To get rid of her chronic back problems, Dafne Schippers has been working with two strength trainers since the autumn who let her lift a lot of weights. In the media she rarely mentions Collin Dam and Martijn Hoekstra by name, but they are of great importance in her return to the athletics track.
‘We have a vision of the robustness of the body and how we can make it loadable again’, says Hoekstra, somewhat veiled. He does not want to go into more detail about their approach. ‘We prefer to stay in the shadows and in the background. Moreover, we are still in the middle of the process. It’s really just starting now.’
The approach of Dam and Hoekstra, who come from outside athletics, is rooted in Olympic weightlifting. Their athletes become proficient in the two subdisciplines that are distinguished within Olympic weightlifting and together form the duel: ‘pull’ and ‘punch’.
When pulled, the barbell is lifted from the ground to above the head in an explosive and fluid motion. With punches, it goes in two phases: first the barbell is lifted to chest height, the ‘swing’, and then ejected above the head, the ‘thrust’.
Schippers came to the weightlifters after a phone call from Frank Smulders, father of BMX sisters Laura and Merel Smulders, both in possession of Olympic bronze. ‘I read around the Games about the misery Dafne was dealing with.’ He tipped off Schipper’s brother and agent Derek. ‘That led to contact and eventually to a collaboration in the month before the Games.’
For Schippers, the Olympic Games in Tokyo, and the run-up to them, were a nightmare due to the chronic pain in her lower back vertebrae, a result of years of overload. The two-time world champion 200 meters (2015 and 2017) withdrew for the 100 meters and got stuck in the 200 meters in the semi-final (in 2016 she took silver at that distance). With her failed substitution in the 4×100 meter relay, the Olympic debacle was complete.
In the autumn, Schippers announced that he would break up with Bart Bennema, the national coach who accompanied her during the successful early years of her career. She would try to breathe new life into her career with Wigert Thunnissen, former relay national coach who accompanies his own group of sprinters and hurdlers in Haarlem.
Last month, Schippers announced her return to the FBK Games next Monday. In the run-up to this, surprisingly enough, she also ran a 100 meters in Vught a week and a half ago. With 11.37 she recorded the fastest Dutch season time. But to qualify for the World Cup (in July) and European Championship (in August), she still has to go a few tenths faster.
Smulders is full of praise for Dam, Hoekstra and their colleague Robert van den Hof, former weightlifter. “They’re very smart guys.” His daughter Merel was struggling with back problems and doctors were unable to offer a solution. The strength trainers do. Thanks to their guidance, Smulders achieved bronze in Tokyo. The injury is not going away, but it is under control. They have improved stability in her lower back.”
The greatest added value lies in the accurate and specialist guidance. ‘Merel and Laura are always under the control of a personal trainer during strength training. They never do it alone.’
‘asking for trouble’
In athletics, it is unusual to work with specialized strength trainers. Athletic trainers are generalists. They bear responsibility for technique, condition and strength training. “That’s because strength training is very much intertwined with what an athlete does on the track,” explains Ad Roskam, technical director of the athletics union.
That surprises Smulders. ‘In our view, it is asking for problems.’ For his daughters’ BMX team, where he is the manager, he has opted for a group of trainers, each with their own specialism.
Ton Leenders, strength trainer at the Jumbo-Visma skating team, among others, has been promoting a specialist use of Olympic weightlifting for years. He knows the two strength trainers with whom Schippers has now joined forces, Hoekstra slightly better than Dam. ‘About ten years ago, Martijn did some training with me.’
The relationship between back problems and strength training is complex, says Leenders. Strength training is often the cause of back problems. But I know it can also turn out really damn good.’ According to him, everything revolves around a good balance between the general training program and the position of the strength training within it.
Thunnissen, who was also trained as a generalist and worked at the Athletics Union between 1995 and 2016, is responsible for this. He has an overview of Schippers’ training program. The strength training may be the terrain of Dam and Hoekstra, Thunnissen keeps a close eye on her performance. According to Roskam, he is always present when his pupil goes weightlifting.
Smulders enjoys watching Schippers’ return from a distance. ‘I am proud that I was able to contribute to that.’