All In Mindset
Natasha Van der Merwe set herself apart with her mind as much as her body.
Some like to dabble; getting a little into this or trying their hand at that. Natasha Van der Merwe is not one of those people. She knows one way and one way only.
“I’m an all-or-nothing person,” says the renowned coach and former professional endurance athlete. “I only do one thing at a time, and whatever that is, that’s my sole focus.”
If that seems intense, you’re not wrong. Then again, when your goal is to push the human body beyond what most could fathom – 2.4-mile swims, 112-mile bike rides and 26.2-mile runs … all in the same day – there’s no room for anything less. At least, that’s been Van der Merwe’s mindset for most of her life, and she’s not about to change it any time soon.
Though, how she got into endurance sports did take quite the change.
Born and raised in South Africa, Van der Merwe originally made a name for herself in tennis. Right out of high school, she began touring the world with a racquet in her hand, eventually making her way to the U.S. to train with other top junior players. While always a competitor, it was during that time the coaching bug bit her, and while living in the Bahamas, she began training tourists on their vacations. That soon led to her setting up clinics in Texas, where she now resides.
With her singularly focused mind, there seemed no reason to deviate from tennis. That is, until she was introduced to a new challenge.
“Around age 27, I was dating someone who was into triathlons,” Van der Merwe said. “I hadn’t swum in more than a decade, but I decided to try it. I immediately fell in love with it, and I switched from tennis and devoted myself to becoming a professional endurance athlete.”
Your late 20s is typically not the best time to try and become a professional in any sport, let alone one as grueling as endurance racing. Yet, while there’s obviously a physical aspect to endurance racing, it’s often the mental aspect that sets an average athlete from a great one.
And that’s exactly what set Van der Merwe apart from the beginning, with the results speaking for themselves – multiple top-10 finishes in Iron Man and 70.3 races, multiple local wins and a No. 1 ranking in the SouthMidwest Region in her first year of being a professional triathlete.
However, there comes a time for most every professional athlete to retire, and after 13 years, Van der Merwe did so in 2023. The one thing that didn’t retire, though, was that mind or her love for the sport.
Towards the latter part of her career, she began training other endurance athletes, and now, it’s her sole focus through NVDM Coaching. Every day, she gets to put her intensity and passion into training other athletes to be their best. For many, it’s introducing them to the sport. Others, it’s getting them to the next level of their abilities so they can enjoy the sport more. And for some, like two-time Ironman Champion Alice Alberts, it’s about truly pushing the limits of pain tolerance and fatigue to see just what the human body can do.
That’s been Van der Merwe’s focus her entire life; to push competitive and physical boundaries to the max. To be all in. And she’s not about to stop.
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