Sandra Sánchez: “I felt adrenaline until the last medal”

A before and after in the history of karate. At 41 years old, this 2022, Sandra Sánchez has said goodbye to the competition as the best ever. Gold in Tokyo, two World Cups, seven Europeans, etc. A record as vast as his energy. “I think I feel a lot!” She told her parents as a child. He was not part of the national team until he was 32 years old and he says goodbye with a Guinness Record. “An inner fire” took her to Japan, where he soaked up his culture among senseis. The talaverana, restless, in Madrid (2019 World Cups), rose above the Empire of the Rising Sun. She shed a few tears that she now transmits through a good handful of projects: seminars around the world, books, a documentary, online classes…

Belgium, the United States, Japan… When someone retires, they tend to seek tranquility. It doesn’t seem like your case.

It seems not, but tranquility comes. Above all, mentally. I no longer get up in the morning with the pressure of having to win the next championship. For me, that is peace of mind. I embark on a thousand projects and I don’t have free time (laughs), but peace of mind at the level of mental pressure, yes.

Is it what you were looking for?

It is a decision that has to be thought a lot. I looked for the best moment. I don’t know if you’re just looking for peace of mind. I felt a lot of pressure being number one, because you demand to always be there, but I also wanted to experience karate from another perspective. Being able to broadcast, travel, be with family, people, etc. I wanted to stop feeling that guilty feeling if one day I feel like going to bed a little later, for example. Now I can enjoy karate, but in another way.

There are not many athletes who retire being the best in the world…

I’m not in other people’s heads, I’m in my own and it’s not easy. It is a considered decision, but, like everything, it is a roller coaster of feelings. There are moments when I say to myself: “What if I participate in the next championship?” It gives you that thing… and my first European or World Cups have yet to come from the stands. Sometimes when a tournament is going on, I ask Jesus if he thinks he could have won it. I am aware that they are feelings that I have to go through. I don’t ask myself not to feel anything, I know I’m going to have to go through those feelings, I don’t know if it’s sadness, nostalgia or wanting to be there. I have to feel them, overcome them and then experience other things.

Actually, you train as if you were still active. Does that help you?

Yes. It makes me feel good. What I like is training, demanding myself. I know that I have physical conditions and energy within me that I need to use. In the seminars that I now give I am 100% active, people see me do the katas, all the exercises that we teach them. I want them to see me well, that when they see Sandra they don’t think that I’m no longer the same, I want them to think that Sandra is cool. I like to be in shape and perhaps that makes me miss competing a little less.

Because you miss him…

Yeah right if. It is true that the competition has that pressure point and nerves that are not missed, but it also has that part of adrenaline that is difficult to achieve in any other way. That little point of going out on the tatami, of winning, which is also a feeling that you like. In seminars, there’s that thing of getting out in front of people. They look at me, I want to do it well and with that I kill the bug a little bit.

With so many medals in a row, did you feel that adrenaline until the last one?

Yes. When you tell me that I got a lot of medals, it doesn’t seem like that many to me. I made it to the national team at the age of 32 and started karate at the age of four. That means I spent many years losing. In fact, I spent many more years losing than winning, the balance is still on that side. For me, they are not enough. For me, the opportunity came when opportunities are supposed to no longer come. So, I enjoyed everything to the fullest, as if I were in a dream. It’s like being given a VIP bracelet at an amusement park and suddenly everything is yours. I have lived this entire stage like this, getting the most out of each championship.

Do dreams have an expiration date? Did yours have it?

My dream was not to join the national team, it was not such a clear goal. I had the feeling that she could get much more out of myself, that I could be a better karate fighter, regardless of the results. I had a feeling inside me, I don’t know how to explain it, that I could do it very well. And that feeling never went away. I was aware of my qualities and wanted to bring them out, take advantage of that inner fire. Getting into the national team was the way to do it, but it was not the goal, the dream itself. That’s why, maybe, I never got tired.

Let’s talk about your new projects. Can I address you as a writer now?

Nope (laughs). I don’t want to say I’m a writer because it wouldn’t be real. Just as I tell you that I am aware that I have physical qualities and inexhaustible energy, I am aware of my limitations. To write the books, I relied on professional people who know about this. I can contribute my part of karate, of life experience, of inspiration, but I leave it to the real writers to put it on paper.

Regardless of that, there is a certain catharsis in Kat (main character), isn’t there?

Yes. Sometimes you are not aware of how many emotions and things we keep inside. Now, that we are also preparing a documentary, I have to go back and look inside to start telling things. You relive many feelings that it seems that they were not there and remain stored in some corner. It’s beautiful and, sometimes, also hard, because there have been difficult moments, but I like to be aware of everything I’ve had to experience.

