A national championship with Hockeyclub Rotterdam, being selected to play at the World Cup and a bachelor programme in Business Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam: for hockey player Pepijn van der Heijden, it is daily practice. What does such a combination mean in concrete terms, and what choices does it require from a top athlete in training? We asked Pepijn.
Pepijn van der Heijden (born in Rotterdam in 2003) plays in the Dutch bleague for Hockeyclub Rotterdam (HCR). With that club, he recently won the national championship: a major sporting milestone for the young player. "The national championship with Rotterdam was a dream come true. The following week was all about celebrating with the team and the club," says Pepijn.
A Rotterdam career leap at a rapid pace
Internationally, he made a name for himself in the Dutch U-21 team, including a gold medal at the EuroHockey U-21 Championship in Ghent in 2022. In August, a new stage awaits: the Hockey World Cup in Amstelveen, for which he is part of the Dutch team. "After the national championship, I was allowed to play the last part of the Pro League with the Dutch in Rotterdam and Belgium, and two weeks later the preparation for the World Cup began. In such preparation period, we are mainly busy training and playing practice matches. In the moments that I'm not on the field, I'm mainly concerned with recovering and making sure that you can start the next training session well."
Studying in hotels and on training fields
Parallel to this top-level sports career, Van der Heijden is studying Business Administration at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Combining lecture halls, exams and international hockey matches is not an easy puzzle. "In such a busy period as this summer, I always find it very difficult to combine this. I spend a lot of time in hotels and everything is about being able to perform as well as possible on the field, leaving little time for study," he says. "In addition, it is often difficult to take exams because I am not in the country or have to train or play at that time. This means that you sometimes have to make choices."
Vacation or resit exams?
An example of this is the way he deals with resits and holidays: "In my two weeks of vacation between the national championship and the preparations for the World Cup, there also happened to be resits of exams that I had missed. I chose to do the resit exams, instead of going on vacation. Although I could have used a holiday, sometimes I have to weigh up what might be best for now and what might be useful for the future. By taking the exams this summer, I will be less busy next summer."
Discipline and planning as the core
Which qualities are crucial to maintain this double route? "I think the most important qualities are discipline and planning," says Pepijn. "Planning, because you have to be able to keep two busy schedules side by side and look far ahead to make choices. For example, about when you can't do things, and therefore also about when you can and should do it. And then discipline is still important, regardless of whether you feel like it, to stick to your schedule and still get the most out of it."
After hockey
Interestingly, Van der Heijden does not draw up his future far ahead: "I have to say very honestly that I am not yet thinking about the future and a further career. I live in the present, so I'll make sure I pass a few courses this year so that next year I only need a few more courses to get my bachelor's degree and do my best to be able to do a master's at this university afterwards."
Yet, he also says: "I do hope to be able to continue playing hockey for a long time and then in the last years of my career, when I have also obtained a master's degree, to orient myself on what I would like to do after my hockey career."
The combination of a top-level sports career and an academic education is therefore a way to keep several future options open.
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