‘You can’t make a long-term plan because of all the uncertainty’
Athletes from around the world should be competing in Tokyo by now. But coronavirus has not only delayed the Olympics and Paralympics until 2021, but has thrown their training and qualification plans into disarray as well. Amanda Powell speaks to one Card
JUDOKA Natalie Powell was in Cardiff when lockdown began. On March 24, as the coronavirus pandemic worsened, organisers had announced the Olympics and Paralympics would be postponed until 2021, disrupting everything for medal hopefuls like Natalie.
Natalie isolated in a rented house in the capital with her training partner Tom Hughes.
They set up a gym and carried on training as best they could.
It was still a huge blow for the 29-year-old, who felt she was in the best shape of her life in the run-up to the 2020 Olympics.
She came seventh at Rio in 2016 and after a dip in form in 2019, had come back to win gold at Tel Aviv’s Grand Prix in January.
“It’s much better being out of lockdown and having a little bit more normality,” she says now, speaking from the Netherlands where she’s training and reunited with her girlfriend, Dutch judoka Sanne van Dijke.
Her temporary move to Holland has also meant she’s been able to do more judo training there than she would in the UK.
Natalie says lockdown in Cardiff did bring some unexpected benefits, too, as she worked on her masters dissertation in sports coaching and set about learning the Dutch language.
“The only things I could actually do was train, work on my dissertation and learn some Dutch, so I think I did all three quite well,” she reflects, explaining that usually she’d have been travelling around for competitions rather than having such a long block of time for uninterrupted training.
“We made the most of it from that point of view and it was strange actually, I made quite a lot of gains, suprisingly, in a situation that wasn’t ideal,” she says.
As well as working on strength and conditioning, she had the chance to work on judo’s technical aspects, breaking up training with cycle rides for fun and fresh air.
“I was practising different techniques and gripping strategies and lots of ne-waze, which is floor practice, with Tom.
“Normally you’re fighting every weekend because you need to be ready to compete and win, and you don’t get a chance to step back and practise things, so it was a really good block for developing stuff.”
The only thing she couldn’t do in Cardiff was randori practice, the sparring side of judo, but that has all changed since she went to the Netherlands to be reunited with Sanne.
She arrived in Holland four weeks ago and says she’d “felt like I’d been let out of prison” when she arrived.
“I wasn’t planning on staying more than two or three weeks, but then everything opened here and the national centre here said if I could get a corona test, I could train with them,” Natalie explains. “I didn’t realise how much more I’d be able to do when I actually set off,” she adds.
“I’ve decided to stay now until midAugust maybe, so I can do a good block of randori and use the gym as normal.”
She’s in contact with her coach Darren Warner over video link while indoor training facililties in Wales are still closed.
“I speak to Darren really regularly and he plans everything for me, it’s just he can’t be on the mat with me at the moment for four or five weeks,” she says.
While Natalie has had a clear Covid19 test, allowing her to train at the national centre close to Arnhem in Holland, she admits to feeling more than a little jumpy by going on holiday to Valencia in Spain after leaving Cardiff.
“My girlfriend had already booked a week in Valencia two weeks after I came, so it was either fly back to the UK or fly out with her, so I went out there with her for a week,” Natalie says. “I had a lovely little break, which I really needed to be honest.
“I was worried about Covid and potentially catching it on the plane and stuff, but I took all the precautions and had a test on the plane when I got back and it was fine. It was worth the risk.”
After spending lockdown learning Dutch, she now has the chance to try out her language skills day-to-day, although she admits it’s not quite up to speed yet.
“It felt like I was improving a lot, doing the sessions every day [in Cardiff], but then when I come here, listening to conversation, I still have no idea what’s going on,” she laughs.
She now has time to focus on Tokyo a year from now, although the path to qualification as a Team GB athlete is uncertain for now.
“All the goals I set myself for the [lockdown] period really helped keep me on track,” she says.
“I had something to drive for on the days when I woke up and I really wasn’t feeling it, I always had something to challenge me.
“I’ve got to set myself some new goals now I can actually do judo again,” she admits, giving an insight into the psychology of elite sport.
“You have waves, I did the first block of training and then after it I was, ‘Ah, but there’s no competitions,’ so you have a little bit of a lull after each four-week slot, you just have to keep going, haven’t you?”
She says she’s definitely stronger and fitter after the past four months of training, but being in shape for competition isn’t quite the same thing.
“If you don’t do judo you might not quite understand it, you can go to the gym and lift weights, but when you’re on the mat and in a fight, it’s a completely different fitness so although I feel I am the fittest and strongest I’ve been in the gym, we’ll have to just wait a couple of weeks to see if it transfers, I’m sure it has.”
For all top athletes, hands-on rehab and physiotherapy is key and although she’s had support over video, handson physio is something she’s missed a great deal.
“I’m hoping when I get back to Cardiff in mid-August the Sport Wales staff will be back in action so I’ll be able to see them.
“But I’m quite lucky one of Sanne’s friends is a physio, so I’m going to see her and that’ll be really good because I haven’t had any for the whole of lockdown and I have picked up quite a few niggles over the past months.”
Natalie, who’s originally from Beu