Thank You

Well I have been back in Canada now a week.  The jet lag was incredible the first three days.  I was surprised at how hard it hit me.  I talked with Barnaby Craddock, from Silver Medal men’s basketball team, and it has hit him just as hard.  So this is good news I am not a wimp.

After a week of resting and explaining the experience I feel the need to thank some people.  First Sandy McDonald,  A friend of mine from Grande Prairie.  He was the actual person who kept the blog  going while we were in China.  Since it was virtually impossible to get on any social media in China,  I had to write the Blog and email it to Sandy.  I gave him access to the blog so he could post the writing for me.  For those who know Sandy, you know he wouldn’t just cut and paste, he found pictures and links to information that was mentioned on my blog.  I think he actually did a better job with it than me

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Second, the coaching staff.  It was a great experience.  Thanks Alain for agreeing to work with me.  With out that I wouldn’t have been able to have this great learning and life experience. I als o want to thank Alain for being a tolerable roommate. 6 Weeks Sharing a room is tough on anyone, but add the demands of competition and training it brings everything to a peak.  I had a couple of meltdowns that Alain listened too and rationally talked me back from the Proverbial ledge.  Joely, was the fun maker.  She always was upbeat and found a way to connect with the team to keep them upbeat when things got mundane, not the easiest job. Joely really showed her positivity when we had a hiccup with her accreditation and she found a way to contribute and keep things positive.  That was a great role model for our players who were having doubts with their roles. Joely also got the Karaoke night rolling which was one of my favourite memories of her.  Christine our therapist, she deserves two thanks u’s. 1.  for doing her job over and above.  Making sure everything was great. As mentioned in a previous blog, she absolutely loves her job and it shows in her work.  2. Not for killing me when I tried to be funny on the buses. One day I will make you laugh out loud.

Third, the athletes,  all of you truly are champions.  I have so many memories that each of you contributed too.  From our fun rock paper scissors, evolving to Princess, Hunter, Bear.  To just sitting and listening to your stories, I had an opportunity talk a little with each of you one on and one and discovered your passion for life.   I have to admit I am jealous of the opportunities that are lying ahead for all of you.  I hope that I have the opportunity to work with all of you again. But if not the saying goes teams that win together are bonded for life.  Our 11 place trophy will bond us all for life.

  Good luck to all of you this upcoming season, except when you play the mighty Bobcats...then its jinx jinx  jinx  Know that I am cheering for all you.

Thoughts From The Games

I just arrived back in the dorm from watching the Bronze medal game and the Gold medal game.  

Russia won bronze over Japan. Russia is a big physical team that controlled the net and swung hard.
 
Brazil beat China easily in the final. The crowd was loud and awesome trying to encourage their side but Brazil was too strong everywhere for them.  Brazil has speed and strength with great belief in defense.  Hard to ask for more than that.  The word in the gym is this team is expected to be the core of their 2016 Olympic team.  All of the top 6 teams used this FISU as a way to prepare for the Olympics.
 
Lessons I will take back from the games.

1. Very few people call serves.  It is all game planned.  Also with this most teams screen.  They move their blockers to a section of the net and switch to their positions from there.  It just happens to be where they are serving over every time.
2. Most free balls are extremely high, using the height of the gym to allow them to get in place and get ready to block.  Forcing the opposition to pass a ball coming straight down.  If they don't do this then they either free ball short to 2 to take out the rightside from their attack pattern or they freeball short to 4. 
3. Libs try to take as many freeballs as possible.
4. There is no such thing as a standing downball.  The teams either pass it high or set it short.  Most of the time they find a way to jump and get a swing on it.  Just to make the angle different.
5. All of the top 4 teams started their position 6 player just a little behind the middle middle of the court.  They would back up to 1 meter in front of the end line if the block was closed.
6. Quick dynamic player with a quick arm can be any size to score.  Brazil had a 5'10" leftside who dominated the game.
7. Midline passing is still the way to go, the top teams players are able to move their body to get behind the ball.  They don't rely on their arms, but do understand angles that are necessary when the ball is slightly outside their midline.
8. Most teams bunch block, but don't do this continually they will adjust  their block based on who the attackers are.
9. Teams have some servers jump float from deep in the court, keeping other teams off their passing rhythm. 
10. I want to do this again.

