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Sleep.. after our night practice and dinner… there is not too
much to do here..our curfew is 11:30pm each night … but I doubt
if many of the girls are awake to see 11:30…
After our breakfast at 7:30 – 8:00 am … we headed off to our
morning practice…We started in the gym working more on passing,
moving and ball control… but the power suddenly went out… and we
in the dark. Fortunately…. The training center also has 4 huge
outdoor sand volleyball courts… We gave the girls about 30
minutes to change clothes and be on the sand courts…. Everyone
arrived on time…..
Moving in the sand is difficult… but it is also a great place
to work on….. moving…
As
one would expect the girls were all a little PRISSY .. about
getting SANDY… We worked on a few things … passing, moving..and
ball control .. but … the girls STILL were more worried about
getting SANDY… than passing the ball…
To
solve the issue….. We had all of the girls go to the side line
and sit down with their feet pointed to the end line and their
head towards the net… then they had to lay down….(as expected
….this was met with ooww its sandy … gross …. ) We then told
them it was a race to see who could ROLL across the court the
fastest… the last one had to run a set of lines….. Their
competitive spirit over took their need for PRISSSYNESS as the
sand flew in all directions and the rolling logs made their way
across the court… At the end they looked like sugar coated
doughnuts …. But there was no more fear of getting sandy…. And
our practice continued….
We
had our normal lunch…. Lots of selections for cold cut
sandwiches, salads, fruit and juices…
Our
afternoon practice started at 2:30pm .. everyone was on time…
We
were working on more team related drills on both offense and
defense
The
energy level was high, everyone is starting to get over their
initial soreness and discovering they have new muscles… We still
have a few bumps and bruises that we are nursing … but nothing
serious
We
finished at about 5pm … just in time for our afternoon SNACK..
At
6:30pm we started our evening practice…
The
evening focus is almost exclusively team play... The German
junior National team started to play the Brazilian Junior
National Team at 6:00pm … Most of the girls were there to watch
our mini Olympic competition…(We may not be in Bejing but it is
the next best thing to being there…. The players who are
training now for Brazil and Germany will be the right age for
the NEXT OLYMPICS…. If watching these teams play does not get
our girls excited … they need to stop playing sports…
After watching the junior national teams for a few minutes … we
headed off to our court for our practice…
We
played an inter squad scrimmage but … we had Coach Wilson, Coach
Chris and our Brazilian trainer play the front line on the
opposing team (we wanted to simulate a large blocking team and a
hard hitting team… (this was our first real live scrimmage ..of
our training sessions)… Despite the size and strength advantage
it was a very close competition …
We
ended our practice at about 9pm … just in time for dinner….
Bye
from Brazil …
John Littleman
Head Coach
Highline CC Women's Volleyball Team
Go
to August 20
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