The roots

Today the so called club championships were organized. At this anual competition, the atmosphere is always amazing. It is a day when many of the skiers and non-skiing members of the club come together for an amazing and chill day, with a little bit of pressure. There is one winner for under 17 and over 17 iin each discipline and of course a club champion, who wins overall, regardless of the age category. I was under 17 last year and this was my first year over 17, so I was unable to defend my titles. It was an exciting and close competition between the people who would follow my steps. It feels great to be able to motivate the younger skiers and know that they look up to me. This year it was a clean sweep for Matthijs Korsten, but I am sure even more pressure will be added next year, seeing the improvements everyone is making. For myself it wasn't a great start in

my new category. I wasn't able to run my first pass, so in slalom I ended very low, and more importantly with very little overall points. Therefore, my shot at overall champion had flown out the door very early. It's a good learning opportunity on how to deal with that dissapointment fast enough to focus on tricks and jump with a

new positive attitude. This is what makes these championships good, apart from the sphere, since there is a little pressure of wanting to perform and being overall champion, but it is not an official competition, due to which the scores don't matter very much. Ideal for learning how to deal with the stress and dissapointments of competition in  an easier way.

Leaving the slalom results behind and losing the pressure of even trying to become the clubchampion, I focussed on tricks. My hands run went well the first time round andfelt stable. Then I fell on my first trick in toes. This is something that reoccurs too much in my opinion. Not too long ago I was doing the toehold 360 (TO) so perfectly and almost never fell, not even in competition. Now it's not stable enough anymore, wich is unacceptable for a first trick. Luckily in the second round of tricks, I did the same in my hands run as the first round, and I had a new shot in the toeholds. The TO went well this time, there was no doubt that I might have fallen. This felt good to do again. Afterwards I was only able to do 2 other tricks bfore falling again, but I am sure this will come back soon.

The last event of the day was jumping. Since there were not many jumpers, we seized the rare opportunity of having the ramp ready and clean and a good boat driver to jump a little more often than the usual 3 times. We decided on 1 test jump and 3 scoring jumps. For me these felt good and safe, but there were no jump bouys, which made the timing really difficult. Also the scoring system was not very professional, we took pictures and measured the distance that it looks from the 15, 20 or 25 meter bouy. It was calculated that my jumps were around 23/24 meters. If this is accurate, I'm happy with the score. Many jumps were too

early, but since there was no reference I couldn't compensate much for the timing. Furthermore there was no switch, this device tells the boat to provide more power when the skier pulls. After the competition I decided to do 5 more jumps to train a bit with my trainer here. These jumps were solid too, so the end of the day was much better than the start.

This was all for this weekend, but I realized I forgot one thing I wanted to say about last weekend. At that competition, there was a head-to-head slalom. This was for the best 16 skiers of the competition, men and women combined, so I was already glad to be selected. You ski immediately against one other person and the score doesn't matter for anything else than beating that one person. In the first round, everyone starts at 18 meters and their own maximum speed. This was an advantage for me, since I always start on that, whereas my competition was used to starting at a shorted line length. We both cleared the 18 meter pass, after which my competition fell at 1.5 at 16. This meant that I only had to do 2 at 16 and then stop. I was doing well and after the second bouy I turned too hard, thinking about going to three. What I should have done was turn slowely and go back to between the boat, because that would give me 2 bouys at 16, getting me through to the next round. I had not really thought this through before hand, since I had never done a head-to-head slalom before. I think its a really fun concept and now I understand how to get further, for the next time! :)

Coming week I will be training for the last competition for the Dutch team. It will be the Dutch against the Belgians, which I hope we will be able to win. However, more importantly, I hope to ski some good scores, especially in slalom.

