I Heart Volley

Diggler.

2009-12-19T01:46:00.002+01:00

You got the touch!

Status

2008-10-01T17:54:00.002+02:00

Okay, here's the deal. I haven't exactly been burning up the blog lately, mostly because I'm not sure if I have that much to say. So, things will probably be pretty up and down around here for the foreseeable future. I might get excited and post like crazy or I might not post again for a substantial amount of time. Or, another option, I might post a little bit here and a little bit there.

Mostly, I feel like I've said most of what I'd like to say at this point. And match reports aren't necessarily the most exciting things in the world. Hopefully, everyone has enjoyed the blog so far and maybe at some point it will be a source of more entertainment, but for now, I'm just putting out the reservation that things might go dormant for long periods of time...

Triumphant Return

2008-09-03T15:28:00.002+02:00

I figure that the beginning of September marks the unofficial beginning of the volleyball season. And since this blog has been on life support for far too long, I thought it was time to try and breathe some new life into it.

I've had a really interesting summer as far as volleyball goes. But since there isn't anything worse than talking about recent history, I won't spend any time revisiting it, with the exception of one thing...

At the beginning of August, I had the chance to visit the KidsVolley camp at VK Hjallese on the Southside of Odense. When I got the invitation to come by and spend time working with the kids, I was a little nervous about accepting, I knew very little about KidsVolley and didn't really have an idea as to what they would find interesting or fun to do. In the end, I couldn't say no, and as it turns out, it was one of the best volleyball/social experiences I've had in some time.

I don't want to make it seem like this was a huge production, in fact it was the opposite. I showed up at the camp, was greeted by the always positive Aase Bechsgaard, who had sketched out a rough schedule, and Dorthe Windeleff who was helping as well, and then we started. Even though many of them had been to last year's Pokal final, none of them really knew who I was (not surprising when you play on a team with Shaun and Geo).

So, we started with a small introduction, told a little bit about our experience in volleyball and explained what kinds of opportunities there were in the world of volleyball. After this, we spent a little time playing pepper, setting and showing off. I got the chance to warm up the old shoulder and hit some balls on a KidsVolley net, etc... Finally, Dorthe and I played short matches against all the different levels of KidsVolley players at the camp. Everything from age 6 to 13-15 I believe. We got a chance to learn the rules for each level and to experience the game from on the court. Once we were done, we signed some autographs and took a picture. About two hours in all.

The kids seemed to have a great time, and all of them were better than I had imagined. They were obviously excited to have the chance to meet some real volleyball "stars" and it didn't really matter that they had no idea who we were beforehand. It's not news that KidsVolley has been an incredible success, and that the future of volleyball looks positive, but for me it was a special experience.

I wanted to share my visit to VK Hjallese because the more I thought about it afterwards, the more obvious it was to me that it should be happening in every KidsVolley club in the country. As I said before, the kids didn't really know who I was when I came. Sometimes I forget in the small world of volleyball Denmark that there are lots and lots of people who play who don't really keep up with the elite division. That includes almost every KidsVolley player that doesn't play in one of the big elite clubs. The more they get exposed to the Elite level players, the more role models they have to look up to and the more they see what higher level volleyball looks like, the more I think they will be engaged with the sport. If nothing else, it can be a fun experience for younger players to meet someone who is at the top of the sport. I know when I was younger, a big part of my attraction to the sport came from watching the older players play. I simply wanted to be like them.

Clearly, the practice program that I described earlier could be easily copied. I know that I'm not even close to being one of the most interesting players to meet in the league. If the kids think that watching me hit is exciting, then I would love to see what they would do if Kristian Knudsen, Geovan Santos, Mads Ditlevsen or Shaun Powell showed up at their training one day and put on a little show. I don't know if there are other KidsVolley clubs out there that would find it interesting to have an Elite player come by their practice but I would bet there are...

The bottom line is that I really had a good time getting out and meeting what will hopefully be the next generation of volleyball players. I think the kids enjoyed it as well, and I'd love to hear if there are other clubs out there that have done the same thing...

Oh the Anger.

2008-04-23T22:28:00.005+02:00

Someone's BITTER........

http://www.aalborg-hik.dk/ny.php?id=975

What's the point of taking a little shot like that? Factually, I guess it is correct, but the argument behind the statement doesn't really hold up. Marienlyst has two former national team players who played on the team as recently as last Summer. Of course, the total would be higher if not for certain problems this year. But, just because some of the guys have been injured or need to spend time with their families or just don't want to play with the national team this year, that doesn't mean that they aren't going to in the future or aren't national team caliber players. I think Aalborg knows a lot about players deciding not to play for the national team for lots of different reasons.

Did anyone tell Svend that there were two foreigners on his team this year?

Anyways, I got a little chuckle out of this, just thought I would share.

Gold 2008.

2008-04-21T11:33:00.003+02:00

Some random thoughts from the 2007-2008 season:

The first thing that I want to say is that volleyball has developed in Denmark. The difference in level of play from 2002 when I got here is easily measurable. Even compared to two years ago, the league has gotten better from the bottom up. I think that was obvious from the openness of both semi finals. It's also obvious from my perspective on the court. Years ago, there were consistent blowouts, the top teams didn't have to really put pressure on the worse teams to get them to fall apart, and the result was a lot of matches that ended 25-12, 25-14, 25-18. There was an obvious cut off line between the "good" teams and the "bad" teams and there was very little excitement as to who was going to be left standing at the end of the year. Now, things are more difficult. A lot more teams are competitive and winning isn't always a given. There must be several reasons for the development of volleyball in Denmark but I'll let others try to figure them out. I just wanted to note that we're hopefully moving in the right direction.

We're also tremendously good at backing each other up and giving each other positive feedback. I'm talking to most of the "blog community" which has flourished in the last couple of years. And great, we should generally be positive. But, at some point, people are going to need to be thicker skinned. When you have your own blog or forum, the whole idea is to publicly trumpet your opinions. When someone comments on your opinion, or viewpoint, it is their prerogative to offer their own viewpoint or feeling. If that feeling is negative, it is in my opinion, ridiculous to attack that person. Attack their arguments but not them. That doesn't mean that people should constantly throw around negative feelings towards each other, but let's all try to deal with things with a little more perspective. I only say this because I feel like people have gotten a little chippy with each other at different points of the season, and in my opinion those people need to relax a little bit. If someone thinks your product is poor, then prove to them it is not, don't just automatically shut down and start name calling. Then again, I do enjoy reading from the sidelines, so maybe everyone should just keep it up...

That brings me to my next point. I was at the two finals that were played in Fortuna and I, of course, was at all of the semi-finals and finals that we played in. Every match was an incredible experience. The crowds were great and it made for a special feeling on the court. I can't imagine someone seeing one of those matches and not coming away with a little more interest in the sport. But, I also read the war of words between the Holte supporters and the Fortuna staff about where they were given seats, etc... That was an inane debate. Holte fans did an amazing job of showing support and beating on drums for hours at a time, Fortuna did a great job of setting up a nice arrangement. Who cares where someone was sitting. We weren't in an arena that seats 15,000 people. I'm pretty sure that everyone could see the match pretty well from.......their courtside seats. Overall though, it's been nice to see the level of fan support. Hopefully a bunch of kids have something to look forward to for the future.

Being one ball away from getting the boot from the playoffs and then to be able to rally and win convincingly in the final was a great feeling. I don't know exactly what happened, but something certainly changed when we won that last ball in the fourth set of our second semi-final vs. Gentofte. We were a different team from that point. And to play HIK in the finals instead of Middelfart was also a big deal for us. Straight volleyball-style it was a much better match up for us, so it seems that everything worked out perfectly in the end.

We switched over to the all Shaun Powell offense two times in the playoffs and both times he carried us. I'm really glad that he ended up getting recognized as the year's best opposite. I thought Ryan was very good for Middelfart, but there is no doubt if we were on the school yard picking sides, I would take Shaun instead of him every time. The 4th and 5th set against Gentofte in semi 2 was one of the best performances I've been apart of. I don't have the stats but he was given every sideout ball and most of the point scoring opportunities for those two sets and I would guess that he made one or two errors and was stopped three or four times, the rest were kills. It was impressive to say the least.

I'll probably write something about the rest of the year's best at some point but not now. I've already blabbered too much. It feels good to win gold. It's definitely a different feeling when you've been favored all year to do it, but not in a negative way. It's just different. And I'll take being favored every time as opposed to the other possibilities. Hopefully next year won't be any different.

2008-04-18T13:21:00.001+02:00

One Step Away

2008-04-14T17:20:00.002+02:00

When we left for Aalborg yesterday, we felt good. We felt good about the way that we played our third semi final match against Gentofte. We felt good about the way that we were able to respond to the pressure of being the favorites. And most importantly, we felt good about getting the chance to play in a final.

All that positive energy allowed us to play a very solid first final. Our passing was really consistent and that allowed us to get into an early groove. We sided out well and made it difficult for Aalborg to win points in their own serve. It's a perfect scenario when playing an away game, it doesn't allow the crowd, or, by extension, the home team to get too excited. Not that the crowd wasn't alive or loud, but there simply weren't enough opportunities to go crazy. I would argue that against a team like HIK that means a lot. As soon as they get on a roll blocking, you know you are in trouble and the momentum is almost impossible to stop.

In a short post after the game on his blog Joakim Larsen declared it the best match that either team has played all year before replacing the post with a little more detail. It's hard to tell how the match looked from outside the court but a few different people told me that it was well played. I'm not sure if I'm ready to say it was our best match of the year, but it was definitely a good one. I think that we missed a few opportunities to really blow the game open, especially in the first and second sets. But that's all subjective so there is no point in saying more about it.

The most important thing for us is that we came home with a win. With two chances now to win gold at home we're not taking anything for granted. But, we also played all season to have the advantage we have now and hopefully that will translate into a win for us.

It feels like forever until Thursday and match number 2...

Bronze - Meaningless?

2008-04-10T13:08:00.002+02:00

I went to Middelfart last night to see the bronze medal match between Middelfart and Gentofte. I've got a few random thoughts from watching.

1. Thanks to Middelfart for letting us come in for free. I don't know if it is a rule (It was at some point), but we really should let other elite volleyball players into our matches without paying.

2. There should absolutely be a rule about referee stands and their closeness to the court. Middelfart's referee stand is by far the worst, there are two legs that sit probably 50cm from the sidelines. They are right where a player trying to hit a set that travels slightly too far outside of the court would land. I saw three different situations last night where players were centimeters from ruining their legs/ankles/knees. I didn't think it was a big deal until three other people noticed the exact same thing.

3. There is little question in my mind that the semi-final matchups worked out perfectly for us in Marienlyst. Middelfart gave us problems all year and the physical nature of their play definitely didn't give them as much of an advantage against HIK as it would have against us or Gentofte. Time and time again, when they needed an important side out or to score an important point, they would just set a high ball to the opposite and let his height do the work. Gentofte didn't really have an answer for it and that was the biggest difference in the match.

4. It took me awhile but I've finally decided what I think about Gentofte. My take is that they are the team that is the most able to score points and put pressure on other teams by actually "playing volleyball". I know that sounds ridiculous, but let me explain. What I mean is that they can play defense and turn that defense into points. They don't rely on powerful serving, and while they are a capable blocking team, they usually don't dominate at the net. What sets them apart, as far as I've seen, is that they have a knack for making plays. The ball that you think is down is almost never down. They cover extremely well and they are usually in the correct spot. While a lot of mens teams rely on their serving or their blocking to create point opportunities, Gentofte is good at creating those point opportunities even when the other team is passing well and running an in-system offense. And it makes for exciting volleyball........usually.

5. I have to give credit to Middelfart for playing at a high level to end the season. A lot of teams would have just packed it up and not really cared about the bronze medals, but Middelfart was concentrated and solid. So, congratulations, that third place is actually very important looking ahead to next year.

And that brings me to my last point. This is difficult for me to discuss because I'm coming from a place of biased ignorance. But, I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about the end of the season and how to kind of spruce things up. I've got a few ideas that I want to use this space to unpack a little bit.

