Truth be told, it is tricky to find the balance between home, work, and sports life. If you want to get to the top of your game, there are so many sacrifices made and often they are only realised in retrospect. During my serious years of karate training where the focus was to secure my place in the Springbok team, the extra hours were insane. I was out of the house long before my young family awoke and after a day’s work at the office, there was more training in the evenings and over weekends. I’d often get home when the children had long since gone to bed. Training had been part of my routine since I was in my teens and at the time, I saw no reason to modify this.
Long hours of training had become part of how I defined myself to myself and the world. This is who I was. It’s also how I saw myself adding value to the world and the only avenue I felt I could take to achieve my most burning ambitions, which was to represent my country at the highest levels and against the most formidable teams.
Looking back, I realise I missed out on a lot regarding family gatherings and just ordinary daily living with family and friends. I was often away at sporting events over weekends and all over SA at races, gasshukus or tournaments. I tried to make up for it with holidays but not being present and involved every day takes a heavy toll.
My youngest granddaughter, Zoe, is an outstanding sportswoman and I see my daughter, Zonica, spending every waking moment getting Zoe to every sporting event on the packed sporting calendar. It seems that my granddaughter harbours the same “get your mind right” attitude as me. My hope is that she will reach far greater heights than I ever could and make a proper lucrative career out of her sporting talents. But most of all, I hope that she finds a balance between her passion for sport and family life. It is essential to find the balance and be aware that achieving great heights need not come at the expense of a healthy balance.
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