A documentary? I didn’t have that written down…

Surprise! Well yes, we are working on it. The idea is that it is not a documentary only about Sandra’s life, we want to transmit karate, what I feel when I do a kata, what a kata is, so that people can understand more about this martial art and everything that it transmits.

Chikara is his other big bet. Online karate classes, how did she come up with it?

When I was still competing, they called us to many seminars (Sandra and Jesús del Moral, partner and coach). We couldn’t go to everyone because of the demands of the training sessions. Now, yes, I am going to many, but I am aware that we continue to leave out many people who want to train with us, but do not have access. We are traveling a lot and we cannot be in every country in the world. In his day, I wanted to travel to Japan to be able to train with different senses and, despite achieving it, it was not easy. We want to make that process easier. Today, with new technologies, that is within our reach. People will be able to do the exercises with us, but also talk, ask… I want to be close, I don’t want people to see me as something untouchable. Jesús has a privileged head, he is a genius in this sport, and I think we make a perfect tandem. Let’s use that for something positive, we thought. In January it will be the first class and I am very excited, very excited and a lot of work.

What is the first thing you will tell your students?

Thanks, surely. Thank you for being there, for following us, for supporting us… I hope we can sow a little seed inside them and that their karate continues to grow and makes them grow as people. And then, to train!

In her case, she attended her first classes at the age of four, but she was able to be a dancer.

My parents were looking to have an extracurricular activity. Those were other times and my parents thought that I might like dancing and my brother, karate. I didn’t really know what karate was either. saw Dragon Ball with my brother and I fought with him, but I didn’t have a very clear concept. It was more than, if my brother was allowed to do something, then me too. It was more the envy of younger sister. That’s how I started and I was hooked. My parents didn’t put any trouble either.

What was the student Sandra like?

Jesus always tells me that if he had had me as a student when I was little, he would have kicked me out of class. I am very disciplined to train and you can send me a thousand repetitions of anything, but I am also very talkative and I ask everything. And within karate there is that respect that culture brings from Japan. I, in that sense, was a bit of a rebel. Respect is one thing and submission is another, I thought.

Well, in his case, he cannot do more honor to the essence of karate (“the path of the empty hand”).

I have always been aware that I wanted to soak up the Japanese culture. I think that what is transmitted in karate is 100% linked to its culture. If you don’t get soaked in their day to day, you will never be able to understand it, beyond a personal defense. It should be understood as a philosophy of life. I wanted to understand it and be part of it. That seeps into you 24 hours a day and how you are as a person.

“You’re not worth it, it’s not your way, it’s not your time anymore,” he had to listen. Those who told you… Have they apologized?

The truth is, no. Sometimes I have thought that I would have liked it, because, besides, I don’t hold a grudge against anyone. My karate was not the same either 10 or 15 years ago, I have evolved and I have learned. What has happened to me many times is that many of these people have approached me to say “I knew it!”, and you are left with a face of circumstances… but hey, that’s it. You let them say and that’s it. I’m not going to enter. The opposite has happened to me. “I’m happy for you because at that moment we didn’t know how to see it”, I have not heard that phrase.

Kururunfa and Suparinpei kata are his favourites. Why?

Not that they are my favourites. Within karate there are styles and I started Wado-ryu. Those two kata are of that style and I have always felt them as part of what I have done since I was a child. But with the rest of the kata, like papuren, I’ve won Europeans, World Cups, Games… now I can’t choose anymore, it’s like choosing one of your children.

What does it feel like to do them?

There are many people who believe that we do not think during the performance, but I do. I get a lot into what I want to transmit, in what each of the movements means, in letting all my energy flow and transmitting my inner world. “I think I feel a lot!” I used to tell my father when I was little.

Speaking of your parents, the gold in Tokyo was very good, but I think it has never cried as much as in Madrid…

Let’s see, the Games are the Games and Olympic gold is the best, but when I won at WiZink it was the first time I had won a World Cup. It was the first time they had beaten Japan, in a packed arena. Turn around and see my parents crying, my brother… they all knew the story we’ve lived through. Emotions explode. I didn’t cry to win, I cried to see them cry. In the Games you had the feeling of winning, but you turned around and there was no one there (laughs).

And from medals to recognitions, like this AS award. What does it mean for you?

The awards mean that I have managed, with my work and my effort, to do something that has reached people, that has value and that, through that award, they value it. I feel proud, it is precious that you are recognized that day by day. And I involve Jesus and the family, because I know that these rewards would not come without all the history behind it.