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One of the biggest competitions used as a stepping stone to further international competitions.  This was my chance to compete in such a competition and see what it’s all about....

Friday 22 May 2015

On Friday 22^nd of May, my mum and I had to wake up early at 4am to get ready for the flight at Heathrow at 7:20am. We left the house at an early 5am for an hour’s journey to Heathrow. Eventually, we reached the airport at 6am with an hour to wait. During this hour we knew we had to go through security and find the correct gate to board. After this long process, we had a few minutes to wait until boarding time. 15 – 20 minutes later, boarding was completed and everyone on the plane had been settled down. As usual on every plane journey, we were all run through the health and safety instructions and then were ready for a 2 hour flight (it was only 2 hours because the German time is 1 hour ahead of Great Britain).

At 10:15am, we reached Munich for a flight change over. Knowing this, we knew we had to hurry in order to not miss the next flight to Dresden. Luckily, we didn’t have to go through security again which saved us a lot of time. We arrived at the correct gate to fly to Dresden just in time and boarded the plane safely. Again we were talked through the health and safety rules.

We reached Dresden at midday. At Dresden airport, we were lucky enough to meet up with our national coach and other friends. From the airport we took a taxi to get to our hotel. At the hotel we finally got our room key and started to unpack and get ready for the days ahead. For the rest of the day we explored the town and found a place to eat.

Saturday 23 May 2015

Saturday was an uneventful day as I was not competing until Sunday. Saturday was for the older competitors to compete. Even though I was not going to compete on Saturday, I was still training in order to get the best position I could. Other than training, I was also observing the level of competitors and how many of the younger competitors could possibly be in my category.

After what seemed like hours of training and observations, I was growing tired and noticed it was 3:30pm. My mum then told me that we should get ready to leave as many had already left and nothing huge was going to happen. I got ready to leave and said bye to my Masters and wished the others luck who still had to perform. For the rest of the day, we were getting ready for Sunday and began to get ready for dinner. After dinner, I had an early night as I needed the energy for my competition.

Sunday 24 May 2015

The big day had come for me to compete as hard as I could. We had to arrive early at the venue for a talk by the National coaches. During this talk they informed us on how well the older competitors did and for us to keep calm for the day as if the nerves got to us, we could mess up.

Eventually, the timetable for Sunday had come out to the coaches and the ones competing today were informed about when and where they would compete. My category was told that we would start the day off at 10am on court 3.

After hearing the news, I started to train as hard as I could and got changed into my suit. We were then told we had three rounds so we would need to at least try to get into the semi finals. Instead of the usual long wait, everything was happening really quickly and soon, one after the other, it was my turn. After my first round, I walked straight off when told to by the ref and saw the look on my Master’s face. Judging from his reaction, I knew that I had done really well. My mum ran up to me and hugged me with joy shouting “Well done! Well done!” After my mum had stopped hugging me, my masters came up to me saying that I should be really pleased as I had just beaten........ THE WORLD AND EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS and was holding 1^st place!!

After this round had been completed the top half of the category was to move on to the next. Pleased with my performance, my Masters came to me and started coaching me on how to improve on my next round. Just like the first round, everything was going fast and before I knew it, I was on again. As this was the semi finals, I had to perform twice. After my performance I walked off the mat and saw the reaction on my Master’s face. From his reaction I knew I had done extremely well, beating the European champion once again. However, the second time had come and the nerves got the better of me. I don’t know what happened but all I knew was that my chance of getting into the final was over. After my chance of getting into the final was over, my Masters came over to me to comfort me and say how well I did and not to be disappointed.

When I knew that I didn’t have to perform anymore, I walked to my friends and Masters who were sitting down in the audience. When I was seated, all of the Great Britain team came to me one by one to congratulate me and say that I had done really well as I beat the European and World Champions. Not only did they congratulate me, but they also told me to keep an eye out for the European Championships.

Although I didn’t win a medal I won the respect of everyone in the Great Britain squad including the eldest members, highest dans and the top rated players. Whilst sitting with my teammates in the audience, my Master, who was coaching me, came up to me and took me outside. He told me on how to improve and gave me really good tips on how to not make the same mistake again.

 After the helpful tips, I sat back down in the audience and realised I had more floor time and started to train with my partner.  Hours of training later, it was my second chance to try and get a trophy.  

This category was not as big as the first but the competitors were at the same level. It was a great experience though and we learnt that we had a lot of work to do if we were to compete in the future against the Europeans, as they were really very good. 

In summary, Germany was a good opportunity to compete in and introduce me to the highest calibre of people and players.  It gave me a lot of insight into what such competitions are about and what I need to do to up my game.  I learnt a lot and gave me a big boost to do well in future competitions.  The comments from my team also gave me a lot of encouragement.

By Hiren Visrolia - Y9