this year so far..

The semester is winding down and it is getting a little hectic around here. Everyone is panicking to get papers done, studying for finals, and putting their finishing touches on projects. Well at least I hope everyone is doing these things! I know I am! This semester has been full of so many changes, new beginnings, challenges, fun, and achievements. I feel like i have grown so much as a person.
At the same time I felt this semester went by so fast! Probably due to the fact that I was busy 24/7 with school, homework, co-op, coaching and volleyball. I can honestly say this is the life of a college volleyball player!
I can't wait for this summer! I am hoping I get this amazing internship, I can't wait to get started with open gyms for volleyball, and getting in shape forthe upcoming volleyball season. Hopefully I'll get to relax a little bit too!

Update

So, this weekend I have to coach all weekend. My girls play in the NKJV aces challenge in Northern Kentucky. I am so excited because I know they are going to face a lot of good competition. They are getting so good! I just hope we have a really good practice tomorrow because last weeks practice didn't go so well. I had three girls leave early, and one couldn't make it. So, I had to make due with what I had. Tomorrow we need to work on coverage! They are so good at digging just not the reaction part of reading, which is a big part of defense! I just want to try to get them to the point where they don't have to think about it, and that it is just natural. I also want to try to get them to be more consist ant hitting and their approach. I want to get them to the point where they are all doing the same exact approach. One girl, poor girl haha she has backwards footwork, and she tries so hard to fix it. But I have to admit it does work because she's pretty dang good.
But anyhoo, I will keep updates throughout the weekend on how we finish in pool play and how practice goes tomorrow.. wish me luck :o]

Sand Volleyball becomes a Collegiate Sport!!!!

This is soo exciting! I've just read an article that states that, "The NCAA Division I Legislative Council added sand volleyball to the list of emerging sports for women, it was announced today, clearing the way for schools to use the sport toward minimum sponsorship requirements and minimum financial aid awards." Division II has already voted to add sand volleyball to the emerging sports list in January.
The NCAA plans to capitalize on the recent success of the USA women's and men's beach volleyball teams, which I don't blame them. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics made the recommendation for the addition of the sport last summer.
I think that this is awesome! I think this will help beach volleyball become more well known and will help the sport grow. Not only does it help the sport grow, but I believe it will give women a better opportunity to play professional volleyball. This will eventually make the AVP more competitive, which will eventually give the U.S. a competitive edge in the Olympics in women's beach volleyball.
The addition overall increases the opportunities for women and allows more of them to get the education and career that they desire. If I had the opportunity to play both beach and indoor I would in a heartbeat. I would absolutely love it!

STRESS

So, these past few weeks have been extremely busy! Between class, homework, papers, projects, reports, coaching, co-op, looking for a job, and looking for a new place to live next year, I have been swamped! I have been trying to find time to continue my volleyball training, but it hasn't been working out too well. I've gone at least twice a week, but it's not enough. It also doesn't help that I have tons of finals these next few weeks. Oh the life of a college student!
It's only about two weeks left of classes, hopefully I will survive and not stress out too much. Oh goodness who am I kidding, I'm always stressed. To top it off I can't do all of my work on the weekends because every weekend till schools out my girls have a tournament. And I have my first final tomorrow. AHHHH. I need a break! If anyone know of some good ways to deal with stress that don’t take up a lot of time, please, please, please let me know!

D4K

For this blog I wanted to take a look at an AWESOME non profit organization called Dig 4 Kids (D4K). This is an organization that empowers kids to reach for their goals and dreams and how to work hard to achieve these. D4K also teaches them the importance of education and exercise. Their overall project includes a concept known as "Digging Education". This is the primary activity for D4K. The project combines after school tutoring and mentoring with exercise and volleyball lessons. Not only do they receive assistance with their homework but they receive life-lessons,counseling, and volleyball instruction/training for all different types of kids in all different ages, places, and socio-economic classes.
I think this is a great program because not only does it get kids excited about school and volleyball but it responds to a need of POSITIVE after school activity and keeps kids out of trouble. Any program that influences an appreciation and involvement in education, hopefully encouraging a pursuit in higher education, and a healthier lifestyle is a great program and money and time well spent.
Many USA volleyball players and AVP players help out with this organization. High school volleyball players are also a huge part of why D4K is soo successful!



for more information on how to get involved go to : http://www.digforkids.org/

spring season comes to an end..

