Just a note of warning to all team members - As the competition is getting nearer you should all take lots of care and be very controlled if & when sparringand training. It would be a real shame to twist an ankle, tear a ligament or damage yourself in any way.

Those who are near or on a border of a weight category - slowly adjust your diet now, do not rely on starving or gorging on the day of the "weigh in" - your body will adjust better by slow, easy adjustments over a period of time.

The competition is now only weeks away so your training needs to be more dedicated towards higher intensity but lower duration, which means working at full fighting pace but for less time, you are not likely to improve your stamina that much now. The long duration, low intensity (stamina building) training period is now over.

Maintain a good safe stretching regime, lots of gentle stretching, whenever you get 5 minutes spare, stretch out. Add some supplementary oils to your diet, fish oils are great. Cod liver oil is OK but "Eskimo oil" is better, (available from good health food stores) cod liver oil is great for children, Eskimo oil is thicker so better for adults. Kinda like thin oil for petrol engines and thicker oil for diesel engines !!

When training, work on your "dynamics" - switch from defensive to attacking styles, short, sharp, bursts of explosive combinations followed by defensive periods of recovery.

Avoid single punch or kick attacks (unless they are counter attacks) always attack with combinations of punch-kick or kick-punch combinations, double up on kick or punches.

Most importantly - remember Savate is your hobby, enjoy the experience of highest level competition - you can only gain from the experience of representing your country. Bonne chance = Good luck.