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There
are birds chirping to one another (in Portuguese of course) and
in the not too distant background you can hear the pounding surf
as it crashes onto the ebony white sand. …. Yes; it is
another perfect day in Volleyball Heaven…
Today we
got up a little earlier to have breakfast and to start our
practice at 8:am, as there are two new teams here at the
Volleyball Center…
Today
and tomorrow will be physically; relatively easy days… The
conditioning that we have done over the summer has paid off… but
…. We have spent about 7-8 hours per day training hard each
day. Each DAY here at the volleyball center is equivalent to
about one WEEKS worth of practice at the HCC gym. We have been
here for 7 days…. (doing simple math will show we have about a
month and ½ of court time….and we have not yet played a game….)
We are all excited about our first Scrimmage next Monday against
a local team from RIO….
The
morning session was spent again working on moving and passing….
Ball control and a few drills were to better understand our
offense.
We were
scheduled into the 8-10am time slot for practice… but the team
that was to have the next session did not show up…. So we used
the BONUS time for a little extra skill work.
After
practice, some players went back the room for a nap, others
headed out to the pool to use up there allotted sun time …. (we
limit them to only 1 hour in the sun…during our practice days)…
others watched some of the other teams practice (they may have
just been looking at the boys…. Who knows…. ) (smile….)
At noon
we had lunch…
After
lunch most went to the pool for the rest of their sun time….
Paula had a game called Apples to Apples… (basically you drew 7
cards from the deck, on these cards were random things … there
were people, places, activities etc…. from another deck of
cards one person called the JUDGE… would pick one card … and on
this card would be a word…. The JUDGE would say the word and
read the meaning of the word if we did not know it…. Then from
the 7 cards that we had in our hand we had to choose one that
was the best fit … for the WORD that the JUDGE had…the JUDGE
would then choose whose card was the best fit for the WORD… the
card that was chosen as the best fit … the became the judge and
was awarded 1 point for winning….
It
quickly became obvious that one needs to play this game with
someone their own age…. I being 60 years old and the girls being
18 years old …. Did not use the vocabulary nor did (and at times
not even speak the same language)… (Smile…) As and example…. The
WORD was HUMORIOUS …. The card the I submitted was … MADD
MAGAZINE … others submitted … The EIFFEL TOWER, ALBERT EINSTEIN,
THE GRAND CANYON and … CRAYONS….. To me this is a not
brainier….given the other choices … the CLEAR WINNER is
obviously … MADD MAGAZINE…. BUT…. It did not win… because the
JUDGE …. Did not know what MADD MAGAZINE was….I think she chose
…. ALBERT EINSTEIN … because of his FUNNY HAIR…. Oh well …no
wonder they have so much trouble understanding our offense and
defensive systems… we do not speak the same language….
(smile…..)
The next
practice started at 2:30pm…We used this time for our individual
and team photo shoot here at the volleyball center…. We took
some photos near the pool, near the sign for the volleyball
center and on the courts … (We will post these to the website as
soon as I get my laptop up and running….. later this week)
After
our photo shoot we started our practice … we had a couple of
players with some minor injuries… sat out this practice and iced
their injuries…
This
practice was spent working on defense... digging, moving and
going to the floor….
We ended
the session with a little 5 on 5 scrimmage … the back row
players could hit from the 3 meter line…. The one front row
hitter could hit at the net…. It proved to be a very competitive
and fun and EXAUSTING drill …
We ended
practice just in time for the afternoon snack at 5pm.
Our
next session started at 6:30 pm .. but many of the girls … no
make that ALL OF THE GIRLS … went to watch the boys teams
scrimmage each other…. The younger boys (Age 17-19) are good
players and were fun to watch and were very impressive…. BUT…
after the younger boys played the OLDER JUNIOR NATIONAL TEAM
scrimmaged against a PROFESSIONAL team from Brazil ….. THAT WAS
SPECTACULAR!!!!! …. Everything happens so FAST…. (it is like
comparing women's tennis to men's tennis.. both games are fun
to watch … but the men's game is so much more powerful and
explosive … and dynamic) … The men volleyball players are
jumping so high and hitting so hard … it is scary …) .. I think
our girls came away with a new appreciation about volleyball…
We
started our practice at 7pm … again we had a few girls icing…
and not playing but the other girls, Chris and Wellington go
into a 4 on 4 game…. To warm up…. So we stayed with it and added
the other players to the mix…. Who ever made a mistake had to
leave the court and be the server until someone else made a
mistake… It was a very fun drill that lasted about 30 - 40
minutes … everyone was dripping wet with sweat when the game
ended at 25-23…. (guess they got warm….)
We then
worked on going through each rotation with a service reception
and then a defensive play (both had to be successful in order to
rotate …. Getting two points in a row is a difficult task to
do…. We worked hard and ended the practice at about 9pm…
Hot
tired and exhausted …. We went to dinner ….
Curfew is
at 11:30pm … but I do not think many made it to curfew time…
Sadly …
Tomorrow is our last day here in the Volleyball Center… after
the morning practice we will be heading to RIO … (life is
tough…… smile….)
Bye
from Brazil …
John Littleman
Head Coach
Highline CC Women's Volleyball Team
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August 23
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