Great year!

Well 2011 is near its end and I was thinking about how things have changed for me in the last year.

2011 started with me being reminded why I do this job, back in January my best friend and one of the most inspirational athletes I’ve ever met Rosemary Tallon was competing in the IPC world athletics championships in Christchurch, New Zealand. For both of us this was the culmination of 2 years work and training, as she recovered from major surgery in 2009 to compete in both shot putt and discus. Due to a questionable change in classification she was unable to perform at the level that had made her the world number 1 shot putter in 2010.

In February and March, I explored the first of some new training methods I was to learn last year. I have been training with kettlebells for a number of years, but this was the first time I got serious about doing some kettlebell sport training. It proved to be an interesting learning curve and pointed me in a few new directions about how I train both clients and myself. At the end of March I completed my Advanced EKI certificate, big thanks to BJ Rule for taking us through the course it only took me a week to recover so he was going easy that day.

In April I decided to take the plunge and try some I had only seen on YouTube, when I started I couldn’t quite anticipate the effect it would have or the impact it would make. So much so that it was one of the main reasons for me starting this blog. April, May and June were taken up by my Bulgarian Bag certification and that really was an amazing journey, take the time to read my experience of it. It hasn’t just lead me to new skills but has sparked a whole new attitude in my training philosophy and reminded me just how much I loved a big physical challenge. Tommy Mathews and Steve Nave were both excellent, and a big thank you goes out to everybody who made that weekend so special.

I took a holiday in July and in August I was moved to a new flat.

In September I finally decided to get a website, I had been toying with the idea for a while and finally took the plunge since its launch in mid-October it has become a great tool to let people know about me and what I do. The site is growing all the time and my site and twitter feed are getting more popular by the day. September also marked my return to martial arts training. Since I was 7 I’ve been training in one form of martial arts or another and in September I discovered a bujinkan dojo in London that suited my working hours. It has been 10 years since I trained in that art but it has probably been the biggest influence on my training the art teaches you to use whatever works best at the time and not to get set in one way of thinking, hopefully I can live up to that ideal.

In November I was introduced to power clubs and I’m really looking forward to exploring this training method more in the New Year, but first I have a little project. In December I began preparation for my Olympic weightlifting instructor’s cert. That happens the first week in February and I’m already building up to it.

2011 was an amazing year for me, my business grew, I developed as a trainer and things just keep getting better and better. I want to thank everybody who made 2011 so good. I’ve been planning 2012 already first up is Olympic weight lifting in February. There is a lot more to come in 2012 so keep watching and thank you for reading.

Happy New Year.