New PB!!! part 2

On Monday whilst I was enjoying the clinic given by Ryan Dodd, I had to take a quick trip to the fysio as well. I had to get my shoulder thoroughly checked to know for sure that I wasn't doing anything that would lead to permanent damage. His conclusion was an infection of some sort in my shoulder which was caused by the hit and swelling afterwards. In order to let this heal, I would have to rest for 5 days. If the infection got out of hand, it could take up to 12 weeks to heal... enough motivation to get some rest. However I could not let one more day of training with Ryan Dodd just slip away, so I did three sets on my jumpers, in which my shoulder would not be exhausted too much, since that arm is in a sling. On the second day of Ryan's clinic, I learned many exercises to help in strength and position when jumping. One of these was to cut through the wakes with the boat going as slow as 18 km/h, even though I would usually jump at 51 or 54 km/h! With the boat going so slow, it is a really tough exercise on your legs, but I'm certain that this exercise will help me get further.

After Tuesday it was really time to take some rest. I had a competition in Belgium this weekend and a couple more competitions coming up, so I don't want to risk not being able to participate because of my shoulder. On Saturday was the first time I skied again since Tuesday. Usually I like to be able to check out the water of the competition site and train a bit before a competition, but I couldn't do that this weekend. My slalom on Saturday morning was very disappointing as I missed the end gate on my first pass! This means you get a score on the minimum speed of your age group, which was 43 km/h even though I should have passed 55km/h. There was not a lot of time to be upset about this mistake, because there were two rounds of tricks coming up after lunch. I was nervous for this because I hadn't tricked for about 10 days, and in order to feel safe and fast in my runs I like to be able to do them a lot before competition. Despite the lack of training and thus confidence I was able to do well in my hands pass. Afterwards, in my toe pass, I fell on the first trick, which gave me flashbacks to Europeans. Luckily, there were two rounds of tricks, this time I had confidence for my hands run and I knew where my mistake was in my toes run. I set up a good hands run, even though I almost fell on my 3rd trick, which would have been too early. I practised for this moment in training for Europeans a lot, I almost fell on my trick but I held on to the handle, rebalanced and continued my run, missing one trick and probably some time at the end. I passed this run all the way to the end, which was better than in the first round. In toes I got past my first trick all the way to the last, where I fell. I was hoping for a good score, but as predicted, my last hands trick was out of time. Also, unexpectedly, two of my safest toe tricks were 'no credit', costing me a lot of points. My score ended up being 2340, which is 320 under my PB, so not too bad, but not what I wanted. Finally the last event of the Saturday, and also the event I did a PB in. It was time for jumping! After a two-day clinic with the world champion in jump and a whole summer of jumping more than I ever did before, this could only be good. The first jump I planned to feel the water and the ramp, so take it easy. When cutting for the ramp I got distracted by a slalom bouy that was right in my way, since my focus was off, I decided not to take the jump. The second jump was now to get a feel of the ramp, so still not too much risk. I jumped 21.4 meters, which was decent for a new ramp. On the third one it was time to get more speed into the ramp, I cut a bit later and took more angle on the ramp. Something was wrong with the timing and scoring, so I didn't know how far the jump was. Though the scores didn't give me much confidence for the second round of jump, I did feel safe on the water and the ramp, so I discussed with the driver and judges that I would do my last jump at 54km/h rather than 51km/h. My first jump I got a score of 24.7, which was a new PB, 1.7 meters further than my previous one! When the boat judge was signing my score, I had to double check that she really meant a 4 after the 2. I was already really happy with my score, but still tried to get more. The second jump was 24.1, still better than my previous PB, so I had consistently improved on that. Now the final jump of the set and the competition. I raised the boat speed now and re-focussed. I landed the jump on 54km/h, which was the first time in competition. The score was not yet given to me when I cut back to

the dock, but a gut feeling said I might have crossed the 25 meter barrier finally. When I was skiing to the dock my dad signed to me 2 5 point 1! I'm happy with my new PB and hopefully will add some meters when I start doing 3/4 cuts. To top off the weekend, I ended in second place overall, behind the Belgian talent Ibe Beckers!

Next weekend I have a competition at home. Finally one  where I don't have to drive 4 hours, like this weekend (though it was worth it). I will be defending my title as club champion. Though I am happy that my under 17 titles will for sure be taken over by some other talented skiers!

New PB!!

