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18.6 Seconden? Nee, mijn wedstrijden duren 4 minuten. Afstand in kilometer dan? Ook niet, ons wedstrijdtoneel is 2400 vierkante meter. Snelheid? Soms, maar in dit geval niet. Oke, wat dan? 18.6 mmol/l Tja, dat zegt u waarschijnlijk niets. Is het een score? Een Seasons Best? Nee, het was de hoogte van mijn bloedsuikers, 2 minuten voordat ik de baan betrad, om mijn vrije dans te rijden op het NK kunstrolschaatsen 2018. Een beetje hoog, een gemiddelde verpleegster zou aankomen rennen met een insuline pen, of een infuus regelen, voor het geval ik uitgedroogd zou raken. Ja, maar daar is nu geen tijd voor, het is nu tijd om te vechten, op een andere manier. Deze 4 minuten, daar heb ik anderhalf jaar voor gewerkt; mijn 2e senioren NK, mijn eerste NK na mijn jaartje er tussen uit. Mijn lichaam en geest moesten even tot rust komen, maar, ik had honger, honger naar nog een NK titel, nog een WK uitzending, dus moest ik terug komen, en ik ben terug, nu even geen tijd voor medisch geneuzel, nu eerst even laten zien, waar ik zo hard voor heb gewerkt. Leven met diabetes, is topsport: meten, berekenen, aanpassingen maken, opnieuw meten, weer aanpassingen maken. Het is een continue bezigheid, een continu process, en elke dag, als je denkt, dat je de meester bent geworden, het onder de knie hebt, blijk je een beginner, weer een foute waarde. Ver*****! Leven met diabetes is topsport, ik ben er continu mee bezig. Daarmee, en met die 2 andere topsporten die ik beoefen. Mijn naam is Tyler ter Meulen, en ik ben de onverslagen Nederlandse kampioen kunstrolschaatsen. Sinds ik 8 jaar was, loopt mijn leven letterlijk op rolletjes, en ben ik, dag in, dag uit, te vinden op de rolschaatsbaan. Een sport waar ik door mijn moeder in ben gerold. Na heel wat jaren aan de nationale top mee te hebben gedraaid, maakte ik in 2012, het jaar dat ik de diagnose diabetes type 1 kreeg, mijn internationale debuut. Het was een bewogen jaar, waarin ik veel moest leren over leven met diabetes. Maar mijn sport, daar haalde ik kracht uit. Ik sloot het seizoen dan ook af met een gouden plak op de jeugd interland. Sindsdien heb ik aan alle denkbare toernooien deelgenomen, waaronder EK’s en het Wereld Kampioenschap (waar ik de als beste Nederlander eindigde, met een prachtige top 15 notering). Maar ik wou meer, ik ben nooit tevreden, er zit veel meer in mij! Sinds 3 jaar, ben ik mijn sport op een andere manier gaan benaderen, de eerste WK medaille, dat is mijn doel. Of, een van mijn doelen, want sinds 3 jaar ben ik niet alleen actief op rolschaatsen, maar ook op het ijs, als kunstschaatser. Want waarom 1 doel stellen, als je er ook meer kan stellen. Waarom alleen voor een WK medaille voor rolschaatsen gaan, als je nog wat uren over hebt in de week? Misschien is een deelname aan de Olympische Spelen ook wel wat? Voor je het weet, sta je opeens ook ruim 25 uur per week op het ijs, kan allemaal gewoon. Dit is een spannend jaar voor mij, met een prachtig team om mij heen werk ik op verschillende podia, aan verschillende doelen; Een nieuwe hoogte bereiken als kunstrolschaatser, en een deelname aan de Olympische Spelen met kunstschaatsen. Ik ben meer dan gezegend met een gemotiveerd, en zorgzaam, team om mij heen, die allemaal net zo gepassioneerd, geobsedeerd, en wellicht net zo gek zijn, als ik, en samen met mij elke dag werken aan het behalen van onze doelen. Dit jaar is het jaar dat ik zowel mijn eerste poging tot een hogere WK notering ga doen, en het jaar dat ik “de ring” betreed als kunstschaatser. Ik hoop met mijn inzet, en mijn harde werken, Nederland weer op de kaart in beide sporten te zetten. Sommige sporten, daar zijn wij echt de beste in, Nederland zet internationaal de toon; met rolschaatsen en kunstschaatsen, helaas niet. Daar wil ik verandering in brengen. We hebben zoveel harde werkers, zoveel heren en dames die hun hart en ziel in de sport leggen. Het pad is alleen nog niet vrij gemaakt voor hen. Ik ben degene die dat pad vrij gaat maken, die dat pad vrij aan het maken is! Maar, ik kan dat natuurlijk niet alleen. Naast de grote morele support die ik geniet van vrienden, familie, en van liefhebbers van de sport, ben ik ook opzoek naar financiële support om de zaak draaiende te houden. Om te kunnen blijven opereren op het niveau waar we nu op zitten, en om door te kunnen blijven groeien, moet ik vaak naar het buitenland; ervaring opdoen bij andere trainers, trainingsstages de hele zomer door, internationale wedstrijden bezoeken. Dat kost geld, een heel hoop geld. Sponsoren groot en klein zijn meer dan welkom om samen met mij Nederlandse (rol)schaats glorie te behalen! We staan aan de vooravond van iets groots, en ik hoop dat U samen met mij deze schaatsrevolutie teweeg wil brengen! Lees het origineel op de website van Sportief in Nederland, druk hier
