Haley Daniels Canoe Slalom: August 2012

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

The 2012 Canadian Nationals wrapped up about a week ago in Valleyfield, Quebec. Jessica (teammate) and I stayed at a fellow paddlers house, where we enjoyed fresh vegetables and fruits from the gardens of Valleyfield. We would bike to the course each day and stop for a coffee or at the market along the way! It was a very relaxing week of training.

The race schedule consisted of:

Thursday – Down river classic (4km paddle on mostly flat water), down river sprint (about 150m), and Parallel Slalom
Friday – Coarse set and demos
Saturday – Juniors and U23 slalom race
Sunday – Seniors slalom race, semi finals and finals, Team Races

I raced 2 classes for the slalom races (K1W and C1W). My overall rankings were:

DR Classic – C1W 2nd Place
DR Sprint – C1W 1st Place
Parallel Slalom – C1W 1st Place

U23 Slalom – C1W 1st Place, K1W 7th
Seniors Slalom – C1W 2nd Place, K1W 7th
Team Race Slalom - C1W 3rd Place

Result can be found here: http://canoekayak.ca/content/ww_results

Parallel Slalom against Ally McGee

Canoe Slalom Race

Kayak Slalom Race

Kayak Slalom Race (rolling)

Gillan Graves Photo

Seniors Race Awards

It is a Canadian Tradition that every team race all of the girls who placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd stand on the 1st podium together.

I am now on the next leg of my competitions in Czech Republic for CZE Nationals and World Cup #4.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

U23 World Championships - Wausau, USA

I was recently at the Junior and U23 World Championships in Wausau, Wisconsin. This was the first U23 and Junior World Championships and will occur each year from now on.

I made it to finals and the pressure was on to stay clean. I ended up touching 3 gates with a loop at gate 10 this put me in 8^th for the final result.

The most difficult part of racing is ones ability to control their mental toughness. The best racers are in excellent physical shape and technically sound, but the thing that keeps them at the top is their diligence to focus on the task at hand and race well.

My coach Mike has been talking a lot about a new Sport Psychology technique called MAC, which stands for Mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment. Where in a race situation I would be mindful of the fact that I am in an important competition, I would accept that I am racing and I want to do well, and committing to the plan that I have made to efficiently execute the coarse set.

At the end of each race a strong feeling stirs of wanting to go and race again. This itch was prevalent at the end of my finals run at Worlds. I have 4 more competitions to redeem myself and climb my way up in the international rankings.

These competitions include:

Nationals – Valley Field, Que –Aug. 11-12

Czech Nationals – Prague, CZE – Aug. 18-19

World Cup #4 – Prague, CZE – Aug. 25-26

World Cup #5 – Bratislava, SLK – Sept. 1-2

Some video from training