Euros training

First of all, apologies for not having uploaded last week, and too late this week. Last week I was training at Vincent Soubiron ski school in order to prepare for the upcoming European and African championships, but the wifi broke, so I was unable to upload.

The training with Vinney was going really well. I ran my 13 meter pass for the first time since I did it in Nemours, so I was really happy! I had another slalom set that day, so Vinney told me I had to run the 13 meter passs again, but this time 'off the dock', like in a competition. I ran 18 and 16 no problem, then came 14, and Vinney said oke no pressure, but.... you have to run it. So then I did, and after came the real pressure. I really wanted to run that 13, but then again, I'd only done it twice before. I just thought how easy both of the 13s that I ran felt and that I should be able to do it. And I did. I only got to half or maybe 1 bouy at 12, but it felt great to be slalomming  like this just before Europeans. Once I got to the site of the Europeans, I ran 18, 16, 14 easily, even though the water did feel quite different than before. I haven't done 6 bouys at 13 in the training here, but if I am able to at least ski into 13, I should be happy with the results.

In tricks, we decided to change my run back to what I was doing last year, because the 540s I was trying wouldn't be credit in the competition and thus a waste of time. I want to go over 3000 points, so I couldn't do the exact same run as last year. I added a WO, which is a wake 360 at the beginning, to start with some extra points. I normally never train this trick, so I had to get used to starting with it, but luckily the trick that follows is so easy for me that it doesn't matter if I get out of the WO a little bit sketchy. My toe run stays the same, but hopefully I do wrap in wrap out at the end for an extra 200 points. When training in Spain, there was a different boat and my WO wasn't credit anymore. This caused quite a bit of stress. Talisa thought that making my rope a bit longer would help, but I didn't have more practise time to test it. I ended up giving my jump training to Tycho in return for his trick training, because his tricks are so good that he doesn't need more practise than the official 5 minutes. I also wanted my jump training to gain more confidence and figure out the timing, but it is more important to PB in trick than in jump, and also more realistic.

Finally the jumping: at Vinney's, it was going quite well. Sadly on the second to last day before training, I landed with my skis facing inward. I got kicked out of my skis into a front flip and twisted my left leg. Everything from my pelvis, knee and ankle was hurtng and it took the ostheopath quite some time to try and fix it. Still it hurts a bit, but I jumped the day after just to see. I lost a lot of confidence in that fall and when I got to Spain and had jump training, I passed my first 2 jumps. I was in good body position and the timing was oke, but I was just still too scared to go over. After, I really forced myself to go over with a single and a 3/4 straight after. I would have liked to jump more before, but if I jump over my score at worlds, I will be content. I still have the official training for jump, so 2, maybe 3 jumps to figure out the timing of my 3/4, because I was really early the one I did in practise.

Aside from the skiing, the team spirit is absolutely great and we're having a lot of fun together. I can't wait for the competition to start and I really hope everyone skis their best!

Worlds!

"We're at the worlds"

First of all, apologies for uploading a little late, as I was enjoying the last competition day too much, I didn't write it Sunday and on Monday I was really sick, so I fell asleep any time I could.

After the training results at the competition site, I had high hopes for the actual competition. I was performing really well in training and doing exactly what I would be really happy with in tournament. After having a massage and spa day on our last day off before the tournament, I felt that the preparation couldn't be any better. On Thursday, there was quite a lot of wind to consider, but nothing that I didn't train for, so it didn't worry me too much. I had two nice and easy passes to start off with and ran the 18 and 16 meter pass without problems or doubts. I was also able to control my nerves quite well and wasn't skiing really cramped up or safe like I had done in previous competitions. Then time for the 14 meter pass, which is the one I really wanted to run. I had a good gate, which was better than some passes in training. Even with a bad gate in training I was able to run it, so this shouldn't be a problem now. However, at 4 ball I still made a mistake, because I was thinking I had the pass in the pocket already. You should never ever think that before actually having gone through the end gate, so this was a really stupid and unfortunate mistake. I could, and should have done much more and immediately started hoping that I could make a come back at Europeans.

There was not a lot of time to be disappointed with the slalom result, because I had to pin my team mate Tycho Hof in tricks and soon after that trick myself. I was nervous to pin for him in such a big competition, because if you make a mistake, it can ruin their score. I had to pin Tycho on his second trick, so that was quite stressful, but I was sure of my case. Luckily for us, the camera wasn't working and he had to do a rerun for both his hands and toes. This time, he did all his toe tricks, like I'm used to him doing, and also all his hand tricks, so that was a much better feeling for me to start tricks with than my slalom result! In training I stood up my runs every time, so I was confident I would do the same in the competition. I really tried to take my time, because I really just had to make my first sequence, since I fell on it in some previous competitions. Sadly, after doing my first sequence well, I still fell on my 540, losing lots of points in my hands run. Since normally I am able to do all my toe tricks very steadily, I wasn't too nervous for that. I came out of my first tricks a little shaky, but tried to take my time to regain balance. However, I couldn't regain enough stability and still fell early in my course. I ended up with the lowest trick score that I set in a while... I know that with an easier run I can score more points than I am scoring now, but I won't be able to set a PB, so I'm still committed to making this new run work.