First, I think that the playoffs need to expand. If it is only going to be the top four teams that make the playoffs (which is correct in my mind) then the series should be turned into best of five format. Take a little bit more time to play them and pack a few more "quality" matches into the schedule. It's best for everyone.

Second, and I've talked about doing this a million times before, it could be really cool to set something up with Sweden. The format could work in many different ways:

The two champions could meet a few days after each country's finals are finished. Say, the weekend after both are done. It would be one match and it could alternate between Malmo and Copenhagen. An Oresund series if you will. Make it an arrangement with women's and men's teams playing like the pokal final. Minimal work to get it set up and I think that people would enjoy watching it. Am I totally overestimating the rivalry between Sweden and Denmark? Do people care at all? I think it would be fun.

Thinking about it last night, something that would be even more fun would be to setup a kind of tournament that would culminate in the best teams playing each other right after season's end. Take the top three teams from each league and let them play a one day tournament in two pools separated by country. The winner of each pool gets to play the next day in the "finals". This would be interesting because the teams that get second and third in their league would have a kind of second chance to win a championship. It would also add interest in the bronze medal match as the fourth place team would be out of the running. A great example is Middelfart this year, they would have a second chance to prove how good of a team they are...

A third format could be an all-star competition. We tried to do this four years ago, an all-star team from the Danish Elite against the Danish national team. It was kind of fun, but it lacked any real excitement. What if we took an all-star team from the Danish elite and put them up against an all-star team from Sweden? Put a limit on the amount of foreigners that could be on the court and play.

I realize there are a lot of logistical problems with the scenarios presented here, but I think they could be overcome. If everyone was interested in the concept and made an honest effort to win this could be a great way to add some more quality volleyball matches to the schedule. It would also add some excitement to the end of the year and create an interesting showcase for fans if done correctly.

New Classics

2008-04-07T18:03:00.002+02:00

What a playoff series. And from what I hear, that goes for both semis. When we got the message on Saturday, right after our match was over, that Middelfart and Aalborg were 2-2 and just beginning a fifth set, my first thought was how sad it was that we couldn't be there court side to see it. After all the drama that we went through in our first two matches against Gentofte it would have been nice to sit back and watch how other teams dealt with it. Without knowing too much about it, I have to take my hat off to Aalborg. I know how good I feel about being in the finals, but I can't imagine how they feel. Losing that first match at home 0-3 and not letting it stop them from coming back to win two grueling 5 set matches in Middelfart. Everyone else has said it already, but the difference in that team from the middle of the season to now is incredible. It's also amazing, in the current playoff system, how quickly that 1st place finish can be wiped away. Lose that first match and the entire regular season is washed away pretty much.

I also think it's significant to note that the difference in the two series came down to very few points. One sideout here or one point scored there and everything is different. From that viewpoint, any of the four teams could be in the finals right now. We were down a match ball in the fourth set of our second match and somehow figured out how to win anyways. I'd imagine that it was the same way in the other semi. I'm rambling a little bit, but the point is that these were all exciting matches, for players, fans and anyone else out there. And the intensity/emotion of the atmosphere has been incredible. It is these kinds of matches that get people excited about watching and playing volleyball. Hopefully the finals will be the same...............with maybe a little less drama surrounding the outcome...........

Anyways, all respect to Gentofte. They play good volleyball, they do the right things most of the time and they are always well prepared. Like I said to Sebastian after our match Saturday, their time is coming, if they stay together they are going to win a lot of gold medals. Luckily for us, it won't be this year.

As far as our team goes, I think that Saturday was a great match for us. It felt like we found ourselves again in that match. We remembered what we can do on the court and we did it, without nerves and without feeling any pressure. We played free and made few mistakes, all the while putting pressure on the other side of the net. If we can keep playing like that, we'll be tough to handle in the finals.

Congrats to Aalborg. Looking forward to seeing you guys on Sunday. And I'm not afraid to promise a better game than last time!

YES!

2008-04-06T12:16:00.000+02:00

More to come...

Trouble before tonight's second semi...

2008-04-01T16:06:00.002+02:00

Several Marienlyst players disqualified from tonight's semi-final against Gentofte.

Players looked at each other in disbelief as representatives from Elite Sport Danmark's newly formed Commission for Reform Against Portliness descended upon last night's training. With scales and calipers in hand they spent nearly two hours running the bewildered players through various tests of physical fitness.

Several players have been deemed unfit to participate in any further athletic activity. While the identities of these players are unknown at this point, sources close to the commission indicate that key players will not be able to play tonight. The future of these athletes will be determined in an upcoming hearing scheduled for the 4th of August. At the hearing, the players implicated will be given the chance to prove that they have never eaten at McDonald's or ingested anything containing ingredients that are identified by E numbers. Guilty athletes will be banished from all athletic activity immediately.

A spokesperson for the commission issued this statement: "As the organization responsible for Elite Athletics here in Denmark, we are engaged in all aspects of the culture. It recently came to our attention that supposed "elite" athletes have not respected their bodies enough to keep them in top physical condition. This disregard for elite sport cannot go unpunished. The rules clearly state that athletes should maintain an outwardly clean, trim appearance (editor's note: official rules state that body fat should never exceed 9% for men) and that their souls, conscience and inner being should be unblemished. No exceptions. These players must consider how their actions reflect on the community around them and in particular the kids that look up to them."

The Marienlyst players have not been reached for comment. Sports chief Jesper Hansen offered this comment, "It's an unfortunate situation, one that I clearly never had a problem with. We'll move forward though and hope that our remaining less heavy players can be successful tonight."

The newly formed Commission for Reform Against Portliness will continue to make unannounced checks throughout the country.

Finally.

2008-03-28T13:54:00.003+01:00

I'm so excited for the next week of volleyball. The more I think about it, the more excited I get. I think we're in for a week of really good volleyball. Four teams, all with something to prove and only two get to go to the finals. I think the match-ups are perfect and I'll use this space to explain why:

HIK - Middelfart

From the drama standpoint, you've got Aalborg with a chip on their shoulder from all this weirdness around arranging their home match. No matter how much people blame it on the TSG and deny it being personal between the teams, I can't imagine that the players don't have a little edge to them. Putting aside judgment as to who is in the right here, I think we can all agree that Aalborg's press releases have been a little venomous... In any case, I can't imagine a scenario where this match doesn't have a lot of emotion in it.

From the volleyball standpoint, both teams are playing incredibly well right now. Neither has lost in a long time (though HIK has played more "meaningful" opponents in the last month and half) so they are clearly both doing the right thing on the court. Both teams are physical, power teams that can control games with good blocking. Ryan Vandenburg has been hitting over the top all year long, putting a lot of balls away and carrying a huge load for Middelfart's offense. Will he be able to, straight physically, dominate against the larger HIK block? Can Aalborg play defense behind their block? How will each team react to the pressure of playing a semi-final? Will Aalborg be able to scrape together a big crowd at 9pm? (By the way, I think a 9pm Saturday start time is perfect, sets up perfectly for the rest of the night...) I haven't seen Middelfart play in over a month so I am slightly biased towards HIK after playing them recently, but I think this series has the potential to be an absolute classic. I'm still hoping that I'll get the chance to see them play one of their matches against each other.

From the spectator standpoint, you're guaranteed to see exciting power volleyball. You're going to see a lot of big blocks, and you're going to see a lot of strong attacking. This is going to be real classic men's volleyball.

Marienlyst - Gentofte

Drama: Two teams that know each other really well. Geo and Søe coming back to Gentofte and playing for the other team. The only men's team from Copenhagen still in the playoffs vs. the only team that has beaten them in Copenhagen this year. Besides all that, we've got a history of playing great semi-final matches against each other.

Volleyball: Less physical than Aalborg and Middelfart. We've got experience and some really explosive players, Gentofte has talent, youth and an obvious star in Jonas, who will have the best day? This game might be decided by who can step up at the net and get more blocks/touches and play disciplined defense. Can we stop Gentofte's outsides if they get hot? Who will be able to serve consistently? All of these questions are real basic volleyball difference makers. The team that plays the best, most consistent volleyball is going to win. Not that I think Middelfart and Aalborg play unorthodox, but they have the ability to do other things physically if they make some mistakes, Gentofte and Us have to play really good all around volleyball to be successful. It's going to be really competitive and really exciting. Hopefully the volleyball will look good.

Fans: Out of anywhere else, I think Gentofte has great fan support. I love to hear the Galas making noise, home crowds should have a little edge to them and they definitely supply that edge. I hope that we see all the familiar faces from Copenhagen since this is the only men's semi taking place there. I think everyone will see a good, technical match featuring two teams that have had a lot of success in the past several years. Only one of the two teams that have won the last three championships is going to still be around after this.

I can't remember being this excited about the semi-finals ever. I really think that this week is going to be one of the best weeks that I've experienced in Danish Volleyball. I hope that everyone else is just as excited as I am. It will be good to see you all out at the games. I know I'm going to have fun playing in them, hopefully all the spectators will enjoy watching them just as much...

Status

2008-03-21T13:09:00.002+01:00

I'm not going to spend any real time describing yesterday's game because, frankly, nothing interesting happened. If you want to read about something interesting and exciting go to Olafsen's Volley and read about his teams' big quarterfinal win.

The scores in our match speak for themselves. 18-17-18. We took a beating. Luckily, this game meant nothing to us as far as the final standings. But I have to hand it to HIK, they played a great match. Their block, serve, passing and attacking was much improved compared to earlier in the season. They were running an extremely quick ball to the outside and generally made up for any mistakes on their side with really solid blocking. They are going to be a difficult out in the playoffs if they continue to play like they did yesterday.

Yesterday's result means that we play Gentofte in the semis. I'm not really sure that I want to go back to Kildeskovshallen for another playoff match. We've had our difficulties there over the years and Gentofte has always been dangerous at home.

I think the semi-final match-ups are really interesting this year. You've got two really physical teams in HIK and Middelfart on one side and two teams that are a little bit more technically oriented in Us and Gentofte on the other.

HIK and Middelfart have won and lost to each other this year and they both carry long winning streaks into their series, so it should be really competitive. It will be interesting to see if HIK's middles can contain Ryan on the right side. And if Middelfart can't get as much production out of the opposite as they have all year, how will they react? Also, who will be able to serve well and consistently put pressure on the other team's passers? I hope that I'll get a chance to get over to Middelfart and see at least one match between these two...

We've beaten Gentofte every time we've played this year, but only one of those wins was convincing. We have a tradition for playing really tight matches against each other and I don't see any reason why this year will be any different. Hopefully, we'll be able to play better than we have the last week and find our way back to top form.

It's been a really long regular season and it's great to see the playoffs coming around the corner. It's also positive to see the quality of the top four teams. I don't think I can remember a year (maybe my first year in Denmark 2002-03) where there were four teams that were this good in the playoffs. It will be interesting to see how the hot teams fare, and if we can live up to the favorite role that we've had on our backs all year.

Playoffs...Already?

2008-03-10T17:33:00.001+01:00

I feel like it has been months since I played any serious volleyball. This might be because it actually has been about a month since I played. But more than that, I think I am just a little bit jealous. It seems like everyone else is getting ready to start the playoffs. Danish Basketball, Swedish Volleyball, German volleyball, Champions League is getting down to the final four, March Madness… I don’t know, I’m getting kind of antsy. We’ve still got two more games and after that, a solid ten or eleven days before the playoffs begin. It’s times like these that make me think we should have a more developed playoff schedule. Best of five perhaps? Maybe best of three semi final and then best of five final? Would this be too much or just the right amount?

Some other thoughts for this time of year:

With Aalborg’s win over Gentofte this weekend the whole playoff picture has kind of come into focus. It’s a really interesting development that puts my team in a really weird situation. Assuming that we can play well enough to stay in first place, we are going to play either Gentofte or Aalborg in the semis. We are also going to play them in our last two matches of the regular season. Gentofte this Saturday and then Aalborg next Thursday. If we win both, then we get Aalborg in the semis. If one of them beats us, then they will probably end up in third place. It’s also possible that we’ll play Aalborg next Thursday in a match that means nothing to us and might mean a lot to them.