This week on Friday I had a bad crash in slalom, after which I wasn’t able to ski on Friday anymore. Usually the first pass after a crash like that I am really careful and hold back because in the back of my mind I am a bit scared. This time, my first set after that crash was on Saturday, on a competition. The focus for this competition was already to find a way to deal with competition stress. For this it was important to set realistic goals and make sure I wouldn’t put too much pressure on myself. I would also work on a ritual before my set that would make me focussed and calm. Due to the crash, I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to ski at the competition. Before the start I wasn’t even sure I would make it past the second bouy, since that is when my shoulder would get pulled. I was oke with stopping if it was hurting too much, since there was a busy period coming up with clinics and competitions. When I noticed at bouy 2 that I was oke to continue skiing I ran my first two passes. The first round, I skied just under my personal best at competition, which was quite surprising considering the circumstances. In the second round I even skied past my pb and raised it by 1.5 bouy to 4@14. I am convinced I

On my way to a PB!

could have done more, but I didn’t want to push it with my shoulder. I also decided to stop after 2 rounds, even though there were 4 rounds in the competition. Hopefully I will be able to put my pb where I want it this year at another competition because I made a wise decision to stop.

Yesterday was a fun day of travelling. I started in Frespech, where the competition was on Saturday. On Sunday I was brought to Toulouse, since my flight leaves from there. This time was probably the fastest and easiest I had ever gotten from Toulouse to Amsterdam. Then in Amsterdam my dad was waiting for me and we went to visit my mom at the rookie competition in Maurik. 

It was great to see part of the rookie tour in Maurik, since my first rookie was in Maurik too. Also I did a camp there once, which really inspired me to get further in waterskiing. And of course the Europeans were in Maurik once, which was an inspirational experience. It was really awesome to see the coaches, to whom I could look up to during the camp and in my journey thereafter. They were really impressed about what I had achieved since they knew me. It is good to realise at some points where I’ve come from, because at some points I feel like my progress is not going fast enough.

After the rookie competition I drove to

Handel with my mom, which was fun because I wasn’t allowed to drive for 4 weeks, since I’m 17. I will be in Handel for 2 days for a clinic with world champion Ryan Dodd. It is really amazing that a world champion wants to give a clinic in the tiny country of the Netherlands! He is able to make his living from jumping competition, so he is extraordinarily good in jumping. From the three sets I am doing per day, I will therefore be jumping twice. I’ve already done 2 sets which I can write about, since my blog is a day late. The first set I slalomed, even though I didn’t cut the rope past 16, I thought it was a really good set. I enjoyed the way of coaching and afterwards, my last 16 meter pass felt very easy.

Independance

This week many people of the team were back, yet the weather was still beautiful, so luckily it was a week filled with all 3 things I came here for.

I only have one more week to train in Toulouse, next week I will end with a competition in France, after which I will fly back to the Netherlands. Luckily there are many fun things waiting for me at home too, including a very special clinic, which I can’t wait to write about. Even though it feels like the end, especially including the weeks I was here in June, I must keep focussing on skiing here and not let my mind travel back home just yet.

In the past week I have noticed a lot more how independent I have become and how that has been necessary too. This comes in two major parts, first of all, living practically alone, which means cooking, cleaning, chores, etc. But also more importantly in skiing, the past weeks I have had a lot of issues with my equipment. Many fixable things luckily, but that does mean that I have to learn how to fix them. Sadly I also learned to see when something is beyond fixable. All these have been learning experiences for when I will be skiing by myself in university and can’t give all my broken equipment to my parents and get them back fixed. Since many of my friends back home are moving into their own apartments, I realised that this is a nice way to ease into being independent and eventually live alone.

In last weeks blog, I said I hoped to run 13 coming week, since I was close back then. During this week I had a couple of really good shots to run it, but I just came a little short. Now I feel like I have to run it in my last week. I have all the tips and coaching I need, so now I just have to give everything and run it.

