Athletics – a teamsport
by Frauke Brecko (BvA)
Many people think athletics is not for them, because they would rather go for a group sport, but since I have done athletics for over eight years I can say you aren’t lonesome at all!
Athletics is a group sport, even if you do mostly single disciplines. There are workouts you need in each discipline and they are usually gone through with the whole group.
When I was 9, I went to training for the first time and I was lovingly received by the others. At that time it was more about fun than success. We were a large group that sometimes also met off the practise and did something together.
After a few years it was more about success and the group dwindled. Now we were still a little group, we always trained together and went to all the competitions together. During training we laughed a lot and we met not only for training and we became very good friends.
Even in a contest, where we were actually competitors, we were clearly a team and were always together. We always supported and congratulated each other on our victories, and encouraged each other when things were not like we wanted. Even if it was not going so well for yourself, you were happy for the others and celebrated with them.
I would say that the competition brought us even closer together, because if someone was injured or delivered a bad performance, we were always there for each other and taught ourselves to laugh again. In addition, there is also the team score and the relay races in which you are competing as a team and succeed or fail together.
Even with those sports clubs, which we clearly see as our competitors usually, we have come to establish friendly relations. So we inform each other about competitions one club has missed, laugh a lot together and always congratulate the other clubs to successful performances at competitions.
Athletics is boring and always the same? Absolutely not! Depending on the discipline, there are very different techniques which take differently long to learn. For the last two years I – for example – was mostly into shot put. You are not only in the ring all the time, pushing one “ball” after another, but you also do a lot of sprinting, jumping, improving your strength and much more.
Within these two years I have changed the technique three times, each of the three has taken its time and concentration, since they are sometimes very difficult to bring to perfection.
In addition, I also trained – “by the way” – for all other disciplines, but mainly for high jump and throwing the discus because I’ve done those in competitions.
Even if I had a lot of fun competing, I must admit that you need strong nerves for this. You have to cope with the expectations that you and your coach put into yourself . Because if you do not show the performance you have expected, the coach is not the “nice guy”, and it also frustrates yourself.
However, if you look for a sport where you can prove your own ability to perform well and also have fun and team spirit, you are exactly right at athletics.