Follow my story
AMBER MASLEN
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Sponsors
  • Love Food

Love to train, love to race

I've learnt so many things from slalom I don't think I could have learnt anywhere else. I want to share them because I think if they make a positive difference to a single person's journey, then it's worth writing. 

Read my Stories

Sport is like a big family?

9/1/2014

0 Comments

 
There are a lot of skills involved in any kind of full time job. And when it comes to athletes, a lot of them have almost become stereotyped - organised, determined, blah blah. I feel one of the least appreciated skills that defines athletes, is flexibility. You need to be able to change plans - sometimes really quickly - and still get benefits from the outcome. So when one of our little group of two was so injured she couldn't travel, it was time to make some new plans; and fast! 

Often this flexibility means being able to commit to training hard by yourself for a little while. This is something that Scottish athletes can especially appreciate. We can flourish without support, progress without a guide, and still mould our careers in the shape we want them to be. I have had countless sessions alone, and I feel like I make a huge amount of progress. But I will be the first to tell you or anyone else in my sport, that training with other people is ALWAYS better. No matter how organised, structured or long your session is, nothing can beat having another athlete training next to you, or  a coach standing there to be your guide.

So it was a pleasant surprise in Nottingham, when what started out as a planned week of hard, lonesome sessions, turned out to be the exact opposite - I actually couldn't have picked a better week to train. Not only were people Like Etienne Stott willing to let me join in on their training, but I had numerous sessions with Luuka Jones, kiwi senior team paddler too! It just goes to show how much of a community slalom can be, when the likes of me (top ten national competitor, top of my age group in Scotland) can have productive sessions with the likes of Luuka and Etienne (Olympians, World cup finalists, you get the jist of it). 

Which kind of lead me to think about other sports. Isn't there a kind of shared camaraderie in the gym? When you lift on a platform, and kind of nod at the guy/girl on the next platform, and it feels like you're in this together? Running, and everyone has a spare moment to nod back, no matter how much they're hurting. That feeling that only athletes can share, when you dig so deep in a session that you see stars, and all you want to do is puke your guts up; but its not so bad, because your training partner is right there next to you, sharing your pain? I look at the sporting cultures in Downhill mountain biking and Windsurfing, and there is familiarity in every part of it. Slalom is hard, beautiful, terrifying, elating, dysfunctional, chaotic, organised and loved. But whenever I look at another athlete, or my coach, I know we share something, and neither one of us could ever put a finger on it. Maybe its just because everyone knows what everyone else has to give, how much ourselves we are willing to put into the sport. Or maybe its just because we all share a little piece of that competitive drive, to be part of the enormous, dysfunctional family of sport. No matter what your age, ability, ethnicity, location or funding. Everyone can be part of it.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Amber is a whitewater slalom athlete specialising in K1. Her top events to date were:
    U23 World Championships 2016
    U23 European Championships 2016
    Augsburg ICF World Cup 2018
    Tacen ICF World Cup 2018
    Bratislava  ICF World Cup 2019
    ​Tacen ICF World Cup 2019
    Leipzig ICF World Cup 2019
    Pau ICF World Cup final 2022

    Archives

    May 2022
    August 2021
    July 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.