Dissapointments

This weekend I spent two days in at the lake in Handel again to start my training on the water for this season. The results, especially in slalom are quite disappointing to me. The results last week weren’t good either, but since the weather was really nice and it was one of the first times skiing, I enjoyed that anyway. However now the rush of spending my weekends 'down south' and skiing actively since a long time has worn off and the reality of my skiing level is sinking in...

Besides the fact that water-skiing is obviously a very physical sport that requires a lot of muscle and core stability, there is also very underestimated mental aspect to it. One of these aspects is particularly present in the start of the season. After only 4 months off the water I ski a lot worse than when I finished my training in Florida in December. I know that this is very logical seeing how cold it is and thus the muscles can’t reach full capacity, also you haven’t burdened these particular muscles this much in a while, so they need to get used to their function again. I also know that every year before I, have gotten back to the level I was before the winter, so logically I know I will reach that level again this year. All this logic aside, it is still very hard to deal with the fact that you have worked an entire year to reach a certain level and you fall way back again, because of the winter. This can get really frustrating, but you have to restrain yourself from pushing too hard with cold muscles and getting injured. This is a tough element of water-skiing that I come across every single year. This time, I had to deal with it twice. I fell back between the end of the season and going to Florida. Then I improved in Florida, which I honestly didn't expect. But now I fell back again to my level at the start of last season! This is very frustrating and it’s hard to not go all out to get back at that level.

Saturday the wind was still an excuse, but on Sunday

we went to the lake really early to ski with

less wind, it was certainly worth every yawn :) 

Due to the frustrations it is sometimes hard for me to really want to conquer the cold and get back on the water. Every skier has to go through this phase and I know from experience I will get through it. Last year I was entering competitions without have gone through this phase and training enough to get to my normal level. This was a really bad idea as you can imagine and that is why this year I’m putting in a lot of time in the gym and start on the water much earlier. Especially in tricking now, every set I get closer to my 'pre-winter' level, which feels as if I’m learning all those tricks again. Since learning new tricks is one of the great joys of water-skiing for me, this gives the beginning of the season a silver lining for me. And it really isn’t all bad, because getting back out on the water after months of not skiing, gives me the biggest smile on my face, not matter how bad it goes haha.

Then I’d like to end with a quote I remember from Jan Johnson: “Skiing is a really nice sport; you learn to deal with disappointments.... a lot”