When the going gets tough - I - get going

Selection 2016 didn't go to plan for me (I’ll come come back to that in my next blog.)

I spent the last few days riding out the emotions of disappointment but I tried my best and little mistakes are costly at a high level!

To everyone that made teams it's just the start of an awesome opportunity! Embrace and enjoy it!

For those who didn't...remember why you started and why you do the sport and come back stronger next year.

Nobody wants to read about the ups and downs, the turbulent feelings and the parent’s emotions in a blog…which is what selection is surrounded by. You put your all into a sport, you care a lot and it comes with those peaks and troughs: whether it’s injury, a missed place on the team or just a bad day in the office. Therefore coming into selections I put a bit of work into the whole bigger perspective ‘thing’ – trying to control the pressure that is selection the be all and end all in the pretty much first race of the season: meaning it’s over before it’s started ß see not a good perspective for not making the team. I'm lucky to have hobbies outside canoeing I am equally passionately about – but my canoeing is the back bone of what drives and challenges me. Being brought up by Parents who love the outdoors has given me a very rich childhood. I STARTED HILL WALKING WHEN I WAS 5 – could this have been torture? But I still plan to go home once a month to do this. Along with: Running, Mountain biking and Sea kayaking all over the Highlands of Scotland.

What I'm trying to get at, although I want to aim high in my canoeing, is that I can also be happy without it. (That sounds like I'm quitting – I AM MOST DEFINITELY NOT - read the title). I was just trying to put a different spin on the outlook of selection - in quite drastic measure now that I'm writing about it. But it worked, along with other psych techniques and following a solid race plan, on the start line I was in my Ideal Performance state (IDS).

Not making the team is more than disappointing but it only drives that hunger inside me to keep going and prove I can keep progressing and strive to be that top paddler.