Hong Kong

Well our last match at Fisu finally came, we were playing for 11.  

 

We found out before the match that the top 12 automatically get into the next FISU Games.  So that no matter what Canada has a spot if they want!  We started what has become our starting group with Jaki, Krista, Tricia, Jaimie, Marie-Sophie and Shanice, with Noe as libs.  We wanted to see if we can still find a new level as if this was our bronze if we were on the A side. The packed gym was definitely cheering against us tonight.  

The team came out firing on all cylinders and had no problems with the Hong Kong team, winnig the first set 25-16.  Alain decided that it was chance for our role players to get some quality court time.  These athletes had worked so hard this summer to be part of this team and contributed greatly when called upon.  We had depth in all positions.  We started Beth and Alicia in the middle with Alex setting, Kristi and Shanice at leftside.  It took them a little while to get some rythm, but when they got comfortable they played close to flawless, Beth ended up with 7 kills 3 stuff blocks and one ace in the two sets she played to lead the team in scoring.

Beth was impressive this summer.  She, like all the athletes was the go to person on her university team.  She was looked upon to be the one to get the ball in pressure situations.  This summer she was asked to accept a role of serving a defense once the tournament started. She followed through with the role and made some big plays for us.  Every athlete would want to play more, Beth is no different.  She didn't once complain or show frustration she was always up and trying to find ways to contribute and motivate. So it was great to see her end the FISU being successful as a main player.
 

Once the match ended both teams lingered on the court, they poised for pictures together some athletes traded jersey's.  No one really wanted it to end.  In the team room after we had the chance as coaches to thank the athletes for trusting us and allowing us to be a part of this experience.  It is something I will never forget.  Alain said you are responsible to make your own memories and we did.
We then went out as a team to the cultural center for dancing and meeting with other athletes and coaches.  But had a great chance just to sit and talk one on one as a coaching staff and to some athletes that would come over to reminisce about funny things that happened this summer.

Ok just one last add on.  It is Sunday now and we just got back from cheering our basketball guys on to a semi-final win. They are headed to the final.  A real good friend of mine Barnaby Craddock is part of the coaching staff, so to see his face after and be able to celebrate this win with him was incredible.  

 

I love this event!

Dream fulfilled.....Almost

When I first started coaching volleyball I wanted to be able to coach at the Western Midget Elites.  Too be able to say I was part of the provincial team was something amazing.  I remember getting into a fight with a friend over my team Alberta sweat shirt that was given to me.  

After I had the opportunity to coach in the Elites, I wanted to coach at the NTTC's.  When we won gold as an assistant coach I wanted to coach at the Elites as a Head coach, then at NTTC's as a head coach and finally at Canada Games as a coach.  All of those things were fulfilled, just keep trying hard.  

When I was coaching the elite's I met Nando Covelli, he would always talk about watching the Italian team.  They are constantly top 8 in the world and have many World championship medals.  So I had this dream of coaching against them one day.

Well today was that day!!  Italy is a really physical team with good ball control.  They had a tough pool, probably ours and theirs were the two toughest.  After their loss to Brazil (another world power) they ended up on the B side with something to prove.  They handled Norway in their first match without any problems.  I felt after they watched our video they probably felt we were going to be a push over as well.

We had prepped the team very well, Alain laid out a very specific game plan and the team was very focused on this.  Again we started Jaki, Krista, Marie Sophie, Shanice, Jaimie and Tricia was inserted back into the line up as a middle.
We came out strong and were ahead at both technical timeouts.  But then Italy's rightside took over the match.  She scored hard down the line or high off hands.  We struggled to slow her down losing the set 25-21.  But we played respectable.  

