Jenna’s Back!

The back injury is much better now. I’ve done my 12 weeks of rehab and I’ve been able to do much more training and work with Olivia again. It’s great to be back.

I was really upset when I first found out about the injury. I love to be training all the time. I can’t sit down and just watch TV, I have to be exercising and be up and about. But we’ve made it through.

I’ve been having lots of massages, trying to loosen up the muscles around my back. I’ve been lifting weights and doing plenty of other work too.

I’ve been forced to move in a different way to how I’ve been moving for the past 13 years. My technique before was causing stress on my back and I’ve had to change. It’s just little things I’ve had to tweak in order to focus on different muscles. Of course, I know how to move in syncro because I’ve been doing it since I was 7. It’s just a case of now remembering to move other muscles, and I always have to remind myself of that.

But as I say, I’ve been working with Olivia again for the past 2 weeks now. It’s just been a case of getting the synchronisation right again, which includes doing a lot of work out of the water. You lose your touch a bit with syncro because it’s such a technical sport and you can lose your balance in the water. It’s all coming back slowly.

At the time of my last blog, the National Championships were about to start and my sister Asha was going to be working with Olivia. They went really well and Asha and Olivia did a great job with the new routine. Asha handled all the pressures of competing in a pair really well and did a good job.

My first competition back is the European Championships in August in Budapest. It’s such a nice place, with a huge, outdoor swimming pool and I’m looking forward to going back.

These competitions are definitely the stepping stones towards 2012. The judges need to see our routines regularly because they’ll probably be marking us in London. We need to keep building that good reputation and build a picture in their minds that we’re solid. We haven’t been seen as particularly strong in syncro in the past so we have a lot of catching up to do.

Jenna Randall