A crisis? Hardly!
June 20 2004

What is with that grin? It is the first time I have seen it in months. The smile is so broad; you can see all thirty-two of them. He gradually gets up and pumps his fist, reminiscent of someone in a victory pose. Reminds me mildly of those Viagra commercials, but this is not about his successes in that area. "Yes! I am beginning to like what I see," he says, as he makes the ten or so steps over to me to ask me how I am feeling. Exhausted and still struggling to catch my breath, I tell him I am "fine" in between gasps. That was two weeks ago, the week of May 23rd to be specific. The strategist is excited because he thinks he is getting me close to the "breaking point" as he would tell me later. We had had some tailored scrimmage sessions and some overload at the end. Sometimes I wonder how someone can take such satisfaction from inflicting punishment or pain, if I can call it that.

The week of may 23rd was a progressive one for me in terms of training. I'd give it a B grade. In preparation for the Leipzig Grand Prix from the 11th to the 13th of June, we have been pushing pretty hard. I have been able to tolerate some of the hitherto uncomfortable positions a lot better now. My hips are moving better too. My shots are a bit off, not the single leg attacks, but the high crotch. Maybe my hips are off alignment again - may need to see Wilbour Kelsic to get some adjustment - funny how little things out of place can impact on technique.

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The dungeon is still quite thin. Some of the gang are away to Iran and Poland for a few training camps and competitions; I should be somewhere myself, but the training and competition schedule has to be re-adjusted to make room for more healing before the pounding starts. The enforcer keeps reminding me that there is not a lot of time. There is concern that we need to put a bit more focus on the parterre position and make a decision on whether we will try to turn people on the bottom or not. It is a position I support, but my feelings, especially at this time are that I need to be more pre-occupied with not getting turned. My strengths as a wrestler have not been on my ground offense. I need to work on my strengths even more, but I realize that we need to include some offensive and defensive parterre strategies. Stomach flu would threaten the preparations at the end of the week, but appearances and obligations in Toronto would nevertheless occupy my time from the 3rd to the 7th of June when I leave for Germany.

A crisis? Hardly. A crisis only arises when there is a national emergency or something close to that. I am up again at 5:00 AM, June 13th; it is Leipzig, in what used to be former East Germany. This time, I am up writing a diary about a loss; going over details of a match that could have been as easily won. But we are not dwelling on what we could have done; we do not have time for that. It is 11:30 PM in Germany on the 11th of June and I am on the Bike cycling away. Weight control was about five hours ago. After my second meal in five hours, I felt I had to speed up the digestion process before seeking the comfort of my bed. After twenty minutes spent riding away on the bike and five minutes in the Sauna, I take a cold shower and return to my room.

Confidence is not something that necessarily oozes out of my veins in abundance, but I have a fair share of it. We have the German, the Pole, the Azerbaijani, the Japanese and the Turkmenistani who can provide some challenge here. The Turkmenistani I have not seen, but heard of his unorthodox gut wrench. I do not have tapes of him or of his outstanding ground offense, all others I know quite well. Feeling confident about my abilities and preparations, I am thinking we are going to get the momentum going.

I am up again wondering if the fifth place finish at the German Grand prix represents a crisis and I submit that it is not. I did not necessarily wrestle badly, but I did not defend the gut wrench as well as I should have or as well as I can. After being down by six points with less than two minutes left to wrestle, it was difficult to rally back for all six points. I was able to summon about three takedowns, but not enough to tie it up. We had seen the tight waist lock to the left, perfectly executed for about four points in the match prior to mine. Thinking about it now, I think I may have been less worried about that tight waist lock and the seemingly easy points he scored on people I thought were less formidable opponents. It would not work on me I had thought. I should have approached it with more seriousness and maybe I did at the end, but only after I had given up a couple of turns. After the first half ended scoreless and I gave up trying on the clinch, I thought I'd be fine, but I wasn't, and it is not a crisis.

The past few weeks have taught me a few lessons: that an itchy right hand is a bad omen; that fake friends will split but real ones will stay the course and that reporters will tell the story from their angle of interest and often, family wrangles/concerns can affect the outcome of a tournament. I will not make any excuses for whatever happens with my performances; however, I will not allow others to dictate my readiness or lack thereof for the Olympics. Let me be as unequivocal as I can be, I am injury free, my training is coming along really well and "Yes", I am going to the Olympics. Most importantly, like I have mentioned before, I am not only going to the Olympics, but I am going to the Olympics to win.

Dynamite Daniel Igali