Saturday was our official last day of spring season. :o[ We had our spring tournament and it was soo much fun. THe tournament was at Cedarville which is NAIA. We might have gotten lost on the way there? haha But, we still made it there in time :o] . We had the opprotunity to play some division two schools and we played really well against them! We won both of those matches. The tournament matches were all timed 45 min. You play as much as that amount of time allows for, which was roughly 2 1/2 games. I didn't like not being able to finish the last match, but it worked out in the end I guess. We played a total of 4 matches, and I was the only setter for most of the time(running a 5-1) and needless to say I was exhausted after we were finished!
I love playing in the spring tournament because it allows everyone to play, ability for people to try new positions, and the ability to try new things like play sets. It also gave us and our new coach an opprotunity to see his coaching style and for him to see how we play together and individually in a game. Overall I think the tournament was a success and it just made me so much more excited to play in the fall!! I can't wait! But... until then I will be in the wieght room 3x a week and running everyday... hopefully :o]

1st place .... AGAIN!!

This past week or so I have been soooo busy!!!! I feel like no matter how many times I think i'm done with something, I have to do something else. STESSFUL, but i'm handeling it.
On a happier note, this past weekend the girls i coach won their tournament again!!! They needed that considering the tournament before they got 5th place. They were pretty bummed about it, but they played a lot of great teams, probably some of the best they will meet this year.
This weekend they played so well!! They went undefeated! They are getting so much better and they are starting to actually listen to me and eachother. I keep stressing the importance of teamwork and communication. No matter how bad you are playing or no matter how much you aren't connecting with your setter etc. you can always control how much you communicate and how much you work as a team. They are starting to understand that! Regardless they won and they were sooo happy!!!
Despite the fact that some of the refs do not know the rules and i had to confront them after the game, nicely of course, and ask them what the rules were for the two bad calls they made. They didn't know of course and they wouldn't answer me, so I just said, "ok," and walked away.
My girls got a lot of compliments this weekend to, I may have gotten a few too. It's so rewarding to get compliments on your team and how I coach. I also think it's so rewarding to see the girls grasp what i teach them at practice and apply it in a game situation. It's a great feeling to watch your girls succeed and see all theirs and your work pay off! These girls are the best//there is never a dull moment//they crack me up!

champions are not born. THEY ARE MADE!

1st place!!!

here's my girls in their huge t-shirts they won for 1st place :o]


I meant to write this earlier but i have been sooooooo busy with school, co-op, practice, roommate problems etc. ...
This past weekend my girls won 1st place at our tournament. They went undefeated!! They played so well i was so proud of them. They played so well together and they were actually communicating well despite their mediocre practice last friday before the tournament. I'm not going to lie I was nervous for them, but they came out with a BANG! I think it may have also been the incentive that if they won the tournament they did not have to run 17 suicides , 1 for every missed serve haha,and they would get cookies at practice. Even though they had 17 missed serves, which is almost expected for 13 year olds, they showed a lot of heart and competitiveness. We will definitely be working on serving at practice on friday.
I knew judging by their faces and their attitudes that they really wanted to win. I just really hope they don't get "big heads" for this next tournament this weekend, the Regional Challenge, which is a tougher tournament, and think they can win first without even trying, which I will make sure I make that known at practice tomorrow!
I am just so proud of them and I hope this is just one of many to come from these girls :o]

wish us luck

It's the day before the first tournament for my club team this year. This tournament has been nothing but a big fuss for us. First it was cancelled, then back on, then a team drops out and changes our complete schedule! And my best defensive player can only stay for pool play. UGH! It has been very stressful week and not to mention practices have been very stressful too. Sometimes I get so frustrated. It's like a minute by minute thing with these girls. Sometimes they want to play and then sometimes they don't. Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they talk, sometimes they don't. etc. But this is how it is coaching 13 year olds, I knew that going into this.
Today at practice I started them in a line up that ended up just flat out not working. Then I worked them in a different lineup that i really didn't want to put them in but it seemed to work out for the best. Who knew?! I guess you never know till you try and you never know how right something can be if you never try. So we will see how it all works out tomorrow!!!
WISH US LUCK!!!

