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Besides working as a physical therapist, Rob also is a podologist (the science which corrects postures) and sports instructor/personal trainer.
He gives lectures in physical education at the Sports Medical Center Amsterdam, being specialized in sports medical sciences and using strength training in sports and for revalidation.
Rob has a longtime connection with softball, as he played himself for three years in the eighties in the men softball-team of Amsterdam Pirates, which then played in the highest division of the regional competition.
It were Rob's first contacts with fastpitch softball.
Besides that, he played some baseball for Pirates in the same period for the second and third third of the club.
A year before a national men softball competition was introduced, Rob retired, but his connection with softball remained, as his daughter Elise went on to play for DSS in the city of Haarlem. Currently, she is on the roster for the Haarlem All Star Team. Besides having a 14-year old daughter, Rob also has a 7-year old son, Stijn.
Coming April will mark a anniversary for Rob, as he will be celebrating his 21st year as a professional physical therapist.
In March last year, Rob was added to the staff of the Dutch Women Softball Team, which then participated in the European Championships and qualified for the Beijing Olympics.
Part of his job is to improve the physical strength of the team through practices and training sessions.
This was not Rob's first work as a physical therapist with a softball-team. In 2004, he accompanied the men's team of Thamen to the European CupWinners Cup-tournament in Prague (Czech Republic), which the team from Uithoorn won.
Before this, he already had a long link, being associated with sports team.
He has been associated as a physical therapist with hockey (Bloemendaal and Hurley) and track & field at VANOS, which is based in the Olympic Stadium of Amsterdam, the site of the 1928 Olympics. For both these sports, he was a strength and conditioning coach.
He worked with athletes, who ran road endurance races, but also do track running.
In the eighties, he played soccer for Amsterdam-based amateur-teams Martinus and WV-HEDW, where he also started his first jobs as a physical therapist.
Rob, who loves running and mountainbike, also played American Football for the Amsterdam Rams and Amsterdam Crusaders. With this last team, he won the Dutch championship title.
2007 --- Rob takes over as Physical Therapist and makes his debut with the Dutch National Team in Enschede during the first of a 5-game series vs. Australia ---
In March 2007, Rob became the tenth Physical Therapist working for the national team since 1978. He took over from Heidi Vingerhoed, who was with the team since 2005.
1997-1998 --- In these two years, Rob is the physical therapist for the men's hockey-team of Bloemendaal, where he was succeeded by Heidi Vingerhoed, who later became Rob's predecessor with the softball-team.
1982 --- Rob plays amateur soccer for Amsterdam-based WV-HEDW, which then played in the highest division of the Amsterdam League. At the same time, he played in the highest Amsterdam-division with the men softball-team of Amsterdam Pirates and in the highest national competition korfball with Allen Weerbaar.
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