Some people would also argue that we are in a position to decide who we want to play against in the semi finals. I think that talking about match-ups, etc… for the playoffs is kind of a waste of time and usually counter productive. I think that you have to just go into each match and try to play your best and win. No one ever got in trouble for playing as hard as they can every time. When you start talking about losing to Team A so that you can play Team B in a certain situation I think you end up creating more negatives than positives.

It might be easy for me to say this because Aalborg and Gentofte are both really good teams. We’ve had our problems with Gentofte, and Aalborg has really played well in their last six or seven matches. Who wants to play the hot team in the playoffs?

What’s even more weird, is that we haven’t really played in so long, I have no idea how good we are at the moment. It almost feels like we are starting a second part of the season from scratch right now. So, hopefully we’ll be able to step up and finish this season off well.

I know that the schedule was kind of thrown off at the beginning of the season because DHG pulled out of the Elite, but has anyone noticed that some teams have had more home games than others? Just for posterity’s sake let’s take a look. Gentofte for example, up until now, the best home team in the league with 7 wins and 1 loss and a set score of 23-4 (That means, besides the three sets they lost to Marienlyst, they have lost one set at home all year). At the end of the schedule they will have played an equal amount of matches home and away – 9 and 9. Important when you notice that their record is 3 wins and 6 losses away from Kildeskovshallen.

Aalborg, who is also much better at home at 7-2, will end the season with 10 home games and only 8 away games. This is a pretty big deal when you consider that Gentofte and Aalborg are battling to see where they will finish for the playoffs. If Aalborg had had one more away game would they have lost it? If Gentofte had had one more home game would they have won it? Just to be a bitch, I’ll also mention that Marienlyst will end the season with 8 home games and 10 away games – kind of unfair?

Lastly, I’ve read with great interest the couple of shots that people have taken at SK Aarhus in the last few weeks. I don’t really feel that it is up to people from the outside to judge what they are doing over there. I was a part of it for two years and I am really glad for the chance that I got to play there. What I do think is important to note, is that they have not done anything illegal or against the rules. There are no rules that forbid a certain amount of players or how often they can be switched out. So, they can do whatever they want as long as it is inside the rules. Do I think it is the best strategy for the future? Probably not, but in case no one else has noticed, SK has a solid portion of young players that have a good future in the Elite division. Supplementing with foreign players until the younger guys are ready to really step up isn’t the worst idea. Sending players home because they can’t make the playoffs? Well, I can’t really condone that.

A more important point though, and this relates to the above paragraphs, is the luck factor in when and how a team faces Aarhus. You could argue that they have been responsible for more tumult in the elite division this year than any other team. They’re kind of like going out to the bar with your one crazy, unpredictable friend. You might end up having the best night of your life, you also might end up getting into a fight and getting stabbed, and there’s no real way to know before you get out there.

Look at Gentofte, they played an Aarhus volley that no other team in the league played against. They had the bad luck of playing them when they had the services of a Tunisian, among other motivated foreigners, who were pretty good. If Gentofte got to play them again today, with the team they have right now, they would most likely win.

ASV got the opposite, they got to play an Aarhus volley that was in a transitional phase, with unmotivated and new foreigners that weren’t in playing shape yet. The result was a win for ASV, a win that has turned out to be a very important win for them in relation to staying in the elite next year.

Aarhus has been the wildcard of the league all year. There is no question that it was an advantage to play them at the right time this year and that’s directly due to the fact that they have switched out their team a couple of times this year. Kind of unfair? You tell me.

Good luck to those that are starting playoffs already. I can’t wait to join you. It’s going to be a while I guess.

Underachievers?

2008-02-26T12:58:00.001+01:00

We've lost two matches all year. In both of those matches we've been fairly handicapped in that we've had to play without key players. Whether or not we would have lost those matches with our full lineup is not really the point of this post. All I'm saying is that, so far this season, by the most obvious marker - wins and losses - we've been pretty successful. But, as I read the match reports from all the different teams that we've played this year, it becomes fairly clear that there is a disconnect between our record and our performance on the court. I started thinking about this last weekend when I read this article about our match against Gentofte. When Dickens, the newly retired libero from Aarhus, basically reiterated Peter Borglund's feelings after our match on Saturday I decided I would write about it.

With few exceptions, other teams and impartial observers that I have talked with have been unimpressed with our play on the court. Other teams have expressed a general feeling that they've had the chance to beat us but haven't quite been able to get the job done. In other words, they've been close enough that the match was theirs to win or lose. I won't list all of them here, but if you look at the match reports from our side and opposing teams throughout the season you'll see a lot of discrepancies. Sometimes it's hard to reconcile those differences. History is absolutely influenced by the historian and truth in history does seem to be difficult to achieve...

I can't speak for other teams, there clearly have been matches this year where we were in danger of losing, but I have to ask: how can a team that lost 3-0 call the match close? Can we even put a number on dominance? For example, if one team wins 25-22 and another team wins 25-19 is there a real difference in those two wins? Can a team that loses 25-17, 25-18, 23-25, 25-16 claim that they had all the chances in the world? Is one team better if their record is 15-5 but they're set score is better than another team that finished the season 19-1?

This isn't to pick on Matt, as this is how he felt and that is totally valid. But look at his recollection of their most recent match against us here. The fifth paragraph is especially telling. It was their drop in intensity that allowed us to get back in the match and take over from there. You can imagine that I had a different take on things.

So, to my point. Are we underachieving? Or is this a phenomenon of too high expectations?

In order to be dominant does a team have to blow out every team they play against? I don't think so. I don't think it hurts. But I think that a win is a win. If the number one team in the league beats the last place team in the league 3-2 it is still going to count in the standings. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but I don't necessarily think it is the worst thing in the world. We all know there are teams that tend to play to their opposition's level and clearly in a perfect world this would not happen. But, this is what makes sports interesting isn't it? Are we one of those teams? Maybe. Does that mean we're not as good as we think we are? I don't know. I guess the jury is still out.

A really long, scattered post.

2008-02-18T16:41:00.004+01:00

I've been hesitant to write anything about the current situation with our team and the Daniel. I didn't want to comment because in some ways the whole subject is so sensitive. I also, out of respect to Daniel, wanted to wait and hear what he and the club had to say before making any statement of my own. At times like these, I don't know if it is a good or bad thing to have a blog like this one. On one hand, it is nice to have a forum where I can express my feelings and an outlet for all the thoughts that swim around in my head every day, on the other hand, it might not be necessary for others to know how I feel about this.

First thing's first, anything I say about Daniel specifically assumes that the B-sample will also come back positive. Of course, there is always the chance that something got contaminated, but history has proven that this is almost never the case. No matter what I write below, I do believe that Daniel should be punished. I do, however, believe that the punishment should fit the crime and in this case I don't think it does. But I think that will be pretty clear...

Second, I want to state from the beginning that I don't consider this to be a "Doping" case. For me, the term "Doping" connotes someone trying to get a competitive advantage by taking performance enhancing substances. I can't imagine anyone making the argument that this is the case here. Yes, cocaine could hypothetically boost performance in a match, but I just don't buy that someone would choose to use it in this way. It's just not a feasible or believable scenario. No matter what you think about the case, this is the key to everything. Intentionally trying to cheat vs. making a mistake.

So, if it's not "doping", what is it? Well, and I guess this is where I might get in trouble, in my mind it isn't really anything. I think it IS a dumb mistake. And people who claim that it doesn't matter if it was intentional or unintentional - the people who believe rules are rules - are missing the point. I'll be the first to say that anyone who tries to get an advantage on someone else in sports by taking performance enhancing drugs deserves to be punished heavily. However, this is not what happened here. We're not talking about cheating here. We're talking about someone who made a mistake. And as it stands now, someone who is going to pay an incredibly high price for that mistake. There is a HUGE difference between making a mistake and intentionally seeking a chemical advantage. I think we're all paranoid right now because of the prevalence of steroids, human growth hormone and other similar drugs in the sports world. That's why I've been disappointed in the sensational "Doping" headlines that have been flashed across national newspapers and tv screens. It's not right. And it's definitely not "doping".

People have made the argument that it is necessary to protect the integrity of the sports world, that we don't want volleyball to be seen as "dirty". I agree, we don't want that. But how far are we willing to go to uphold that "clean" image? Is it really fair to end someone's career for one mistake?

But, what about the kids? Surely, we don't want to set the wrong example for them, right? True, we don't want to set the wrong example for kids. And no one should make the argument that cocaine is good for you. However, I would argue that it is just as important to show children that there are support systems in place to help them when they make mistakes. Stigmatizing someone and turning your back on them because of one stupid thing that they did is not the way to breed a safe "clean" environment for the future. Yes, sports are about fair play and hard work, but at their best, they are also about teamwork and the way that one player's positive aspects make up for another player's deficiencies. I know that this is an idealistic and perhaps optimistic way of looking at things, but I'm not sure people understand that by casting off our "problem" athletes, we set an example that is just as bad as those that choose to cheat.

Make no mistake, this case is all about societal stigma. It's a matter of what we, as a society, have decided is okay and what is not. Cocaine is attached to all sorts of negative mental images for us. Rightly so. But as far as doping goes, it should not. Is there anyone out there who believes that someone should be given a two year suspension for smoking hash? What about tobacco? What about drinking beer? What about eating French hot dogs? Team Danmark Menu anybody? Cocaine and hash sit right next to each other on the list of banned substances, does that make them equal? Does that make hash equal to HGH or steroids? It's such a pathetic system. We're regulating what our athletes can and can't do in their PRIVATE lives in the name of keeping sports "clean". And I think it's a farce. We do all these things because we want to set a "good" example and the concept just doesn't make sense.

And before people go crazy. No, I don't think that kids should do drugs. No, I don't think it's a good idea for anyone to do drugs. But you know what? I also don't think it's a good idea for people to eat fast food and smoke cigarettes. But they do. It's an ancient argument, but no one has ever satisfactorily argued the case as to why cigarettes, booze and fast food are legal and party drugs are not. What does being an athlete have to do with any of this? When did it become taboo for an athlete to drink a beer and eat a Big Mac? Why can't we teach people to make informed decisions instead of just blacklisting whatever is bad for them?

In order to make all of this more clear, let me explain my understanding of what has happened to Daniel.

1. He made a terrible choice (that clearly did not have anything to do with volleyball) and did something that was against the rules.
2. He got caught.
3. His future as a very good volleyball player has essentially been taken away from him.
4. People feel this is justified as a deterrent/warning to anyone else.

Why is this a good deterrent? The rules were there beforehand and they obviously didn't stop anyone from doing anything in this case. There are numerous current examples of athletes being caught for "doping" and obviously this didn't stop anyone from doing anything. The bottom line is that most people need to experience something for themselves before they can relate to it. People need to think about the extreme nature of the punishment before they judge Daniel. It's not just two years away from the sport. It's two years away from anything physical. No weight lifting. No beach volleyball. Nothing. It's a death sentence for a relatively young career and I can't bring myself to believe that this is justified in any way. It's not about cheating. It's about a mistake. I can't say it enough, a mistake. Yes, a dumb mistake, and a dangerous one at that, but it was not a conscious attempt to cheat. This isn't going to stop anyone from snorting cocaine in the future. If anyone thinks that, they're crazy.

I've always wondered why so called "party" drugs are included in athletic drug testing. It seems to me an unlucky circumstance that they stay in the system longer than other more "accepted" drugs like caffeine, alcohol and tobacco. All of which affect the human system in some way or another, by the way. As was brought to our attention by William on his blog, the metabolites that the body produces to ingest the drug can stay in your system for up to a month. So, why are we testing for those metabolites? Why aren't we testing for the actual drug which stays in your system for 1-3 days? It seems to me that if you want to prevent someone from getting an unfair advantage you'd want to stop them from using the drugs DURING a game - not look as far into their past as possible.

