Michael Korrel (29) is eighteen when he wins silver for the first time at the European Junior Judo Championships. He is overjoyed. And a little naive. “I thought the whole street would turn out, that everyone would be cheering, that all kinds of sponsors would be at the door.” That is disappointing. Of course, his friends and family make it a great moment, says Korrel. “But I can still remember standing alone in the gym two days later and thinking: okay, the journey continues.”
The lesson he distilled from it: don’t dwell too long on your victories. Or, for that matter, in your losses.
Because that’s why he starts talking about this moment, because he draws a parallel with the feeling he had after the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. Against the odds, he loses ingloriously, in the first round, to a much lower-ranked German. After five minutes his first Games – by far the most important tournament in judo – are over. And that while Korrel, then placed third, is one of the favorites.
Grain is not the worrisome kind. For example, he has never been one of those judokas who throw up from the tension before competitions. Judo is known as mentally tough, but he never found it too hard. He especially likes the sport, and the life that goes with it.
But after those Games he has to “disconnect” for a while. He doesn’t do judo for a few months, goes on vacation, asks his girlfriend to marry him. And then, slowly, he starts to feel like it again. “I thought: I’m not done yet. I want to win a lot more.” He decides to go all the way for the Paris Games in 2024. In short, the journey continued.
This Friday Korrel, judoka in the class up to 100 kilograms, will be on the mat at the World Cup in Doha, an important intermediate step for ‘Paris’. We meet a week earlier, in his terraced house in Assendelft, where he lives with his wife Amanda.
Korrel is not secretive about the goal for that World Cup: “I want to win everything there is to win.” ‘Grain for Gold’ is his motto. European Championship gold is already there, he won that for the first time last year. Now still at the World Cup and the Games.
Not every athlete dares to be so explicit about this, he himself used to be. “But why couldn’t you say that?” It all contributes to “the piece of self-confidence. If you don’t even dare to say it…”
Incidentally, despite that motto, he also does it for less. “Last year I also wanted to be world champion. Then I got third. Do you think I was happy about that? Certainly!”
Tactical excel sheets
After ‘Tokyo’, Korrel was still ’emotional’ for a while, he says. “You think: how is that possible? Why me? And even something like: I deserved it, didn’t I do my best?” Until he started having conversations with his coach. “He said: you don’t earn medals, you force them.”
It also takes a few months before he can bring himself to look back on his lost battle. But if he decides to go for it again, he knows: now I have to face it.
During that time he also takes one for the first time mental coach in the arm. “I thought: if it’s nothing, then it’s nothing.” But it helps him.
What did he learn? “In the beginning I hid very much behind the tactical and technical aspect. But my mental coach taught me to look at myself honestly. And then I noticed: I wanted to keep everything in my own hands too much.”
Grain, he learns, thinks too much about his opponents. He makes whole pages and excel sheets of their properties and tactics. He outlines matches step by step. “Like: if he does this, I will do that, he this way, I like that. I had already made myself a champion on paper. But we know how it is with sports. Mike Tyson once said:Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth‘.”
That rigid attitude was at the expense of his creativity and his freedom, says Korrel. “If I flatten everything by writing it out completely, then I can no longer enter the game by feeling.”
The biggest difference after Tokyo is that he is now “lighter” on the mat. Not that he goes into it blindly. “Most of the guys I’m up against, I’ve fought against several times. So I broadly know what’s to come. I watch videos beforehand, to analyze. I look at: where are my opportunities. And then I trust myself more than I am very concerned with my opponent.”
And it works, he is convinced of that. He is currently second in the world in his weight class. After last year’s European Championship gold and World Cup bronze, he won the prestigious Paris grand slam for the second time this year.
His experience, he thinks, will now become his greatest weapon. Or else perhaps “the passion” he has for the game. He really enjoys strength training. Nice with his kettle bells busy. Laughing: “Yes, yes, sure! And also judo, performing the game, that’s what I think is really cool. Because you always find things to tinker with.”
In the end, he’s just very happy with it. “I said to my wife this morning: I built my own gym in the attic, I have everything I need there and I do my physical training myself. Soon I will drive to Papendal, drink a cup of coffee, do some judo, then go home. Yes, I can’t complain.”