Young Deaf Sports Personality of The Year

On Saturday 17th November I was awarded the accolade of Young Deaf Sports Person of the Year!
Naturally I am delighted with this award and it was great to see so many other deaf athletes getting recognition.

One thing that really stood out for me though was the lack of diversity in the sports - It was quite clear where the funding was being streamlined - football, tennis, swimming and chess! *hellooooo - what about judo!!*

Hopefully through the publicity that my win will generate, more people will become aware of judo - and hopefully more deaf people will be interested in giving it a try!

Mike Gatting (Cricketer) presented the awards - of course I had to get a picture with him :)

Paralympic Inspirations Programme

Over the summer I had an absolutely awesome experience! I was selected to attend the Paralympic Inspiration Programme! The British Judo Association nominated me and it was a great shock to find out I had been selected.

We met on a few different occasions, the first being in Manchester at the launch of the Paralympic World Cup, this was an introduction to the programme and the other 80 or so athletes on it.

Then in August we traveled down to Bath University which was the holding camp for many of the Paralympic  athletes. Whilst there we were kitted out in Paralympic Inspiration Programme kit, had lectures on Media, Doping, nutrition, One Team Mentality and generally went through the stages of preparation that the athletes would go through!

We also had a night at the Bath Paralympic Torch ceremony in which we were VIP guests! :)

We were in Bath for a weekend and then myself and my fellow judo colleague Chris (along with our nutter of a coach Ian) headed off to Kendal in Cumbria for an England Training week! Gluttons for punishment or what! It was an intense few days, hard work and physically demanding, but we didn't have time to catch breath before heading straight down to London for the remainder of the programme!

London was awesome! We went to the Paralympic Village (The food court was huge!), Paralympic House and spend time at various Paralympic Sports. Naturally I loved the judo - we got to see Sam Ingram getting through to the finals which was amazing as we were matside along with the rest of the Paralympic judo team! It really brought home the 'One Team Mentality' that we had been lectured about.

I have never been photographed so much as I was this week, loads of people stopped us and wanted photos with us and autographs! Such a surreal experience!

Last week was the culmination of the programme down in Loughborough University and it was good to catch up with my fellow athletes again! We are hoping to carry on the programme but of course this will be reliant on funding!

All the athletes on the programme (including yours truly)  have the goal of getting to either Socchi in 2014 or Rio in 2016 so watch this space!!!!

British Championships

Yesterday I travelled to Sheffield for The British Championships. I'm pleased to say that I came away with a bronze medal!

I'm starting to use grips at the start of the fights now (which is how VI players start) Figured it was about time I started to learn the VI rules ;)

Sense Awards 4th October 2012

I'm very pleased to tell you that I attended the Sense Annual Awards ceremony today in London and I was awarded the Sense Young Deafblind Person of the Year award! Awards were presented by Linda Barker who has done lots of TV work (changing places, I'm a celeb etc)

I hope my good luck continues for the Lincs Sports Awards next month!

Lincolnshire Young Disabled Sports Person of The Year

I am really pleased to let you all know that I have been shortlisted for the Lincolnshire Young Disabled Sportsperson of the Year award for the 3rd year running! Hopefully this year will be my year after being runner up for the previous 2!!

The awards ceremony is in November so watch this space ........................................

Sense Young Deafblind Person of the Year

I am pleased to announce that Sense (Deafblind Charity) have shortlisted me for the award of Young Deafblind Person of the Year for my achievements in Judo!

The awards ceremony is in October so everyone please cross your fingers and toes for me!

I'll let you all know how I get on!!

For more information on Sense, please visit http://www.sense.org.uk/

Olympic Torch!

Wow, what an amazing day I have had!! It's been a long time coming but today finally arrived - my day to carry the Olympic torch!

We travelled to Skegness for the occasion, which is about an hour and a half from home. I was dropped off with the other torchbearers whilst my parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins went on to the start point.

It was great on the bus travelling to the selected points as everyone was full of enthusiasm and the crowds were really encouraging! I managed to perfect the royal wave quite quickly!!

When I got off the bus to await the torch, I was literally mobbed! Everyone wanted their photo with me and to touch the torch! I felt like a celeb!!

The time soon came for me to start the relay! I was very nervous but excited as well. Once the previous torchbearer kissed my torch I was off!!

My Dad ran nearby to film it with my Grandad trying his best to keep up!! My mum went to the end of the route to catch me handing it on to the next torch bearer!

It went by so quick! The crowds were fab, everyone was getting into the olympic spirit! I hope it continues and that they all get behind Team GB especially the 14 Judoka and the 5 Paralympian Judoka! I've done my bit , It's now their time to shine!!!

Kent International and Lincolnshire Show

I've been a busy little bee this week! On Wednesday I was invited to attend the Annual Lincolnshire Show by Lincolnshire County Counil as I am an Olympic Torchbearer and they wanted to have a mini procession of county torchbearers. Luckily they picked the one summers day that we have had - which meant I actually caught a bit of colour!! Was a good day and we ended the day having 'High Tea' with the Chair of the Council - very posh!!

