Life After the Worlds

Time out methods vary between athletes
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?When you reach an emotional crescendo in your life, it's often like a dream that you can't remember upon waking.? Amber Halliday of Australia's lightweight double, described her feelings after finishing second at the World Championships. The intensity of emotions is exaggerated at the elite level as the culmination of years of training often hinges on the outcome of one race.

Goals range from simply being a part of the world's best, to Olympic qualification, to winning gold. The result determines the emotion. So how do you come back to reality from such intense situations? Just as there are hundreds of athletes there are also hundreds of methods.

Most countries take at least three weeks off training with the main theme being active holidays that mere mortals would consider major workouts. The French team have a ?compulsory break? until September 23^rd. ?We ask that they not compete in any regatta during that time,? says Sylvie Matthews of the French Rowing Federation. The Irish team have been given September completely off. ?But they are active people and will stay that way,? says team manager Richard Parr. Some of the team have joined fellow rowers from South Africa to cruise the Mediterranean while Gearoid Towey of the bronze medal winning lightweight double is hiking across Corsica.

The Polish team will meet up again in October at the Walcz training centre. ?They are catching up with their school affairs or relaxing in their favourite places,? says federation spokesman, Adam Starzyński. The Romanian's have also gone on holiday. Their favourite destination is the seaside on the Romanian litoral of the Black Sea. Formal training for the Romanian team does not start again until November when the athletes will choose among Romania's many rowing centres.

The Canadians barely get to say ?hey? to their families. The women are due back in camp on September 15^th and some of the men have chosen not to take a break. Similarly the United States women's training begins September 11^th at their Princeton training centre.

Italy's national championships brought the athletes back to racing last weekend, but the team will then get a break before reconvening as full-time athletes at Piediluco. The Danish team will be competing in club crews at their national championships later this month followed by six weeks of holidays when they will do non-rowing forms of exercise. The national training programme starts again on November 1^st.

In Britain the athletes have a month off from training. The team's sports psychologist, Chris Shambrook, will then work with the coaches to give rowers a chance to review the season. ?I'm interested in athletes having the perception that rest is a positive part of their training. They should draw confidence from how well they rest and recover as well how hard they work in the gym or on the water.? Shambrook believes that it is very important to have time out to help deal with the pressures of training.

Meanwhile the New Zealand double Champions of Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell used their time in Europe to visit the 2004 Olympic venue in Athens before they head back to winter and their training base in Karapiro.