WORLD SPEED PRESS CHAMPIONSHIPS 2009

Got a dodgy knee? Unable to run? No problem...

WSP 2009-12-27

On a cold crisp Sunday between Christmas & New Year a group of sports fans huddled together in LB1 in three bridges in the south of England for some festive fun. We ere there to raise money for charity and witness the birth of a new sport. The 1st WORLD SPEED PRESS Championships 2009!

The event had three main goals, raising money for Help For Hero’s, for Paralympics GB (more specifically the Sitting Volleyball Team) and finally to have as much FUN in the process.

A mix of individuals turned up to enjoy themselves. From an England Rugby player, An American over visiting family for xmas, Random Barney who walked in the Pub,
A Commonwealth gold medallist to the event organiser’s mum (roped in 5minutes before). Spectators, cousins, parents and friends all ended up getting involved with the fun atmosphere. This lead to an extra “LAST MAN STANDING” event that saw everyone involved on the floor wrapped round the bar in a mexican wave style press up until everyone dropped & the winner Eli Garrett (USA) was revealed!

The 2009 1st World Champions are:
Sam Twoomey (U/18 – 62)
Christina Walker (Women – 38)
Patricia Walker (50+ Women – 7)
Dave W.J.W. (50+ Men – 61)
Adam Walker (MEN – 103)

No world record this year, but everyone has a full year to get ready and next year the event will be bigger & better with a whole year as a run up to gain support.

Massive thanks go out to LB1 for hosting the event supplying prizes and they will also be donating a percentage of their sales to WSP 09. Thanks to Adrian Bailey who stepped in at short notice to MC the event, the ref, timekeepers, members of Crawley AC and friends & family who turned up to show their support.

If you did not manage to make it on the day, all competitors are still collecting sponsorship for the next week and with this money still to come in we are aiming to double the money raised so far! If you want to donate to the event please contact SportSpeedAcademy@googlemail.com we are also already looking for local businesses as sponsers for next years event WSP 2010!

The original idea for the event was born three months ago, inspired by some Irish lads in New Zeland and out of a local sports fanatics in-ability to run since a rubbish injury!

Think you know who I'm talkin about...

Hope you had a quality 2009!

Signing out for the year,

THE KNEE GUY

STRONG MIND, STRONG BODY.

Morning all,

HERE IS A BLAST FROM THE PAST, DECEMBER 2008 FROM RAINY ENGLAND:

Early start to the day, up and out by 6.30am, going early training? Early coaching? Nope, up to Windsor and the Princess Margret Hospital for an MRI on my lovely (slightly mis-shaped) knee.

An improtant day, well the results in a few days are more important!
Just another "Fun" outing since my freak accident on August 9th. The local newspaper ran an update on my knee this week (must be a slow week for news) and I thought I'd pass on the story and keep you guys updated. Here's a few bits...

Walker fights back from the brink

Dislocated kneecap, torn knee ligaments, season over. Adam Walker's athletics future was looking pretty bleak as he lay in agony on the pole vault runway at Eton.
Foremost in Walker's mind is trying to return his knee to full working order. A full 15 weeks after it happened, he is coming to terms with just how badly the joint is and is finding it as much a mental battle as it is physical.

"I have been having two to three hours a day rehab and now the injured leg is as strong as the other one. My quads are stronger than they were before the accident.

The injury has left Walker's knee severely weakened, and its vulnerability was highlighted last week when he slipped slightly on a wet floor and damaged his anterior cruciate ligament - the front ligament in the knee.

"I'm so gutted," he says. "I have been really careful but it looks like I have now overstretched or partially torn the ACL. It has put me back about three weeks to a month and my limp is back.

"You can't fix it quickly which is frustrating and there's no chance of me having an indoor season now. I'd be more upbeat if I thought I could be jumping by the time of the outdoor season. It's 15 weeks since I did it now. For 11 weeks it was improving so quickly, getting better day by day. But the thought has popped into my head: 'What if I don't get better?'"

Walker is keen to avoid the fate of one of his friends, who suffered a career-ending injury at the same venue eight years ago and still limps.

But he can at least see a silver lining.
"I didn't land on my head so I am happy about that but they thought I had broken my leg, that my tibia had snapped. I was happy to see there was no blood."

It was an unhappy end to what had been Walker's best season, setting a new personal best of 4.65m in Dublin and also becoming the Sussex senior champion. He intends to return to the Irish capital, believing the size of the competition and the crowds helped him reach that PB.

"I would find it a lot easier to retire after five metres," he admits.

