Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Discipline is as soon as you wake up in Judo, because you have to be on it,
00:04especially at this level, you have to be on it every day, every second, you have to be ready to go.
00:10I started Judo when I was around 13 years old, which is considered a bit of a late start.
00:36For a period of time it was just something to get me active and stuff like that, but it quickly turned into something that I loved doing.
00:46Judo is definitely my main sport. I got into the sport of Judo when I was about 9 or 10 years old.
00:51I competed for a good few years as a youngster, just enjoying it.
00:56I started Judo at the age of 5. I was quite shy, a young lad.
00:59Judo was like the constant in my life. A lot of things was leaving my life, a lot of things I had to stop, like rugby.
01:06I was trying to train to be a mechanic, I was trying to live a teenager's life.
01:11Judo was the one constant thing there for me, got me through that really difficult time in that period of my life.
01:20It starts off, you go, you train one day a week and then it quickly spiralled into,
01:24OK, there's an opportunity to train 2, 3, 4, 5 days a week.
01:28In 2016 when the Judo was being shown for the Paralympics, I saw Sam Ingram, Jack Hodgson, Christopher Skelly and John O'Dray.
01:36It gives me goosebumps still to talk about it because I was just kind of like that and I was like, I want that to be me one day.
01:48I think you have to be very disciplined to do Judo.
01:51Especially at this level, you train every day. You've got either rehab or prehab in the morning with kind of randori after that,
01:59straight into gym, conditioning, technique or any extra stuff you want to do in the evening.
02:03So you have to be really disciplined in how you are between sessions.
02:06That goes down to recovery, that goes down to what you're putting in your body to fuel you for the next session.
02:10So discipline is as soon as you wake up in Judo because you have to be on it.
02:16Especially at this level, you have to be on it every day, every second. You have to be ready to go.
02:25Discipline is really important in Judo and in sport in general.
02:28In the actual discipline of a martial art, you've got boundaries, you've got rules, but at the same time, it's a combat sport, you are fighting.
02:37So it's why a lot of us love the sport as well, the physicality of it.
02:41I feel like I've got a bit of a unique circumstance, that kind of almost like forced discipline upon myself
02:47because alongside the journey that I have been through with Judo, I've also dealt with the condition of epilepsy.
02:54And for a long time, that was very much like I was trying to be an athlete, but epilepsy was kind of taking the forefront of my lifestyle.
03:08Being an athlete, you are restricted on what you can eat. You have to eat well, you have to sleep well, you have to recover well.
03:13We push our bodies hard physically every day. Mine was, at one time, I was probably pushing my body as hard off the mat as I was on the mat.
03:20It really helped get everything under control, you know, like touch wood now, I'm four and a half years seizure free.
03:25This cycle has been my first clear run at a Games. That's extremely exciting.
03:30And if it wasn't for having that discipline and the sport of Judo in my life, I'm not sure I would have had that control now.
03:38I think the biggest misconception still about being a Paralympian is your disability.
03:45And I think sometimes, you know, outside of these walls especially, you tell people you're a Paralympian and they start eyeing you up to see what limb you're missing.
03:54And for me, a bit of a misconception is probably singly about being visually impaired as well.
04:01And focusing in on the fact that just having a visual impairment can get you, you know, where you want to be in Paralympic sport.
04:07With this life, you do have to make the hard choices in life. You know, I've missed weddings, I've missed birthday parties, I've missed funerals.
04:15Because when you have to get to this level, you have to make the hard choices.
04:18And, you know, Judo has to come first because to get to a Paralympics, you have to commit your whole life to it.
04:23Me and my coach, a couple of years ago, we actually created this level of discipline by using the phrase being in the room.
04:30If I'm at home, I've got my dad hat on, so I'm in that room.
04:35If I'm here, you know, it's Judo time. And if I'm at work, you know, it's work time.
04:39So I tend to use them boundaries to create that sort of concentration in the moment.
04:46You don't always want to get up on a Saturday and go to the gym.
04:49Even when you wake up some days in the week, do you know what I mean?
04:53But as long as you're getting up, you're showing up, that's your discipline right there.
04:57Just being able to show up every single day and put the work in.
05:00When you are having a really tough day, you know, you've just got to keep getting yourself up and keep going forward.
05:05And there always is people there for you and to be there for you and support you.
05:09So I think, you know, if you are having a tough day mentally, just keep getting yourself up and keep moving forward and you will get through it.
05:17I am Chris Skelly.
05:18I'm Evan Malloy.
05:19And I'm Powell and you've just watched How To Train Like A Paralympian.
05:22With Independent TV.
05:23Ta-ra!