The second set we followed the instructions to the letter.  We served really tough taking more risks on that end, a few more errors but kept them out of system and we were able to then get our block defensive game going.  Noe and Shanice passed the bulk of the balls and were solid for us.  We even played our setter out of six a couple of times after her serve because they were running the slide and attacking back cross court.  This worked in our favour, Jaki actually hit a solid pipe on a set from Noe and we won the rally.  You then realize everything is going well.  We won that set 25-21, putting a really different feel in the gym. 

The crowd of 1500 was definitely on our side and really encouraging the girls to play their best by celebrating for/with them.  But Italy was the more consistent team the next two sets.  Our team battled hard and made them earn points.  There was some amazing defence and rallies happening.  We subbed Alicia in for Jaimie in the fourth set and she had an immediate impact with a stuff block and a good run of serving.  Beth was always a factor , she has a great serve and always brings a ton of energy when she plays.  Even though we lost in four it felt like we played well and they were just a better team tonight.  

We earned their respect. 

I think this past two weeks will pay off in spades for our National team program.  These athletes realize they can compete with the best.  They understand why fitness is so important for playing this length of tournament.   World championships are a longer competition than this tourney.

Tommorrow is our last match here against Hong Kong. It will be interesting.

Sweden

Ugly.  But good.

Well we just finished playing Sweden.  We ended up winning in four, but really didn't play all that well.  We  started Jaki, Krista, Marie Sophie, Shanice, Jaimie and Alicia, with Noe at libero.  We came out a little flat and were down 8-4 at the first technical time out.  But then we had a good run of serving and won going away 25-17.  

Now you would like to believe that everything would be fine after that, but our wheels fell off.  In the last 3 sets we committed 40 unforced errors.  Which means serving, hitting or being aced by Sweden.  Almost enough for 2  full sets of points in the match.  Basically in the second set Sweden had to serve the ball and then get out of the way. 

Luckily we learned that we don't need to be perfect to score.  We need to learn to play well when things are weird. If we get a bad pass still try to find a way to score instead of being upset we got a bad pass.  Do something that betters the ball rather than getting frustrated.  I knew if we could keep the third set close when we hit 20 we would be fine.  Which worked out well for us winning 25-21.  Considering we were down 20-19 that is a good comeback.  

The fourth set started out rough again with Sweden up the whole way through.  Our English translator brought me a phone call from Joely at 21-19 for Sweden.  Joely went to watch the Italy Norway match so we would have imformation on the winner for tomorrow.  Heidi the translator couldn't understand what she wanted so she thrust the phone into my ear.  It is funny now, but at that time it was pretty intense in the gym.

We really played focussed the last points and won 25-22.  We were excited because we advanced, we are also excited because it brings us to even in win loss categories, but we are disappointed in the focus the team showed.  Effort is never a question with this group of girls, but  being able to change their focus and play with confidence after errors is the hardest thing for us right now.  Winning after winning is tough.  It takes special athletes to maintain the focus after a successful outing.  Ask the last four Stanley Cup champions.

But we advanced, and tomorrow is Italy.  They are a traditional volleyball power.  I expect us to have no problems getting up for the match.  

We are due to play flawless.

Look out Italia

A little highlight video of a set against Sweden. 

Day Off

Day off!

With the pool play finished and the rankings set out we had a day off.  We really wanted the athletes to have a good mental break.  So our therapist Christine took the athletes in the morning for a pool recovery work out.  

Christine has been awesome.  An athletic therapist is something special.  Quite often people get confused between physiotherapists and athletic therapists.  There is a difference, both are trained with the same background knowledge of the body anatomy and how to rehab injuries.  Just athletic therapists are trained also in preventative work and rehab for athletes.  

Christine's day is long and without her we wouldn't have the healthy athletes that we do.  She doesn't really have time off.  When we are resting or watching video she is performing rehab or pre-hab on all the different athletes.  When we are worried about an athlete's shoulder she is a great resource and understands the wear and tear that happens in the course of a two week tournament.  Christine goes over and above the call, she has little treats and gifts for the girls.  She is an incredible cheerleader and probably the biggest defender of the team culture.  Your athletic therapist can help encourage the culture from her training table more than coaches can.  I recommend that coaches treat these people with golden gloves and not forget their value.