It's funny, this method of testing has actually made the sport look dirtier instead of cleaner. They looked as far as they could into his body history and found something that shouldn't be there. There is absolutely no evidence that he used it to boost his performance. Most indicators point to recreational use, possibly a mistake, possibly the product of someone else slipping something into a drink. But the end result is that the sport looks worse than it did before. For no good reason. The notion, however, that volleyball will be thought of as a "dirty" sport because of this is totally insane. I've played several different sports and I've experienced lots of negatives/positives in each. Just because someone tested positive for a drug doesn't really change my feelings about that sport. Any parent who would be afraid to let their child go to KIDSvolley because of this is daft.

I have another major problem with the system. Why was this made public? Why are we looking for bad publicity for volleyball and adding to the embarrassment of a semi-amateur athlete? I don't understand it. Daniel doesn't make a living from playing volleyball. Why is he being judged as if he does?

Okay, after all that. I'm not afraid to say that I'm possibly more angry with Daniel than almost anyone else. If for nothing else, our team needs him, and he let us down. But, he has apologized and he's taken the negative attention and the punishment like a man. He should be suspended and there should be major consequences. But, two years, essentially ending his career isn't acceptable. It's not an acceptable signal to send to our youth. One strike and you're out isn't right. And I don't know where the line is, three months, six months, maybe a year... Set up a time frame that allows for counseling or whatever else is necessary but let him come back and show that you can make an error and still be productive afterwards. If he tests positive again then he has shown contempt for the sport and for everyone who participates in it, including himself and obviously would deserve a more substantial punishment. But the first positive test does not warrant such a strong response.

The point is that we should be supporting and not blacklisting. We all have an interest in making sure our athletes are clean, but we also have an interest in helping them when they can't live up to our expectations. Athletes are only human and they don't deserve to be treated as examples.

New School/Old School!

2008-02-07T13:10:00.000+01:00

I thought I would pass along a few things I found interesting:

I don't know if anyone out there would find this interesting, but for comparison's sake, there are some good quality videos from the boys "18 and Under" level at the most recent US national championships at a site called: www.middlehitter.com. There is a bar running across the top of the page and in the sub-menu under "Video" there is a listing for USAV Junior. Click on 2007 JO Open Championship and let the video load.

Admittedly, these are some of the best players in the country, but I think it is worth a look if there is anyone out there wondering what the difference in level is between Danish/European youth players/teams and those that come from the American system. I understand there are differences in why/how much/how youth sports are built up in the US and Europe, but it might be interesting for some out there to see what kind of level these kids are playing at. I personally think it is pretty impressive. It's also interesting to see the different styles of play. The orange team is from St. Louis (A team from the middle of the country) and they play a more typical, international style. Faster offense, more big, physical players and strong jump serves. The team in white is from the Pacific Palisades (A west coast team close to Malibu that I actually played for a long time ago when I was 16) they play a little bit more relaxed, slower tempo, smaller more ball control oriented players with a better feel for the game. In the US, the west coast has long dominated the volleyball scene, but, in recent years, the balance of power has slowly been shifting. I'm not sure, but this has to be one of the first times that a team from "back east" has won a Junior Olympic national volleyball championship.

I understand this may not interest everyone who reads this blog, but it interests me...

The other thing that I found FASCINATING was a little higher up on the video list, under the FIVB heading. 1981 Cuba vs. USA in the Canada Cup. Download the big file if you can, about 260mb but it is a complete set.

I don't really know how to feel about seeing something like this. I'm not sure if modern volleyball is even the same game anymore. It's just a whole different sport. If you don't feel like watching it on your own, I'll run you through some of the things I thought about while watching, in bullet form:

- It wasn't just Cuba that ran combinations on every play. The US did it also. Was the opposite just not that good/important back then?

-Could they run combinations on every play because they didn't know how to jump serve yet?
-But, then again, the middles were also passing at this point, so they couldn't expect perfect passing all the time right...right?
-Even if they weren't jump serving, those hook/windmill float serves look pretty nasty...

-With a really good hitter, is it better to just set high balls to the outside? The Cubans seemed pretty effective with their outsides.

-Didn't we switch to the colored ball because it was easier to see for the referees to call bad sets and for people watching on television to be able to see the ball? Well, it is easier to see the white ball than the colored ball, and since international referees pretty much don't ever call a bad set anymore, why did we switch?

-If you watch long enough, you'll see Tim Hovland standing in the US huddle during a timeout with an actual glass of water. Not plastic and not a bottle, but an actual glass of water which he then hands to the trainer to be cleaned after the time out.

-The tempo of the game is quicker. I don't mean the volleyball, I mean the time in between plays is shorter. Players run back to the service line and serve quickly. As a result, the game moves faster for the fans watching.

-Everyone plays defense. I miss this aspect of the game.

-I'd give a substantial amount of money to get one of those long sleeved, red, Cuba jerseys. Those things are nice!

-Somehow, I get the sense that these teams were more willing to experiment, and more able to make adjustments on the fly during the game. One of the outside hitters makes a dig on a shirt tip in position 2/3 area and can't get back outside to hit. So, the setter just sets the back row C to one of the middles who crushes it. I feel like in today's game the opposite is such a bigger factor, they hit so many garbage balls out of the back and front row that it effectively kill the creativity showcased by that one play. Not saying it's a bad thing, I just think it is interesting to see how much the opposite position has developed over the years.

-Is it just me, or do most of the Cubans look like Castro?

In any case, I was 1 year old when this match was played. I'm taken aback by the changes in the game during my lifetime. I'm not sure you could argue any other sport has developed as much in that time period...

And yes, that is Tom Selleck (#14) on the left side of that picture.

Ugh.

2008-02-05T13:12:00.000+01:00

God that was a great Superbowl. Wasn't it? One transcendent play, lots of tension, an underdog coming back to win, it almost lived up to all the hype. It's just so much fun to watch sports when games are like that. Honestly, and this is a crazy thing to say considering the way he is regarded, but Bill Belichick choked. He turned into Marty Schottenheimer in the game that could have cemented him and his team as the greatest of all time. They got conservative when they had been playing wide open and aggressive all year long. And it cost them.

Besides feeling slightly obligated to write something about the Superbowl, I kind of needed some filler to beef up this match report from ASV. And normally, I try not to be too critical of the teams that we play against. In this case, I feel it's justified to say that ASV was horrible. When two teams step onto a court against one another, they enter into a kind of contract. They both pledge to do whatever they can to win the game and compete. On Sunday, ASV didn't fulfill their end of the bargain.

It's weird because, out of all the teams we've played against this year, ASV has had the most drastic fluctuation in their level of play. Earlier in the year, they looked like a team headed in the right direction. Sunday they played the worst match I've seen in recent memory. Yes, they were dealing with one starter who was out of place, but that does not excuse the absolute lack of emotion, effort or intensity that they brought into our gym. It was slightly embarrassing, and to borrow a thought from recent debate (a debate some might say is still ongoing) - I'm extremely glad that there were no television cameras anywhere near Marienlyst for this one. Airing this match on tv would set Danish volleyball back about twenty years. You could hear people in the stands having conversations from the court.

We played well, but were hardly pressed in any part of the game. All of our players played a substantial amount and as the scores indicate were equally successful in what they did. We've got a nice stretch of home (and close to home) games coming up which we can hopefully use to establish ourselves as the definite first seed heading into the playoffs. It's really important to generate some momentum for the end of the season, especially with Aalborg playing very well and Aarhus also improving. This Friday's game between the two is going to be exciting to follow. If Aarhus loses that one at home, I can't imagine them being able to get it together in time to make it to the playoffs.

Speaking of Aarhus, I watched their Saturday match on Gentofte's new webcam. I think it's an extremely exciting feature and the quality is good enough to follow the action. I might be a huge nerd, but by keeping my own score on a piece of paper I was able to enjoy the game a lot more. It's funny how much knowing the score and the context of each point makes a difference for watching a game. Anyways, thanks to Gentofte for offering the service, it would be great if there were a few more clubs that could set something up like this.

Big match for us this weekend, maybe the last time we see Middelfart this year...

Revisiting the revisiting of the Pokal

2008-01-30T14:43:00.000+01:00

As I said before, I had a chance to see the broadcast of the Pokal final the other day and I was very impressed. In fairness to DK 4, they used to do a pretty good job as well, but this was clearly an improvement. Mostly, I think the difference was in the details. The sideline reporters, the pre/post match interviews and the slightly better quality of the technical elements all combined to make the broadcast feel more like an "event" and less of an everyday occurrence. Of course, the solid crowd and the new Odense Idrœtshal also contributed to the excitement.

I thought the announcers did a good job. Admittedly, they said quite a few nice things about me so I might be slightly biased, but generally I think they hit the right level of explanation to analysis. There's obviously been a lot of discussion as of late and I think the most interesting has been in relation to the extent one should inject "expert analysis" into the conversation. As was named in one of the discussions, Handball commentators spend very little time explaining the most basic rules. As a foreigner who had never heard of the sport before I came to Denmark, I feel well qualified to comment on the positive and negative aspects of their approach. On one hand, it is extremely irritating to hear an announcer explain the same rules over and over again. I've experienced this with American commentators doing volleyball and beach volleyball for years now. You can only hear that teams can score on every play now so many times before you go crazy. On the other hand, to bring it back to handball, I still have very little understanding of the basic rules. I find the sport interesting and especially suspenseful, but a lot of the time I find myself frustrated because I don't know why a player is given a 2 minute suspension or why a player is given a penalty shot. So, I can imagine what it's like to be flipping through the channels and see a player with the wrong colored jersey on the volleyball court. It must be confusing. But then again, it might just cause them to sit and watch for a little bit longer while they try to figure it out, or even better, to call someone they know who plays volleyball and ask what the deal is.

I don't think that an expert should "dumb it down" for an audience that doesn't understand the game. Because it doesn't really make a difference. People are caught up in the game by emotion, drama, intensity, athleticism, humor, etc... All the things that make a great story, also things that the announcer can enhance or highlight through insightful analysis. The basic rules are minor details in the bigger picture. I enjoyed watching the EM Handball semi-finals just as much as everyone else and I know a lot more about the sport now than I did four years ago. The fact that I just found out that the defense can't stand inside the goalie area is really irrelevant...

I agree 100% with Morten Piil in that there MUST be more slow motion replays. It's absolutely the only way to see a lot of the really small, but extremely important, things that happen on a volleyball court. Small touches in the block, middles who jump early in block or flinch in the wrong direction, hitters who hit through tiny openings in the block, setters that hide their set direction until the last second... There are a million things to see in these slow motion replays. Personally, I found myself delighted the relatively few times a play was revisited in slow motion. Yes, yes, I know that this is very difficult in relation to volleyball. There is a limited amount of time to setup and execute these replays because no one wants to break the natural rhythm of the game. But, in relation to many other sports, basketball or football (soccer) are good examples, the game is fluid and yet they still find time for replays. I would argue that American football has a huge advantage in being able to show virtually all the replays necessary for each and every play due to the consistent breaks. I think the normal volley viewer could get so much more out of the game if there was a higher priority put on analysis of slow motion replay.

I would be extremely interested if anyone could explain how the whole slow motion replay system works. Do the announcers get to signal somehow to the producers that they would like to go back and see a certain point again? Or do the producers just automatically show some replays that they feel the announcers will want to look at? Of course, live vs. tape delay broadcast also makes a big difference... Can anyone explain why there aren't more replays in a volleyball match?

Overall though, TV2sport and the announcers did a really good job.

I wanted to talk more about something completely different, but as this post is already pretty long, I'll save it for another time...

Aalborg...not in Aalborg for once.

2008-01-28T18:40:00.000+01:00

It takes a solid 2.5 hours to drive to Aalborg from Odense. It's a drive that we've already had the pleasure of making a couple of times this year. And conceivably could be making two more times before the season is over.

Luckily, this weekend we got to play them at home.

I don't know if it was the unusual green floor in Hal 2, the setter change, the recent pokal title or the impending team Christmas dinner, but something had us playing well below our normal standard. To me it looked like the guys weren't really that motivated - there was little excitement or urgency in the things we were doing. We gave points away too easily and didn't do enough to score when we needed it. At the same time, for most of the first set we were close enough so as to not be too worried. It wasn't until late that Aalborg put together a run and pulled away from us. Unfortunately, no one looked very worried about losing the set.