My first and only jump... (picture by Lena Klein Hofmeijer!)

Then on Friday it was time for jump. I had high hopes after my PB last competition. The main goal however, was to set a higher second score, because the ranking list is based on your best 2 performances and right now I had 27.6m from the Benelux, but 23.6m as second best score. My timing was pretty good on the first jump, which I was happy with, since that was an issue in training. However, during the landing, I hurt my arm and when I got up, I couldn't even put my arm up to grab the handle... I had to stop jumping and see the doctors. Still, even after watching back the live stream, I don't know exactly what happened, all I know is that it hurts quite a bit. I really hope I will be able to get back on the water soon enough so that I can indeed get my comeback at Europeans. I surprisingly got a score for that jump, because I didn't actually fall, and it was 25.2m, so a better second result for my ranking. Sadly, I don't think it is worth it, because I'm really scared for how fast the recovery will go. I want nothing more than to ski the long awaited PBs at Europeans, but I will have to get back to training soon if I want to do that!

Hopefully I will have some good news next time!

World(s) here I come

After a somewhat dissapointing competition of last week, I wanted to do some more training at home before leaving for worlds. I tried to find time for as many sets as possible, which were mostly trick sets. I couldn't jump at my home lake, but that was the only event that I felt positive about after the Benelux, so that was oke. I did a lot of tricking and was able to repeatedly, so I gained some confidence there. I also tried 1 slalom set, but the course didn't feel the way it should, and I didn't want to get used to a wrong rythm, so I didn't ski more. Still, I felt more secure about it than before, so I was happy to have done it. I also paid 2 visits to the physio to loosen up my back, since it's been under constant tension. All in all I felt more ready than the start of the week to leave for worlds on Saturday!

Since we had a 7am flight, I had to leave for the airport at 2.30, as we had quite a long drive as well. I was hoping to catch some sleep in the car, but I was a little too excited to go to my first worlds! In total I slept 30 minutes before going to the airport, but I was in a surprisingly good mood at the airport. Checking in my bags and going through security went smooth and we had quite a lot of time before boarding. Then at the airport saw the text World, here I come, which I thought was made for us, if you change it to worlds, here I come.

Finally on the plane I was able to sleep a bit after breakfast was served. Our transfer was quick as well, we got off one plane and on the next without having to wait too long, and then I slept again on the second plane. When we landed all our bags were there too, which we really shoudln't take for granted, as some people are still waiting for ski bags after 3-4 days. Afterwards we went to the hotel, which is really great, except for a disco with really loud bass that was playing till 4.30 in the morning. But the facilities are fantastic.

On Sunday we had our first training slot, but it was at 17.00, so we wanted to fill the time before actively so that we wouldn't nap all day. We went to check out down town and  some shopping malls on the hunt for a local sim card. Talisa now has enough internet to live stream the competition, so I will share where you can find that on Facebook soon. Then finally time to ski on the location!! We had 30 minutes with the team, so 2 skiers haha. Since we jump at different ramp heights, we opted for 1 person to jump, then both slalom, then the other person to jump, so that the height could be changed in between. Tycho was going to jump first, so my first set was slalom. There was quite a lot of wind and I didn't adapt enough when I pulled out, so my timing at the gate was a bit off. However, that is the exact reason I start with a really easy pass, so I ran my 18 meter pass. I wanted to do another one, because I want the rythm to feel good as well. After running the next one, I also ran my 16 twice and I started at 14. A bit of a mental issue, after not running it at the last competition or during the week. I fought for it and ran it both passes. It felt good to run it with both head and tail wind, first try, on a new lake. Definitely gained some confidence for the competition. With jumping, it took me a bit longer than Tycho's slalom set to get ready, so I wasn't really relaxt or ready when I had to start. I really didn't feel good, so I didn't jump on my first cut. The second jump I did take, but my timing felt weird. These two cuts were single, so after I did a 3/4, since that is what I want to do on the competition, but I want to feel the ramp with an easy cut first. When doing the 3/4 I cut out at the same point as normally and was wide enough. Still I was at the ramp way too early, so it is clear that the water is easier than what I'm used to and next training I should really go much later than I am used to in order to get to the ramp at the point that I want. I'm curious to see if I can figure out the timing in tomorrow's set.