The rest of the day we let the girls just wander and explore Shenzhen.  Most chose to go shopping in a market downtown.  Just a chance to get out of the village and interact with other people is so refreshing.  The all came back with great stories of different culture, a totally unexpected poopy scooping on the road, bartering for clothes, just meeting different people.

The evening we all met and went to support our guys team as they played Australia in their pool play.  I enjoyed the match because I had a chance to watch Brendon and Craig play.  Two Aussies who play at BU, they are good guys who battled hard against the Canadians. It also help them explain the level of the CIS league they play in to their teammates.

WE had a tough decision to make about the practice.  It was scheduled for 9am and it was a 60min drive away.  So the decision is 2 hours of travel worth the one hour practice.  Or would we be better suited with allowing training time for Christine and do something active in the morning.

We decided to go with the activity instead of travel.  Christine has arranged a photo scavenger hunt which should have our competitive girls running around.  One of the things is a picture with five different countries represented in the photo. Another is a  picture of them planking somewhere...should be fun.

The rest of us will prepare video for our match against Sweden. 

Our goal is now B-side champs.

France

Finally chalk one in the win column.

We played France last night.  They are a tall physical team, and play a high ball offense.  During our video session we saw that Poland scored a bit on 61's ( Shots directly  behind the setter).  So our game plan was to run at the seams with the middles early then to go outside after they move their block inside.  But for this to happen we need to pass well.

We started Jaki, Krista again at right side, Jaimie , and Alicia got her first start of the tournament, Marie Sophie and Shanice at leftside.  The first set didn't start out so well for us as we found ourselves down  5-0 when we had to call our first time out.  They were serving jump floats again from the back line and we struggled with that.  After a timeout everyone in the world is told to take a little bit off their serve and put it in.  Well this helped us as we made a great pass and Alicia got us on the score board.  We then settled down and proceeded to work our way back until we even it up at 21.  Then proceded to assert ourselves and won 27-25 on a huge stuff block by Marie Sophie.

The second set  our passing troubles returned.  We had a hard time just getting the ball to go forward...We really let this error enter into our psyche.  We started to look down, our body language showed we were in trouble.  We made some energy subs late in the match and a chance for some of the team to refocus.  Kristi had a huge kill for us and brought some sparkle back into our eyes.  But we lost 25-13.

In between sets we talked about not letting errors define you.  It is the action you do after the error that defines you.  We also talked about how to score or help ourselves score off of 2 passes.  Let just get the ball going forward on serve reception.  Set the ball 2 meters off the net and a little inside.  Give our outsides some angles to play with.  Also start using the back row ball, especially our c ball(back row Rightside) to keep their blockers honest.  They were just overloading our leftsides.  

We were down 8-7 at the first technical but kept it close.  Then suddenly we understood the change.  2 passes became shots and high hands for us which put them terribly out of system then they ran the ball back, we dug it in system and bang middles scored on 61's.  Jaimie then took control of the match at the net,  3 stuff blocks in a row a kill on a 61 then on a step.  Their front row didn't know what hit them.  The rest of the set we played with energy and confidence.  25-18 we won.

The fourth set was much of the same as we now were scoring off of some 2 passes and the passers started to find rhythm with the serve and we were in system a lot more.  The fourth set was never in jeopardy.  We won it again 25-18  Jaimie had 7 kills and 8 stuff blocks, almost all of them the last 2 sets.  

I believe this was a huge learning experience for us.  At the end of the match I compared us to the movie 8 mile.  We found our confidence and our voice, look out now as we are ready to battle.
 
We are on the B side but want to finish as high as we can, we have a day off to rest and recover, then Sweden tomorrow.  

Trinity Western News Release

GAME STATISTICS (pdf download)

Chinese-Taipei

We just finished playing Chinese Taipei.  

This was a very interesting game.  They were a prototypical Asian team.  Smaller than other team with super defence and lots of motion and speed.  The ran an inside out offense.  They showed an x play off of most serve receptions and every free ball.  They would almost 'i' up ( using the football term).  