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 Judging with the 10.0 system - yes it's me :) Today marks the end of an era, the end of my 2018 season, and the end of rollerskating judging as we know it. As we start preparing for 2019, we say goodbye to the 10.0 judging system, where skaters performances are judged with an overall impression from 0.0 - 10.0, to RollArt, the judging system of the future, where all elements will be judged individually and receive a base value with an "Quality of Execution"(QOE) value. Before starting with all on skates preparations for the next season, I always reflect on my past; this time, I would love to share my reflection with y'all!  2018 Free Dance The 2018 season, was my comeback season; after a hiatus of one year, I decided to reenter the competitive "ring" - this year going for a different style of choreography; for my style dance we chose LaLa Land, I loved skating this program, it was fun, quick, intricate; It was a good example of how style dances are supposed to be in the new judging system. My Free dance, is my absolute favorite, skating to Charlie Chaplin! Not only did we make sure it was PACKED with technical elements, this program was filled with some great moments to connect with the judges and the audience which was so much fun! The season started off with the qualifying competitions for the Nationals, the first one in Zaandam (my hometown) and the second one in Mierlo, at the rink where the Nationals were held one month later. Sadly I had to miss the second qualifier, due to a knee injury, the first competition in my career which I have had to miss! My fysio team worked non stop to get me into shape for the nationals, it took a few weeks, and left only 2 weeks to prep for nationals. With only 2 weeks, my coach and I have had to work very efficient to be ready for it. It seems like the hard work has definitely paid off, I have skated my best national championships to date! Never before have I felt so secure, so in the "zone", so ready to attack!  It started off at Saturday afternoon with the Style dance event. My mom and I arrived in Mierlo, immediately started with the off skates warming up. It felt so good, I couldn't wait to enter the rink, to start skating my program. The LaLa Land choreography was new, we made it specially for nationals and I am proud of how it looked! A great first event!  Sunday was the final day of nationals, I had the honor to be the last skater, the "grand finale" so to speak. After skating a good free dance (not great, there is ALWAYS room for improvement, I never say I skate great; to be honest, this was the first ever time I even said I skated good!) Half an hour later, I was awarded my 27th solo national title, my second Senior title; a record number! I kicked off the training season with a figure skating camp in Utrecht with the new coaching staff of my Amsterdam figure skating club; 4 days of hard work on ice, hours of ballet, off ice technique, theory lessons, video analyses, and stretching. I have to admit, the last day, was very difficult, but I managed to get through it! Tuesday will be the first day in Wormer, on rollers. I am looking forward to it, we have so much great ideas for the choreographies, I have been listening to thousands of songs, and we were able to pick some GREAT ones! We will start working on the choreographies first thing, and I know for a fact, that these programs will knock off everyones socks! - I will not share the themes yet, but all I can say is that the free dance will be very exciting! The style dance rhythm for 2019 will be Spanish medley, my favorite style, so it won't be a problem to make something amazing, the music we have choses, is absolutely breathtaking! As always, I will keep y'all up to date with my instagram stories. Here is to a great season!  So, when we decided to start a blog a little while ago, my manager and I needed to schedule the blog posts, and decide on the subjects. Naturally, the first blog would be about who I am, and what I do. Thinking that this would be the most easy blog to write, I started on it, but soon I learned that writing about who I am, is not easy at all.... I didn't want to write a generic blog post about my life, and athletic career; but something more personal and fun, to learn about the person behind the skater. So after countless google sessions, reading a ton of other blogs, and hours of late night youtube-ing, I came up with an plan to tackle this post; answer some random questions that I found during my deep web exploring on blogging 101. So without further ado, lets get rolling; What are your nicknames? What do you prefer to be called? I seem to have a lot of nicknames, though some might not have been designed for me to actually take notice off.... Some that I hear a lot of are "Ty" or lovingly adopted in my marketing "Mister T" (I like that one); my sister calls me "Tyty" - and I call her Dede by the way. I prefer to be called Tyler. What books on your shelf are begging to be read? I live for the books written by Simon Sinek! I am reading his "Leaders eat last" at the moment, and have "Start with Why" waiting on my shelf