The second opened where it ended, with Aalborg scoring points. At some point, the score was 5 or 6 to 1 and things looked bleak for us. But, here the game changed drastically. I think more than anything, we decided to inject a little more effort and emotion into our play and that, in turn, put more pressure on Aalborg. As the score indicates, after their early lead in the second set we essentially played them off the court. 74-45 speaks for itself.

I can't speak from their perspective, but I would definitely say that pressure was the key in the match. As soon as we were able to push them outside of their comfort zone - whether by serving tougher, receiving well against serves that in the first set would have resulted in bad passes or siding out at a much higher rate - they seemed to break down. And significantly, the emotion and fun swung from their side to ours.

Looking forward to at least one more trip up there at the end of the season!

The Christmas dinner afterwards was a success. Very hard to go wrong when you have lots of incredible food, beer, snaps and people. And of course aufguss.

In any case, I got a chance to watch the pokal final again and I have a few comments I'll post in the next couple of days.

POKAL

2008-01-22T11:56:00.000+01:00

I think I've sufficiently shaken off the cobwebs of Sunday night's celebration to sit down and write something coherent about the Pokal final. Maybe. By the way, thanks to Fortuna and everyone out there for a great party, it was nice to be able to celebrate together and share the fun. I don't envy anyone who had to work the next day...

I haven't spent very much time analyzing what happened in the finals, I haven't really had the time. One thing that is immediately apparent to me though, is that there was a lot more pressure on us to win than I recognized beforehand. After Middelfart came into Marienlyst on the 9th and beat us so badly, everyone kind of accepted that we weren't the favorites any more. That the two teams were evenly matched. We might have even believed it ourselves - I, for one, was happy to accept not being the favorite. The point though, is that when we got into the match, all of the talking was behind us and somewhere in my brain I felt that we needed to win. Maybe, it was because I felt that we needed to re-establish ourselves and, most importantly, shake off the latent feelings from our recent loss to them. In a nutshell, another loss to Middelfart in such a short time, especially on the bigger stage of the pokal final could have meant huge problems for us for the rest of the season.

The match was a grind. Neither team ever had enough of a lead to feel comfortable at any point. So, we just kept grinding out the sideouts and taking whatever points we could. I haven't seen the match on tv yet (hopefully I'll get the chance at some point) so I don't know exactly how it looked from the outside but my feeling is that it was an okay match to watch. I don't think the level was extremely high, but I also don't think it was without charm. If nothing else, there was excitement throughout and some interesting things to look at.

A reporter asked me afterward what the difference was in the match and I had a hard time coming up with something definitive. At the time, I answered serving and passing (real original, Jordan). Middelfart (judging from their website) seems to think that their players weren't quite prepared to step up on the bigger stage and that we benefited from our collective experience in bigger games. More than anything, I think we were more pro-active, I think we did more than they did and I think the match shows that. We applied the pressure and we were therefore always a step ahead. And honestly, we played a little bit better at every spot. Look through the rosters, position against position, our guys were just that much better. I give them full credit though - we're going to have some battles coming up.

Honestly, I was really surprised to be named Pokal Fighter. And I wouldn't be afraid to write that I deserved it if I really thought I did, but truly it was a surprise. Not that I specifically think someone else should have gotten it, but really, anyone on our team could have received the honor. Shaun and Geo were both exceptional and everyone else contributed in huge ways. Matthias was stable as always, anchoring the passing and defense. Our middles both got big kills at important times and were active blocking, Middelfart was clearly not as effective as last time we played them. And Søe was the definition of what I think of when I hear "Pokal Fighter", in many ways he's our heart on the court. So, I'm extremely proud of the award and I'll have to clear out a big space somewhere around the house to be able to fit the trophy in...

It was great to see all the fans there. I missed it last year, but I don't remember seeing such a big crowd at a Pokal final before. It was nice to see both sides of the gym semi-full with people. I can only imagine what it would be like to play in there with a sold out crowd, it must be insane.

Now, we have to get ready for Aalborg and the rest of the season. And we might actually have an almost full roster - crazy.

ASV

2008-01-17T12:04:00.000+01:00

I was a little disappointed that we didn't have a game scheduled this weekend. After the beating that we took last Wednesday, it would have been nice to be able to wash the stink off of us by playing again quickly. As it turned out, we had to wait until Tuesday in Aarhus to get back on the court.

The result of the match was a fairly convincing 3-0 win for us. Fairly typical for us this year, we played one really good set, one okay set and one set where we let the other team hang around much too long. It should be said, we were never really in danger of losing, and we responded when necessary, but besides the first set we didn't play to the top of our abilities.

ASV was weaker than the last time we played them. I'm not sure if it is the loss of the Brazilian middle or the poor play of their opposite, or a general team wide malaise, but they didn't offer very much opposition in this match. Maybe it was because I was so focused on our own side throughout the match that I didn't notice them very much.

In any case, we won and we played a lot better than we did on Wednesday. I'm not sure what it means for the pokal final on Sunday as Middelfart has pretty much dominated in all three of their matches since the Christmas break. We'll probably have to be even sharper in sideout and defense because, from what I can gather, they've done it by blocking a lot of balls and feeding Vandenburg on the right side.

One thing is for sure, they are the favorites heading into this one. They have all the momentum, a completely healthy team, confidence from their win over us and a better recent record. We have our work cut out for us and we know it - hopefully we can figure out a better way to move their block around and challenge them in other ways. Honestly, if I were a spectator, I'd be first in line on Sunday because I think this game has a chance to be really, really good...

Middelfart + Momentum

2008-01-10T15:36:00.001+01:00

Well, last night was certainly a kick in the teeth. Sometimes, stats and scores don't tell the whole story about a match, in this case, the scores are VERY representative of how well we played. We didn't do anything well and Middelfart took full advantage of our inability to get any momentum going. They dominated the net, blocking with high efficiency and played solid defense behind it.

Excuses from our side: We were missing several important players. We had a bad day. We are saving ourselves for the pokal finals on the 20th. Blah, blah, blah...

In truth, we did have problems dealing with the absence of a strong opposite presence. For one, we didn't pass well enough to have enough variation in our offense and two, I didn't do a good enough job distributing the ball when I had the chance. Otherwise, there is absolutely no excuse for playing as poorly as we did. I think that the last time I was on the losing side of such a one sided beating was two years ago in the pokal semi finals in Gentofte. That was also a beating for the ages. Luckily, this one didn't mean as much in the overall scheme of things. We still have a decent lead in the standings and, more importantly, we have a chance for revenge in ten days in the pokal finals. Hopefully, by then we'll have some answers for our lack of players.

Last night's game got me thinking about team spirit. I think we've all had the experience of playing against a team that fed off of energy. In other words, a team that was ten times better when they were emotional and energetic. You could catch them on a day where they didn't have that energy and beat them easily, but once they got going it was difficult to reverse that momentum. Some of the HIK Aalborg teams from three and four years ago were like this. You could go up on them 2-0 and still not feel very safe because one or two blocks and all of a sudden the whole team would catch fire.

I mention this because I've often wondered where that comes from. Is it from certain individuals? Is it team chemistry? Is it a particular style of play? Is it based on performance? Volleyball is a peculiar sport in that each set is a whole new opportunity and therefore momentum can swing wildly at any point. Last night, I kept waiting for our team to rebound and to put some pressure on Middelfart and it never happened. It seemed that for every point we got, they got three and we were always behind. How can a team ever get momentum when the game unfolds like this? It's kind of a chicken and the egg debate, how can you get momentum without playing well? Does momentum come from good play or does good play come from getting excited and playing emotionally?

I think about the game last night and I think there are twenty things I could have done differently. I should have been more vocal, I should have been more positive and I should have tried to slow down the bad runs. But my question is, how does one stay positive when everyone is playing terribly, not the least of which, yourself? How do you create and sustain momentum when you are doing nothing right physically? I've never been able to do so, and I would like to get better at it. Anyone got any suggestions?

Hvidovre

2007-12-17T12:29:00.001+01:00

Apparently last Tuesday’s Pokal match was the volleyball apocalypse. It was good we won and all, but it seems that everyone who was a part of that match ended up hurting themselves in one way or another. Geo and Paw and Per and Shaun were all definitely out for yesterday. Toke, who has been laying in bed for the last three weeks, made it back for one practice on Friday and went directly into the starting line up. Basically, we played yesterday with everyone who actually could play. Including Daniel at opposite. So, it took a little getting used to.

We played great in the first set. I don’t know if it was the fact that we didn’t have any time to think about what we were doing and we just played or that everyone was more focused because we knew we were playing a weird line up, but we won easily. Maybe Hvidovre was a little confused with what they were playing against, who knows?

The second set was obviously different, we didn’t hold the same level and Hvidovre played better, everyone messed something up in this set and that didn’t really help us. Unfortunately, even though we were fairly close, we gave up too many easy points and lost the set.

After this, we played better, more stabile and with fair pressure. It wasn’t always pretty, and we clearly couldn’t stop their opposite, but we did enough to win the match. Thinking back, I enjoyed the game quite a bit. It was fun to have to figure out a way to win a match in a kind of unorthodox way. We got good contributions from everyone at different times in the match so people stepped up when they had to. And it was also kind of exciting, the fourth set ended up 30-28 so there was a realistic chance that the match could have gone to five sets. I would imagine that Hvidovre feels they missed an opportunity to press us even more.

We can only hope that the Christmas break will give our guys a chance to heal. While it was fun to play this match, I don’t think it is the line up we want to use when we head to Germany or in the Pokal finals. That might make things difficult. But for now, we have to be satisfied with our position in the league and the way the season has progressed so far.

Aarhus + Pokal Semi

2007-12-13T12:27:00.000+01:00

After not doing anything for what felt like months, we finally got the chance to play again last weekend. Because of DHG dropping out of the elite and the national team playing in Hungary our schedule has been really sparse for a long time. It was really nice to play a match again.

So, going into Aarhus we had no idea what to expect. After such a long lay off we didn’t know how we would react and we had heard all sorts of rumors about what kind of team Aarhus would play with, so it was interesting to finally see what we were up against. They did have a new Brazilian middle, but the Tunisian has apparently gone back to Northern Africa. Lars Hoppe also stayed in street clothes on the sideline as an assistant coach.

We didn’t really show any signs of rust and played a good all around match. Our serving improved as the match developed and that made things easier and easier for us. We played especially well in the second set and generally had a really good time being back on the court. The highlight was definitely Shaun’s four or five stuff blocks on the outside.

It was an important match for us as we knew that we had to be ready for Tuesday’s pokal semi-final and this was our only real chance to get up into match gear.

Tuesday started incredibly poorly. Down 7-1 is not the way you want to start a big match with a big home crowd. Luckily, we rebounded pretty well and got the points back pretty quickly. I’m not saying that this happened to Gentofte but sometimes it seems like it can be a bad thing to jump out to a big lead right at the start of a match, it can make you drop your guard a little bit and start to think that everything is going to come easily. Then when the other team steps up their tempo it is hard to get back into the game.

Anyways, in my opinion, the game was a really good one. It seems that Gentofte matches up better against us than anyone else in the league. Clearly, our two matches against them have been closer than any of the others we have played. Maybe it’s because they have a good game plan against us or because they get excited to play us or because they play a style that is harder for us to stop than others. But there is no question that they have pushed us more than any other team.

Shaun and Geo carried us when things got close but everyone played solid. After the initial 7 point run, our passing settled down and did an incredible job all match long. I think Gentofte missed a lot of serves but the ones that they hit in were generally good serves and our passers dealt well with them. That made it easy to distribute the ball. I also think that our serves gave us a few more easy points than they got. In the end, we did enough to keep ourselves a few points ahead almost the whole time and even though it stayed fairly close they couldn’t quite get over that hump.

We’re excited to be in the finals in January. I’ve only played in one other Pokalfinal and I’m really happy to be going back. It’s always fun to get the chance to play against a good team in front of a lot of people and the fact that it is another team from Fyn should make the whole thing a little bit more interesting.