Saturday saw me competing at the Kent International at Crystal Palace in London. Wasn't one of my best days - this nagging cough I have had for 2 months intensified this weekend and I felt that every fight was lasting about an hour! Definately lost a lot of my fitness over the past 2 months - just hope the Doc can discover what is causing it!! Anyway, I ended up with a fancy silver medal - losing out to a Dutch fella (my goodness, they grow them big in Holland!) He towered over me and I'm 5'11!!

Anyway, my Olympic Torch Bearing is on Wed 27th June in Winthorpe near Skegness, so keep a look out on here for lots of grinning pictures of me in my lovely white torchbearers outfit!! :)

Nottingham Open June 17th 2012

Had a good day at the Notts Open today. The category I entered (+66) ended up being split into u73 and o73. So I ended in the o73 category alongside my friend Ellis from Birmingham. We've fought each other a few times in the past and it's always a good fight. So it was a case of best of 3 to determine the winner. Pleased to say I won 2 fights so there was no need to have a third!

Felt the pain a bit today as I have had a really annoying and painful cough for about 6 weeks now and this has wiped out my fitness levels! Got another comp next week so I hope this cough starts to clear up!

My brother was fighting today also and he fought the best he has fought in a long time! Won 2 fights, lost 1 then had to withdraw from the 4th due to a neck injury! Cue an ambulance ride and 3 hours in A and E! Mum says she has a permanent place in every A and E in the country! Can't think why she would say that!! ;)

Adam Gibbons Sport Foundation

Had a great surprise in the post today, a cheque from the Adam Gibbons Sport Foundation to help with my expenses in relation to England Squad Training. A big thanks goes out to my coach Charlotte for nominating me to receive funding and of course to the Adam Gibbons Sport Foundation!

Adam was a young man who lived in Lincoln, who loved all sports. He even attended my judo club! A fund was set up in his name after he sadly died from a brain haemorrhage in 2008 to support local athletes.

Further information about the fund can be found at www.adamgibbonsfund.com

Paralympic Inspiration Programme

 A few weeks ago we got a phone call to say that I had been accepted onto the Paralympic Inspiration Programme. This was a great shock to us all, as we had no idea I had even been nominated!! (Big Thanks to the British Judo Association staff for nominating me!)

The first part of the Programme was the launch at the Paralympic World Cup which I attended 2 weeks ago. It was fantastic and truly inspiring to meet the other athletes and to hear their stories! It was also great to meet another young judo player who is deaf and also visually impaired ! Whilst I had seen him around and about at various competitions I had no idea that he was also VI! I'm looking forward to training more with him in the future and developing coping strategies and techniques with him!!

Can't wait for the next part in August when I get to go to the Olympic Village (When the games are on!!!) and get to learn all about the Paralympics and get to experience the games themselves!!!

Bit of a news report below on the programme.

Watch this space for more info after August!!

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/Judo-Jack-joining-80-athletes/story-16248172-detail/story.html

Sponsors

I am really fortunate in that I currently have 2 sponsors to help me on my journey to judo success

Hearing Help Ltd from Lincoln (www.hearinghelpltd.co.uk) have really kindly given me a superb set of hearing aids, that enable me to train without the hearing aids cutting out (like my last set did ALL THE TIME!!) This was possible because of he generous folks over at Widex (www.widex.com) and they have made such a difference! for those without a hearing impairment you probably think that it is nice and all that to get something given to you, but believe me its like going from driving a clapped out old banger to driving a ferrari!!! Superb!!

Everyone Active at West lindsey Leisure Centre let me use the gym and swimming pool for free! As we all know fitness doesnt just come with no work at all so its great that my local leisure centre recognise the need for me to train!!

Now, if only Crosshatch needed a new male model.................................................................................

My first blog :)

So, here it is, my first blog - you might ask why? I often do!! But I thought that now would be a good time to start charting my progression in judo so that  I can look back in the future and see what I accomplished, what difficulties I overcame and the fun I had along the way!

Im 15 years old (1996) and live in Lincolnshire. I started judo at the age of 6 and have competed regularly since then. I am currently a brown belt, and also a Gold standard junior referee and timekeeper.

In Oct 11, I was selected to join the England cadet Judo squad and have been loving it ever since!

Now, all that is fine and dandy, but life also threw me one heck of a curveball in the diagnosis of a condition called Ushers Syndrome. Its pretty rare (which makes me special!!), and basically means that I am profoundly deaf, and also have a degenerative eye condition. I currently have only 10 degrees of vision (central) and no peripheral vision at all (which as you can imagine is a bit of a challenge when it comes to judo!). I have no vision at all in low light/darkness and suffer from glare blindness in bright light! What a great combination eh!!!

So whilst I compete in mainstream competitions, I am actually a B3 competitor which means I can compete in the VI (Visually Impaired) judo side of things. I am currently in touch with the Paralympic judo manger, and the 'dream' outcome is that I get to compete in 2016 and onwards in the Olympics!! Of course that will not happen overnight, I've got a lot to learn, and a lot of fitness to improve on!! Its gonna be tough but I want to show that having this condition does not mean that I cant do anything!! I want to smash that negative ideal and have a great big cherry on the top of it :)