for when I finished this one. I am a strictly non-fiction-only-selfhelp-managing-strategy book reader; but I have a few fiction books which I LOVE as well (including the graciously written book "Il Gattopardo"- LOVEEE IT). Atlas Shrugged is capturing dust on my shelf, as I bought it 3 summers ago to read, but the amount of pages has really scared me, and moved me toward watching the movie instead... How many days could you last in solitary confinement? How would you do it? ZERO DAYS!! Do you save old greeting cards and letters? Throw them away? I am a hoarder of old cards and letters! I think that, with some exceptions, I still have all my Christmas and birthday cards. My grandmother sends me a lot of cards throughout the year for all kind of occasions (Easter, Sinterklaas - a Dutch holiday, before important competitions, after important competitions) - I try to save them all. How many times a day do you look at yourself in the mirror? Uhh... let's just skip this question - A lot of times... What is the strangest thing you believed as a child? I swear I once saw the Easter Bunny jump over the fence after visiting our place to hide some chocolate eggs. What is one guilty pleasure you enjoy too much to give up? Netflix-ing - Who doesn't?! Which animals scare you most? Why? Just insects in general. I hate everything that creeps and crawls around. Yuk! Are you more likely to avoid conflict or engage it head-on? EN-GAGE - I love discussions; the reason no one was surprised when I decided to study law. What is something about yourself that you hope will change, but probably never will? I am truly sucking at getting up early. Whenever I have classes in the morning, or have an early training session, it takes forever to get up. Numerous self help blogs later, and still no progress.... Seems like this will never change. When was the last time you really pushed yourself to your physical limits? I try to really push my limits every single time I have training or hit the gym. I am a firm believer in hard work when you really want to succeed. So every training, every time I am going to the gym, I try to be better then last time; If it is jumping a jump, skating a step sequence, or running on the treadmill. I ALWAYS want to improve! Do you have a whole lot of acquaintances or just a few very close friends? Both I guess. Because of skating, you get to know a lot of people, but on a very flat level. - It does good for the Facebook Friends count, but you do not form a lot of deep relationships. - I have a few close friends. What’s a strange occurrence you’ve experienced but have never (or rarely) shared with anyone? One time, when I was a lot younger, 6 or 7 years old, I saw a midget/dwarf like figure in my room, during the night. I tried to hide under my blanket (as if that had been a great spot to hide....) and peeked from underneath to keep an eye on it. After a minute or ten I fell asleep, and never saw it again. - Up until today, I have no idea what it was What do you think about more than anything else? Skating, obviously What’s something that amazes you? People who have been through the worst of times, who do not victimize themselves, but get up, and accomplish something amazing; like wining the olympics or found an amazing company. Do you prefer that people shoot straight with you or temper their words? Straight shooting any time! Where’s your favourite place to take an out-of-town guest? The "Zaanse Schans" - Please send me a recording of you trying to say it! - 10 minutes from my home. It is a small village in Zaandam where they put all the old buildings and mills from the region together (yes they towed the mills and houses!!). They have a wooden shoe store, cheese factory, and many mills to visit. I always love going there with guests! What are the top three qualities that draw you to someone new? Passion, commitment, imagination What do you consider unforgivable? Betrayal of any kind Have you forgiven yourself for past personal failures? Why or why not? I try to learn as much from past failures as possible. I do not think it is about forgiving, it is more about accepting, analyzing, and moving on. In what area of your life are you immature? I am a sucker for Disney; when visiting one of the parks, I instantly turn into a 6 year old! I do all the dances of the shows, sing all the songs, want to take a picture with all the princesses, and watch the fireworks every night!! When do you find yourself singing? While driving - my car instantly turns into a karaoke bar when I turn on the engine; oh and while doing chores Which is worse: failing or never trying? NEVER TRYING is absolutely worse!! The road to success is filled with failure; I fail everyday; that last set of pull ups, the second program run trough, a difficult cluster of steps. You must always give 200% - you will fail 9 out of 10 times, but it is the 10th time, the one time you succeed that counts. And you will not get to it, if you haven't tried it in the first place.  |