Now we look ahead to our last match in Hvidovre on Sunday. I don’t know how we will react after a, to be honest, little bit draining last few days. I also don’t know how healthy we are going to be but hopefully we’ll have enough to play well and go into the Christmas break with a good performance.

Volleymetrics

2007-12-08T09:52:00.000+01:00

Just wanted to pass along a site that I found interesting. I'd love it if he would do some broader analysis involving more than just women's collegiate volleyball, but the conclusions are interesting just the same.

Check out Volleymetrics.

Aalborg + What If...

2007-11-22T11:51:00.000+01:00

The first time we played Aalborg, in Aalborg, we played one of our best matches so far this year. We were on top the whole time and never really gave them a chance to get anything going on their side of the net.

This time was different. We definitely didn't play as well as we did the first time. Aalborg was also back in their best lineup with a full complement of opposites and outside hitters so they were more comfortable.

In the end, it was the classic battle between serve/serve receive that decided the match. Aalborg missed way too many serves and we passed well enough when they didn't make a mistake to win. After the first set there was little doubt about who would win, but this was clearly not a pretty match to watch.

We have to work more on scoring points in the defensive and block phases of the game. We rely too heavily on our serve to score points and sooner or later we're going to have to scratch out some points by blocking, digging or transitioning, otherwise we're going to get into trouble.

Now, on to something totally different.

Just for the hell of it, and maybe because I had six hours of total travel time to Aalborg this week, I thought it would be fun to extend the question of the FIVB enforcing a limit on the amount of foreigners and explore what the Danish Elite could look like if all the national team guys were forced to come home.

(For the purposes of this fantasy I'm assuming that, all of a sudden, there would be no place anywhere for any of the Danish national team players outside of the country. Of course, this wouldn't happen, but it's necessary for my purposes.)

First, let's list the guys out there - Outside Hitters: Lundtang, Knudsen, Ditlevsen. Opposite: Lyck. Centers: No one (ugh!) (Maybe Korsbak counts. But he wouldn't be affected by the rule change) Setter: Axel.

Lundtang is already practicing with Gentofte so I guess it's safe to say that he would end up there. This would certainly make a huge difference for Gentofte, giving them a strong veteran leader and really, really stable passer/attacker with a whole bunch of experience. I think Jesper could make a huge impact on this team if he ended up there.

Knudsen is an interesting question. He's from Kolding right? So, you could maybe make a case for a team like Middelfart or possibly Aarhus since they are closest. But, it's hard to imagine Kristian playing everyday in a place like Middelfart without the bright lights of the big city close by. He'd probably end up in Gentofte as well but just for arguments sake, let's say he would decide to go the Jylland route and play in Aarhus. Boom, instant contender. No one in the Danish Elite can match up with him. He plays at a completely different level than pretty much any one else. And you'd have a quality setter like Soren Hansen giving him the ball about 400 times per match. Add a couple of foreigners and Aarhus looks really good.

I don't see any reason why Peter and Mads don't come home to Fyn for, at least, one or two years. Maybe they would be attracted to the bigger stage of Copenhagen but as long as Marienlyst can offer a nice environment for the players I think they would enjoy the idea of coming back. That would give Marienlyst a pretty strong team, four national team starters and at least one back up. A couple of foreigners here to plug in where there are needs and the team would look really good. Hopefully, they would still want me around and not make a move to get a different setter...

...Which brings us to Axel. Gentofte has a young setter in Sebastian that is doing a good job, grew up in the club, has a bright future and that they are (rightfully) proud of. I don't see him being welcomed there. Aarhus has Soren Hansen, although I'm sure they would take Axel anyways, let's assume he wants to be the number one guy. Like I said before, I hope I would still have a home in Marienlyst, so who's left? Did you guess it? Middelfart baby! This is the obvious choice. Kind of like the Argentinian Martin Stenderup, they could pick him up and not miss a beat. A couple more foreigners and another one for practice purposes and this could be an okay team. I'd like to see it at least.

Obviously, this is an unscientific look at what could happen. What would probably happen is that they would all go to the same club, somewhere in Copenhagen, Holte maybe and just form a national team club team. I think it's interesting to think about anyways. It's also kind of nice to recognize that by adding five to six quality Danish players the entire league would be both more competitive and more exciting. A little more development and things look a lot better for the future...

Foreign Rules?

2007-11-15T12:59:00.000+01:00

Now that it looks like the FIVB is set on cutting down the number of non-native players in leagues all over the world, I thought it would be interesting to throw some totally un-researched, non-expert observations and predictions out there.

First, I can’t believe the FIVB is in favor of a rule that limits the amount of foreigners to three per team and two on the court at the same time. Make no mistake, unless the price for a transfer goes up, this will affect the FIVB’s bottom line. They make a small amount of money on every foreign player that plays professionally. For them to advocate a rule that cuts down on their own profits (especially considering the FIVB’s reputation) is unheard of.

Second, I’m not sure that this rule change will do what they expect it to. At first glance, I thought it was a pretty good idea. No question, there are a lot of teams in Europe that wouldn’t be where they are today without heavily relying on foreign talent. But, does limiting the amount of foreigners translate into a strengthening of the home countries’ national programs? I’m not so sure. And these are the reasons why:

If the talent is not there, it’s just not there. Some countries are just not ever going to be world powers in volleyball. Japan is probably the best example of this. By all accounts, they have the best training methods, they have a huge fan base, a surplus of players and their league restricts each team to only one foreign born player. How good is their national team? Good. But. Not. Great. Even though their national team already has this rule in place and they have every advantage possible, they will never be the favorites to win the world championships. Now, I’ll happily admit that volleyball is thriving in Japan and if the goal of this FIVB rule change was to make volleyball thrive all over the world then perhaps I would agree that the change is a good idea. That is not, however, the stated purpose of the rule. It is to strengthen the national teams, and homegrown talent, in the respective countries around the world by getting more playing time for players who are born in the country they are playing in.

There is a big difference between a competitive league on a high level and a competitive league where all the participants are terrible. This is where the argument hits home. What would the Danish elite division look like right now without foreign support? Middelfart – gone. Marienlyst – slightly weaker. Gentofte – same. Aarhus volley – gone. ASV Aarhus – same. Hvidovre – same. Aalborg – same. So, the elite would be five teams or seven teams with two more teams that are playing in the first division right now. The league would be competitive, but would it be good?

Some people might ask what the league would look like if no foreigners had ever come to Denmark. And that is a fair question that would probably take some time to answer. But, I would argue that the league would not be better off in terms of the level of volleyball.

The problem is that this argument can be extended to a lot of countries. Sweden would be in trouble. Germany would be in trouble. Belgium would be in trouble. Etc…

Overall, changing the rule for foreigners will mean a huge shift in the strength of a lot of leagues. Yes, there will be a lot of space for homegrown talent to step in and prove what they can do. This is great in places like Italy, France or Russia where there is a huge pool of talent to pull from. Other countries will not be so lucky. So, some leagues will all of a sudden be bad in relation to what they have previously been. Maybe, and it’s a big maybe, they will build themselves back up in the space of a five or ten years as new talent develops. But, is the risk worth it? Some leagues might never be good without foreign players.

It seems to me that the free market regulates the foreign player consumption around the world, why put artificial restrictions on that? If a player is good enough, trains hard enough and wants it enough, they will get their chance eventually whether they are foreign or native. More than anything, what I think is important is that volleyball overall is being played on the highest level possible. More top notch competition creates more top notch players and that is what volleyball needs. More top notch players means a bigger talent pool to draw from for national teams. If a volleyball player thinks that they are being cheated out of playing time by a foreigner then they should play harder (or better) and find a way to get on the court.

Gentofte

2007-11-12T18:26:00.000+01:00

For whatever reason, we didn't play very well on Saturday. Whether it was because a couple of our guys were affected by playing against their old club as has been posited other places, or whether Gentofte had a good game plan and played well, or whether our numerous injuries are starting to catch up with us or whatever else doesn't really matter. We played one really good set and ended up doing enough to win. Really though, the match could have easily been 3-1 to Gentofte and it could just have easily been 3-0 to us, so there wasn't a big difference between the two teams.

One of the biggest factors was our inability to win any points in our own serve. I think it was a combination of not serving well enough and Gentofte passing/siding out really well. Clearly though, we didn't block or play defense at an acceptable level. Hopefully we'll be able to do a better job of that in the future.

After experiencing both teams, it's hard to imagine Gentofte losing to Aalborg like they did last weekend, but I guess surprise is the spice of life...

We're on pace for an absurd three matches played in a span of like eight weeks. Aalborg next weekend and then another huge pause for the national team. Any rhythm as far as playing is concerned is basically gone at this point.

Hvidovre and Nordic Championships

2007-10-29T11:57:00.000+01:00

The last week of training has been terrible. At any given time, we've been without at least three or four of our players due to injury and sickness. Besides that, we just haven't been that focused and the practice hasn't been very high quality. When you have a bad week of practice, it doesn't leave you with a great feeling going into the next match.

That said, we came out from the beginning of the first set against Hvidovre and played well. We were stable and passed the ball well enough to be able to do what we wanted to do on offense.

The second set was interesting in that we kind of fell apart in the middle of it and couldn't really get back on track. I think we missed every serve except one after we got up to around 15 points so that didn't really help us. Add to that a bunch of balls hit out of bounds and players playing out of position and you have a recipe for losing games.

The third and fourth sets were pretty uneventful. Hvidovre seemed determined to let Shaun hit as much as possible against a one or no man block so we just kept giving him the ball.

In the end, we got to try a whole bunch of different stuff and move players around a lot to see what they could do in somewhat awkward positions. It wasn't a complete success but it wasn't really a failure either as we came home with the win.

Otherwise, I've been trying to keep updated on the Nordic Championships for volleyball which are going to take place this weekend in Norway and Sweden. Today there is a little information out there at Falkenberg's website, Habo's website and Førde's website.

The idea is that two teams from Denmark, two teams from Sweden, two teams from Norway and one team from Iceland will be split up into two three-team pools with the winners of those pools moving on to play in a final four with two teams from Finland. The two teams from Denmark were supposed to be Middelfart and Aarhus.

I think it is a great idea. What I don't think is a great idea is that Aarhus pulled themselves out of the tournament. I can't even explain how angry this makes me. First of all, that they accepted, and second that they then pulled out. Third, I don't really know what the story is, but I would love to hear why we (Marienlyst) couldn't take their place. I honestly don't know if we had the opportunity and said no or if the DVBF decided not to ask us or what, but in any case, it is a huge disappointment to me personally.

I don't know if anyone even cares about a Nordic Championships, maybe the fans aren't interested, I know I haven't really heard anyone talking about it, but if that's the case, I think it is a shame. A tournament like this is a great opportunity to play some high level volleyball against good competition. Besides the teams from Sweden, Norway and Iceland, the teams from Finland will unquestionably be very, very good. I'm personally pretty upset about the whole thing because I think that, especially considering that we weren't allowed to play European Cup volleyball, this was a great chance to try something new and different and exciting. I don't know why Aarhus decided not to go and I don't know why we weren't offered the chance to take their place, but I would sure like to...

Now, the only Danish representative will be Middelfart, so good luck to you guys I'll be interested to hear how it all goes.

Aalborg

2007-10-22T12:03:00.000+02:00

We didn't really know what to expect when we walked into the gym in Aalborg on Saturday. We haven't seen very much of them yet this year and, beyond that, their results have been hard to decipher. Fortunately for us, we broke out to an early lead and never looked back.

Or serving and transition play made the biggest difference in the match. They gave us far too many free and semi free balls that turned into easy points for us. For a short portion of the second set, they passed better and we served worse, and it was like playing against a totally different team. If they iron out their passing issues then they will be a much harder team to play against. Their middles are still very effective when they can get the ball to them.

On our side, we were able to play free and aggressive for most of the match. When we play that way, we are hard to stop because we have so many options. It's also a huge benefit for us that when we play good defense we can just set the ball high to the outside on either side and
win a high percentage of those balls as well.

Congratulations to Michael and Matthias on the incredible amount of blood contained inside their respective heads. I'm not sure how many towels it took to mop up after their collision during the second set but it was certainly more than three. I didn't see Fyens yesterday but I do hope that the headline was "Bloodbath in Aalborg".