practice practice practice

Today was our official second day of spring season and it went just as well as the first. I was a little sore today from hitting so much the other day, my shoulder hasn't felt that much stress in a while. My legs are sore too from running and lifting yesterday and from the first practice I'm sure. Today were worked on ball control again, did some conditioning, serve receive, defense, and worked on hitting as well. It was a pretty well rounded day with lots of sweat. We actually had more people today, who am I kidding we only had one more, which makes 8. We did a lot of drills that would have been a lot easier and probably more effective if there were more people. But I think in the long run it was good for us because we had to work that much harder to achieve the goal for that specific drill. It also made us condition a little more too. All of there practice just get me soo excited to play! Our next practice is Sunday and we have a meeting after with our new coach.
I am soo excited for season to start(in August), and it's only February! Only 6 months to go! hahah

newness & spring season

Today was our first real Spring season practice! Not, to mention it was with our brand new coach. It went really well. I really didn't know what to expect and I don't think anyone else did either. To be completely honest I was sooo nervous, anxious, and excited all at the same time. I could barely sleep last night which doesn't help for a 6:30 a.m. practice! I think I felt that way because volleyball is such a big part of my life, and it has been for so long.
I was prepared for changes. Wkind of changes? Well, I wasn't sure. I didn't know if they were going to be good, bad, bad, a lot, or few. Although it has only been one practice, I think the changes our new coach wants to make are for the better. We did a lot of new drills, that we very useful, I think. He has a lot of good ideas like he wants us to be a good defensive team, which I think is what we need. Our defense could improve immensely! I also like his mentality that we are going to walk into gyms like we own the place! (Even though we should have already done this!!!) He also believes that we will keep our winning tradition going and be even more successful. I like that he is very optomistic and positive, it's refreshing and encouraging.
BUT.... it's just the first practice, but that is my real first impression of the beggining of our spring season and our new coach!

Volleyball <3

 

a trip down memory lane..

As I was making practice plans today for the team I coach team, I got to thinking about my team I coached last year, which as I have mentioned before, is a completely different team. I saw a few of my girls last week where cincy classics practices and they all said how much they missed me. I miss them a lot too. I also ran into some of their parents and they had mentioned how, "it's just not going to be the same this year." As a coach this really means a lot. It just shows me that I had made a positive influence on these girls and even their parents.
Last year was my first year coaching all by myself with a J.O. (junior olympic) team. It was scary and intimidating at first, not going to lie. Then I realized if I just be myself and instill in these girls everything I have learned I will be just fine. So that's what I did, and the group of girls I had were great and they made me laugh all the time. There was never a dull moment. There were also a couple rough patches last year, only because i had some girls who played multiple sports and there were always conflicts and sometime we would only have 3-5 girls at a practice. One practice we even had 2! As the season proceeded, I had the opprotunity to notice how much better they had gotten and how they have evolved as a volleyball player. They had gotten stronger, smarter, and just flat out better.
I had the opprotunity to see how they had grown as a player the other night as i watched their practice, and i got a little emotional because I miss them so much!

Men's Volleyball Spike!

here is a pretty sweet video I found of some men's volleyball spikes.. pretty amazing..



I can remember when I played club volleyball when I was 17 & 18 and we used to play against the boys teams who played for our club. Playing on a guys net is definately tough and it is definitely different to say the least. The guys were so good, many of them with division I volleyball scholarships in their pockets. I remember the first time we played them they took it easy on us at first but after we started to play they learned quickly not to take us lightly. It was definitely better competition that we had seen. I think playing on a higher net and playing against guys makes you work harder and play harder, and I think it made them respect us more because we gave them some pretty good competition :o]
I also think the way guys play and girls play is very different. When guys are playing, a lot of it is who can get the ball to the ground the hardest and the fastest, but when girls play it's more about outsmarting your opponenent and tricking them. Overall though I think volleyball is the greatest sport ever! I appreciate both womens and mens volleyball due to the fact that they are so different. In the end it's all about how much you love the game and which team outhustles the opponent.

Rough Patch

So this weekend has pretty much been a blur, I came home Friday night, went to bed, slept till 1 pm on Saturday, and took 3 naps. Today I woke up at 9:30 and took a nap at 12:00 and slept till 3:00 pm. So, I went to the doctor (the Walgreen's clinic, the only Doctor open on Sundays) and found out I have tonsillitis again( i just had it 3-4 weeks ago). GO FIGURE. These past few weeks I have been getting in shape for volleyball which starts up this Tuesday! I feel like I haven't done anything this weekend, like I'm slowly falling out of shape. I'm sick again, but I have some medicine so hopefully I get to feeling better before Tuesday morning!