The leftside would come into the court almost in the 31 zone and then either run the 53 or they would run outside and hit a angle shot.  The left handed rightside would run a step infront of the setter or would come in and then hit an inside out approach.  This looked very difficult for a lefty, but she was very successful with it against France and us.

We started Alex at setting, Marie Sophie at leftside with Shanice, Krista at Rightside, Tricia and Jaimie in the mids with Noe at libs.  There is a new rule starting this summer internationally that a team can dress two libs.  They have to follow the same rules as normal libs has to be play inbetween a lib on the floor.  But it makes it an interesting use of a defensive player.

The team did a good job moving with the attackers and get positive touches on the blocks.  Positive touch for us is a slow down.  By slowing the ball down we were able to transition into our speedy offense.  The first set we were down 23-19 and battled back for our first set win 27-25.  Great serving run to put incredible amount of pressure on their leftside and then some exceptional defending.  Beth came in at 25-25 to serve she made two great digs in position 6 for us to transition to Marie for the win.

The next set the Taipae stepped back further and bombed away with jump floats back about 4 meters from the end line.  We struggled to pass this type of serve.  It came fast and hard and really moved in the gym.  Our confindence in our passing dropped and we lost this set 25-16.

We regrouped well the second set.  The passers really focussed on moving behind the ball. Alain used the term dancing with it.  Allow your self to move with it rather than just reaching for the ball.  Once we settled down with this we battles hard.  We were close at 20 but just couldn't seem to catch up losing the set 25-22. But had some long rallies and the crowd was very vocal about our effort and play.  That made it a really fun environment to play in.

The fourth set we were in control most of the way.  We were playing with confidence and really enjoying the calibre of the match.  It is fun to play a team that is very unpredictable and run different patterns than we see in Canada.  We were ahead 21-20 and Two Taipae players collided and the ball came out with a tremendous amount of spin, but the official let it go.  First time all match that ball handling wasn't called.  A long rally continued and we ended up hitting the ball just long.  Then we just couldn't find away to put the ball away and got stuck in the rotation.  We ended up losing 25-22.  But we definitely battled and make them earn their points.  

This is video of Taipai vs France.  I only have the scout video but it will give you an idea of the type of offense the ran all the time.

The team can feel proud about their match.  Even though we are now eliminated from the A side of the tourney it is a great experience and one that will pay off ten fold for these athletes in life and volleyball careers.

Tomorrow France for 3rd in our pool!!!

Poland

Poland.

Our first match was one I think we would love to do over.  

We ended up losing in 3. We came out flying in all the sets, building leads at the first technical time out.  8-4 and 8-3 in the first two sets.  By 16 we were either ahead or behind by one point.  

Then we would get caught in a rotation and they would go on a big run.  Passing breakdown and playing too safe were factors.

The third set we threw caution to the wind and came out playing our style of game, speed and power.  When we were able to set the ball fast, Poland had a hard time closing their block and it made our outside hitters more successful.

Marie Sophie lead the way with 11 kills from rightside.   Tricia Had 5 out of the middle, Krista had five in a double sub scenario.  We were successful in the middle and rightside.

When people  feel pressure they tend to go back into their comfort zone.  That is what we did the first two sets. We started to play just a little higher. Shoots became semi's and semi's became  highballs.  It is a natural thing.  When we focused on playing faster we had more success.  

Lesson learned.  

Time for Taipei


CIS Women's Volleyball Page: Roster, Schedules, Etc.


Boxscorenews.com Match 1 Summary

Episode Three: Opening Ceremonies

Wow!

I had huge expectations for opening ceremonies, but this was over the top.  First they declared the day a national holiday and closed the entire highway system.  Then the hour trip to the stadium was lined with cheering people.

When we got to the stadium and to the marshalling area, all the different Nations were together posing for pictures and singing songs.  Ghana was incredible to watch, they had so much fun waiting to go in.

i will upload pictures later.  

The number of volunteers and how it made you feel as a participant was incredible.  

