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...