Getting hit in the face
A late morning in Amsterdam, I’m biking next to the Canals. The light breezes of wind and sunshine for some reason bring the melody of ‘September morn’ (song by Neil Diamond; my parents used to play him) in my head. However before I get a chance to drift off to youth sentiment, a firetruck accompanied with a firm roadblock end my daydreams. Two turns later I already reach my destination; a coffee bar in the ‘Pijp’.
I’m about to catch up with Diana Kuip, just before she leaves for a 3- week biking tour through France and Spain. As Diana has been working as sports journalist & columnist (e.g. JFK, Voetbal International, AD, Men’s Health) and writer (e.g. new book: ‘Ik ben geen Zidane’ / ‘I’m not a Zidane’) for over 10 years, plus she is an active cyclist herself, it’s a ‘very very wild’ guess to say we have some topics to discuss.
On entering the venue, with my left eye still screening the different areas, and before my brain gets a chance to think about in which direction to walk, my right eye is already drawn to the woman of the day…..Behind a big table, back straight, completely focused (F. Mayweather would envy this level of composure), she looks, while simultaneously reaching for some paper notes, at the laptop in front of her. Some seconds later I step into her ‘office’ and the following conversation unfolds.
youth sentiment and the love for cycling
SA: Hmm.. (while grabbing a chair and looking at the glass on the table)..interesting, not even noon and having a coke already?
Diana: Haha, yes that’s my guilty pleasure, I don’t drink coffee though. By the way it’s a light one….
SA: Ok..ok….sugar substitutes being poison is indeed an urban myth
Diana: Yeah that’s ‘bs’….
– the SA orders a black coffee (what else?) and takes a seat –
SA: So starting where we met; the gym has always been part of your life?
Diana: I started with fitness in my teens and about 10 years ago, after I broke my back while I was snowboarding, I decided to turn the intensity up a notch to boost the recovery process. Ever since I really enjoy strength and core focused workouts.
By the way, as a kid my first encounter with sports was actually horseback riding. I did this for quite some years and in parallel started to watch soccer with my father.
SA: Quite a special combi; girly on the one hand and boy-like on the other. Guess you easily bonded with your father?
Diana: I was, and perhaps still am, the odd one out indeed. My father was quite happy to find a fellow fan, especially since my brother was not in to soccer. Nowadays I still talk a lot with him about sports; guess its like a sort of supporting glue in many parent-child relationships.
SA: Couldn’t agree more, can easily spend hours talking over the phone with my father; sharing all kinds of sports ‘frustrations’.
SA: As what type of sporter would you define yourself?
Diana: I’m a real, and with real I mean real, asocial sporter. All sports I do I prefer to do alone; going to gym, cycling, running.
SA: Ah that rings a bell; read this quote of you somewhere: ” I’m actually not a social person at all, but my passion for sports makes it look I’m at least a bit social “
Diana (smiling): You did your homework I see! To add, I also like a sports club or gym to be as sober and ‘old school’ as possible; it shouldn’t impose its visitors to dress up. For my work I don’t mind dressing up, but I don’t want to think about how I look when I work out.
SA: In your columns and personal life cycling has a special place….how come?
Diana: During a family vacation in the French Alps, we stayed in a cottage close to the Mont Ventoux. One day I simply went out in an attempt to conquer it by bike and got addicted to the thrill.
Minor note…that first ride looked ridiculous; there was only a normal city bike available and I didn’t bring any cycling gear. So there I went, wearing sneakers, sitting on a bike with a luggage rack….but I made it!
Talking about addictions: Since some years now, I’m trying to beat my personal ascending time when I pass the Ventoux while on vacation.
SA: Can you describe the thrill? Visualizing any climbs from Froome perhaps?
Diana: Haha I never compare myself with the pros, but let me think….(eyes actively seeking for a memory), during the climb I’m simply hoping it all ends as quickly as possible and I’m focusing on the music on my headset. Only at the end I reach the famous endorphin high, which I surprisingly never get from a run.
boxing pioneering
– During our conversation there is one recurring topic that next to a spark brings a certain determination in Diana’s eyes and a competitiveness tone in her voice….: Boxing-
SA: You were actually quite a pioneer (eat your heart out Idris Elba and Rio Ferdinand), as you already took on a boxing challenge almost 9 years ago, well before the (kick)boxing hype started.
Diana: Yeah thanks, it started as an experiment for JFK magazine where I was working at the time, but went on to become something much bigger. I committed myself to do six months of training and work towards a fight for the Dutch championship.
SA: What were your main challenges and mental takeaways from that time?
The major milestone for me – I later learned this is key for all starting (professional) boxers – was to accept to get hit in the face and see that as something ‘normal’. Crossing that border really boosted my mental toughness; there is not much in life afterwards that can throw you off balance.
Another I challenge I faced was the misunderstanding; nobody from my family and friends understood me during my journey. To see me getting beat up during the fight didn’t help to bridge that gap…..
On a micro-level the whole experience helped me to get focused on my eating pattern; for example started with protein shakes at that time.
SA: How did the story end?
Diana: In the end I lost the title fight on points; main reason was the length and reach advantage of my opponent. She made a crazy amount of points in my face due to that longer reach. Although I went all in for the win, it was great for the JFK articles that I ended up losing. It made the whole story way more dramatic.
Also I was proud that I, after only six months of training, was a serious challenge for a far more experienced fighter with a weight at the top of our class.
Due to the latter I sometimes still wonder what would have happened if I If I had gone for a lower weight class as my weight was roughly one kilo above it.
My coach told me about this option only after the fight however. I was surprised why he didn’t mention this earlier, but he said he wanted to be careful with the pressure on me. Focusing on both the trainings and a weight schedule would probably have been too much.
Nowadays boxing is still a part of my life, almost every week I go for a workout at the boxing school where I trained for my fight. The people there became a sort of my family and always welcome me as ‘one of the guys’.
SA: Although you love what you do, are there any moments you need to deal with inner conflicts?
Diana: I feeI privileged that I’m in a position to write and talk about the things I love; therefore I don’t have any special routines to motivate myself to achieve my work targets. However sometimes I need to attack some work avoiding behavior (e.g. cleaning the house) by visiting a coffee bar. It alsohelps that when an article has a deadline it simply has a deadline.
Only real conflict I could think of is that I sometimes get caught up in watching a game and I feel I need to send out a tweet at the same time.
– Then, while my cup of coffee is still half full, we both realize the time has flown by and the agendas are ‘calling’ us. Our roads diverge as she puts her laptop in the most girly pink sleeve I ever saw and some seconds later disappears into the daily street life of the Pijp. There are mountains awaiting her; preferably very steep andnasty mountains. They are waiting to be conquered, not because Diana has to, no simply because she likes to-