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Yesterday we had our first practice for the club season. We did a bunch of drills to get back in the groove of things. Unfortunately, the majority of us had not touched a volleyball since the end of school season. Although this may have been true, practice was still exciting. I absolutely love my teammates and I think that this season is going to be a good one.
Yes, I have been slacking on getting game and practice film but this week I plan to make that a priority. We have three practices a week with two weeks remaining in the Genius Hour project. That means that I have the opportunity to get plenty of film to post up on my blog. I also have some videos from last years season that I may include. So no worries, I will make sure to get some videos. I think that our team is gonna work great together. There is definitely some chemistry and we all have been getting along great. We have an amazing new setter which we really needed and I am excited about. I am also getting tons of support from my teammates as I transition to the libero position. I already know that I am going to love them and this is going to be a successful season. This week I have continued to run and workout to prepare myself for the season. It is an exciting week because we have a clinic this Wednesday with the Appalachian coach. Then at the end of the week we have our first practice. This year is an extremely important year because now is the time that colleges actually look at you. I plan to take it seriously while also having fun with my teammates.
I went to personal training this past Friday because we had a ref clinic early Saturday morning. On Friday we focused on legs and by the time I was done, my legs were exhausted. After circuits I normally jump rope and I can usually get about fifty doubles, but after this workout I only got about twenty because my legs were so tired. Saturday was an extremely long day. We had to sit in a room for six hours and take notes on how to ref. Playing volleyball for six years, me and my teammates already know how to do so. Because of this, we just sat there and goofed off the whole time. This week we are off for Thanksgiving break and I plan to use this time to rest and recover and keep working towards my goals. See you all next week. It is week 9 which means that the first practice of club season is getting closer and closer. I cannot contain my excitement for the season. Although I have not been able to get in the gym and physically play volleyball, I have increased my training off of the court. I have started back at my personal training and working out at home and I can already see the results taking place.
This past Saturday, I woke up at 8:00 in the morning to start my day and go to my training session at 9:00. Since I am transitioning to the Libero position, I have began to focus my training more on my footwork. This Saturday we worked on core, back, and legs. Increasing my training has allowed me to become more flexible and not as sore. When I am not working with my personal trainer, I make sure to stay active at home. I have been running everyday for the past three weeks. I also jump rope and work with kettlebells. I do push-ups, two circuits of squatting, and sit-ups using my weights. As I continue to build muscle and increase my speed and strength, the results should also continue to appear on the court as planned. This past Saturday, I met with the head director of Twin City Volleyball Academy. Her name is Heather Holmes, who I’ve known ever since I began playing. She has helped to shape the player that I am today and she has always been a very caring person. We met this weekend to discuss my position for this club season and how to draw attention from colleges. She told me that if I want to stand out, then I should focus more on my defensive positioning such as DS and Libero because I am too undersized to be a front row player.
I absolutely love playing defense and I have always been pretty good at it. Although, during High School season I got moved from my normal position to Libero and I was not as confident in this position because I do not have much experience. As the season progressed I began to get better. I still think that I can be much better at playing Libero, and that is going to take even more hard work and confidence. Luckily I have my great coaches to provide me with the support and training that I will need to get there. Their confidence in me helps me to have confidence in myself. Tryouts began Sunday and I was a little rusty at first because I had not truly played since school season had ended. There was a good turnout of people and I ended up getting a bid for the National team, which is the top team, that night after tryouts. This Friday we have team signing and I am super excited to find out who all will be on my team and to finally start the season. More updates next week. After a long and tough season, Davie volleyball has come to a bittersweet ending. Last Thursday, we lost to Reagan. We took them to five sets and almost had them. Again, we should have won because we are definitely the better team. We still struggled with our mental game, but that’s in the past. Now it is time to focus on club volleyball season. Club tryouts are this Saturday. I am trying out for the Twin City National travel team, which is the highest ranked team for my age group, 16U. I was on the national travel team for my age group last year also. I cannot contain my excitement for club season. My favorite part is traveling with my teammates and playing in the huge tournaments. Those are the best. I have been playing with the majority of my teammates ever since I began playing, so I have built up many friendships, which is one of the reasons I love club season so much. Once tryouts are complete and teams are decided, training will begin. You may be wondering about the stats and videos I said I would be posting on my blog. I did not have access to the stats like I thought I would, and I didn’t really have the chance to get game film. So for now on, starting club season, I will start uploading game film. Once the season starts, I will have practice two to three times a week. On days that I am not practicing, I plan to run and train. I have started back up with personal training at Momentum on Saturdays, which is a huge help on the court. I will be back next week with more updates and hopefully news on teams. We started this week out with a win against Pinecrest in round two of State playoffs. We had a bye for round one. We played a good game and are now advancing into round two. This Thursday we will play Reagan again. Hopefully we can redeem ourselves and finally pull out a dub against them. This means that we will have to be both physically and more importantly, mentally prepared.
