I consider myself to be physically and phsycologically.. I got tested in CUBA!
Cuba was a prep-trip for a tournament where Peru will be the host called " Las Cuatro Naciones", where Peru, Chile, Argentina and Ecuador will participate. 16 players made the final Pre-Team and went to Cuba, 4 of them where teens; I was one of the four.
I am a very competitive person and I am willing to face all of the challenges that my coach puts in front of me and that other team put in front of me. I am ready to do anything to be the best. just to give you a clear idea of what a normal day was: wake up a 5am to practice: running 8k, 400 push-ups, 500 abs, 100 two legged jumps and playing a type of rugby), then we would eat breakfast. After that we would go to the gym and then go to the beach to run 3k in the sand and swim them back.Then came Lunch and after that we went to play games with the absolute national cuban team and clubs near the zone; at least two games per-day. After that we swam 2k in the pool and had a stretching session that finished about 7pm. We had free time from 7pm-10pm that was our bed time.
I am a very competitive person and I am willing to face all of the challenges that my coach puts in front of me and that other team put in front of me. I am ready to do anything to be the best. just to give you a clear idea of what a normal day was: wake up a 5am to practice: running 8k, 400 push-ups, 500 abs, 100 two legged jumps and playing a type of rugby), then we would eat breakfast. After that we would go to the gym and then go to the beach to run 3k in the sand and swim them back.Then came Lunch and after that we went to play games with the absolute national cuban team and clubs near the zone; at least two games per-day. After that we swam 2k in the pool and had a stretching session that finished about 7pm. We had free time from 7pm-10pm that was our bed time.
The national cuban team had a tone of experience. Their smallest player had 19 years and had played water polo for almost 11 years. On the other hand their oldest player was 38 and had 30 years of experience with this amazing sport. What surprised me the most was that their average size was something like 1.90cm and one player measured 2.10m. Once again I learned how important leg power is for water polo. After seeing the Cubans play I was surprised; I asked myself how can someone lift so much and stay at that height for so much time? The answer was simple, practice hard! This made me prepare my first personal goal for 2014, have big amounts of leg power. | Then, discipline is very important for a team. Our coach said that we had to be in a place at a certain time and we were all at that time, personally I tried to be the first one. I remember that one day; one of the adults came just 10 minutes late and the bus left him! There was sent time to wait for anyone, we had to go practice and discipline is important if we want to have positive results. |
My coach Tony Luque is 58 years old and has been playing water polo since he was 7. He is also from Cuba and has been with the peruvian team for 2 years now. He is very knowledgable and does training plans very accurate and developed to excel the athletes development rate at the correct pace. Since he is from Cuba, everything had to be perfect there, and we had to be at our best level.
When we played with the absolute national team I started in the main team; in fact 3 of the 4 teens started in the main team. We learned a lot when we played with these players, from the correct positioning to just game thinking and strategy. Then we played with the best state club from cuba in the category 97; my category. We beat them 12-4 and they where surprised that peruvians had beaten them.
Diego Villar '98, Sebastian Morales '97, Augusto Otero '97
Diego Villar '98, Sebastian Morales '97, Augusto Otero '97
Something that I always remember:
In the pool we are all the same size
and even if we weren't you can never get nervous or scared before playing a game because you will stop playing well. Just get in the water and do what you know; what you have practiced and have fun at the same time.