Just shy of the Paris Games, Team USA Water Polo Captain, Ashleigh Johnson, took some time out to share her workout strategies and words of wisdom with ESSENCE Black Women In Sports correspondent, Sharí Nycole.
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00:00So Ashley, you're a history maker, you know, standing next to you, it's just really an honor
00:04for you as a black woman representing the United States in Paris. What does that accomplishment
00:09mean to you? Also, just keeping in retrospect how you're representing your sport.
00:13Yeah, I think that that accomplishment means a lot to me. I know that that accomplishment
00:18means a lot to me because for me, it's about what this sport could look like, what the hope
00:25for the sport could be. And just like every young black girl and black boy that I meet who
00:31wants to be here but doesn't see themselves here, I hope that I can be a mirror to hold up and
00:37I'm like, you can be here. This is how you do it. This is what I've been through. This is
00:42what you're going to experience and get some of that preparation, get some of that
00:47encouragement that I maybe didn't get when I was younger, maybe didn't,
00:52that representation I didn't see. Okay, we talk about prep, hard work, being in the water at any
01:00at any point for me is it can be a difficult thing. Not throw a water polo in there. What is
01:05your prep like just outside of, you know, Olympic season? And what is your prep like been now,
01:11knowing Paris is in your future? Outside of the Olympic season, for our team in general,
01:16we typically like if you're outside of college, you play a season abroad. And for me the past,
01:22I played three seasons abroad, I played twice in Greece and once in Italy. So that you're kind of
01:28contracted to a international team, and you're just playing for them and just doing your best to
01:33stay in shape, doing your best to compete and learn your opponents once you get to the Olympics.
01:38And then while I've been in the Olympic year with this team, it's just been full on,
01:43we have about six hours of practice a day. We lift in the mornings, we condition in the mornings,
01:49and then in the afternoons, it's like more pure water polo. So it's a lot, it's biking,
01:54it's running, it's swimming, it's water polo, it's legs for goalies, it's a lot of legs.
02:01And just doing everything we can putting everything at leaving no stone unturned so that
02:06I'm the best that I can be when I get there and that our team is the best that we can be.
02:10Speaking of team, is there one team building activity that you guys do often or that you've
02:15done that you can remember that you're like, yo, that was really, really cool?
02:19I think that one thing that we do that's really important for us is our meetings, we have a team
02:25sports psychologist. And it's not necessarily team bonding, but it's the times where we get the most
02:32vulnerable with each other as a group and just like cry together and like, really talk about
02:38what our perspectives are on where we are and like develop our sense our like self awareness,
02:43but our team awareness and put into place the building blocks for where we want to go.
02:49And I think that without that we wouldn't, we wouldn't get to where we want to be no matter
02:55how hard we tried in the pool. If you don't know the person next to you, like what drives them,
02:59what's important to them and what their purpose is outside of like the team purpose, then I don't
03:05think you're reaching any goals as a team. Let me ask you this speaking of goals,
03:08is there one particular skill set that you're really working on refining right now?
03:13One skill set that I'm personally trying to refine is my ability to like, build up my teammates.
03:21I think learning the strengths and weaknesses of the people around me is a big part of like,
03:26elevating, like our weakest link, whether that's within myself individually, like
03:31building that skill I want or like learning, okay, her shot here is weak, I'm going to
03:37challenge her to shoot there as often as possible, because I want her to have that skill. She doesn't
03:43feel connected to the to the team. Okay, we're going to go to coffee, we're going to talk,
03:47she's going to be connected to me, if not everyone. And I'm going to be like a bridge
03:52to connect her to all of us so that we feel connected when we get to a hard moment and
03:57she can come and rely on somebody.