Hey everyone! It’s my first time writing a blog, so I’ll just jump in. It’s Sunday night here in southern California, just finished homework and now I’m getting ready for what I look forward to the most: A brand new week of training. I have trouble sleeping on Sunday nights, because of the anticipation for the week to start. I love to train, and I am a firm believer that you get out of it what you put into it. Each week is a new opportunity to learn, work hard and get better!

2010 US Open is just around the corner (Feb. 17), and I couldn’t be more excited! I won the 2008 Open, but was unable to attend last year due to a ruptured Achilles tendon. Thankfully, through rehabilitation, patients and mental training I have reached a full recovery and I’m ready for the world again, just in time. This is the last year before the big push for the Olympic Games in London, so it’s important to get as much ring time as possible before 2011 team trials.

People often ask me what I did to stay in the game when I couldn’t train for the first 5 months last year. The simple answer is:  Visualization. I picture everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. I pictured walking up and down the stairs, sprinting, jumping, skipping, anything and everything I could think of. First thing in the morning and last thing in the evening, every day, I had a match in my mind. I pictured all aspects of the match. Some days I would win the match by 7 points and other days I would see a big overtime win at World championships. Everything I saw in the match I did better than before I injured myself. It worked. Ask anyone I have fought since the injury. I am better than before. I’m stronger, faster, technically better but more importantly I am happy again. When you lose what you love to do it ignites an unspeakable fire in you. God works everything to your benefit, and I never thought I would say it, but my 2 surgeries were the best-horrific accidents that could have happened.

Its time for me to hit the sack, but I’ll write again after another awesome week!
Train hard!
Stephen