Profile

In 2014 I participated in a Talent Identification scheme called ‘Girls4Gold’. After a series of tests on my physiology, biomechanics, physical performance and psychology – all of the science – my results pointed me towards Sprint Kayaking. This was interesting as I had previously spent the last 8 years as a Rower!

Since being selected to train as a full time athlete with British Canoeing, I have been lucky enough to travel for training camps and competitions. Some highlights include competing in Canada and Germany, in particular winning a Bronze and Silver medal at the Essen International Regatta earlier this year.

I live in Nottingham with two of my friends and our house dog Lola, and train at the National Watersports Centre.

You may be wondering what kind of Science is involved in my training, so I’ve listed a few areas below that all contribute towards what it takes to being a World Class Athlete:

Physiology – how my body is trained to do what is required for my sport

Nutrition – how I can fuel myself in order to train and compete effectively, and to support the physiological changes I am trying to make

Psychology – how my brain can help me both in performance and the perfect formula for racing, but also how it can effect the success of a training session

If you would like to know more about how Science helps athletes to achieve, or the science behind training, then please ask me!

There are a lot of things that have to be done in order to get the most out of each day at training, from the moment I wake up, right through to the last few minutes before bed.

Typically I wake up at just before 7am, and complete my morning monitoring form. This goes straight to our support team and flags up any injury or illness which might affect training that day. We start at 8.30am with an hour of stretching, warm up exercises and a brief discussion about the day ahead.

Generally I will complete two harder training sessions each day, with slightly lighter ones between. Most mornings we start with our on water training, followed by a fitness session. In the afternoons we head to the weights room, and complete our strength programme with a conditioning session before or after; this is normally pilates or yoga.

All of our training is monitored and our Strength and Conditioning coach works with our Technical coach in order to pull the data from each session to dictate what our programme entails. There is science behind everything we do on a daily basis, whether it be using video analysis to feedback to our physiotherapist on how we can improve our body, or the food we eat and our nutritionist helping us to make sure that will enable the best performance.