Bouncing Back By Steph Inglis: A day in the life of a competitive Highland judo athlete
I thought I would start sharing some of my own experiences of my time as a professional judo athlete.
I would laugh with my friends on our WhatsApp groups when we were catching up and say just woke up from a wee nap and that I am off to Austria this weekend (for example).
I used to laugh and say it might sound good, but I used to try and explain that it’s not easy what I do day-in and day-out, and I might be travelling three out of four weekends a month worldwide – but they are not holidays!
I did a hard full-contact sport and fought for a living. I was in a weight-controlled sport so had to maintain a weight close to fighting weight and then lose weight for those competitions worldwide. It was a lot of sacrifice and pressure that only people in that judo bubble really understood.
I must reinforce, I was living my dream life, although my days were strict, disciplined and tough.
6.54am: Time to get up and get ready. First thing I did each morning was check my weight, remembering my fighting weight was 57kg although a good weight to sit at while training would be approximately 60kg. For me this was the toughest part of my sport, the fact it was weight-controlled – however, this is the fairest way to split judokas up for competition. Weight fluctuation is natural, some mornings I would be 59kg other mornings 61kg.
I would sigh with relief when I was on the lighter side of 60kg as it meant I could grab a bowl of porridge with a banana and head off to training with a satisfied tummy.
7.45am: I’m in my car leaving my flat in Dunfermline heading to the Scottish judo training centre at Ratho, Edinburgh for a 9am training start.
9am-9.30am: On the judo mats ready with our strength and conditioning coach. This would be exercises focusing on strengthening our knees and shoulders as these are the most common places judokas get injured. We would also use the foam roller and stretch out our achy bodies ahead of the training day ahead.
9.30am-9.45am: Football warm up. This was always fun! Our coach would split us into two teams, and we would play football. I do not have much experience with playing football so you can imagine 20 judokas chasing a football about a small judo mat and just punting it back and forward and grappling or barging into each other in the process. As I said we were judokas not footballers, so this was an anything-goes game!
9.45am-11.15am: Judo technical session. This is where we would practice our judo throws, hold downs, armlocks and strangles. On average you could do up to 200 throws, sounds fun, doesn’t it? The catch? You will also be thrown that number of times as your partner takes their turn.
11.15am-11.30am: Wee break, change out of a very sweaty judo suit and into gym gear. Rehydrate after judo, eat a banana and cereal or protein bar and get ready for the gym session.
11.30am-12.30pm: Either a strength or conditioning session. The strength session would include bench press, back squat, cleans, deadlifts and pull ups while conditioning sessions which consisted of hard and painful rowing sessions. But it was what we needed to do to get fitter, stronger and ready for our next competition.
12.30pm: Head home for lunch and a rest. Usually something like an omelette, chicken salad or wrap, yogurt and a wee Freedo to satisfy my sweet tooth!
2pm: Relaxing including an afternoon nap.
5pm: Dinner would usually consist of either chicken, beef, pork chop or gammon and then a small portion of rice or pasta and the rest of the plate filled out with veg. Followed by a yogurt or jelly.
7.30pm-9.30pm: More training. Some nights we would have 10 five-minute fights standing and then five five-minute fights on the ground before finishing off with some golden score till the end. Basically, fighting it out to be the last one standing almost.
10.30pm: Home, jump into a nice hot shower, grab a cup of tea and unwind before bed at 11pm.
Do you think you could handle it?
