Yet all the while there are threats lurking, which I myself have experienced. At the 2003 winter camp held on the island of Tenerife, I was full of ambition and set too high expectations for each training session. But in January the discus need not fly overly far, since it’s only the preparatory season. I didn’t realise this at the time and kept pushing. Naturally the discus did not reach these unrealistic distances and I got increasingly annoyed. In retrospect, that was one of my few unsuccessful camps – mainly because I was in a foul mood. It effected my entire season and taught me a lesson for life. Now I know for certain that a person develops more quickly when feeling joy doing what he or she does. And this is not just the case in sports. It’s the same with studying: if you approach the topic with interest, you will learn faster and retain much more.
I’ve learned to train while in a good mood; this is one of the greatest secrets of my success.
I’ve learned to train while in a good mood; this is one of the greatest secrets of my success.
At the 2004 Athens Olympics. Teammate Aleksander Tammert won the bronze medal. My face says it all…
2. DON’T BE AFRAID to lose
When I was quite young, we often played board games with my father. My father has recalled that when I lost, I began to cry and got extremely angry. Naturally I don’t enjoy losing to this day, but when I began to add up my wins and losses, I discovered that I’ve lost on many more occasions than I’ve won.
Legendary Estonian chess player Paul Keres has said that a loss teaches one much more than a win. Although losing is unpleasant, it must be taken as a part of life. Not everyone can win! After a loss, I’ve always focused and pondered over what I could do better. That is what guarantees development.
At the “painful” age of 11 to 15 I lost quite often and in almost all athletic areas. I didn’t win anything in track and field, even though I desperately wanted to – I was tall and clumsy. Others were faster than me at basketball practice. The other boys proved stronger in wrestling. I was always losing to my Dad at basketball free throws. And during my first years at discus, I often lost to my main competitors.
I lost constantly to Aleksander Tammert, who was the first to rise to success in Estonian discus throwing at the time. He beat me at all competitions in 2001. In 2002 I finally won one competition, which was followed by the trend of him winning one competition and I the next.
2002-2004 were especially difficult years in my development, since bad luck accompanied me at larger events as well: namely at the European Championships in Munich (2002), World Championships in Paris (2003) and most painfully at the Olympics in Athens (2004). A lot of people lost faith in me after that and thought I had weak nerves. Naturally I was also extremely dejected, but I have later come to realise that the culprit was not my weak nerves, but the fact that at the time I was simply not ready to win.
Winning is a natural phenomenon and happens when you have trained sufficiently and smartly. I had trained smartly, but not sufficiently. The losses were thereby completely logical. It was also logical that I didn’t stand a chance against the world’s top discus throwers at the time. Believe it or not, I lost to my good rival and friend, Lithuanian Olympic champion Virgilijus Alekna in my first 43 competitions out of 44! But I never lost faith that I would beat him one day and namely at a large competition. And so it was.
A loss is not a tragedy. Losing is part of athletics, no matter how painful.
I didn’t manage a first place at the Berlin Golden League competition. I was quite worried.
I lost to Virgilius Alekna in my first 43 competitions out of 44! But I never lost faith that I would beat him.
CHILDHOOD
Vésteinn is a teacher who is always in a good mood.
3. TRUST those smarter and more experienced
The life of an athlete is often a battle with one’s attempts, one’s knowledge, and I’m not ashamed to say that occasionally with one’s own stupidity. As an experienced athlete, I now know that the majority of injuries and losses come from the fact that you have done something wrong. It’s very hard to reach the top without the advice of those older and more experienced. This only happens in extremely rare circumstances.
Legendary Estonian discus coaches Aleksander Tammert Senior and Uno Ojand.
I have been lucky, since I was initially taught by my father and didn’t sustain any major injuries. In my early training years I was also coached by Ando Palginõmm in Pärnu and one-time legendary discus thrower Helgi Parts and Aleksander Tammert Senior in Tallinn. They all gave their utmost to guide me along the right path.
My luck continued. In the summer of 2000 I began to be coached by Uno Ojand, whose unwavering principle was to “train smart”, which was suited to my level of strength. Icelander Vésteinn Hafsteinsson, who took over as my coach at the end of 2000, shared this philosophy. He lived in Sweden at the time, while I lived in Estonia.
Initially, Vésteinn Hafsteinsson would send me my training schedule, while Uno Ojand kept an eye on my progress in Estonia. At first we kept in touch by phone, later via Skype. I also sent Vésteinn videos of my training abroad. When he had sent me my first training schedules, I felt as if he didn’t really know what he was doing. They seemed too simplistic; I was sure I could do more. In other words, to me his guidelines seemed wrong. I began “fixing” his schedules, i.e. training much more intensely, since I wanted to rise to victory faster.
For example, I usually added at least 10 kilograms to the prescribed weight on the bar and pushed myself almost to the limit all the time. And it was the same with my throws – if I was supposed to push it to 90 % of my limit in order to polish technique, then I always threw to at least 100 %. My coach got wind of this and we had a serious falling out. It was the first one of the few arguments we ever had, but it was serious. He made me realise that sports are not about doing a lot, but about sticking to a plan. And the goal of a training schedule is not to achieve more, but to be healthy. It’s better to be healthy than to heal an injury for many months. The coach was taking my physical condition into consideration: who I was at the time.
But I wanted it all and I wanted it fast. Vésteinn convinced me of my mistakes, some old friends came to help and I finally began to believe them.
Never have I wavered from my training schedule since and during the last eight years I’ve suffered only one injury of note. I’ve come to the clear conclusion that there are experiences I know nothing about, or which someone else knows more about. Over time I’ve gained a circle of acquaintances from whom I can request advice on any number of subjects.
I’ve gained a great deal of valuable knowledge thanks to experience. And I’m always ready to share those experiences.
4. KNOW HOW TO dream
In my hometown of