Building a competitive edge

By Isabel Newstead
British Paralympic shooter

My Paralympic preparations are gearing up nicely and I am taking the opportunity to spend some time in Cyprus at the British Paralympic Association training camp.

It gives me a chance to do some warm weather training which will be a great benefit to me in Athens.

It also helps that facilities like the shooting range, gym and the swimming pool are all on site.

Isabel Newstead is gearing up her Paralympic preparations

While I am there, I don't have to worry about what I will eat or spend time cleaning my room - things like that are sorted out for us, meaning we can focus on the job in hand.

I spent a couple of days in Cyprus last year at another training camp and when I saw how good the facilities on offer were, I was keen to get back.

It gives me a chance to make use of things like physiotherapists, psychologists and nutritionists and do some work on my strength and conditioning.

It makes a big change to the way I went to Seoul in 1988 but it would be foolish to ignore all of the science that has come into sport since.

With other nations constantly raising their standards and getting more competitive, it is getting harder for us to maintain ours.

To a certain extent, we are guilty of resting on our past achievements but some of our athletes who have dominated past Paralympics are retiring and we do not always have the strength in depth to replace them.

The main aims for my next two competitions are to test myself under a competitive set-up

I've taken part in two competitions so far - the British Championships and the Scottish Championships and I am now starting to refine the competitive aspect of my game.

In Scotland I shot one score equal to the world record and twice above it but I didn't perform as well in the British Championships.

I was still immersed in my technical training and probably tried too hard and allowed myself get nervous but I am planning on working on that in Cyprus to try to get it out of my system.

After Cyprus, I will compete in Switzerland and Holland in May which will give me my first chance of the year to come up against my rivals for Athens.

At this stage, I am not looking for a big score or to win the events, although that would be nice, but my main concern is to test myself under a competitive set-up.