Mihael ZGANK is taking a break from sporting the flag of Türkiye and after a long stint representing another nation, he has returned home to Slovenia with another challenge ahead. So why has one of the top athletes on the IJF World Judo Tour decided to step away from the tatami for the time being? For those looking from the outside, it’s an interesting move considering Zgank became victorious in the Paris Grand Slam only last year…
To be honest, it’s been seven years and way too long for me to be away from home. The last few years it was really tough for me. So I decided to move back to Slovenia and first get my life back in order, feel my energy back and see how I will proceed with my career.
Now home, it must be nice to spend more time with the family and of course his parents not to be missing him so much, or so we may have thought…
My mum says she’s not very happy! She doesn’t see me as much as she did when I was in Türkiye! I’m trying hard to build my life and do it alone, find some hobbies and time for my friends ands it’s tough to find the balance. Since 2012 I can say that I was in the top level of judo, so 13 years, but I’d say I’ve been a professional athlete since 2009.
It has certainly been a long time to remain top of his game, and only a few manage to transition from cadet to senior and stay there. Standing alongside long time rival and friend, TOTH Krisztian of Hungary, at the very least, it is a journey that is shared.
The point for me is that I’ve never taken a break, the longest was during covid, and I still didn’t stop then, I was still cycling, running, judo, recovering from an operation. So that’s why I’ve decided to take a year off, to decide if I still have the love for it and we’ll see what happens at the end.
The first thing I did when I returned to Slovenia was speak with some coaches there, and wanted to see my options. I figured if I’m going to rest I can at least help in one club and see how coaching is. The club I am with, Judo Koroska, isn’t so local to where I live, it’s about 45 minutes. I live in Celje, so I spoke with Fabian, but he has enough coaches at the minute, I wanted to show him that I appreciate everything he did for me and he is the first person I would go to.
It’s a first for Zgank who has done a small amount of coaching in the past but for much younger children, and not for any length of time, but has admitted it’s hectic and he didn’t imagine it to be so hard. We joked that this must be because Zgank is a easygoing character, a ‘coach’s dream’, but in actual fact, this allowed him to see why perhaps he found some elements difficult or frustrating, like many athletes who transition from competition to the coaching chair.
You expect from your athletes, that they know what it means to be a professional athlete, what it takes to become an Olympic level athlete. Then when you’re with them, I find myself having to teach them a lot, and I can see that not everyone is the same as me, treating every aspect of their lives, every detail in training in a professional way. It is hard to work with athletes that don’t immediately have the same mentality as you do, and this is my biggest challenge so now I’m trying hard to implement this.
Of course he knows only too well what it takes to win on the tatami, the preparation that goes in to it, and how it depends only on you, but that doesn’t prevent frustration as a coach.
You can give 120% as a coach, but at the end of the day it is the effort your athletes put it that is important, you can’t go on the mat and do it for them.
There is also a mental load that comes along with it all, you’re not only a judo coach but an administrator, a logistics manager, a nutritionist, a therapist, in some respects, a stand in parent!
As an athlete, you come to training and switch off your mind, think only about the judo, then afterwards eat and sleep, get rest, but as a coach I need to be thinking about how they feel, plan for tomorrow, organising where we eat, organising the transfers, a lot of different areas you need to be concerned with.
Left: Nace HERKOVIC (SLO)
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen