Between dumbbells and weight machines, he goes out at least three times a week. And the weight lifted tells him a lot about his form. “Now I’m getting close to my absolute personal bests,” he wrings his hands before his traditional start of the season at the Jablonecká Hall on Saturday.
However, it is not the case that a record in the gym heralds a record in bowling. “It’s also such an ego, you remember your maxims. But I’m a shot putter, not a weightlifter,” reminds the former European indoor champion.
“I can’t be all hip to just lift weights. I’m the type to drive it through the motions. So, in addition to strength, I need to have a fast thirty meters, good flip-flops and technique,” he calculates.
This puzzle is being fine-tuned by Petar Stehlík’s protégé in the Prague athletic halls in Strahov and Stromov, but he laid the foundation for it at the traditional South African training camp in Potchefstroom, where Czech athletes have been going for warmth and training conditions since the days of Jan Železný’s active career.
Some take their closest friends to at least part of the long camp, but Staněk, as the father of his six-month-old son Filip, set off alone. “I offered it, but we said to ourselves that it is still small, after all, it is 24 hours on the road,” he says.
Photo: Vlastimil Vacek, Sport.cz
Bowler Tomáš Staněk during training in the gym.
And so he is going to the same place only with his training group even after the indoor season, when he will spend the next training camp in the Canary Islands with his wife and son. “There you can take better walks around the ocean or to the pool. In Africa, it’s more of an Alcatraz for training, rather than someone going there on vacation,” he exaggeratingly compares it to an impregnable prison.
And safety also plays a role. He doesn’t have to be afraid on the street, together with his similarly stout companions. “They tend to look at us because we are so big and ask if we play rugby,” he hears questions about the sport in which South Africans rule the world.
“The country has its own specifics. I probably wouldn’t be completely calm if I was at the stadium and the family went for a walk in the city. They tell us that we shouldn’t walk around the station too much in the evening, it’s happened to my partners there that someone has been following them… A car has a rascal and a good person, I’ll be calmer in the Canary Islands,” says Staněk.
Photo: Vlastimil Vacek, Sport.cz
Bowler Tomáš Staněk in the gym of the Strahov hall.
After the meeting in Jablonec, he will also present himself at other domestic events that are well-attended. In Ostrava on January 30, he will compete with two-time world indoor champion Tom Walsh from New Zealand, and in Nehvizdy with last year’s world championship medalist Leonardo Fabbri from Italy.
“It’s ideal when I can take part in good races and I don’t have to travel far,” praises the owner of four medals from the European Indoor Championships, who makes no secret of his desire to return to the 22-meter mark after six years. The highlight of the indoor season will be the world championship in Glasgow.
