By Natalia Equihua
It was going to be difficult. Two recent injuries had already compromised Sam?s judo training for London 2012. If they wanted to win a gold medal, David Somerville knew that he and his pupil would have to work extra hard. The odds were against them. But to everyone?s surprise, the hard work paid off: Samuel Ingram won silver medal in the 90 kg Paralympics judo.
Last December, former judoka and current high-performance coach David Somerville (left) was honoured with the Coach of the Year award. The news came about at a ceremony on early in Glasgow held by the Scottish Sports Awards.
?It was a pleasant surprise because I was nominated alongside football coaches,? he said. ?It is great for judo to receive this kind of distinction.?
Overall 2012 has been a good year for Scottish judo. Team GB judokas received 4 medals combined in both the Olympic and Paralympic games, all under the mentoring of Scottish coach David Somerville. However, the results are far from the expected, and Somerville takes the team?s success with a grain of humbleness. In an interview for the Caledonian Mercury, he described his London 2012 experience as ?disappointing?.
?Throughout the years I?ve seen other coaches get this award,? he said, ?and now that I got it, it is hard to see how good it is. My experience in London 2012 was not what we expected, but at the end of the road we gained some experience for future competitions.?
In total 7 judokas represented Scotland during London 2012, which represents a considerable number, including Coach Somerville participation as part of the coaching staff. Although the results were far from what was expected, according to Coach Somerville, JudoScotland is already looking at how to get the best results for the next big competition: Glasgow 2014.
As a first step, a young coach has been added to the team. Thirty-one year old Euan Burton who was one of Scotland?s judokas during London 2012, will bring what Coach Somerville has called a ?bridge? between the old and modern way to prepare athletes for Judo competitions.
?This addition brings a lot of potential to go on a new direction,? Somerville explained. ?With Burton we can have better performance because he has a deeper understanding of sport science, sports medicine, and technology that can help us increase our level of competition.?
Although this edition of the Commonwealth games, as others, will not include para-judo events, Coach Somerville mentioned that we should expect to see Sam Ingram representing Scotland as the first disabled judoka to compete for qualification with non-disabled athletes.
On the other hand, Somerville will continue collaborating as a coach for team GB at the next Olympics in R?o 2016. For now, JudoScotland and British Judo have completed several reviews for the next Olympic Games which include ?performance recommendations to make an improvement plan.?
With more than 35 years of experience in Judo, and as an athlete who turned into a judoka out of curiosity, Coach Somerville certainly has decided to change Scottish judo for the better. And if London 2012 results were a disappointment to him, perhaps Glasgow 2014 will see even more success from the already impressive performance of the Ratho-based organization, JudoScotland.
iOS 6.1 yahoo finance BlackBerry aapl Kwame Harris Vine dr oz
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.