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View Full Version : Peter Aerts interview (pre grand prix)



Highline
24-11-2005, 12:21
-As expected, you’ve made it to the final tournament of the WORLD GP yet again this year.
Aerts: Yeah it’s really great to be able to compete each time.

-You’re the only one here who’s competed since the first tournament. It’s actually been 13 consecutive years.
Aerts: Really? To think it’s been that long since the start of K-1.

-Does that have any meaning for you?
Aerts: Yeah, but that won’t do me any good. I have look to the future, not the past. As long as I have confidence in my ability, then I’ll continue to do my best, and of course, I’ll still fight with the aim of competing in the final tournament each year.

-Where does your high level of motivation come from?
Aerts: Probably from the fact that, as a fighter, I’m constantly trying to move myself up to the best position. That is to say it’s down to my daily dose of hard training. It’s because I do this that I’m able to think ‘I’ll never lose’

-It looked like you split your shin in your opening match against Mighty Mo, but wasn’t that an old injury?
Aerts: It can’t be helped when you fight. You just have to deal with it as best you can.

-Did you have to be careful of your injuries when you fought in the match?
Aerts: No I didn’t. In matches, I have to fight with everything I’ve got. If I fought worrying about trying not to use my injured part, I wouldn’t be able to win the matches that I should be winning.

-So you’d kick with a split shin. In fact, you were doing that in your opening match, weren’t you?
Aerts: That’s what matches are all about. You’re single-minded in your desire to win, so you keep on kicking regardless of injury. You didn’t feel the pain during a match. That’s probably why you can carry on kicking, but once the match ends, it’s like “OOOOOUCH!�

-From that viewpoint, too, your strength is quite amazing. Just before the opening match, your good friend and former star fighter, Peter Smit died, didn’t he? Didn’t that affect you psychologically?
Aerts: I was really upset by Smit’s death. On top of that, my great grandmother died three days before the opening match. It was a really difficult thing to have to cope with. But as long as you’re alive, you have to face death, and if you only think of painful things, then your life will just come to a standstill.

-What was most important in overcoming the grief and moving forward?
Aerts: I’d have to say training and matches. Training and then focusing on the next match helped me to forget the painful stuff. When something sad happens, I’m able to move forward with the help of fighting. Switching off my feelings by concentrating on training and matches helped a lot.

-What training have you been doing in preparation of the final tournament? Is there anything in particular that you’ve strengthened?
Aerts: I’ve just generally improved all-round. Kicking and punching……I’ve strengthened everything really.

-Even with all your accomplishments, you still had to increase you all-around strength?
Aerts: Well, there’s no such thing as a perfect fighter. I want to go further, I’m going to have to strengthen everything. And I know I can get stronger, ‘cause I’m confident I’m still growing. The important thing is to train hard and to keep adding new things to my repertoire. If I do that, I’ll keep improving.

-Looking at the contenders in this year’s tournament, what would you say are your superior qualities?
Aerts: Probably my experience. If you have lots of tournament experience, you improve your ability to make instant decisions, and you can also read the direction of the match. In tournaments, how you deal with the little changes affects the outcome of the match, so in terms of that, I think I’ll probably have the advantage over the other fighters.

-So whatever happens, you won’t panic and you’ll deal with it calmly.
Aerts: In tournaments, there are occasions when someone who’s supposed to be fighting and your opponent suddenly changes at the last minute. Even if that happens, I’m confident that my experience will get me through.

[b]-If you make it through to the final, who do you think you will be up against?
Aerts: I don’t know. Whoever it is, it’ll be okay. Even at the draw for matches in the first round every year, I somehow don’t manage to choose my opponents. I think this is about the fourth time that I’ve been near the bottom in the right-to-choose stakes. And the first match is so important in a tournament (laughs).

-Your experience can get you through that as well can’t it?
Aerts: That’s true (laughs)

-You built a house in the suburbs of Amsterdam a few years ago and now you train there as well, don’t you?
Aerts: Yeah. I wanted to spend quality time with my family. My two kids watch me train and they know their daddy is a fighter. Punching and kicking is part of their life, but it’s a bit of a problem when they start copying me at nursery school (laughs)

-Do they watch videos of matches as well?
Aerts: When I’ve got matches in Japan, they put videos on and apparently they yell, “It’s daddy!� and hug the TV. (laughs)

-That’s cute
Aerts: But they seem to realize that something’s not quite right, cuz then they go peeking behind the TV to see if I’m there. (laughs)

-Have you ever brought your kids to a tournament venue?
Aerts: Not yet, but when they’re six or seven, I’d really like to bring them and show them one of my matches. So I’ll have to keep going until then.

-Well, finally, I’d like to ask you again what you’d like to achieve in this tournament.
Aerts: My target is of course, victory. I really want to win. I’m not particularly conscious of the fact that it’s my fourth time. I just want to win this one. That’s all I’m focusing on.

jcsport
24-11-2005, 18:47
:lol: The suburbs of Amsterdam.
Zeker een amerikaans interview, die denken vast dat heel Nederland suburb of Amsterdam is.

Leuk interview, bedankt voor het plaatsen.

Hammerkick
24-11-2005, 19:19
http://www.so-net.ne.jp/feg/k-1gp/images/051119/photo05b.jpg

-From that viewpoint, too, your strength is quite amazing. Just before the opening match, your good friend and former star fighter, Peter Smit died, didn’t he? Didn’t that affect you psychologically?
Aerts: I was really upset by Smit’s death.]
Peter Aerts heeft zijn vriend Peter Smit herdacht op een wijze,waar ik heel veel respect voor heb.Twee keer heeft hij nu zijn broek gedragen met Peter Smit RIP erop.Fantastisch is het,wat ie heeft gedaan !!!

Joris
25-11-2005, 00:44
"as long as you’re alive, you have to face death"


8-)

marcelt
25-11-2005, 17:55
bedankt! Tof interview.