Paralympics 2012: GB's Terry Bywater ready to roll

After all of the preparation, training, hard work, blood, sweat and tears, I am ready to compete in my fourth Paralympic Games.

I have been waiting for this moment for a long time but it hasn't been plain sailing. Last year I suffered a serious wrist injury, which kept me out of action for four months, and I've had to work hard to get back to full fitness and get onto the team for London.

We arrived in the Paralympic village in London last weekend and the Games organisers have got the whole set-up spot-on. The village is compact and easy to get around and you have to take your hat off to Locog because it is really superb.

There are so many smiling faces around the village and when we met as a team to go training and everyone was wearing the same kit there was a real buzz.

We had the GB team welcome ceremony on Tuesday in the village and when the IPC flag and the British flag were raised and the national anthem played it was a proud moment, especially after all I have gone through to get here.

The rooms in the village are very nice and the organisers have tried to make it as homely as possible. I've got my own room, which is a bonus. I was supposed to be sharing with team-mate Pete Finbow but things have been changed around - maybe Pete has had a quiet word and doesn't want me!

Each block has three bedrooms and living quarters, where the television is. I am in a block with the team mechanic, the physio and team-mate Simon Munn, while on the floor below a lot of the rest of the team are sharing in pairs.

From the balcony in my room I can see the Westfield Shopping Centre and the Olympic Stadium, which is a great sight to see.

We've now trained at both of the venues we will be competing at - the Basketball Arena in the Olympic Park and the North Greenwich Arena - and they are world class venues, just as good if not better than the venues I played at in the last three Paralympic Games.

They are both huge venues and the minute we walked out there, even into an empty arena for a training session, we had goosebumps imagining what it will be like when it comes to the matches themselves.

My family and friends will be at all the games and everyone is really excited. My son Benjamin will be shouting 'Go GB' and 'Come on Daddy' and it will be just amazing.

We start our campaign on Thursday at the North Greenwich Arena against Germany, who we beat in last year's European Championship final, and then play Canada, who were the Beijing silver medallists, on Friday.

It will be a tough start but it is good to begin with those matches. If you want to be the best you have to beat the best.

I'd like to think we could finish in the top two in the pool - that should be our goal. Finishing in the top two could see us avoid Australia or the USA in the last eight, but wherever we finish we will have a tough quarter-final.

Locog have done their job and so have ParalympicsGB, UK Sport and the Games Makers so now it is up to us - we have to go out on the floor and do our thing. The mood in the camp is very confident but we have to take it game-by-game and remember the task in hand.

I am going to love it, enjoy it and give it everything I've got.

Terry Bywater was speaking to BBC Sport's Elizabeth Hudson.