‘It was kind of surreal’: Danielle Drury enjoys triumphant return to racquetball – Saskatoon
Danielle Drury first started enjoying racquetball on the long-since-closed River Racquet Membership in Saskatoon, launched to the game by her dad and mom as a baby.
To say that she’s spent her life with a racquet in her hand is an understatement. Her love and dedication to the game have resulted in lots of accomplishments and accolades.
She earned her first main medal, a silver, on the 2013 Junior World Championships within the 14U lady’s doubles class.
By 2014 she was on the ladies’s circuit competing in each singles and doubles on the nationwide stage incomes a bunch of medals alongside the way in which.
However after claiming gold within the ladies’s open doubles to go together with a bronze in ladies’s open singles in 2019 she made a particularly troublesome determination, opting to commerce in her racquet for textbooks as she pursued her masters diploma in bodily remedy.
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“It felt actually superior to finish that a part of my life on a excessive word,” Drury stated. “Nevertheless it was a bit of unhappy figuring out that I had my finest end at nationals ever and I couldn’t go on to compete at Pan Ams that 12 months or Worlds, that was only a stopping level.”
For practically three years Drury stayed off the courts to place all of her time, vitality and focus into her research, her decided work ethic shifting focus from sports activities to high school.
Regardless of her absence from the sport, the aggressive fireplace nonetheless burned throughout the 25-year-old.
“I actually missed enjoying so much, that Nationals in September of 2021, I had some main worry of lacking out, I used to be very unhappy to see it occurring with out me,” she admitted. “However on the identical time I feel that confirmed me that I actually did wish to get again to it as a result of I missed it that a lot.”
(That summer season) I used to be getting close to the tip of my masters, there was a end line in sight and I feel Nationals actually introduced that up, I used to be like ‘holy crap I actually wish to get again to this,’” she continued. “I missed having one thing exterior of college that I used to be working in the direction of.”
In January Drury returned to the court docket in a tireless effort to make a run on the Canadian Nationwide Championships.
“It type of hit the entire sudden, I used to be again with the coaching group twice every week on the court docket, twice every week off the court docket,” she stated. “My physique positively took some getting used to (the pressure), I wasn’t within the form I used to be in three years in the past, however surprisingly all of it got here again fairly quick.”
One one that wasn’t stunned to see Drury’s speedy return to a aggressive degree is long-time buddy and coaching companion, now turned coach, Tim Landeryou.
“I don’t wish to say that I used to be anticipating something, however on the identical time I used to be not stunned that she was trying to come again, that she wished to be aggressive,” Landeryou stated. “That’s one of many issues that makes her such a terrific participant is that she has that aggressive spirit.”
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Landeryou credit a pair of traits possessed by Drury that allowed her to return to the game so seamlessly.
“One is, she’s obtained that expertise and he or she’s performed from a really younger age so there’s that baseline that I’d prefer to say by no means actually goes away. You get rather less constant and sharp however numerous the abilities they’re arduous to simply neglect, your muscle tissues simply type of bear in mind ultimately,” he defined.
“However, I feel the extra necessary one is her self-discipline and I feel that’s a part of what made her such a terrific pupil and such a terrific skilled now’s that she has the flexibility to focus very clearly and concisely on what she needs to do to perform the objective.”
That focus was essential for Drury throughout her coaching as she wasn’t simply making ready for one self-discipline – dedicating her time coaching in singles and doubles, each of which introduced their very own distinctive challenges in her return to play.
“They’re each troublesome,” she defined. “I’d say the general pace concerned in doubles was tougher simply because you’ve much less time to react to the ball, versus singles I’d say it was extra health that was the larger barrier.”
After 5 months of rigorous coaching Drury met her objective of returning to the nationwide stage in late Could the place she medalled twice, claiming a silver in ladies’s open doubles and bronze in ladies’s open singles.
“I type of made {that a} objective initially of my season, that it might be nice once more to medal at nationals,” she defined. “However, when it truly occurred it was type of surreal.”
Her subsequent objective in sight is incomes a spot on the nationwide staff for worlds which happen in Birmingham, Alabama in July. After that, with continued coaching, she hopes to surpass the extent she reached again in 2019 earlier than stepping away from the game.
“I’ve solely been again for 5 months, if that, so I feel the potential to work even tougher to coach even tougher and actually to get again to the sport that I used to be enjoying. Yeah, I’ve excessive hopes,” she chuckled.
