Club training

Last week I mentioned that the water-ski-club I joined held training sessions on Sunday’s for skiers aged 18 and under. I want to expand on this, since without it I wouldn’t have done water-skiing as a competition sport. The trainers and boat drivers are all volunteers so I am very grateful that they helped me the way they did. When I first started water-skiing, the other skiers in the training were already quite far ahead. This meant that I could learn from them as well as the trainers. When I got better it was a lot of fun to do small competitions amongst ourselves, which helped us all to get better and better. Through this we also entered small competitions, called the rookie cup. This was especially for skiers that want to get some experience in competitions, but don’t have the ability to compete in the ‘real’ national competitions. The ‘real’ and the rookie competitions were held at the same time and at the same site, so we could meet other skiers who were much better and have people to look up to. This has been great motivation for all of us and I want to expand on this next week.

Even though water-skiing is an individual sport, being with the group every Sunday morning added a team element to it. Spending so much time together and sharing the same passion meant we got very close and had a lot of fun together in between sets. We also went in the boat to watch other ski and encourage them as well as learn from them. I couldn’t have wished for a better way to get introduced to the sport. The trainers taught me a lot about the sport. They helped me with everything I needed to know, starting from how to warm up to how to deal with nerves at competitions. Without this I wouldn’t know that you could save time on the water if you practise on land. This also meant that I didn’t necessarily have to go to the lake to train. I could now practise at home too. Also buying skis and other equipment was quite the task. Since water-skiing is not a really big sport, there are also limited places to get materials, especially in small sizes.

Of course I don’t remember every piece of advice and tip I ever got from these trainers, but there are some things I will never forget. One of our trainers was so passionate about helping us that he didn’t just give tips and tricks after we fell or at the end of the course, he would just shout from in the boat. Every time we had just rounded a buoy, he would scream ‘PULL PULL PULL’, you could barely hear this when you were skiing, but as I said, we would go in the boat with each other… you could definitely hear it sitting next to him!

When I started in this training, I was almost the youngest skier. Over the years, older skiers stopped and new skiers joined. Now I’m the oldest in the training. Last season was the first time I was asked to help train some of the new skiers. Now we have skiers ranging from 5-17 years old which is much more diverse than when I started, when it was 12-14. It is a lot of fun to help train the younger kids and create a bond with them both on and off the water. 

Have a great Valentine’s day everyone!