E&A championship u21 2016

Tonight is the closing ceremony of the European and African u21 and disabled championship. This means that all the preliminary and final rounds have been skied and all medals have been distributed. A good time to look back at how I skied this week and what I want to take away from this competition.

The week started off with some training and familiarisation sets on the competition site. This is to get used to the water and if all goes well, gain a little confidence before the competition. In the slalom familiarisation, I crashed and had to stop the already short training set of 5 minutes even earlier due to the pain. I wanted to do too much and flew over my ski, after which my boot clicked off and I landed on the top of my ski with my knee. Initially I was afraid I had opened another scar that I have on my knee from before last Europeans, but luckily it was just the hit that was hurting. That afternoon I had had some time to rest and I skied my trick familiarisation. Both runs went really well and I even almost completed the last trick of my toe run, which is one I’ve never before completed and it is in my run just in case I do finish it in competition and get some bonus points. I was happy and newly confident after being quite upset with a slalom crash, which is not a great feeling to go into a competition. The next day was the jump familiarisation in which I jumped 22.1 meters, only 90 cm under my personal best and with some great coaching from Michael Kjellander, who has won world medals!

On Thursday the competition really started, first up was the slalom preliminaries. The fact that I fell in the last training was still in the back of my mind, but with some encouragements from my team and the French team, I was ready to fight for  a new PB. I had a very relaxed and well executed first pass, which I was happy with, because I started on a faster speed than usual. After came my second pass, on which I fell in the last training, but other than that I usually run this pass. I was relaxed on the first few bouys and it

was looking like I could finish the pass, but then I was a bit late at the fifth bouy and I tried to rush the turn. Because of that my upper body went down straight into the water and that was the end…. Next time I just have to keep calm and trust that I will have enough angle to get to the last bouy no matter how late I am. This is something that I also learned in training and started working on, but I had too much stress from the competition to be able to think about that. This fall landed me in 16^th place, just short of the top 15 that I was aiming for for this competition.

I had the entire day to deal with this disappointment, because tricks started on Friday. Luckily the other skiers were a good distraction on Thursday. I was up for tricks early in the morning and I felt ready. My tricks in practise are very stable, so the only hurdle was to deal with the competition stress. The first run went really well, I did all my tricks in my hand run and it felt like they were in time. This added some pressure to the second run. When I went on the boat to change skis for my toehold run I felt so much stress being released from clearing my first run that I was shaking. When I started my toehold run, I didn’t feel ready. I went for the first trick anyway and I fell… this means 0 points in my toehold run, which is worth the most points out of the two. I had never fallen on this trick in competition so this was a great disappointment. When I got my score of 1360, I knew I had done a good hands run and was on my way to a PB if I stood up my toeholds. Only my last trick was ‘ no credit’, it was disapproved by 3 out of 5 judges. This, along with getting over some competition nerves, is something to work on for the next competition. With this score I was last, and didn’t get the top 10 space I was aiming for and which would’ve been well within reach.

Finally on Friday as well was jump. Here I felt much less pressure, even though in all disciplines I was skiing for my own PB and not

per se for the competition. Most likely it is because you have three jumps, whereas if you fall in tricks or slalom, it’s over. My first jump was 21.9m, my second jump was also 21.9m, which was so bizarre, I thought the measuring system was lagging. After some tips for the third jump I tried to focus on them and because of that went very early. When you are early, you have to slow down before the ramp, which means all the built up speed is essentially lost. This jump was less far, so 21.9m is my jump score, which got me 9^th place.

Even though there were not many in the #teamNL, everyone was watching live stream and staying in contact through every social media there is!

Overall the main idea is that I need more competition experience to be able to deal with the nerves that I was feeling. I am upset that I did not ski a PB or even close to what I wanted in slalom and tricks especially. However, I am very motivated to go back and train hard and do more competitions. New PBs will be set soon!

Arrived in Norway!

This week, or to be precise, Friday night, I arrived in Norway with my parents. It was a long drive that started Friday morning at 3 am. I have my drivers license, but I’m only allowed to drive with a more experienced driver and only in the Netherlands until I’m 18. To still drive part of the 1400kms I drove from our house to the German boarder. This was a fun new experience to drive this early in the morning. After I did my half hour, my parents had to drive the rest and I slept for more than half of the drive. At around 7 at night we arrived at our cabin, which is a really cool cabin, luckily since we will spend our holiday here for 2 weeks, not just for the Europeans. 