I can't wait for volleyball to start back up again! Without it I feel like life is a blur. I go to class, do homework, sleep, and repeat. I feel like volleyball makes my life exciting. I'm just crazy like that I guess. Although I am not looking forward to waking up at 5:45 am every morning for 6:30 am practice, it's so worth it in the end.

Tough Times..

Today I had volleyball practice with the team I coach for at Cincy Classics. I felt like today was a struggle. The girls could not focus, get motivated, they kept complaining, and they kept saying,"but, I can't..." I knew from the beginning that the practice wasn't going to be good when one of them said, "can today be an easy practice?" I knew it was going to be all downhill from there. This as a coach is a worst nightmare. I was so frustrated, but I knew I couldn't let them know I was. So, i expressed my self, but did not yell. Yelling won't help at this age. You have to tell them sternly, and try to relate to them.
I came into practice with a good and productive practice plan. I knew what we needed to work on, but based on their attitudes i had to change it up a little bit. I gave them more team oriented drills because more skill based drills weren't working. As they were doing team drills they started to play better and talk more. This was actually good. They were being productive, focousing, communicating, and working together. They are a tougher group of girls to work with than the girls I had last year. The girls I had laast year would jump when I said jump and run when i said run, but with these girls they always have something to say before they do something. I need to break them of this fast. It's just a matter of finding how. Hmmm..

New Candidate

Today my volleyball team and I were given the opportunity to meet with a candidate for our head coaching position for volleyball. He seemed like he knew his "stuff" and seemed like a really great guy. He had a lot of good ideas for the team and he expressed how he would be a good fit for our team. We were given the opportunity to ask him questions about his coaching style, coaching philosophy, and how he would run practices & games. His style is definitely different from our last coach. Different could be a good thing, though. Although our past coach has instilled a winning tradition within our program, change may end up being good. for the team.
Although the luncheon with the coaching candidate went well today, I still think we have more candidates to come. I hope they don't rush their decision so fast that they don't give other qualified people a chance. We shouldn't settle, we should try and find the best coach we possibly can. I am looking forward to meeting more candidates and I know my team is too!

That's just great...

So, these past couple weeks have been nothing short of crazy! As you may know I am a member of the volleyball team at MSJ, and about a week and half ago we had recieved some tough news. We were brought into a meeting at 9:30 p.m. by our athletic director and he relayed the news that as of that day, our volleyball coach was no longer a part of the college, she had been FIRED! "That's just great..." as my team would say with all sarcasm intended. We were all in shock! He couldn't tell us why, or how he just told us that she was gone and wouldn't be returning. He kept asking us if we had any questions, but we were so speechless and shocked we didn't know what to say or ask. We are all in the dark, still. So, there is a position that needs to be filled, hopefully soon! I really hope we get to help in the process of finding a new coach. The position opening for the job was just posted Saturday. Hopefully a really good coach will come our way!!

So, it’s been a crazy blizzard here in Cincinnati these past couple days and it has given me the opportunity to think about my upcoming spring volleyball season. I am so excited to start practicing again. I know I am out of shape, due to health reasons that restricted me from doing any physical activities. It was probably one of the hardest months of my life. I was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst that hemorrhaged and the doctor wasn’t sure if I was going to need surgery. SO I was sentenced to a month of no physical activity. This was the hardest thing I have ever done! I have never gone that long without being active at all. I have been cleared for a little over 2 weeks now and was in full swing with getting into shape until my training was put to a standstill last week when I was struck with tonsillitis and a sinus infection. NO FUN! I really don’t know if I could have worse luck.
I have been trying to research some new training techniques. I am a setter and need some strength training tips so if you have any you would like to share I would be more than happy to listen and learn! I have been running on an elliptical, doing sprint workouts, and lifting. As I do more research I will report my findings on this blog! :o]

Leadership

lead⋅er⋅ship: the position or function of a leader; ability to lead;an act or instance of leading; guidance; direction

At the Leadership Conference the central focuses were to:

• Review individual leadership skills through self analysis and peer feedback.


• To work and interact with students across the United States to share views and opinions about leadership.


• To expand a better understanding of key practices of excellent leaders.


• Meet with others from your conference to begin dialogue about the current conditions of your campus or conference.


• Learn about the role of the SAAC as a student-athlete resource and how SAAC can help change your campus for the better.


• Discuss Division III issues effecting student-athlete well being.


• Begin developing an action plan to create positive change on your campus, for your conference or within the community and learning how to put that action plan into effect, successfully.

