coaching Germany 2009

With 8 of the Girls-Camp-Girls from the weekend before I went to the national competition in Warnemuende/Germany this past weekend. Goal was to coach them in their first ever competition and to help them with tips and tricks to become fierce competitors.

At the event site I explained the basic competition rules, tactics and preparation routine and intrudced the girls to the most importand people at the event. At times I felt set back in time about 8 years when I started competing myself and so I could relate very well to the nervouseness of the ladies and was able to keep them focused and calm them down a little.

Whit wind on all 3 days of the event the girls got enough time to practice their competiton riding and with 15 girls registered in total there were quite a few heats to ride. While I ran around to start and land kites and to position them for their heats I ended up getting quite nervous myself, cheering for my girls on the beach.

The conditions were quite difficult as for the freestyle the wind was offshore and really gusty and for the course racing the wind was so light that some competitors just did not have equipment big enough. But the ladies made me proud!

While Helen Fischer ended up in 5th place in the freestyle event, Stephanie Voss ende up in 3rd place in course racing and we all cheered for her at the price giving!

I was very happy to see that after 2 weekends together the girls had build a tight group and the perfect team for the competitions to come. While they will all go to the next competition in Fehmarn together they also promissed to send me updates and to stay in contact.

Even more happy though I was about the surprise the girls had for me… When we all said good bye to each other they gave me a big red box with millions of white dots on it and when I unwrapped my gift I found the cutest rain boots ever – in lady bug design! I was so stoked about my lucky rain boots and our farewell was so sincere that I will not forget about these 2 weekends with the girls so soon again!

I will be wearing my lady bug rain boots at the world cup in St. Peter Ording next week and hope to get competition reports from the girls often! I keep my fingers crossed for you ladies!!!