On Saturday we had some time to

explore the area and do some groceries. Whilst doing groceries I ran into a really cool poster. There was a banner of the Europeans at the square where the shops were. It's not a big town where we are, so it's cool to see that this event is really alive.

For Sunday I had a training set on the lake to get used to the area and this also helps me get rid of some nerves. Even though it wasn't very busy and there was almost no one else training, my set was at 9 am, so Saturday I went to bed pretty early, especially since Friday was a weird and tiring day. This was for a good cause, because in the training set I immediately ran my first 3 passes, which I was really happy with, because this is already more than I managed to do at nationals. These trainings sets are per 15 minutes, but 15 minutes is quite long to be training just one event, especially just before competition. Therefore I decided together with the national coach to change from slalom to tricks after 4-5 runs. There was not much time in between, because every training minute is rather expensive. This is the first time I switched from slalom to tricks this fast and it felt really weird to suddenly be going half the speed on a ski half the size. Even though I needed a bit of time to adjust, I did my run without falling the first time. This gave a lot of confidence for the competition. The only thing is that I felt as if I did my run really slow, but this turned out to not be the case, so that was probably because the boat and movements are much slower than in slalom. In my jump training I had to get a bit used to all the buoys that were in the area, but after the first jump I understood the timing and I could work on building confidence before and on the ramp.

Since the trainings sets went really well, I have more confidence in the competition. This helps to get rid of some nerves. This is necessary since I am not here with a big team. The Dutch delegation is just me and one skier in the disabled Europeans. Contrary to last year, where there were more people and also my age. Since we did many other things together too, there was less focus on the competition. Now I feel more

pressure of the competition, so it is good to gain some confidence in skiing. We also went to do some sight seeing in the area, because Norway is really beautiful, and we want to have the feeling that we are in fact on holiday. This also helped in the distractions a bit. 

I'm very excited for the competition, where I am aiming for new PBs in all disciplines!

National champion overall

Looking back at nationals today definitely comes with some mixed feelings. In the training on Saturday, it was clear that the water conditions were quite difficult. Due to a high level of the water, backwash was a huge problem. This means that the waves the boat makes, come back into the course when you want to start your next run. After the boat has been going for a while, the water is very difficult to ski on. In my first time slaloming, I did 5 bouys at the 16 meter line, where I should have done all 6. Since the conditions were very tough, this did get me the title of national champion for the under 21 women.

Crowned national champion by my mom

The second time in slalom I was expecting to run 16, since I was so close last time. Instead of this, the wind started blowing really hard and very inconsistently. This makes it hard to compensate for the wind whilst skiing. I skied very far under my personal best, I was so disappointed that I didn’t even realise how many bouys I had at the 18 meter line. After me, my biggest competition skied, she also couldn’t pass the 18 meter line, but we both didn’t know how many bouys we had. It turns out that we skied exactly the same, which means we had to ski a tie-break, because there has to be one national champion. In the tie brake we both still had trouble running the 18 meter line, since we both made the same mistake at bouy 6. This makes it hard to get to the end gate. We both tried to go through, but she got through and I just missed it, making her the national champion of the open women. In the training on Saturday, I felt good about my tricks, I also timed my runs to make sure they were within the 20 seconds that they are allowed. I was confident and slightly nervous for my tricks in the under 21 category. This is because I was far ahead of my competition due to my slalom results. I am not able to beat her in jump just yet, so I needed to put up a good trick score. I did a good first run, but fell at my last two tricks. Then when I went on the boat to change my ski for the next run, I felt a cramp in my right foot. I tried to stretch it out on the boat and continued for my toehold pass. Just a couple of tricks into my toehold pass, my left foot completely cramped up and I tried to continue skiing, but the pain and distraction were too much and I fell. My score in tricks compared to last year is still quite good, but it is far below what I wanted and should have tricked. The same happened in the tricks for the open women category, but now it was even worse. I couldn’t finish my runs and had to accept a score in the 2200. For the jump I tried to not be bothered by what happened in slalom and tricks and just focus on what I could still do. In the category under 21, I jumped a new pb  of 23 meters, which is 2 meters under my goal, but I’m still very happy with it. When it was time to jump for the open category I was exhausted and couldn’t put the power into the jump that I would’ve liked. Still I jumped as far and further as my new pb from last week, so I am consistently improving. In the end I am the new national champion in slalom and overall in the under 21 women and got second in all other disciplines in under 21 and open women. It leaves room for improvement in titles next year and hopefully in results at the under 21 European and African Championship, which is the next competition!

