Tuesday, October 22nd – Free day with one team training
After breakfast everyone dispersed to do some sightseeing before we had to be back for a team training in the afternoon. I know myself well enough to know that I needed to see the stadium! I am a very visual person and I wanted to see where I was going to be competing to help me with some visualization. I was surprised our training wasn’t going to be at the stadium so I decided I would go there anyway to check it out. It’s all I wanted to see. I knew I could do the touristy things after the competition.
I told people that I was taking a cab to the stadium with my parents and a few coaches and other friends decided to came along. Knowing myself, this was the best thing I could have done. I felt kinda bad when others came back from their day telling my parents all the fun things they did in Benidorm but they understood and always support me during competitions.
As soon as I walked in, I couldn’t help but smile. I loved the lay out of the building. The first thing that grabbed my attention was the raised centre stage since I knew my first rounds of patterns were going to be on there which is a really big deal. Then I noticed the podium and I could actually see myself standing on there. I just kept thinking to myself “this is going to be my play ground for the next few days” and it suddenly hit me where I was and what I was about to experience.
I even snuck down to the floor level and it was awesome looking up that the empty bleachers knowing that they would be filled with spectators. The team from Puerto Rico were having their team training and a few of them waved to me since I knew a few of them. It made it all very real!
Benidorm is all marble! There wasn’t one piece of carpet or wood anywhere to train on. At our team training at the hotel I was afraid of slipping since it was so slippery. I personally didn’t get much out of our team training that day since there were too many of us in a small space. When I told our manager that I saw other countries train at the venue he made some calls and was able to book a time slot for our team for the next day.
I found a little courtyard at the back of the hotel and I kept going there with my parents to do some more training. I always travel with a kicking target so I can warm up with kicks and do my standard warm up routine that makes me feel good and that I am used to. For me, it’s all about routine and making sure I feel good and confident the days leading up to competition. I get extremely nervous beforehand so all my little trainings really relax me and bring me back to my happy place.
You really had a good schedule well planned out for yourself to be well prepared and in the zone….! Good for you cause it certainly was helpful & paid off in the end…! It is really obvious you were there to do one thing only and that was to WIN and you sure did….!