I am also working on some new tricks,

like a 540 in toeholds, but also the 540s over the wake in hands. These tricks won’t be ready to be in a run for this years competitions, but they are a good investment for next year. I’ve also been working on pinning other trickers, this means holding the rope when they are in toehold, and of course letting go when they fall. This is good training to see other peoples mistakes, because I make a lot of the same one, and now I see how scary they are. It emphasises the importance of making my tricks clean, so that the pinner does not get too many heart attacks. Since there are some skiers who I can’t pin yet because their tricks are too difficult, I was put back behind the wheel. I drove the boat for one skier so that Vinney could pin. My turns are getting better, but I still have some work to do driving in a straight line, but at least everyone involved made it back to the shore safe and well.

In jumping, I am working on jumping more stable with the sling. It is quite a difference, but I got used to it fast. Now it is especially important to also take advantage of it and not just learn how to land with it. Hopefully if my jumps and cuts are stable enough, I will be able to do a ¾ cut in next season’s competitions. 

I'm excited for next weeks competition and will be training towards it in the last week. I hope to ski a PB, even though it might not be as close to my trainings pb as I hope, especially because the first competition after a hard period of training can be difficult.

Impressed

Today marks the end of another great

week of training in Toulouse. The temperatures have risen a lot compared to last week, with an average of around 30 degrees Celsius. There are generally 3 reasons I went to Toulouse to train, of course the coach, the team and finally the weather. Since a lot of the team went to Italy this week for the European and African Youth Championships, I feel like I have traded the team for the weather. Many people are coming back tomorrow, so next week I’ll let you know if the weather was worse again.

The results at Europeans for my team were quite differing. Sadly there were no finals for the Dutch team, despite great skiing! Luckily tomorrow we can welcome a newly crowned European Champion back at the lake, I’m extremely happy for Léa for winning slalom in her final year under 17!!
In watching these live results I noticed how important it is to be very consistant,  because anyone can fall in a pass too early. It is extremely motivating to watch and it emphasizes the importance of experience in competition and consistancy.

I’m really happy with my training results of this week. Since I could watch many of my friends ski at Europeans through live streaming and results and I skied well myself, it has been a really fun week.

First of all, in slalom I am running quite a lot of passes at 14, which I hope will become stable enough to run it in competition in 2 or 3 weeks. I haven’t been working on the 13 meter line a lot, since getting the right feel and being more constant at 14 is very important. However, when I did ski at 13, I did 3 bouys on the first try, which is only 1 less than my pb. To top this off, the pass was looking so good, that Vincent thought I was going to run it. Hopefully next week I can improve just that bit that I need to be able to run my first 13 meter pass. I feel like having a personal best with bouys on 12 meters is a real milestone in slaloming for me.

As I said last week, I’ve been working with a sling in jumping. When I wrote that, I had only practised with it in free skiing, but now, I have been over the ramp with it multiple times. I will not forget the first time quickly, since it actually went really well. I was pretty nervous to go over because you cannot move your arm to help balance the landing. I was thinking about this a lot, but then in the turn Vincent’s hat flew off, which landed right between my feet and I was able to pick it up really

fast whilst skiing. After this, I wasn’t so focussed on the sling anymore, and the jump went really well. Because of the sling, my position in the air was actually better than before, which surprised Vincent, who was quite impressed and we were both very happy with that jump. Hopefully learning a ¾ cut will go just as smooth.

In tricks I’m back to working on my newest tricks, which earlier I could do sometimes, but not always. These are going quite well and I’m excited to work on those and other new ones. What’s surprising, but I’ve said it before, is that I can do tricks that are usually experienced as hard to learn quite easily, but I get stuck on easier basic tricks. This week I’ve heard multiple times from Vincent: I’m very impressed, but I don’t know if I’m more impressed by the fact that you can do the wrap in, wrap out so perfectly, or by the fact that you struggle on the [easier] back to back.

Luggage arrived!

To me, the most important news of this week is that my luggage arrived. It arrived Tuesday afternoon, so I had to ski on borrowed equipment for two days. There wasn’t a lot of difference in the way I skied, but still it is always nice to have your own materials. On the bright side of my missing luggage, I got to go shopping for some new clothes, which would be paid by the airline. However, I’ll still take my skiing equipment over new clothes any day.