I didn't forget you!

Today I’m posting my blog on an unusual day, after missing 2 deadlines… but I can explain. The past week and a half have been a rollercoaster of emotions and I wasn’t ready to write a blog about that, or anything else. It started the last days when I was still in Toulouse, I got the news that my grandmother wasn’t doing very well and would probably pass away soon. This was difficult news to deal with, especially away from my family and in a different country. I still had 1 day of skiing, but my mind was rather pre-occupied. Still I tried to make the most out of it and I managed to ski good. Since there was nothing I could do being in France, my coping mechanism was distraction until I got home. When I got to the airport on Sunday, I was told that if I wanted to see her,  I would have to go straight to her, because it was clear then that soon became really soon. This was the first of many difficult decisions that would have to be made. I could go and see her, but she wouldn’t notice and I would have an image of her dying rather than the happy, joking and loving woman I remember her to be. I decided to go home and cherish the memories I have of her. At this point I wanted to write a short blog to still be able to post an explanation of my situation, but I couldn’t get anything on paper. Monday morning I got the news that she had passed away that night. Again I could go see her to say goodbye, but I still didn’t want to have any other memory of her than the ones I have from when she was still alive. Then there was another issue, there was a training planned with the national team Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; should I go or should I stay with my family. I decided to go to have some distraction and train in order to be able to dedicate this weekend’s competition to her. My coach from Toulouse, Vincent Soubiron, also wisely said, I don’t have to be with her to think about her and mourn her loss. This happens in the heart with love and thoughts with your soul. I strongly agree with this and I think my grandma would be happy to see me continue to follow my dream. She always was so proud of what I was doing.

Not quite there yet

The training was hard because my body was still exhausted from the 5 weeks of intense training and on top of that my mind was exhausted from the rollercoaster of emotions. All of this got me physically ill; I got the flu. I tried to train as much as I could on Tuesday and Wednesday and tried to (and did) enjoy the company of the close team that we have in teamNL. I still learned a lot in the training and to have some fun I tried to learn a completely new trick, a wake line back in toehold. Here you have to jump over the line with your ski. I came pretty close in two days, thanks to the great coaching of Coyotte Saintviteux. On Thursday I had to leave the training because this was the day of the cremation. This was beautiful and definitely a worthy farewell. Thursday night I met with a part of the team again to go to France for a competition. This was a weird transition, but another decision I had made and in the end, I’m very happy with this one.

The competition was hard to ski after a physically and mentally exhausting period. Due to the combination of being sick, losing my grandma, intense training and lack of sleep, it was hard to focus and feel fit enough to ski a good competition. With my trainer I decided to ski this competition for my grandma and dedicate my results to her. This was very motivating and even though ideally I needed some time to regain strength, I used the last ounces of strength I could find in my body to ski good results. It helped that I was surrounded by the Dutch team and other close friends I have in waterskiing who took good care of me this weekend, for which I'm very thankful. In the end I skied a great trick run, in which I didn't fall because my runs became very stable in the last 2 weeks of training. However, it was a bit too slow, so 3 tricks were not within the 20 seconds, this cost me 460 points, leaving me with a final score of 2560 instead of the 3080 that I wanted! When I tried to do the second round faster, I went too fast and fell early in my hands run. I will hopefully ski more points at the national championships coming Sunday, though I must not forget that this is a 700 point improvement compared to my best score last year. In jump I thought I was comfortable enough to hit the ramp in the competition without training, because I had done so much training in the weeks before. In the first round of 3 jumps however I noticed that it was slightly different to jump in a different place and that I should have done some practise to be more comfortable and thus more confident to ‘attack’ the ramp and jump further. I fell my first 2 jumps, but the jump after was 21 meters, which is 3 meters more than last year, even though it didn’t feel at all as good as in training. This means there is a lot of potential to be jumping further this year. In slalom I didn’t ski as good as I wanted to, but I skied close to my best last year, which is still good for a first competition. I hope to ski a new PB at nationals, but in the teamNL training, which is on the same lake, I noticed that the water was difficult for slalom. For now I have to force myself to take a break from skiing until Thursday or Friday to give my body some time to recover.

I want to end the blog with the news that I have been officially entered in the European and African under 21 championships that will be in Nway, 21^st-24^th of July. I will be skiing three events for the first time, which is really exciting.

I’m sorry for not posting 2 times in a row, but I didn’t forget you! Coming Sunday I will post about how I skied at nationals, so stay tuned!