November 16th is the start of the World Championships in Shore Angling for Ladies, which this year takes place in Spain , and Natasha Seremenho is representing Portugal for the 5th time ( previously winning gold in 2017 & silver in 2019, both times in South Africa). There are 6 in the Portuguese team, and they compete both individually and for the team.
This type of fishing involves casting around 100-150m out to sea. The further you can cast the better your chances of catching more fish.
The competition is over 5 days , with 2 days training before. Each day is normally around 6hrs on the beach, and can involve walking several kilometres on the beach with all your equipment. It is a lot more physical that you first might realise.
For that reason Natasha has been training with me for the last 6 months to increase her strength and fitness for this. As you know I am a keen golfer and train to play better golf - and the similarities between the two sports and what you need to work on in the gym are very similar.
Over the last 6 months we have worked on getting stronger and more explosive. It is not just about getting a stronger core , but working on building strength in legs and also in the upper body. The motion involved in casting is a push pull movement so the gym we have incorporated this into Natasha`s training plan. We have used a lot of the medicine ball explosive moves that I use in my golf training , as these are similar to the movements used when casting , and anything we can do to help to increase the length Natasha can cast can help in her pursuit of a second gold.
It has been great working with Natasha and gaining a much greater insight into her sport. Alongside all the training it takes Natasha around 50 hours to make all the rigs that are needed to take with her to cover all different outcomes. That takes some dedication.
There is always so much that goes on behind the scenes in any sport and Shore Angling is no different.
if you want to know more about the World Championships you can go to www.fips-m.org.
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