Many of you who follow me on instagram/facebook/youtube, where you mainly find feeling good and high level riding photos&videos. I do select what I post based on my mood, sponsors requests or content I currently have. I usually don’t share my bad days, bad photos and my boring training routines. For the need of the views and likes, everyday training, my computer time editing content or even my daily diet don’t get that WOW effect on social media. 

Thus ever since I started sharing my ‘life’ on internet I’ve been not including my actually everyday real life. I am sharing IG stories from some activities I do, but never really showing each day I live and train. First of all, it would be quit hard to share everything I do and secondly, when I am focused on training and daily task I am literary forgetting about the world inside my smart phone.

I come from Poland, grew up in Warsaw (400km from the kiteboarding spot) and I achieved the highest level of kiteboarding when I won the PKRA freestyle world champion in 2012. Ever since I started kiteboarding, I’ve been meeting many upcoming riders on the competitions. They had the potential to win events, and be the best in the world. Many of them were without professional coaching, physical preparation and mental support. Their passion and motivation to be the best in this sport was quickly fading away… It’s a shame because you don’t have to come from Brazil or Spain to be the BEST kiteboarder in the World!

It  took me 7 years to win my first World Championship. These 7 years are easily forgotten once you are on the top. For me, these 7 years were frustrating, stressful and really challenging for a young athlete I was. My drive to become the world champion was so strong I would do anything to become better. The truth was there was no professional facility that would train professional freestyle kiteboarders. I didn’t have a coach, a training partner, or a knowledge how to become the best in the world. At the time it was a guessing game for me, which trick I should be working on, how much time my training should last, should I do a day off, how to perform my tricks in the challenging conditions etc, etc.  

I would ride with friends who were usually on holidays without specific structure, motivation to progress or the knowledge how to win the world title. Sometimes I would have ridden with much better riders, but they were so focused on their performance, they wouldn’t even know what I needed to get better. The biggest progression and knowledge I was gaining after loosing at the event. I could have check the tricks, points and ride with best women in the world. All I knew was how to train and ride to get that extra point at the event.

It all changed after my ankle injury in 2011, I needed to go through surgery, do a 5 month rehab and slow down for once. In that time I’ve learned how important is everything around kiteboarding that I never put that much attention before. I’ve incorporated many training techniques known in other sports, with specific modification to my sport. I started to work with a sport psychologist who taught me to not only exercise my body but also my mind. I asked my physiotherapist to give me additional strenghtening exercises for after recovery. From this point my boyfriend (Alex) started helping me out with my riding. He was filming and analysing my tricks. But also he was pushing my riding to be more diverse, and fun to perform.

I’ve changed my entire approach to training and it payed off, the following season I won my first world title, and I didn’t slow down after that. Staying focused, and motivated with all these different training approaches helped me to stay on top of the game for many years! 

ATHLETE COACHING AND TRAINING 

This year I decided to start the Athlete Coaching and Training, where together with my partner Alex we will be sharing all our knowledge about professional kiteboarding career. We know what it takes to learn new tricks, find sponsorship and travel the world. We want to help upcoming riders to find their spot in the professional kiteboarding world. Whether you looking to win local events, learn new freestyle tricks, or simply looking for better content for you social media to find sponsorship, we are here to help you out!

Find out more about the 2021 ATHLETE CAMPS –> https://karolinawinkowska.com/for-the-athletes/

See you at the beach!

Karolina