The internet is hit and miss so I will try to keep updating this through the help of some great friends.  We don't have facebook or twitter access here.

 http://wanderingchina.org/2011/08/13/opening-ceremony-starts-for-shenzhen-universiade-china-daily/ 

Official Shenzen Universiade Website

Episode Two: Life in the Village

Well, we got settled in our dorm rooms.  

They are a small room with two bunk bends in them.  We have 3 people in the room.  I am lucky I was able to get a bottom bunk.  The unique thing about the rooms is that the shower and bathroom are outside on the balcony. 

The bureaucracy of the games got to us day one.  We had scheduled a friendly exhibition match with Japan, but because we hadn't confirmed 24 hours in advance they cancelled our travel arrangements.  Well, 24 hours before we were travelling.  So the Canadian Mission staff did a tremendous job of arranging transportation for us so we could make some of the time.

WE were happy with the result.  We ended up losing both sets 25-23, 25-23 but considering all the factors, we played well.  

The venues are awesome and it has a real elite feeling to everything.

We also found out that our transportation to our practice the next day was cancelled as they needed all the buses to be ready and searched early for the opening ceremonies. So suddenly our nice noon practice is now a match versus Sweden at 8:30 am. Also the venue is an hour away.  So we had to be on the bus for 7 am. 

The match against Sweden we played with more of a zip we won both sets we played.  Our bench came in during both sets and made a huge difference.  Alex and Krista brought some great energy and turned the flow around in both sets.  

It is a great confidence builder.

Episode One: Thailand Wrap-Up

Thailand is over and we are now in China.  

Thailand ended with a fun karoake night with Japanese men and women who were there as well.  I was impressed with the hidden talent that we have on this team.  We have started to develop quite the singing culture.  When one of the Japanese boys was singing a Beiber song and he came over to the team, Shanice grab a mike and jumped up started singing a duet with him.  It was priceless to see his face and reaction.  After that it was a fun filled evening with the Quebec girls front and center in dancing with the Japanese men.

The next morning we had to get up at 4 am to travel to the airport for our flight to HongKong.  The team was very positive during our 12 hour travel time.  We had to clear customs in Hong Kong, travel by bus for an hour, and then clear customes at Shenzhen.  

Then when we arrived at the village we had to go through the security scan again.  

Busy start to the day.

Mums the word

Today started out a bit earlier than usual here for us.  We practiced 8:30-10:30 and then went and did a full body maintenance weights workout for an hour.  Then we played the Thailand University Champs in an evening match.
So basically three practices in one day.  Plus add the fact that it was 40 degrees Celsius with a 90% humidity it made it a day that we have never experienced before.

WE started Beth, Alicia, Alex, Kristi, Lisa, Krista and Noe.  Alicia led the way with 12kills and 4 blocks, Krista had 7 kills.  But in the end we lost in five. 

We had a very positive meeting following up the match and had a great discussion about helping create positive energy in tough times.  Then we agreed not to let it go and not speak about it again. Mums the word.

So we move on.

Getting over the Flu!

Today was a very interesting day for us.  It was a bit of a stumble in our progress, but I believe in the end it will be a great learning tool. We played a 18 U Japan national team.  They were smaller than us but had amazing ball control and kept pressure on us with their serve.

We started Jaki, Krista, Jaimie, Alicia, Lisa, Shanice with Noe as libero.  We came out firing on all cylinders. The Japanese team looked surprised by the size of the block and the power of our attack.  Near the end of the first set they changed their strategy.  The came out tipping. I am not sure what it is about tipping but it really takes the air out of a teams tires.  The team can attack a ball in the seam of the block so hard that it will bounce to the roof, most athletes are ok with that. Good shot we can give that too them.  But when a tip scores it makes a team change they way they look at things.  Both score one point but one is more acceptable than the other.  So the Japan team tipped their way to Victory in the first set.

