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!!