Top judoka Euan Burton kicks off his Sky Sports blog ahead of the World Judo Championships in Paris.
Hi everyone, I'm Euan Burton, Britain's number one judo player at 81kgs and I'll be blogging for Sky Sports right the way through to the London Olympics.
I'm just about to leave for Paris and the World Championships, but before I do let me introduce myself properly and let you know what I aim to achieve in judo in the coming weeks and next year's Olympics!
I took up judo when I was six years old; my mum and dad took me down to a judo club down by my gran's house actually, one of the reasons I think was that I was quite quiet as a kid so possibly they thought judo was the type of sport to bring me out of my shell a bit.
I instantly took to the sport - I played a lot of other sports and you can't quite put your finger on it, but judo was always the one I loved and kept on going back to and always wanted to do.
We had quite a tight knit group of players who quickly became one of the strongest young groups in Scotland. I didn't win any of the first competitions I entered but I remember I got a bronze medal in my first ever competition - and everyone likes to win a wee medal especially when you're a kid so that kept me coming back for more.
I had a real passion for the sport, and I always loved going back to training - I still do now, I love the training at judo, especially the sparring which is competitive and that is what keeps me interested at all times.
I won the British junior title in my last year as a junior, got some quite good results, but then I went into the seniors which was quite a tough transition as you're then fighting men and that was a few years of hard slog. It's also when I went full-time as a judo player.
When I was 22 or 23 I was British senior number one, I went to the European Championships as British number one and I'm very proud to say I've never missed a major competition and I've always gone as British number one in my weight category.
It's been a long hard journey but I've enjoyed every step of it and my passion for the sport is as big as it's ever been, if not bigger, and that means that even as a 32-year-old I still enjoy going to my job every day.
Training
My training varies slightly but a general week if we're at home - I spend lots of time away in competition or at training camps - I train on the outskirts of Edinburgh at Judo Scotland's national dojo. A general week is technical drills or technique training weekday mornings 9.30 until 12.
A typical afternoon is doing strength and conditioning work, most of the time that will be in the gym with some sort of torture routine the strength and conditioning coaches have dreamt up for us to keep us pushing ourselves. On Tuesday and Thursday we have our main randori sessions, which is basically like sparring; we have two hours of fighting with the guys we train with.
On Wednesday evenings I teach a session for the best youngsters in Scotland, and on a Monday and Friday evening I try to relax a little bit. I don't get a lot of time off but that's good for someone like me as I really enjoy the training and always feel like I should be doing more. I always want to be on the mat.
Away from judo, there's not a huge amount of spare time. I love all sports but unfortunately I don't get time to play them very often, I like to play a round of golf if I get the chance, I love playing basketball but there's not many times when you can get enough people around to play a game. And I used to play five-a-side football but when you play with such competitive people like we are it can become over competitive so I had to knock that on the head.
I'm lucky enough to live in Edinburgh which is a beautiful city, when there's a tournament coming up and I'm not allowed to train hard or eat a great deal I like to go for a wee wander where I live by the coast outside Edinburgh, just helps to relax when you've got a full-on job which is not exactly a nine to five.
Heroes
As a kid, Neil Adams was the man as he was winning medals in judo so he was definitely an idol of mine. As I mentioned I played a lot of basketball when I was a kid so obviously Michael Jordan was another one of my heroes. Today I like people like Rafael Nadal and Manny Pacquiao, who are both the best of the best but are very humble.
On the Olympics, I can remember really vividly watching Linford Christie and Sally Gunnell in 92, the 'Gunnell goes for gold, Gunnell gets gold' or something like that, when I hear that commentary even now it still gets the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.
I was about 12 then and at that age I was just beginning to appreciate what remarkable performances they were and realise just what being an Olympic champion could feel like.
After the World Championships I'm going to have a long period of recovery time; in order for me as a 32-year-old to give my absolute best in London I really need to also be able to push really hard in the build-up to it, and I think if I kept training as I am now my ability to push through to London might be impaired.
So I'm looking to take two or maybe three months of pure recovery and just get a sound base of work in the gym, so then from December time the real push of hard intense training comes before the last three, four weeks before the Games it'll be pulled back to get that hunger to be back on the mat.
London's still a long, long way away for us. I know the media has started the hype on London already but as athletes it's a long way away and if you're focused too much on one event your focus can be taken off your real job - which is to be the best athlete you can be.
The target is to be Olympic champion, there's no point going into a tournament and targeting a silver or bronze medal. If I'd never won a world medal then it'd be completely unrealistic and people would think I'm a fool, but I know it's a realistic aim.
I know I can achieve Olympic gold, will I do it? Well, that's why it's sport, people watch sport because it's exciting and you don't know what's going to happen. I would never guarantee I'll be on top of the rostrum, but I think it'd be stupid to go into an Olympic Games not aiming to win the gold medal.
Yes if I win the World Championships I'd be thrilled but I wouldn't take it for granted that I'll win the Olympic Games, likewise if I lose first round or don't win a medal yes I'll be very disappointed but I'll still feel I can go on to become Olympic champion.
Right I'm off to Paris now, watch out for my upcoming video blog from the World Championships on
skysports.com.