The start of the second set is when the flu hit our team.  Error Flu!  It is where one person starts making errors and it gets contagious and next thing you know the whole squad is mixed up in errors.  Everything went wrong, passing went out the window, we started to just play safe offensively and we eased up on our serving.  During this kind of flu, athletes battled hard with their own confidence and confidence in the person beside them.  It is really tough, but as all elite athletes know the only way to cure the flu is confidence.  We need to fight hard to believe in ourself.  Back to the back pack analogy, finding times in your past when you have been successful.  Dr. Skinner from Brandon uses the analogy of a critic.  Everyone is their worst critic and he/she takes over in this time of matches.  Players start jumping infront of each other, or worse they run away from ball fear it instead of challenging it. The critic takes over the psyche

We are lucky though, because we have a strong team concept and a tremendous belief in each other.  As every coach knows in exhibition matches we tend to let athletes try to battle out of situations.  We want them to be able to make adjustments fast without us having to call everything.

In our debriefing we really emphasized that this is still just another Mesocycle within our season.  It is a good opportunity to learn.  I find that most athletes are pretty aware of what happened.  During the after match debriefing we let them talk.  I am a big believer in Thumper's dad's  rule. " If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all."

I like to start my team meetings always talking about what happened positive.  Marie Sophie crushed some big line shots in the 3rd and fourth sets.  We scored at will in the middle when the opportunity presented itself.  Kristi had 6 huge kills for us coming off the bench. Her high school coach would be proud even the old Roblin roll scores against Japanese teams.  In high school Kristi was so powerful in her league that everyone would sit on the end line to defend her, so her coach taught her how to hit this well hidden roll shot to the pot.  So deemed the Roblin roll after her town.  Shanice is an impressive player to watch, she was our best player on most occasions and has found different ways to score in different situations. She has a great poker face and doesn't show any body language if/when she gets down.  I really don't think she ever gets down.

The athletes understand what went wrong, when we asked for their opinions they mentioned all the things we wanted to talk about.  We then talked about making adjustments.  I like to call them the do overs, or mulligans.  At the end of the match athletes should take time to remember their plays, reward what they did well.  Then they think of some things that got away and to put them in context where next time this happens I can do this... finding a fix.  If we dwell in the negative we will stay there a lot longer.  Tony Dicicco the U.S, women's national soccer team coach emphasises in his book titled "Catch them being good".  Show the athletes what they do well and only show them the execution of doing it correctly.  Everyone's critic will have them replay it enough we don't need to show them the errors form a whole bunch of different angles. I think that is a reason why Canadians are so good in hockey.  After Jon Toews makes an incredible move on Saturday night on TV, every Canadian hockey kid has gone out and  mimicked that move over 200 times by Monday.  Probably have a good opportunity to see someone try it the following weekend in rinks around the country. 

So what to take out of today.

We have learned, when we play a smaller team we need to be the aggressor. The block is smaller so there are way more green light balls than red light balls. Overpowering will keep them out of system more than a tip should.  We need to fight for our confidence.  Too look each other in the eye and give back.  We can't only do this during the good time.  It is easy then. We need to take charge and let everyone know we are ok.  Players who come off the bench need to ooze confidence in that situation. WE learned we have great middles! So lets worry about passing first and everything else will be easier.

We will keep learning, the only thing that happened today is that our undefeated season ended.  We will definitely win more than we loose.

Travel and first friendly.

 Day one in Thailand has officially ended for most athletes.  I know that I am completely exhausted from the last 2 days of our trip.  We left at 8:30 in the morning from the residence and headed to the airport.  Our first flight was delayed because of cloud cover for 45 minutes.  So our lay over in Vancouver was done. The plane was delayed more once after we loaded and we weren't sure when we left if we were going to make the connections to Hong kong in Vancouver.

During the flight the we found out that Air Canada had arranged for the Hong kong flight to wait for us, but we had to hustle.  We had 20 minutes to sprint across the entire Vancouver airport.  We all made it with myself coming in last by about five minutes from everyone else.  Thank goodness for the moving sidewalks in the airport.

The flight to Hong kong was the longest flight of my life.  Being cooped up in the seat for over 13 hours was tough on me mentally.  Plus the time changed.  Then in Hong Kong we had a five hour layover.  I finally dozed off on the benches waiting, 30 minutes before we had to check in.  Through all of this the team was excellent.  They represented Canada well.  On the flight to Hong Kong, I walked around the cabin a bit trying to get some blood pumping.  During the walk, I saw Noe was watching a movie on TV. and sitting next to her were two young children and one of them had actually fell asleep laying on her lap during the flight. 