"To clear that is a question of technique and belief. I cleared 4.65 in Dublin and thought, 'Brilliant, I must have scraped it'. But my coach said I did it easily, so I had a pop at 4.75 and in three attempts I got lots of height but came down on the bar."



Anyway guys, as I lay inside the MRI tunnel this morning (a cross between a building site and standing next to a music speaker experience) I thought, this is rubbish & wondered why I didn't feel worse? Sure I have bad days & I'm angry about the knee, but mentally I'm positive, working round the problem and focusing on getting it better. Slowly the body is getting the idea and catching up! Have to mention helping "mini-me" sportspeople is a massive help aswell! Hopefully YOU can avoid some of the injuries that I have had and learn from my mistakes. The mind is the most powerful Sports Performance tool...

"BECOME STRONG IN MIND & THE BODY WILL FOLLOW"

Adam Walker
TheKneeGuy

PS: IF YOU WANNA CHECK OUT THE FULL STORY ALONG WITH SAD PHOTO'S OF ME! HERE IS THE LINK BELOW (copY & paste it into your browser).

http://www.thisissussex.co.uk/crawley/sport/Walker-fights-brink/article-503354-detail/article.html

LET ME KNOW HOW YOUR DOING IN YOUR SPORTS AND ABOUT ANY INJURY WORRIES??

Get Back Up!

Whatever your injury is...
Whatever barriers it puts up...

Get back up

Find a way.

Minimal Disabled... ME?

Morning!

Its a new week, time to crack on! Since my knee "issues" were classified perminant and I'm starting to accept it, things have been happening fast!

It goes back to my philosophy, EVERYONE has a talent. In what, I don't know, but its there somewhere! Most people don't spend enough time truely searching for it and if they do they don't fully develop or commit to it. Thats one of my pet hates...
WASTED TALENT! I see it every day & it stands out like a sore thumb to me as I know what to look for & have seen that top people in whatever field they choose are not superhuman, they just have belief, determination and have found their talent!

Whats yours???


Anyway, enough of my early rant, back to what I started to talk about, Busy, Busy, Busy.
Called in by my physio mate Stuart to work with the Surrey Development Squad for X-Country from 10am today. Why the SpeedFreak for X-contry you may ask? Because Speed is esential for ALL sports! Find me a X-Country runner with NO SPEED and you'll find a runner who gets all his/her hard work undone in the last few minutes of the race as everyone FLIES BY!!!
Not a fun experience (School X-Counrty team me '94, WooHoo).

Then onto 1st GB Volleyball (weekly session) in Central London, never a fun place to travel to around rush hour, great. But if this journey was easy, I wouldn't be interested and everyone would be doing it, not the point of elite level sport!
If I every make it to my destination tonight, it will not be wasted & I'll SMASH it as hard as I can and see what happens... wish me luck & I'll see you on the other side ;)


Whatever your doing, keep moving forward!

Let me know how your doing??
Leave your comments as I am genuinely interested..


The KNEEGUY

Inside Sports - Sitting Volleyball

MORNING!
I MADE THE GB SQUAD!
CHECK IT OOT!

PARALYMPIC POTENTIAL?

MORNING!

If you've been following my adventures in rehab over the last 14 months you'l know my knee is mullered!

Anyway I love basketball, so decided to finallly bite the bullet and contact England Wheelchair basketball about my situation. Next thing I know I'm invited along to the Paralympic potential day @ Brunel to try out for all sports I qualify for!!?

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had to go to each individual sport on the day & they assessed if my condition was deemed bad enough for their sport.



THIS WAS DEFINATELY A WIN WIN SITUATION AS IF I QUALIFY, COOL.
IF NOT, EVEN BETTER AS IT MEANS I'M NOT DISABLED ENOUGH, ALSO COOL!

I'll let you know how it went, soon.

THE KNEE GUY

KNEES FOR LIFE!

Hello!

If your interested in having good knees for life & working with what life has dealt you, having a full and optimal life no matter what the current state of your knees, you've come to the right place!

Through my own experiences over the last 20 years, I have reluctantly turned into a knee expert through the situations I have found my self in. I'm confident I am managing to have a good KneeLife even though I have had a tough journey to get here! I hope you will not have to struggle spending as much time and money as I have to get to a place where you are happy with your knees and can have a FULL KneeLife!

Thanks for checking us out & I hope just one piece of information you find on here improves your current KneeLife! Iknow it will ;)

Yours in Knees,

THE KNEE GUY!