Joelle King (Squash)

For New Zealand’s top squash player Joelle King, the glamour of being an international sportswoman disappears when she’s scouring the Internet making her bookings.

Despite being one of the world’s best, with a career-high ranking of No 4, her sport doesn’t provide the financial windfall a sport such as tennis does.

There’s no army of support staff, so over a career that stretches back over the past decade she has got her planning and preparation down to a fine art.

‘‘I book all my own travel,’’ King said. ‘‘At first I used to go for whatever was the cheapest option, to save money. ‘‘But then I realised there’s more to travel than saving costs and now I try go for the option that will get me there the quickest time, so I’m better prepared.

‘‘I also try to stay at the same hotel as the tournament hotel if I get there earlier.’’

Most of the time King travels on her own around the world, rather than with a coach, which she admits can be tough.

However, it’s a tight knit community at the top of the squash scene and while they battle it out against each other on the court, there’s a bond that unites them all off it.

So when King has a big win, more often than not, she celebrating with other players.

‘‘I’m friends with the people I’m away with,’’ she said.

‘‘If I have a good result I just move straight on to the next match or tournament, but I do sometimes go out to dinner to celebrate, which is nice.’’

– David Long

David Nyika (Boxing)

Imagine the sight of a tall man running around an empty car park throwing punches under the cover of darkness in late winter.

The mysterious 1.93m figure is in fact one of New Zealand’s brightest sporting talents still competing in the amateur ranks of a sport that has been awfully cruel to him as of late.

Boxer David Nyika was training alone in car parks around Hamilton, the 91kg heavyweight feeling stupid shuffling between white parking lines ahead of this year’s AIBA world championships.

The latest chapter of his career has been fraught with setbacks which keep knocking the 22-year-old down, but he’s no stranger to fighting in and out of the ring since winning a light heavyweight gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.

Last year’s disappointment hurt the most, when he failed to reach the Rio Olympics following contentious defeats in qualifying tournaments.

Preparation for the 2017 world championships in Hamburg, Germany, were badly affected after falling out and splitting with long-time coach Rik Ellis just weeks before the tournament started in late August.

That left him without a training base, no longer welcome at Ellis’ Ringside gym, and seeking an alternative plan of attack.

Nyika then left his car park for Hamburg but controversially lost in the quarterfinals to Russian Olympic champion Evgeny Tischenko.

His next target after the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April will be to fulfil his Olympic dream in Tokyo in 2020.

– Joseph Pearson

Hamish Bond (Rower/cyclist)

It was Hamish Bond’s job to make sure Eric Murray made it to training and it was Murray’s job to make sure Bond made it through training.

But on the bike, where he spends 20-30 hours each week, it is all on Bond.

When Bond, one of New Zealand’s most decorated rowers, decided to switch sports to road cycling, he did so knowing that he was placing responsibility in his own hands. He no longer had a team-mate, like Murray, to drag him through the pain barrier.

‘‘Now that you’re on your own, and especially in my approach, I’m almost 100 per cent accountable. Within the rowing setup you could kind of go in auto-pilot and rely on the squad, the system and the machine, that if you turn up and do the training that was prescribed good things would happen,’’ Bond said.

Bond does not want to look back on his cycling career with any ‘‘what ifs’’ – he said the biggest failure is knowing he could have done better – and that is what is motivating him every day.

‘‘The fact that I switched sports there’s obviously been a honeymoon period and it’s been a novelty and been a bit of an adventure,’’ he says.

‘‘But certainly there are days when you wake up and your legs feel like they are full of concrete and you think ‘again, really?’

‘‘But you have that devil on one shoulder and on the other you have the thought that if you skip the session or go short then come race day then I know I haven’t left no stone unturned.’’

The 31-year-old spent a few months in Britain prior to the UCI Road World Championships. But he was barely ever alone, often crashing with friends, friends of friends, or family.

As for the training, that is ‘‘solely on me,’’ Bond said.

‘‘There hasn’t been a time when I’ve been the bike where I thought ‘damn, I need some company.’ Once I’m out there, you’re going and you know what you’re trying to achieve for the day and you get it done.’’

– Phillip Rollo

Luuka Jones (Canoeist)

Olympic silver medal-winning paddler Luuka Jones admits loneliness strikes most when she’s overseas.

The canoe slalom ace spends a lot of the Kiwi winter based in England and competing in Europe.

‘‘I’m based in Nottingham by myself the past few years and it can be quite lonely over there,’’ Jones said.

‘‘Being so transient I guess – you don’t have your regular clubs to go to our your regular friends all the time – you’ve got friends in a lot of places around the world, but …’’.

The 29-year old says she spends about half her training sessions on her own.

‘‘Then I try and link in with some of the other Kiwi athletes or other international athletes. Like in the gym at the moment, I’ve been doing a few sessions with the javelin thrower [Ben Langton Burnell].

‘‘It’s really nice to train with other athletes at times and even more refreshing if they’re from other sports and you can learn something different.

‘‘Over the years I have done a lot of training by myself – I have this deep motivation to get better so I’d just go out there and smash it.

‘‘I think sometimes I’d even go too hard – you’d not have anyone to benchmark against.

‘‘I do a lot of training now with my coach, Campbell Walsh, a top paddler for years on the world circuit.’’

Jones does see a number of benefits in being chiefly on her own.

‘‘I think it gives you some good life skills – you’re not just told to turn up to the team bus at 10am and you’re off.

‘‘You’re basically learning to know yourself a lot better and what you can handle training-wise, your strengths and weaknesses. When you go out to compete there’s no one but yourself to fall back on ultimately.

‘‘Also, having the ability to individualise your programme – being with a team you have to make some compromises. Something you may be doing may not be best for you as an individual. I can tailor my training for my exact needs and be at the venues that have the most benefit.’’

She is however a little envious of what she describes as the ‘‘family’ aspect of a tight-knit team.

‘‘I do look on social media and see the Sevens girls … they look like they’ve got such a good team and it must be amazing feeling to have your friends around you all the time.

‘‘When you do have a disappointing game or competition you’ve got your team-mates around you to pick you back up. The disappointment is shared.

‘‘I think that aspect would be kinda cool.’’

– Ian Anderson