Dirk Wunderlich is a German CrossFit Regionals athlete and the head coach at CrossFit Mitte in Berlin. We spoke to Dirk about his background, training and what it feels like to compete at the CrossFit Regionals.
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Q: Hey Dirk, how much do the crowd help when you are competing on the Regionals floor?
A: The crowd was literally just amazing. It was such a magical atmosphere in the velodrom. Sold out, people everywhere. You had goosebumps competing out there.
Q: What are your takeaways from the 2018 Europe Regionals?
A: It showed me that competing at regionals takes another kind of training than for the open and that on this level, where everyone is quite fit, the mind is everything. Besides that the time you reach your peak of performance matters the most. Was very interesting to see people crushing regionals while they were average in the open.
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Q: Which event did you enjoy the most?
The most I enjoyed the event 6. Thrusters are my favourites.
Q: What is the transition like between practicing the events in your box and performing them live in the CrossFit Regionals?
When you practised the event you didn’t think so much about always pushing the bar forward after a certain number of repetitions. This was pretty new for me and a big mistake to never practise it. Other thing is when you practise the event or when you do any kind of workout you can just warm up and start when you are ready. There you always had to be ready 20 minutes before the start, where you already got cold again and when you were out on the floor you focus to perform all reps extra clearly, cause you don’t want to risk any no reps.
Q: What do you do between events?
You try to recover as much as possible, get a few minutes off to relax and eat something and change clothes. But usually it is not much time so in a matter of fact you just sit down for a couple of minutes before you go warming up again.
Q: What does your nutrition look like over the days that you are competing?
Nutrition is really simple. Usually I eat eggs and rice for breakfast, cause it easy to process. Between events I usually have some protein shake and amino acids and some carbs from banana or energy bars and really eat first after the last event on the day.
Q: What advice would you offer Crossfitters that want to take part in their first competition?
When you are young and start Crossfit, you are usually very obsessed with it and of course want to get as fit as possible in as less time as possible.
But focus on good skill and work with coaches who will take care of you. Rest is as much important as hard work, cause else you will get injured over time.
In a competition it’s most important to only focus on yourself and your performance. If you look at others and start comparing, you will just get insecure. Focus on what you can do and not what you can’t do. Remember that there is a reason you made it to this competition.
OVERCOMING INJURY
Dirk Wunderlich has been unfortunate with his injuries, having to overcome herniated disks, hip impingement and other misfortunes. But he has shown tremendous resilience, toughness and patience to overcome these setbacks.
DIRK WUNDERLICH IN ACTION
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Image Sources
- Dirk-Wunderlich: Dirk Wunderlich