BOUNCING BACK: ‘This is why you do it, you love judo. This is where you are meant to be so get back to training on Monday and work harder for next time!’ Highland sportswoman Steph Inglis talks about resilience
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When we arrived at the venue on competition day we would look around and take it in, and I’d look at the mat I would be competing on, writes Steph Inglis.
Then we’d find a spot for our bags that we could base ourselves from the day. Time to get our judo kits on and warm up. The competition mats are busy with all judokas on warming up, running around the mat, and going through their techniques and movements.
About 15 minutes before the competition starts judokas will be asked to leave the competition mats and make their way to the warm-up area. This included big screens showing the contest order and we could watch some of the fights.
We would go through the judo suit control where they check your judo suit meets the competition requirements. You would then stand in a tunnel and wait for your name to be announced before heading out to the mat to fight.
This walk out could be quite intimidating and make you nervous which is why I always walked out with my headphones on, music loud trying to focus on the fight ahead of me.
At the edge of the mat, I would take off my headphones, socks and flip-flops then jump onto the mat.
I would give my face a couple of slaps as if to say, ‘You got this Steph’ and then I would look across the mat at my opponent before the referee would bring us on to fight.
A judo fight lasts for four minutes unless someone scores a maximum score before then. If there is no score at the end of the four minutes we would enter an unlimited golden score battle. Some fights have gone on for 20 minutes before someone finally scored, and my longest was about 11 minutes!
Winning a fight was always a good feeling and a sigh of relief but you didn’t have too much time to reflect or rest, it could be as little as 20 minutes before your next fight, so you were back to the warm-up hall, changing judo suit if needed, wee bite of banana, rehydrating and focusing on your fight plan with your coach.
On average you could have between four and six fights. With every fight a maximum intensity battle, it was a very tiring and hard day. If you made it into the medal fights, there would be around a two-hour break before they were fought.
I would take advantage of that time to eat one of my smuggled sandwiches, rehydrate and take 30-45 minutes to sleep. Once I woke up, I would discuss my fight plan with my coach and warm up again.
Now I did not always win a medal at a competition but when I did, it was a great feeling. Standing on that podium you would just smile and feel happy thinking ‘all that hard work and training I had put in had paid off’.
Winning a medal meant going out that night for dinner was a celebration meal consisting of pizza and chocolate. It was always a great feeling heading back to your hotel room for bed and seeing your medal which was usually accompanied by some flowers or a little teddy. You would have a little moment to yourself feeling good and gearing up for the next competition.
On days I did not win a medal, I used to go find a spot in the stadium away from everyone else and just sit by myself thinking ‘why couldn’t I have won that fight? Do I even want to do this anymore? I work so hard week-in week-out and for what?’
I would sit and watch the rest of my weight category compete thinking I am as good as them and I really believe I can beat them. While watching other weight categories progress in the competition I would always eventually have the same thought: ‘this is why you do it, you love judo. This is where you are meant to be so get back to training on Monday and work harder for next time!’
