will have prepared their fighters comprehensively and consistently, that's my hope.

In relation to results? Meh I don't worry too much about results before hand, all I wish is that they all perform gallantly and do themselves and the team proud, a medal is a bonus as always but a strong performances always out weighs that. This is about ring experience but most importantly life experience!

To finish, I would have to add that I have never in my time had the pleasure to have trained six wonderful TKD junior athletes like these guys. They have bonded like no other team I have ever trained, there is no ego, there is just a team spirit, they genuinely care about each other and have helped each other along this very tough path. No matter what happens in Bulgaria, these six lovely people will be etched in each others memories forever, now that is what this stuff is all about!

So as I've learned some teenage lingo over the past 8 weeks or so, I'll finish with this...

"Bulgaria.. come at me bro!"

Good luck to all of the National Team taking part, my the gods and goddess's shine favourably on you all :)