All in all, really good on site training and great hotel to spend the week in. I'm super excited and will be posting updates on Facebook, so be sure to check that out!

Benelux

We won a trophy full of beer!

Today the Netherlands became champion of the Benelux since a long time. Despite the fact that you can use your teams' 4 best scores, and there were only 3 Belgians and no people from Luxembourg, we still did extremely well representing our country. With many juniors and seniors banking huge points and also open skiers performing really well. For me personally, the competition included many ups and downs.

I spent the whole week at the competition site to train, since the competition site is conveniently also one of the best training locations in our country and I train here a lot any way. It was all going really well. In slalom, I was running 18, 16 and 14 every set and then I did between 2 and 4 on 13. This gave me a lot of confidence and I was sure I would perform a score on 13 in the competition as well. This was also my goal, because I wanted to show myself that I really got over last years issue of not running 14 in competition, despite running it in training almost consistently. Sadly, in the preliminary round of the competition, I was only able to do 3 at 14. I struggled with the timing of the gate, because it is an 8 buoy course, so when you cut out for the gate, there is a buoy where you want to turn in (the 5th buoy going the other way). At 14 I had a lot of trouble with whether I should go around it or in front of it, because ideally I would go exactly over it, but this will put me off balance. In prelims, I went around, but got stressed in the gate and didn't take enough angle onto buoy 1. In finals, I had less nerves going into my passes, so I had a good rhythm on 18 and 16 and ran them really smoothly. It would've been good for my overall if I ran 14 and put a score on 13, especially since I knew what the others had skied. Going into 14, I decided to try and turn inside of the buoy before the gate, because this had worked well in training. However, this lead to even less angle into 1, and I tried to compensate by turning strong. I turned too much in stead and fell on buoy 1, which cost me the overall women's Benelux champion title.

In tricks, I wanted to do my run the way I intended it, and not switched around like last week. I practised it a lot in training and in my last trick training on Thursday, it went perfectly. I did the beginning sequence of my run extremely steady 4 times in a row. My toes run was really steady as well in training, but it has been in competition as well, since I put the less risky 360 in stead of 540 degree turn in the beginning. I still want to change this for this season, but for now, with a risky hands run, it is better to have a really stable toes run that I can really bank points with. In the prelims, I fell on my first hands trick, so no points. I did my toe run and got all those points, giving me just enough for finals. This meant I was last in for the finals, so I was really happy to get another chance. he next day in finals, I did all my hands tricks, but I felt like maybe not all of them were off the wake. Turns out, the boat was in slalom mode, giving a smaller wake than in tricks mode. Logical therefore, that not all of my tricks were loose from the wake. However, if I asked for a rerun with the boat in trick mode, I would have to do all my tricks again, or lose all my points, and I felt like my run is too risky to try it again. I did all my toe tricks and some of my hands tricks were not credit, so barely 900 points there, still I got enough points to place 3rd on the podium, together with 2 of my team mates from my home club, which was great!

In jump, it was the opposite of tricks and slalom. In the training I was learning some things and had some good jumps, but none of them felt really far, all of them were a bit under my personal best. Then in the prelims, I was still performing under my PB with the furthest score being 23.6m, and my PB is 25.1m. It was the first time I did the 3/4 cut in competition, so I was happy I did that and had 3 safe jumps, but I was confused and mostly frustrated as to why I wasn't instantly breaking my PB, which I did with a single cut, with my faster 3/4 cut. In the finals, after not having done too good in all other events in either round, I was set on a PB. Even before I left I heard the speaker (Talisa), say that my PB was 25.1m, but I was set on breaking it today. I had some extra family members for support here, my aunt, uncle and grandparents came, which was really great and I just went for it. I cut out much harder than any time before and turned into my cut to the ramp later. I kept position and boom, 26.5m, a new PB! I thought to myself, it's oke, a new PB and it's enough, don't expect more and don't take unnecessary risk. I got the tip to lift my right ski a bit whilst waiting to turn into my cut, which meant I had more speed and was later. Another new PB, 27.1, a nice 2 meters more than my last PB! I didn't want to take any more risk, but I tried to do the same as last time and carry my speed waiting for my turn-in. I was even later than before, barely sure that my right ski would make the ramp, but I was fully committed, took the jump, held my position and again, a new PB of 27.6m! 2.5m more than my previous PB and a score that is starting to get seriously close to the magic 30m mark!

Since my jump PB was the final event and the price ceremony and after party was extremely fun, I still end the weekend with positive feelings and motivation to get the scores I want in the next competition, which is the world championship in the Ukraine!