Shaun gets this week's award for biggest violation during a rally that the referee didn't see by slapping the net with both hands on the way up to block and then, for good measure, touching the attack on its way out of bounds. Truly, an impressive piece of rule-breaking. Although, the award would have gone to Martin if he could have blocked that one ball that he tried to block while he was in the backrow.

This was just the start of our monumental streak of away games. Hvidovre next week...

Aarhus

2007-10-17T13:32:00.001+02:00

Kind of a weird match on Saturday. Aarhus had requested a change to the normal start time of our matches from 15:15 to 13:00 so that they could get back to Aarhus and work during the football game that night. I don't know why, but moving the match up two hours somehow made a huge difference. 1 o'clock felt like 8am.

Anyways, that was the most interesting thing about the match. Aarhus is clearly not a complete team yet so I am going to reserve any judgment for when they figure out their full roster. When your libero is starting as a middle you usually don't have much chance to win.

The match wass never really close. I think in the third set we were even until like 14-14 or something like that but that was as tight as it got. We served better than we have all year and it created lots of problems for the Aarhus passers. Our sideout was also pretty efficient. All in all, not the most exciting game for the fans, but a good performance by us.

Otherwise, I've been cruising the blogs and have been delighted to see a little bit of controversy out there. I'm not really sure that I have an opinion on who is right or wrong, but I definitely don't have a problem with people voicing their opinions. I don't think anyone can be upset about someone writing their honest thoughts, or for that matter, reacting to those thoughts. It's not like anyone is out there threatening someone else physically. A little bit of colorful "discussion" has never hurt anyone (Especially when it is well done and entertaining).

Furthermore, not everyone has to like everyone else. Sometimes, better competition is born out of a few well-placed remarks...

Weekend 13/10

2007-10-12T19:31:00.000+02:00

Alright! NordicBet alive and flowing once again... Let's get right to the picks:

Marienlyst (-2.50) vs. Aarhus Volley: This one is right on the border of being dangerous. Generally, you've got to stay away from teams giving 2.5 sets right from the beginning. Winning 3-0 is never a sure thing. You also never know what Aarhus is going to come with. There are rumors of a new Belorussian playing center so who knows what kind of starting lineup they are going to throw out there. That being said, I'm taking us because, well, it's my team and I feel good about us. Odds 1.45 aren't the worst I've ever seen.

Gentofte (-1.50) vs. ASV Aarhus: Even though the odds have dropped little bit already, getting 1.55 that Gentofte won't lose more than one set is definitely worth throwing some money at. ASV is better than most people think, but they've got to play in Gentofte and I just don't see it happening for them in this one. We still don't know that much about Gentofte, except that they aren't better than a good team from Croatia and that they're not going to drop out of the elite this year. This match won't really give us more answers, but it should be another win for them.

Aalborg HIK (-2.50) vs. Hvidovre: Huh. If you believe Hvidovre, then you have to bet them in this match. If they are going to be competitive this year then they have to beat teams like HIK who are middle of the pack right now. In any case, they have to be able to win a set or two even if they are playing in Aalborg. I wouldn't touch this game with a ten foot pole, but if I have to make a choice then it would be to take the handicap and the higher odds with Hvidovre. These matches are dangerous though, home teams in this situation often play really well and end up winning decisively.

Finally, a full slate of games this weekend (even if we're missing what should be a fourth match). Exciting to see how everyone reacts to the real first weekend of the season...

Middelfart

2007-10-09T12:04:00.000+02:00

Early, early, early season match that meant nearly nothing in the long run. Of course, we're glad to win, and it means something in the standings, but as far as finding out where we stand in relation to the rest of the teams in the league, this match didn't really tell us anything.

Clearly Middelfart is going to be better next time. We're also going to be better.

The only really interesting thing that happened in the match was the sudden turn around in the first set when Middelfart scored five straight points to go from 19-24 to 24-24. I don't have a whole lot of answers as to why it happened. Their serves weren't uncontrollable, the sets were fine, the hits were okay but somehow we just couldn't put a ball away. It's actually a problem that we've been dealing with. I don't know why, maybe because we're too worried about making mistakes, but we seem to lose the ability to swing freely at the ball at times. We get into a kind of safe mode and give the other team the opportunity to play defense. It's an area we'll have to get better in.

Otherwise, we played well enough to win the match in three sets. Middelfart never really threatened us after the first set. We won the next two with at least a four or five point margin. We didn't do anything spectacular, but we were solid when it mattered. They put a little bit of pressure on us with some good serving, but Shaun put away a lot of trouble balls and made it easy for us to sideout even when the passing wasn't perfect. Daniel also did a good job of hitting the ball in transition and forcing them to respect the middle at all times.

All in all, a fairly uneventful match. We'll be back in Middelfart later in the year and I expect it to be a whole different game.

ASV

2007-10-01T15:05:00.000+02:00

There wasn't a lot of mystery left for our match against ASV on Friday. We had already played them twice in the pre-season and won decisively both times. Other than their addition of a tall Brasilian, the third time didn't really offer anything different.

Even though we won 3-0, and were never really in danger of losing, each set was a completely different experience from the last.

We started well, aggressive, making points in serve, block, defense and transition and built up an instant lead. All in all, probably our best set so far this year and ASV could not match us.

The second set, which you can see in compressed form on Flemming West's blog, left a lot to be desired from our side. (You might also notice that we are on the wrong side of the court - Usually we start on the side opposite the clock when we play at home - because ASV won the coin toss and decided to switch sides...Interesting choice...) Personally, I couldn't set the ball to Shaun to save my life, and generally let too many sets die too far inside the pins. It put the hitters in difficult situations and that's the main reason we didn't win the set with a bigger margin. I think it ended 25-22 but we had so many chances to score that it could easily have been 14 or 15.

Third set was unremarkable. We played a little better than the second set and got a few guys off the bench some playing time. The end was never really close.

I've said it before, ASV will be better than people expect, they'll upset some people at some point this year. In this match, they simply made too many errors, in serve especially, to really be able to make us uncomfortable.

The Weekend

2007-09-28T16:11:00.000+02:00

What's the deal? Where are my odds on NordicBet? Actually, I've always wondered, does anyone know who sets the odds for them? It must be someone in Denmark who knows something about volleyball...

Well, since there aren't any odds, I'll just run through the two matches real quick.

Marienlyst vs. ASV - The first regular season match of the season. ASV is going to be better than most people think. How much better, I have no idea. Will they be able to press us tonight? Anything can happen early in the season but I don't think so. According to my plan: we're going to be really strong tonight. So.......3-0 to us.

HIK vs. Middelfart - This one is going to be really interesting. Actually, I take that back. To me, it is going to be really interesting. Usually, when I see a match like this, I expect a long, close battle and then the game turns out to be really one-sided. I think that HIK looked good in the Middelfart tournament. I also think Middelfart didn't play to their potential. I have no idea which way this one is going to turn out. If I have to guess one way or the other, I'll take Middelfart in five sets.

Good luck to everyone. And get your act together NordicBet...

Midtfyns

2007-09-25T11:57:00.001+02:00

Playing the early matches in the Pokal tournament is an interesting experience. You get to play against teams that you normally don’t see during the season. Also, when you play them, they have usually gone out of their way to promote the match and get people to come watch the game.

Midtfyns was no exception. They were opening a new gym and had attracted a small, but engaged, crowd.

The match was nothing special. They were excited and did what they could to press us. We played a little tight in the beginning and the first set was close until around 15-15. After that, we picked up a few balls in defense, they made some mistakes and we finished strong.

The second set was more or less the same.

The third set turned out to be pretty close all the way. We couldn’t score in transition and made too many cautious mistakes. Not playing aggressively is the biggest mistake that a “favorite” can make when playing a lower ranked team. When you let an underdog gain momentum, confidence and energy the match takes a drastically different direction.

It’s funny, but it’s happened a million times: A so-called “better” team will come into a match and make a lot of mistakes. It doesn’t really matter why, lack of motivation, preparation or a bad day, but the mistakes lead to more mistakes. And before you know it, because of the mistakes, the team starts hitting at 80%, serving rainbows to the other team and passing the ball two meters off the net, all because they are afraid of making more mistakes.

It’s a natural reaction. We all want to play the game without making mistakes. If anything though, I would argue, when a team is struggling, they should play more aggressively. Not crazy, just more aggressive. Have confidence that serves will start going in. Hitters will start to find the court. And when they do, they will be more effective. The problem with backing down and playing safe is that it elevates the other team.

When a team makes a lot of serve mistakes. It can actually throw the other team off their game. If they sporadically receive the ball, they can’t establish any side out rhythm. The setter doesn’t get to set the ball, the hitters don’t get to hit the ball and the passers don’t get to pass the ball. When they finally get the chance, a lot of times they are over excited or even cold. On the other hand, if they are sitting there and receiving lollipops the whole time, they are probably going to be siding out at a very high percentage and gaining more and more confidence.

Once a team gets into a cautious/safe mode it is very hard to transition to a stronger more aggressive attitude.

Okay, that was my tangent for the day. We let up quite a bit in the third set and it cost us. It is unacceptable to win two sets – 17 and 12 – and then let the third set be so close. You have to finish teams when you get up on them and this clearly did not happen on Sunday. So, we’ve got some stuff to work on.

Otherwise, we used a lot of our guys, worked with some combinations and other things we have been training and most importantly, advanced to the next round of the Pokal. Now, it’s time to start the regular season grind with ASV on Friday.

And don’t worry, the world famous betting preview will be back for this weekend so everyone will have a chance to win millions…

Middelfart Tournament Part 2

2007-09-18T13:48:00.000+02:00

A few quick comments on my last post:

I don't really know what you can do about a generation of volleyball players that stop playing. It takes time to build up the ranks of players again. In 2002, when I came to Denmark, there were several teams built around "older" players that all decided to stop within the next couple of years. No matter what, you are going to feel the effects of 20-25 good, experienced players stopping at about the same time. And that's what happened in the last few years.

The difference between "reliance on" foreign players and "supplementing" a roster with them is huge. I've always felt that the sweet spot for foreigners is around 2-4 all depending on the team you can surround them with. The idea, that should be apparent to everyone by now, is to have a self-sufficient roster made up of homegrown (danish) talent that can be augmented by some foreign talent. Basically, it should be a matter of luxury, not necessary, spending. Said another way, clubs should be taking on foreign players to make them better not just to fill spaces that are empty.

Now I'm just whipping stuff off the top of my head, but maybe it should be a requirement for teams to have an equal amount of junior players as foreigners on their teams...

As one of the first teams to bring foreigners into the league, Aarhus has actually done a really good job of starting to work with younger talent. At least their elite team is carrying more and more inexperienced/young Danish players.

While we're on the subject of the youth, I have to ask the question - why do I know nothing about youth players in Denmark? I've never seen a youth match or tournament, if they come to watch our games I've never spoken with any of them, I see KIDS volley players all the time at the club but other than that I have no connection whatsoever to the youth players in Denmark. Where do they play? When do they play? Another quick thought: Why don't we let the youth players play some sort of finals on the same floor as the real Danish Championship finals? It could happen a couple of hours before the senior finals or right afterward.

Anyways, I know almost nothing about the youth at this point. I hope that changes soon.

Middelfart was a bit of a disappointment as far as the level of play. Most teams are still in a bit of chaos at this time of year, but this year seemed a bit worse than normal.

I thought HIK looked better than I thought they would, they're roster is full and they've got a bunch of new faces, which is a really good thing. A lot of the younger guys looked raw, but they definitely had potential. They do have some question marks at certain important positions though, it will be interesting to see how they develop as the season moves along.

Aarhus looks like they will put together a strong team eventually. I'm not sure that they're current crop of foreigners can carry the team the way they did last year though. It looks a little bit more like quantity than quality at this point. I think the setter looks good and they still have a lot of guys that have been around for a long time mixed with some solid youth so they should be formidable by mid-season. But during the tournament they didn't exactly have everything working perfectly.