We arrived at the Hotel just a little before 2am.  The hotel we are staying at in Thailand was short 3 rooms the first night.  So the coaches had to stay in a different hotel and then move into the team hotel the next afternoon.  Before we left last week Tammy and Julie talked with our team and said be flexible because the schedule changes and does it ever. So we were in a nice room with a hard futon bed.  It would take some time to get use to if that was what we were sleeping on for the entire trip.

We had a practice today from 10-noon and discovered our gym.  It is a ten minute walk in some good heat and humidity.  When we get there we are warm. The gym is nice but no air-conditioning and has fans and windows open everywhere.  Pretty typical of what you would see in some of the warmer climate.

We played an evening match against one of the University teams in Thailand.  Ayutthya University.  We were told they finished third in their league last season.  Sow e were expecting a prototypical fast asian offence.
We started
Shanice, Lisa, Jaki, Marie Sophie, Jaimie, Tricia and Noe for our first official friendly match.  I don't think the Thai team was really prepared to face our size.  The first set we cam out blocking and and created a comfortable lead.  Alain pulled a double sub at the end of the match with Alex and Krista, then Bethe coming on in a serving role.  We held on to win 25-21. That is where the heat and humidity of the gym wore off us. We seam to just take off after that set winning the match in straight sets.  The last two sets were of identical scores. 25-11 25-11.  WE played the remainder of the team in the third set and they kept the momentum right to the end. Krista led the team with 7 kills. She did this in 1.5 sets of playing time.  Another impressive set of stats were Jaimie's 5 kills and 5 stuff blocks.  The Thai team had real trouble with our block>  In the third set Alex was challenged to be a bit creative and Kristi was on the end of a huge 33 leftside attack.  Alex had sent the middle 31 and both blockers bit on the 31 with a quick block just over top Kristi had no one to stop her.

Tomorrow is going to be a good challenge as we play a decent Japanese all-star team.

ON your mark!

Today we had our last practice in Canada.  It is hard to believe that this part of our training is done.  We have come along way with our team culture, the understanding of our system and understanding the needs of each other.

At the end of the last practice Alain asked the team to take a few minutes and to think of two or three things that were special to them as individuals.  One of the challenges we put forward to the players in the very first meeting was to make this experience memorable.  Not to wait for the memories to happen but to go out a create them.  So this was our first step in embedding some powerful memories about the experience so far.

Alain's said his moments were when the team had to bust their backs to win a rally or achieve a tough goal.  He will always remember they way the sprang toward each other with their hands in the air  celebrating each other success. My moments were watching the individual players challenge themselves.  There has been some impressive growth with the group. Our middles were flying today and hit some great angles and touched a lot of shots.  Their commitment is paying off. 

Noe our libs was stranded returning from the long weekend because of thunderstorms in Montreal. So unfortunately she missed the first practice back.  But today she was flying, I was really impressed with her fortitude through the learning process. 

But more importantly to me it was the one on one conversations I was able to have with the athletes.  They are impressive people with lots of hidden talents.   Like karaoke Ice Ice baby!!!

So we leave tomorrow morning, bus is picking is up at the res and the adventure begins, we have 27 hours of travel,  18 hours in flights and then 9 hours in airports waiting for connections.  Plus a simple 12 hour time change...traveling is not always fun.  Winnipeg to Vancouver,  Vancouver to Hong kong, Hong Kong to Thailand. Travel advice from the A team athletes was to buy a decent looking book and hope it  will tide you over for the trip, plus an mp3 player full of the greatest 80' and 90's hits to sing along too. I might have embellished the last point some.

We also will be presenting the 3 medalists of the Carter List during the flight.  It might have to go to overtime...Princess, bear and hunter. Joely's creative way to solve discussions and who gets first serve. 













My goal is to review the matches on here after we play each day highlighting the games..  But as the competition heats up, so does my responsibilities.  But as most people know I have been know to procrastinate some...