Tiia Koivisto aims to be the best in the world in golf – type 1 diabetes requires special attention, back problems were controlled with weight lifting

Professional golf Tiia Koivisto arrived at the gym at the Sports Mill in East Helsinki, still a little overwhelmed by the weekend.

Just a few days earlier, she had celebrated the first victory of her women’s European tour in France at Evian Field.

The solution stretched into a rematch where he defeated an Australian Whitney Hillier par-vitosen with his birdie. A couple of weeks earlier, he had reached the split 10th place in Madrid.

– I had written in the training diary after the Madrid race that I was about to win. It then happened. The putting has been so good that I knew I would win the week the putting is going. That seemed to be the week then, Koivisto says.

Koivisto got to celebrate the victory with his good friend, who is touring the first season of the LPGA tour. Sanna Nuutinen with. Nuutinen worked in the solution hole of Koivisto’s cadday.

– He was able to calm me down in that moment. Then when that last putt went in, it was really awesome to get to Sanna to celebrate the win.

The slight fatigue caused by the victory party, travel and media events did not prevent Koivisto from driving from Mäntsälä to Myllypuro and grabbing the weights of his physics coach Jesse Talikan guided.

Namely, if you want to be the best golfer in the world, you have to do more than just grind on the outside.

Koivisto, who started golfing only at the age of 15, is a very pedantic trainee, which has helped him to compete for the top positions with Europe’s top players.

– Regularity and pedantry make Tiia a great athlete. I strongly believe that it now also won. Things are done well, there are really few bad training days, you don’t skip how you hurt and you work regularly and regularly, Talikka describes the work ethic he coaches.

Koivisto, 28, has been lifting weights for more than four years as part of her training. The background is a stress fracture found in the back in 2018, which practically prevented the sport training. Koivisto focused on competing, but the lack of training quickly began to show on the scorecards and development slowed down. A change had to be made.

Talikka suggested that Koivisto gain weight as part of other physical training, and Koivisto got excited.

– I noticed that I actually like it a lot and I’m good at it. Of course we will do more. I have my own challenges, for example in coordination exercises, they are not so nice to do. But then when I go to the weightlifting side, where my strengths are, why wouldn’t I like it then, Koivisto says.

After starting to lift weights, the back is no longer a problem. In addition, Koivisto has noticed that he can handle long competition days better and the strokes have become more lengthy.

Talikka, who leads the physics exercises of several other Finnish golfers, states that a professional player cannot have too much power, but the power must be able to be processed into movement. However, golf is a skill where even the slightest move can ruin a punch.

– Whatever we do here, it must not complicate the game or tire the competitions. This is an ancillary and support activity, Talikka opens.

Physics is practiced in a variety of ways, as golf requires the cooperation of many muscle groups.

– The musculature of the middle body must be fit to support the back and the rotation of the punch. But the power to strike is produced from the feet. There really has to be a lot of strength in the legs. And the faster the racket and the ball move, the more power you have to have in the upper body to be able to control the position of the racket blade throughout its rapid movement. If the upper body leaks, there will be bad hits and then the ball will be searched for something, Talikka describes.

Tiia Koivisto was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 11 years. That hasn’t stopped him from pursuing his dreams as a golf professional. However, the disease affects Koivisto’s daily life in many ways.

He has to constantly monitor his blood sugar and react to its fluctuations in competitions. Especially multi-day, protracted races in hot conditions present challenges.

In heat, for example, insulin pump sensors do not want to stick to damp skin. In addition, high temperatures impair the action of insulin.

For Koivisto, monitoring body signals is already routine, and in certain situations it is also useful for him.

– I have to make sure that I eat evenly and that hydration is in place. It also makes it a little easier for me to take breaks from the game when I think a little bit about where those blood sugars are going, that I don’t just focus on that game all the time, Koivisto says.

Stress also affects blood sugar, which is why mental coaching has been very beneficial for Koivisto.

The better Koivisto controls his emotions in game situations, the calmer and more confident he will perform in the solution areas and at the same time his blood sugar will stay under control.

– We started right there recognizing emotions and thereby managing them. Of course, as age has come here, the kind of peace that age has brought has also come.

Koivisto’s goal is to be the best women’s golfer in the world.

While there is still a long way to go at the top of the world, he believes focusing on the basics will go a long way.

– However, I didn’t start playing until I was 15 years old. Of course, I already have 13 years behind me, but it still feels that I am only at the beginning that rising to the top of the world requires a purely normative dream, Koivisto says.

The short-term goal is to rise to the top ten in the LET rankings and reach a place in the qualifying finals of the LPGA tour.

In addition to the LET Tour competitions, Koivisto’s first major tournaments in July and August in Scotland are ahead this season.

– I’m looking forward to them. I know there will be a good atmosphere, the best players and I can really test my level, Koivisto concludes.