Author: grssports

As many of the British athletes are becoming competitive in all Olympic disciplines, Welsh Captain and record-maker Lewis Prosser took the time to speak on a “huge milestone” for himself and his team as Wales qualified for the Hockey World Cup.

“Yeah it was unbelievable, I was just saying to the guys I am not sure what to do with myself, we were hugging each other but I just do not know what to do! You can’t really describe the feeling it just all comes down to those pressure situations”.

After becoming Wales’ most capped Welshman earlier in the week, to qualify for the world cup was the next thing on Prossers mind, but those final few minutes were nothing short of tense.

“Yeah, it was good! Well, we played our game probably 60-70% of the match, but towards the end we were under the cosh. We knew we had to stick together, we’ve held out before so we knew the details we had to do defensively to actually tuck in and manage their dangerous players”.

“Shuttles with Toby making those saves was incredible and some of the boys stepping up to finish the job off was just an incredible job”.

Despite qualifying after their game against Ireland, Wales still had a game the day after to decide the tournament against top seeds France. An idea that was almost beyond imagination come the start of the week.

“As I have said before we have had some good games against France, they are a really tough side but it usually is very competitive when we play them. We are now really looking forward to it”.

“We will go into the game to try and win the game. Obviously we are always going to try to do that, and we want to come away having moved up the rankings and performing the best that we possibly can”.

After becoming Wales’ most capped mens player, a feat his Father achieved himself, leading his Nation to a World Cup qualification seemed to be a perfect week. Before they went and beat top seeds France, and made it the biggest week of his life.

When it comes to visual impairment in sport, not much has ever been spoken on the aids given to those who need it. Welsh Athletics took a turn for the better on this topic performing a guide runners workshop earlier in November and Jana Pacyna told me everything about it, and why it is so vital.

“The important thing first of all is that there is a simple reason to why some people do this. The people they are helping are professional athletes. It is still not heard of very often about the guide runners but they are very important for the athletes to be competing at the best of their ability”.

“A lot of people still see athletes with disability not as elite as able-bodied athletes. This is not the case. Yes the coaches of the able-bodied athletes probably do not get recognition, just as guide runners do not, but they are both just as vital to help the athletes work at 100%”.

On speaking about the vitality of the work needed to help with guide running, Jana went on to talk about the skill that is needed to undertake the role and more specifically how much harder it is than what you might first think.

“As difficult as it is to find people to want to do this, at the same time, it is even more difficult to find the people that are good at that as well. This is because being able to guide someone is not about just running them in the right way, it is about being completely with them, in sync”.

The training aspect of this is something that was considered particularly difficult. As with there being little guide runners out there, they have to learn to be synchronised with more than one runner, and to train someone to do it more than once, was a certain challenge.

“The best thing about these workshops is that we do get people ready to practice to do the real thing, and it is a need. Unfortunately there are still not many of them about, and learning to be in sync with one person is a challenge but greats can do it with more than one. If the workshops can make one of them then it is a success”.

After a third place in her most recent finish in the ‘Elite Women’s’ category in Barcelona, Olivia Mathias talks about how her progression is building to make for a “big performance” for the triathlon at the upcoming Commonwealth games in Birmingham.

“Things have been building up very nicely. Results have been getting better and better the closer we get to the games and I have no reason not to have a bit of confidence right now”.

A win in July earlier this year was a highlight of the season before the next result almost shattered beliefs after finishing 29th, but after a bit of hindsight, it appears to have been a good moment to take a step back and go again.

“Hungary was a great win for myself but at the same time I thought this peak had come too early, it came earlier than I had originally expected. Montreal was almost a good thing even though it was 29th”.

“A lot of people in Athletics are true believers in building momentum and thankfully I can look back at that time and realise I’m ok. The hard work was put in at the right times and now with a good winter I can peak right at the best time”.

Even though the performances are there to fight the corner for her involvement in the commonwealth games, achieving a place on the team is not as simple as looking at the CV.

“The training and everything behind the scenes is as challenging as you can imagine, having a good result here or there yes is a very good help, but the work you put in that not many get to see, that’s where the real work is put in and where you truly earn your place”.

“Every phase is different to. Between Hungary and Montreal to Hamburg and now Barcelona, each phase to train and work is unique. Like a lot of what we see with four year cycles before the pandemic with the Olympics”.

“Certainly Montreal and Barcelona stand out mainly for the altitude and heat. The programmes leading up to each event vary. As much as most will see it still as a swim, cycle and run each event. The scenarios are all unique, you don’t use the same tactics every football game you change depending on what you are facing”.

The South Wales Raiders have been the only American football team in Wales for 12 years and this off season, things are getting shaken up in the organisation. 

After the prolonged period of unknown during the pandemic, most organisations across all sports have taken a huge hit. Before finally returning back to the traditional format in 2022, the South Wales Warriors are making changes, to come out the other side with a new and improved side.

The organisation addressed this when saying, “Following the Pandemic over the last year or so we’ve had a turnover within our club and indeed our coaching staff. Our long term head coach Geraint Roberts stepped down at the end of 2020 before our current head Coach Dean Jackson took over at the start of 2021.”

“We are hoping that by getting extra coaches on board at the club we will be able to recruit more players and spread the current coaches workload out so they don’t have to focus on multiple positional groups.”

This is after standard competition had been put on hold over the pandemic to allow for a more NFL-like structure to be put in place as there is time to allow the transition to take place, hoping for a more professional standard in preparation and results.

“Positional wise we are looking for coaches for some of the key positional groups from Defensive Back, Defensive Line and Running Back. Luckily we have a strong core team but it’s always handy to have extra coaches to help out in practice and on game day.”

Having all this in place come the new season will give the organisation a better approach not only for the team but for the individual players themselves, trying to make a step up and be seen in a sport that has little attention in comparison to others.

“We had an encouraging 3-3 record in our “Return to Football” season this year and we are hoping that we can take the positives and negatives from that into this offseason ahead of 2022 when we return to Division One play and reach the playoffs.”

Only time will tell to see how much of a difference this restructure makes when the season will begin next April if all continues to go to plan. A very intriguing season awaits.