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David Kettle's blog - UBSport scholar

Well Easter, as I’m sure it has been for most UoB students, has been a very busy and stressful time. From an academic point of view I’ve been putting the final touches to my dissertation on top of another assignment that was due, begun revision for my finals in the middle of May and started making plans for furthering my studies at UoB next year.  A typical week contains 2/3 gym sessions, 2 running sessions, 2 skills sessions, a recovery session and a massage every other week. Being a USB scholar I am lucky to have all of these sessions supervised and planned for me, helping me achieve my short and long term goals.

April and May held exciting prospects. The culmination of the league season saw us finishing a comparatively disappointing 4th after leading the league at the Christmas break. However, we have lost a number of influential players over the course of the last three years and are very much in transition so whilst it was disappointing, there’s a lot of buzz already for next season. Many of us at Cannock also had our attentions on the GB Super league which was to take place at the end of April, an opportunity for all to demonstrate their talents to the GB selectors. Before this, we headed to Hamburg for the KO16 round of the European Hockey League, to meet our first round opponents and arguably the best team in Europe, Bloemandaal.  Eventually going down 3-1, we gave a very good account of ourselves with the score line probably not really reflecting the nature of the match. Personally, it’s been a frustrating couple of months firstly damaging ligaments in my elbow and then suffering a stress fracture in my wrist which has caused some pain for a number of months now! Missing out on selection for the GBSL was also frustrating and with the next few national training camps held in the middle of my exams, my chances of making my senior international debut this summer are slim.

However, as my wrist is starting to recover I’m turning my attentions to my finals and then heading to Australia at the end of May to play in Sydney, a fantastic experience for both my personal development and also my hockey.  Ill return at the end of August to resume pre-season with my club and hopefully ill be starting with a new challenge, studying either International Business or Marketing Msc. In addition to this I’m excited about competing for Brum in BUCS next year and looking to be playing a big part in Cannock’s push for a top three finish in 2009-2010. My goals for the rest of the year include selection for the European senior indoor championships and also hopefully winning my first outdoor senior national caps. Until then I’ll be trying to ace my exams, secure a 2:1 and hopefully be able to have a night out at some point! My next update will be coming to you from Sydney where we have some tough fixtures for June, so I’ll speak to you then! Good luck for your exams.