It’s only Wednesday of week six and I’m extremely exhausted. This weeks practices haven’t been the best because I haven’t really been able to focus due to lack of sleep and tons of homework. My reaction time isn’t as good as normal, but I can easily fix that. I will make sure to get some good sleep to mentally prepare myself for playing Reagan. It’s now single elimination, so that means that we will have to work extremely hard. The last couple times that we have played them, we should have won. We were up two sets and during the winning set we broke down. I think the problem was that we became over confident and we thought that since we are up, we don’t really have to worry about winning, but we obviously were proved wrong. If we plan on winning and progressing to third round, we definitely need to make some mental changes as a team. Spirit is high as we end our conference play season with a win on Tuesday over West Forsyth in 3 games. We all played very well and I served about 9 points in a row. Our defense was really good that night.
Last game of the season, conference play off against Reagan for first place on Wednesday. We all were very pumped up and ready for tough battle. We played extremely well - Reagan won 2, we won 2 - so we went into tie-breaking match to 15 points. We were up 4 points and then our defense just fell apart - giving Reagan the lead to beat us 15-11. It is very hard watching from the bench, seeing what we are doing wrong and being defenseless against it. We gave away critical points by not playing as smart as we could. It was almost like they just ran out of gas. Seeing it made me realize even more the importance of conditioning, training, and eating right to have stamina, staying power and explosiveness on the court. Every player has to play with that same intensity to win. We still finished 2nd in our conference and that is pretty good. Two of our players were awarded “ All Conference” Lauren Grooms and Tyra Galloway. We are officially in playoffs now - which will ceremoniously end with final state playoff on November 4. This has been a long season and even though fun in many ways, the amount of homework I have had has been surreal. Practicing and games means staying up till 12-1 am to get my homework done - this is not very fun. It will be great to see it come to an end allow me more time to have a social life and actually sleep. Starting the week off with Senior Night, we pulled through with another 3-0 win, but Thursday night we took that L. Although we did not win, we played pretty good. We did everything right except Reagan (our biggest rival who we played Thursday) got on multiple serving runs. That means that they served many points in a row, without us being able to break the serve and win the point. I personally thought that I played great defense and I also was able to score many points for the team with my serves.
On Friday night, I finally got back in the gym with Laniel, my personal trainer. I had been busy for the past few weeks and wasn’t able to attend the training sessions. We focused on strength training, but mainly legs. I’m going to be honest, I’m pretty sore and definitely regret not going the past few Fridays. On Saturday afternoon I ran a mile in 7:10, which isn’t very good for me considering my fastest mile being 6:27. On Sunday, I ran the mile again after a full night’s rest, and shaved my time down by 2 seconds. I will continue to run more often to improve my speed on and off the court. This upcoming week we play Reagan again on Wednesday for Conference. We made some good changes the last time we played them, but we will continue to narrow down our errors to pull through with a win. More updates next week. As we’re entering the final couple of weeks of our season, we are working together as a team to get back on track after our double losses the week before. We started the week off by playing West Forsyth at home on Tuesday, with a 3-0 win and ended the week by beating Glenn with another 3-0 game. Since we’ve had such a good season, it seems that we have a huge target on our backs as a team. Everyone is out now to beat us. We hit a rough patch after our loss from Reagan but we are gaining ground and gearing up for our match against them this upcoming week.
Our practice Friday was mostly based on plays and strategies during the game. It was being filmed because our Middle, Tyra Galloway, has been nominated for Athlete of the Week for WXII News. Being filmed put our team under a good amount of pressure to practice well and show off our skills. We rose to the occasion and everyone felt great about their performance and our coach was very pleased. I personally felt very confident in my defense. We ended the practice with a fun scrimmage against the JV, focusing on our shot selection. On Saturday, I attended a pre-tryout clinic for my club team. My high school coach also coaches at the club that I play for, which is called Twin City Volleyball Academy. We focused primarily on position training. I play various positions which include outside hitter, middle back, and left back (defensive specialist). I feel that my speed and footwork has improved greatly, allowing me to make more accurate passes. I also feel that my reaction speed has increased, allowing me to make quicker and more accurate decisions and strategic plays. Coach B was very complimentary of me throughout the clinic. This upcoming week, I plan to keep up the focus and accuracy of my game to prepare for our game against Reagan. |