MY BIRTHDAY was early last month and my coach, Uwe Hohn, and I ventured into Berlin to see some sites.
I appreciated the afternoon off training (one session completed in the morning) to relax and enjoy just being a girl, and not an athlete.
It has been very hot here — 35-40 degrees each day and finally I think I understand why Europeans have such lovely brown skin, unlike the Australian sun where 10 minutes without sun protection leaves you with third-degree sunburn.
Here, I have spent hours at a time in the sun resulting
in no more than a trimming glow on my ‘‘moon tan’’ legs that I arrived with.
Also, I ordered my first thing in German! (OK... I admit that it was only three words and that ‘‘cappuccino’’ is the same in German as it is in English). The waitress smiled and returned with one cappuccino as requested. The trouble is that I think I’m being clever with the only three words I know, but then people assume I am German and carry on the conversation, only to be answered with my blank expression and a slightly embarrassed response: ‘‘I’m sorry, I don’t speak the
Deutsch.’’
The new place I am staying in is a single room in a basement with no ventilation apart from the open windows. I was rather shocked one night when a knock at my door woke me at 2.30am.
The landlord lady decided that would be the most appropriate time to come and tell me that I could not hang my laundry up in my room to dry because the
windows have to be closed at night — and the little fan I’d bought to prevent suffocation in the heat of my room had to go off because was forbidden because it uses extra electricity.
She popped back a few days later to remind me about these issues and let me know also that ‘‘it is a serious house — not for Gypsies to come and go as they please’’. She had seen my coach drop by to visit me.
PREPARATION
My training in Germany continues to go very well. I have
been tired, but again I have increased my personal best
performances in some areas and continued equally good form in others.
My bench press remains the same at 90 kilograms but I’ve done it more than once now.
I can lift the equivalent of an average-sized human being
(77.5kg to be precise) from the floor to overhead in one
movement (a lift known as the snatch — and done with weights, not people), and I pushed 100kg from my shoulders to overhead.
A standard measure of power that we use in training is an overhead backward throw for distance, done with a 4kg shot-put.
Since beginning training with my new coach, Uwe, my best performance has increased by more than a metre and my throw of 18.13m now matches that of
world-class throwers — I am in good shape!
My technique training is improving at a snail’s pace but is
moving forward all the same. I guess training the same way for 10 years doesn’t change in a few sessions.
Solution: PRACTICE, PATIENCE and POSITIVITY. I tell you that it is not easy.
My injury management is now under the advice of a great physio and so far we have made some good progress.
I have completed a full week of throwing without any elbow pain, helped by my ‘‘do-it-yourself’’ sports taping!
Sometimes it is difficult to maintain motivation every day
because I am training by myself, so my coach gives me incentives like bets for beer. I am training so well I may have to find an alternative to beer so I’m not waddling down the runway in October in an Australian uniform that has to stretch out of shape to fit around my belly!
REFLECTIONS
Und erneath the differences of culture and religion we are really all the same. People in Germany do the same things as people in Australia.
We all like to socialise, go out to dinner or coffee and laugh and chat. We use the same facial expressions when we talk. We worry over the same problems.
There are people who smile and say ‘‘hi’’ and others who don’t notice you go by. So, if you ever wish you were somewhere better than where you are, think again and remember, same stuff, different place.
Bis dahin(till next time). . . Be all you can be!
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