The theme of this conference was a "drum". All of the students were broken off into groups with people they had never met before, each with a specific drum name. All of the drums team names were names of drums from all around the world. The common theme was to bring people with all different leadership styles together and show that we can all work together for the better.
During the process of finding out what kind of leader you are they give you different leadership tests. It was crazy how much mine was related to me. The test we did was the DiSC leadership/personality assessment. The letters stand for:
D= Dominance i= influence S=steadiness C= Conscientiousness
Based on answers you have to the questions, it will put you into a category of either D,i,S,C. With this tests there were other test bases on our assessment of ourselves and what others thought of us. Each of them tie together to help give each student and administrator their leadership. With these assessments we grouped up with people to help better understand what we thought each meant. I personally was an "i". We also grouped up with people of different leadership styles to help gain a better understanding of how they operate as a leader and as a person. We were also given the opportunity to work with people of other leadership styles to enhance our ability to work with all different types of people that we will encounter on an everyday basis on our college campuses.
We were also given the opportunity to learn more about SAAC and what SAAC does for colleges everywhere. We were also able to learn more about NCAA Division III athletics and the organization in itself. There was part of the conference where we were grouped together with all of the other schools in our conference to talk about and discuss different issue that occur on our campuses and throughout our conference. We then grouped with people from our school and developed an action plan to carry out to our campus that will benefit it in some way.
During the conference we also did lots of activities. The first day we of course did icebreaker games to help us interact with new and different people. Then at night, the conference held a drum activity that everyone participated in (everyone had their own drum). There was a group of hired professionals who led us and it was such an amazing experience! There was of course meaning behind this as well, reinforcing that when different types of leaders work together it forms something great like the beating of all the different types of leaders drums. It may sound confusing but I promise the concept is simple. They also planned a trip to Dave and Busters on Saturday night. It was so much fun! This now leads me to the food! The food was so good! They kept us well fed and had amazing caterers.
At first, i did not know what to expect. I thought it was just going to be another conference where everyone sits in a big room where one person talks the whole time. It wasn't like that at all. It was a lot of hands on activities and learning that helped you better grasp the ideas they were trying to get across. The overall experience was nothing short of amazing! I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I don't think anyone can ever learn enough about themselves. I would highly recommend it to anyone!

For this entry I will be taking a little detour from the whole volleyball subject and tell you a little bit about me as a student athlete. This weekend I had the opportunity to attend the NCAA Student Athlete Leadership conference Chicago, IL. As a member of my college’s SAAC program I was nominated to go to this conference to represent my school.
As a student athlete leadership is a huge part of being an athlete. Most people don’t have what it takes manage being a student yet manage being a student athlete. As a student athlete you are forced to miss class for games, keep your grades above par, go to practice and then come home and do homework when all you want to do is sleep. Its one crazy ride but I would change it for the world. Anyhoo, the conference talked about being different types of leaders and finding the best leadership style that will benefit you in your institution. In my next blog I will talk more about what the theme of the Conference was and how I feel it benefited me as a person, student and as an athlete.

I am so excited! This week I start coaching for my club team! I love coaching almost as much as I love playing. There is no better feeling than witnessing one of your players apply something and/or use a skill that you have taught them. If you can make a positive impression on them along the way, well, that’s an accomplishment in itself. I believe that is one of the most important things you do as a coach. You need to be a good role model to these girls.
Caching 13 year olds is especially challenging because they are all still figuring out who they are and who they are going to be on the volleyball floor and off. At this age, you want to fit them into the position that is best for them and that will benefit them the most in the long run. As a coach, you also want each player to try new things and find the volleyball player they were meant to be. All of this sounds so cheesy but it is so true! Being a young coach, you need to make a positive influence on them and my goal is to teach them the skills they will need to play in high school and be the role model they need in their life right now.

HELLO!

I would like to formerly introduce myself: my name is Lyndsey Waldman and I am a college volleyball player for the College of Mount St. Joseph. I am also a coach for 13 year olds at Cincy Classics Volleyball Club in Cincinnati and in the summer I run volleyball camps for a sports club and help with for a high school camp here in Cincinnati. As you can see volleyball is a huge part of my life and I want to share my thoughts and opinions on all of the volleyball that goes on around me!
This blog will primarily be about what volleyball means to me and how volleyball affects my life. I will also be talking about current news and coaching styles and I will be giving my feedback on subjects.