Brain Drain
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July 4th, 2008
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This has been a tough week, mostly because of what happened last weekend. I've been drained both mentally and physically. I could have been sitting in a dark room staring at the wall all week long and felt totally fine.
Mental exhaustion is one thing, but combine it with physical fatigue and the body will struggle. I've spend the past five weekends, Friday through Monday, in Germany playing professional tennis. This is great fun and I have the most amazing team mates and fans down there. The season was great, better than anyone expected, but we still needed to win last weekend. Receiving the news of my good friends Olaf and Saskia'ss miscarriage in the sixth month on Friday was like a kick in the balls. It took all the fun out of everything. Tennis was hardly important any more.
But the match this weekend still had to be played so the anger and sadness had to be tucked away somewhere in the brain during Sunday. Easier said than done. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who felt this way. After a great win there is normally a huge party but this weekend people had a couple of beers and went home instead.
High athletic performance takes great concentration, and of course physical endurance, this is very tough to do with sad distractions. Imagine your best friend, or your father, dying yesterday and you still having to run a marathon race tomorrow. Or play 36 holes of golf. And your performance must be outstanding since other people are relying on you. Not easy.
But this week is over and I'm ready to get on with things. I still haven't had tehe courage to speak with Olaf or Saskia. I'll postpone it until next week, it might be a good idea for all of us.
Have a great weekend! Oh, almost forgot. Happy 4th of July!
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