At the start of the week, I did a lot of passes at the 16 meter line. This run was already quite stable, but now I can run it very well, even if I make some mistakes throughout. On this line length it is easy to work on some new technical things. For example I started really working on doing a counter rotation in the turn. This allows for much more angle towards the next bouy, so once I really get the hang of this, I’m sure I’ll improve a lot. Now, even though the counter rotation is not perfect yet, I already notice that it helps in my skiing. After practising many 16 meter passes, I went to 14 and I ran it the first try. I hadn’t been able to ski through my 14 for quite a long time, so I really know my technique has improved by practising on 16.

In jump there are also interesting developments, which I’m really excited about and I hope to be comfortable with it soon. First of all, I started skiing with a sling. This is attached around your waist, and you can put your right arm in it. This means that you can handle a lot more pressure with this arm. I noticed that it has made me much stronger and I can create even more speed. The other thing is that I started doing a ¾ cut, instead of a single one. In doing this you first go to the right side of the boat. After gliding there for a few seconds, you turn in and cut from there straight to the left side of the boat, where the ramp is. This naturally creates much more speed than starting from behind the boat and cutting towards the ramp. Even though when learning this I don’t go straight over the ramp, I can feel I have much more speed and thus if I can keep this speed onto the ramp, I will jump much further. I have only spent one set working on this new cut, so I haven’t been over the ramp yet, but I’m extremely excited to find out how that will feel. Though honestly, I’m also a bit nervous because you are taking a lot of speed.

In this first week, I have only done 2 trick sets, due to my missing luggage, amongst other reasons. The sets I did were mainly working on the basics again, because I haven’t been skiing since Europeans. These went fairly well, but I have been warned for very hard work to come. There are a lot of tricks that I am expected to learn during my stay. This means that I should practise a lot on the trampoline and on the ground. This will be very hard work, but hopefully I’ll soon be able to show you guys some new tricks!

Finally I want to wish everyone at the

youth E&A championships a lot of luck, especially my #teamNL and #teamsoubiron team mates! I really wish I could also be there, but I will be following everything from here, whilst training for my own competitions!

Pass the handle

This week’s blog is a little bit later

because my flight to Toulouse didn’t go exactly as planned. For starters the flight was delayed by 1 hour, but that isn’t such a big of a deal, the real problem was with luggage. I travel with two check-in bags, one containing my skis and one containing everything else I need to ski, like my ropes, gloves, life jacket, jump suit and helmet, etc. This particular time I also had my baseplates and bindings in my second bag, because the bags can only weigh 23 kilos, and my jump skis with bindings weighs a lot. Usually I take off the heavy jump bindings, but this time I couldn’t unscrew them and I had to take off everything from my other skis to get to the weight I was allowed. Now my ski bag has arrived, but everything else I need to ski has yet to arrive, since that bag was left in Amsterdam. So instead of spending yesterday to assemble my skis and write a blog, I had to plan how I was going to borrow everything from other skiers, so that I can ski today. I ended up using different parts 4 other skiers, but it worked. I hope my own materials will arrive soon so that I can ski with stuff that fits properly.

However, this is not what I planned on blogging about this week. Last week Sunday was called ‘pass the handle’ day. This is a day in which skiers can pass the handle by teaching others how to ski. This is with the goal to grow the sport, which is very necessary. Waterskiing used to be much more popular and well known than it is now, and it would be great if more people knew the sport and funding for the federation grew.
I didn’t have the opportunity to teach anyone how to ski last week, but I believe I can help grow the sport through my blog. I get some great reactions to my blog and one in particular I like to share. There was a girl who contacted me to say she was inspired by my blog to get back to training and also give training to other people. This was amazing to hear, but what makes it more special is that she inspired me in skiing about 4 years ago. She was at my first training camp and she helped me go over the ramp for the first time. It was fun to read back old messages that I sent to her, for example that I was very proud of landing a jump and doing a side slide. These things are not really special to me anymore, but it is a good reminder that at one point, this was all I could do and I was really proud of that. It reminds me to be proud of how far I’ve come already too and helps me see that it is possible to go even further.

Finally, even though it is kind of a rough start to the training in France, without my suitcase, I am very happy to be skiing back here and see everyone!