Saturday: Day 2 – 8:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m.
It was a very early start to the day as we headed off to the university. The day consisted of:
Intense fitness circuit using every muscle in our body. I loved this portion since it’s the type of training that I do daily. I also picked up a few new drills that I will implement in my own program.
I worked all morning on sparring since I really wanted to take advantage of having a room full of such great sparring partners. That’s the hardest thing to find when you’re training. I appreciated having all these partners with different fighting styles and body sizes to spar. I want to be prepared to spar anyone in Spain. Meanwhile, others still worked on patterns.
Lunch Break – we all had to dry our uniforms outside since they were soaking wet after the workouts! It was also a blast to just goof around and visit. The training is intense so it’s a nice release.
More sparring and pattern drills were followed right after the lunch. I stuck with the sparring again.
Ms. Merritt started to work with the men and juniors for Special Techniques and Power Breaking. It’s nice to have someone with so much international competition experience in these events to help us out since we don’t practise them daily like we do our patterns and sparring and we are not completely comfortable with all the format.
Pool aqua fit. We didn’t swim laps but Ms. Bond led a great fitness program in the pool where we did several movements and kicks from our patterns under water. It was so hard with the water resistance. Our group is so large that they had to divide into two sessions. I found this segment helpful and will use some of the drills in my own training.
Sports Psychologist – The end the day we had a session with the Team Sports Psychologist where he covered three ways to improve our confidence. I personally feel that this is an area that needs more dedication, whether you are going for the first time, or have been competing at the Worlds for years. First timers should be educated and supported through the unknowns and factors that go into the World Championships. For those returning, there is pressure, demons from past experiences and expectations, but also have more experience and wisdom. We can learn from each other and share. This aspect of training is really important and can make or break winning the gold medal or even the type of experience you have even if you don’t win. It’s all about mentality. I think this is also why it fascinates me so much. The mind is so incredibly powerful, and we need to train it and take care of it just as much as our bodies.
Team Dinner – We all went out for a buffet dinner to celebrate a great day. It was nice to be able to socialize with everyone since you can’t really talk while you’re training. There are so many new members on the team that I have only seen at tournaments so it was nice to get to know them better. It will only make our experience in Spain that much more special. Thank goodness for Facebook to keep in touch with each other.
By midnight I was ready for bed – another big day tomorrow!
