High performance sportswomen

| We speak with Conchita Martínez, an elite tennis player, who tells us about her experience as a high-performance sportswoman.

It is clear to us that doing physical activity is beneficial for our health. And that the minimum time we must dedicate to sports is 30 minutes, too. However, the path between starting to move and becoming a high performance athlete, it is usually very long. Carrying out a high-performance sport often implies not only dedicating ourselves to it full time, but it also means pushing ourselves to the maximum both physically and mentally. And the more we do it, the results are usually extraordinary, but we must evaluate how hard or not that path can be.

Interview with Conchita Martínez

In general, the training of a high-performance athlete begins at an early age, before or around 10 years of age. Winner of 3 Olympic medals, multiple national and international titles, and currently captain of the national tennis teams, Conchita Martinez is a clear exponent of the high performance sportswoman and has had similar beginnings:

“The truth is that your life changes because you cannot do what, for example in your childhood, the other girls in your class do. But I do not say it with pity, because I am very happy to have chosen the life that I have chosen. But it is true that it requires greater sacrifices. When maybe your friends are leaving or going out on the weekends, you can't because you are training. But I am happy with the path I chose ”.

The high-performance athlete usually has the goal of obtaining sporting achievements of the highest level, but in addition, in general, she has an innate talent in sports activity that allows her to cope with the many hours of training daily to which you must submit. And due to the demands of the training, you must also follow a strict physical, technical, tactical, psychological and nutritional program.

“I think that at the level of sacrifice I have tried a lot and I have not lowered my arms soon. Many times I have played games with pain, without the whole world having to know, ”says Conchita.

“It is also true that you eat a balanced diet and, over the years, all the studies in this regard have improved. There were times when I was wearing it better and other times when I was wearing it worse, but when you make such an effort and burn so many calories, you have to stick to what is going to get you back so that the next day you feel better ”, he adds.

Professional life includes an extra ingredient in the cocktail of high performance athletes. Generating income adds pressure to the schedule of activities and often leads to injuries:

“It is true that I have had everything: wrist, shoulder… but never at the level of saying 'I have to stop and I have to operate'. Yes, at the end of my career - back in 2004/2005 - I could no longer train at a high level because I had problems with my Achilles tendons. If you are hitting the ground all the time, it causes you a lot of pain and you cannot train yourself to maintain what you are used to doing, which is reaching the finals ”, recalls Martínez.

And despite all the hard training, care and dedication, the moment always comes where professional life it ends and you have to think about how to continue, not only from the physical, but also from the psychological.

For Conchita Martínez, seeing her future a little clear was fundamental:

“I think you have to try to prepare (for withdrawal), but it is not easy, because you are leaving it… you are leaving it. And it is true that this has its expiration date. The high performance athlete has a very short career, and if you are in the elite for a long time and suddenly it ends… Well, it is better to keep that in mind. Prepare yourself and know a little what you want to do next. "