ASV got another foreigner who looks promising. He's a big middle and you can't really go wrong with a big middle at this point. Obviously, as newcomers to the Elite division, they'll struggle while they get used to the new level of play. They'll be good for some upsets though as the season progresses.

Middelfart was missing one of their middles and a libero and had almost no one on the bench so it is hard to say what they'll look like by season's end. I think they'll be better than they showed at the tournament but it might be a stretch at this point to say that they are medal contenders. I like Jarryd, the young outside, and the opposite was actually better than I expected. It will be a matter of finding an identity and somehow convincing everyone in Middelfart that they should be rooting for a team made up of almost entirely foreign players. Out of everyone, I think this team will be the most fun to watch from outside and see what they become.

I have nothing but good things to say about Gentofte. In fact, as we saw with Geovan the last couple of years, if they had the money and the desire to add a couple of foreign pieces to their team, they would always be in the top of the Elite division. Right now, they are dealing with the exit of a lot of experienced older players so it will take a little while to figure out how to be consistent for a whole season. They'll be good this year, but it's really next year or the year after that will be the exciting for them...

I had mixed feelings going into the tournament because I felt that we hadn't really done anything to earn the pre-season expectations that everyone seems to have for us. We played mediocre volleyball against Wuppertal and in our pre-season tournament. Our training has been interrupted by the national team season and we've had little time to jell as a team. Well, the tournament answered some questions for me. We've got a good team. And not just our starting six, but everyone on the bench as well, we've got a chance to be really good. There were a lot of things we could have done better, including being more aggressive and putting pressure on the other teams, but there were also some signs of how good we can be. I don't know what the finals looked like from off the court, but we controlled that entire match from start to finish. Whether or not the other team was "motivated" or not, they didn't really have a chance and that is a good feeling for our side.

Of course, all of this could be meaningless in less than two weeks when the regular season starts...

Middelfart Tournament Part 1

2007-09-17T22:17:00.000+02:00

So as not to overload my feeble old man's brain, I'm going to split my review of this year's Middelfart tournament into small, random, and probably fragmented installments.

When I think about the weekend, the first thing that comes to mind is - what happened to all the teams and players? Jan D. mentions thinking the same thing in Randers. Kasper mentions in his blog that Hvidovre couldn't come because of their own tournament. Of course, DHG has also dropped their elite men's team and Randaberg from Norway also canceled their trip to the tournament. I wasn't around for last year's tournament, but I know that the year before had at least five to six more teams than this year.

Where did everyone go? Is it just a matter of fewer teams deciding to come to the tournament? Or is it a matter of fewer players and therefore fewer teams? One thing's for sure, there is a severe shortage of middles in Denmark right now. Aarhus has one. Middelfart has one. Gentofte is using less experienced players. If things keep going in this direction I might switch over and look for a contract as a middle for next year...

Seriously though, I'm slightly worried about the thinning out of the elite division. Maybe it's just an off year, a random variation or global warming, but I hope that we aren't seeing the start of a trend. Everywhere I look, it seems that someone is stopping volleyball, buying a house, getting married and having kids.

In any case, I haven't heard a whole lot about more quality players coming up from the youth divisions so I don't really know where the players are supposed to come from. Maybe some of the old guys will get bored with playing in the second division and try to make a come back into the elite. It would be nice to see some rosters with more than seven or eight players on them...

Pre-Season

2007-09-10T16:28:00.000+02:00

The pre-season is always kind of a choppy time for a team. Some days it’s hard just to have six or eight guys at practice.

This year, with the national team training for last weekend’s match against Azerbaijan we’ve had even fewer of our corps of players available. So, we’ve worked as well as we can at finding rhythm and consistency as a team. This week will be our first week together with almost all of our players so hopefully the process of finding each other will be accelerated. We’ll find out a lot more about ourselves this weekend when we play in Middelfart. Until then, here’s a quick recap of the matches we have played so far.

Wuppertal (Sønderborg and Odense): We played three matches in total against the team I played for last year and came out of them feeling okay with our performance. Wuppertal is physically better than we are, they have bigger, stronger players at almost every position. Our best chance of beating them is by being smarter, more aggressive and technically better. Not that they aren’t all of those things themselves, but if we want to beat them, we can’t expect to rely on physical superiority. And for us, a team with little training, trying to find an identity with a bunch of new players, it was simply too much to expect that we could beat them. That being said, we performed at a higher level than I expected. We lost a lot more than we won, but those losses weren’t necessarily blowouts. The first two matches were reasonably close. All I can say is that it was unfortunate that we couldn’t do a better job in the third, more “official”, match.

Training Tournament (Odense): It was fun to see another university volleyball team from North American come to Denmark to play this year. I would imagine that the guys from Thompson Rivers felt that they could have done a little better than they did but in the end I think that they had a great time while they were here. The tournament itself was fairly unremarkable. Aarhus didn’t have any true center players with their team (no matter what Rusti tries to tell anybody) so they were kind of struggling with that. As I said before, Thompson Rivers didn’t seem to play their best volleyball. They also used a lot of different rotations and players so it was hard to say how good they really were. ASV kind of surprised everyone when they beat Thompson Rivers on Sunday morning but the match was no fluke. They played well and deserved to win.

We had our own struggles on Sunday morning. One of those matches where it is a hard work to do the easiest things, and that meant that we lost a set to Aarhus before we figured out a way to do enough to win. It was ugly and I’ll leave it at that.

Fortunately, we got it together for the evening match against ASV and played well. It was the first time during the pre-season that I felt we started to understand each other as a team. Our passing was perfect and that meant I could do nearly anything I wanted with the offense. It was a nice way to finish off a long weekend of volleyball.

Now we look ahead to better training opportunities and a couple weeks to find top form for our first match in the Pokal against Midtfyns.

Summer Recap

2007-09-06T13:06:00.001+02:00

When you start training on August 1st, it feels like a long, long time until the first match starts in late September. It already feels like ages since I had sand between my toes and sun (mostly obscured by clouds or rain) on my face. But, as my legs keep telling me, vacation is over and it’s time to get back into an everyday rhythm. Thus, the first blog posting of the season. It’s going to be mostly about me and the off season so just skip down to the end if you’re not interested. I’m planning on writing about our training matches in the next post.

In case anyone cares, this summer has been pretty crazy for me. Maja and I flew from Germany to the US in May for six weeks. It was actually during my time over there that I decided to sign a contract with Marienlyst. I’ll touch on why a little bit later in this post. When we got back we had to go directly into moving all of our stuff from Germany back up to Denmark. Surprisingly, we had slightly less stuff than we did when we moved the other way. I could tell because instead of being completely packed, there was about 30 centimeters of space between our pile of crap and the ceiling of the SV Bayer van. I’m actually not sure what it says about my life that I can fit all of my stuff in one van.

Anyways, we moved back without anywhere to live. Luckily, ex - (and hopefully future) - Marienlyst center, Jacob Nielsen was leaving the country for vacation and offered his apartment for us to stay in. Several frustrating sessions trying to find a nice rental in Odense resulted in us actually deciding to buy an apartment instead of renting. Without going into too much detail, working on the apartment took up pretty much the rest of what was a fairly disappointing summer for beach volley. I’m still having a hard time processing what happened in Løkken. And, most exciting really, mixed in with all of this, I managed to scratch out an article for Volleyball magazine back in the US. Their website is: www.volleyballmag.com. It’s not the best website ever, but the magazine has a fairly good reputation and I’m pretty proud of how the article turned out. It should be published this month so it will be fun to see my name in print.

So, here we are, early Fall and indoor volleyball has been in full swing for a few weeks now. People keep asking how it feels to be back in Denmark. And the answer has been awkward. To tell the truth, I feel like I never really left. I spent so much time here before that coming back feels natural. Of course there are small differences from the last time I was here but on the whole, everything seems pretty much the same. And that’s a good thing.

Before I signed with Marienlyst, I had several different ideas as to what I should do next year. I had prioritized Wuppertal from the start and hoped that we could agree on another contract. My experience down there was very positive and very hard at the same time. I didn’t get as much playing time as I felt I should have. And what was hardest was looking on from the outside while our team kind of self-destructed in the last match of the quarterfinals. I felt that I could have offered some stuff that we were kind of lacking but at the same time, I think that our setter was a good player and I can’t complain about him being on the court. In any case, I wanted to play another year there and hoped to see the court more often. If we could have found a number that would have made us both happy then I would have done it. Obviously, this wasn’t possible. I think they were looking for something else than what I could offer. Perhaps someone bigger, more intimidating, etc… Funny though, that they would bring me down there and expect me to fill that role. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t the right fit.

I had been contacted by several teams in Germany after the season and was considering trying out for a couple of them. I also hoped to find somewhere to play in France and had asked a couple of agents if they knew of any opportunities. When I left for the US everything was very open. Marienlyst simply made a very good offer and had several other things to their advantage. When I sat down and thought it over, especially after talking with Maja, it was clear that going back to Odense would be a great situation for us both. Also, I’m incredibly impatient when it comes to contracts, etc… and the idea of sitting and waiting for another two months to find out where I would be playing this season just didn’t appeal to me. So, I signed and now I’m back.

Of course, the team has changed since last I was here. And I can’t really complain too much about the new teammates. I’m not quite ready to proclaim us as champions because I think there are a lot of issues that we’ll need to work out before the end of the season. What I do think is that, on paper, we have one of the best teams I have ever been on. Paw, Daniel and Per have been with the national team for most of the pre-season so we haven’t been at full strength yet. When they come back next week we’ll be able to start competing more in practice and that will create a more interesting dynamic around the team. Until then, I’m looking forward to seeing the national team move on to the next round of qualifying this weekend…

Beach Finals

2007-08-19T22:34:00.000+02:00

I just saw the Beach volley finals on DK 4 and I wanted to share some thoughts. I don't know if everyone will think I'm crazy or not, but watching the men's final kind of changed my perspective on beach volleyball in general. Even though I've played in most of the tournaments this year, this was actually the first time I saw the finals and after seeing them, one thing is really obvious. Bo and Anders and Lars and Teis are playing at a different level than all the other teams. For lack of a better word, it's really cool to see them play each other. Not necessarily because the level is so high (even if it is) but more because the style they play against each other is extremely fun to watch. There are few shots. I don't know if that is because they are so fast in defense that it is hard to put the ball away without putting pace on it or if they just feel more comfortable hitting the ball. But what that means for the viewer is that there is a lot of defense and a lot of scrambling. It seems to me (and this is where I might just be losing my mind) that the game has kind of evolved past just a straight side out game. Both sides seemed to be able to consistently pick up, or at least touch, most of the balls in defense. Put another way, the problem for the two teams didn't seem so much to be able to pick up the other team's shots, the problem seemed to be able to pick up the other team's shots and then put the ball away themselves. It's kind of the next evolution of the game and it's intriguing.

I started thinking: maybe this is the future of the game. Maybe the new beach volleyball isn't just about siding out every time because the defense is so good. Maybe the new game is about being able to play defense against the other team and then turn that defense into a point.

Now, you're all going to say that this is what volleyball has always been about. True. But, the difference is that the defense was so consistent, there were so balls that just didn't get to touch the sand on both sides that it was almost more normal to see a rally where the ball went over the net two or three times before it was over than it was to see a straight sideout. I think I can count on one hand the amount of shots that hit the sand without someone at least getting a touch on it. I mean, even when Teis got blocked straight down the ball ended up bouncing off of his knee and almost getting played over again. In the end it was Lars and Teis that ended up winning the long rallies and that was a huge reason why they won the championship. The defense has been missing for a long time and it seemed like this final brought it back.

So congratulations to both teams. I feel like I saw the future today and if the development continues it is going to be really fun to follow along with.

An Ode to Sideout Scoring

2007-04-29T10:12:00.000+02:00

It looks like Friedrichshafen is going to win the finals here in Germany. And may I say, a fitting end to a great season for them. Winning the Champions League, the German Cup and now the Bundesliga title. Okay, they haven't won yet, but it would take a very surprising turn of events for them to lose.

The triple. That sounds pretty good.

Talking to a few people here in Germany, it seems like Friedrichshafen's success could have an effect on volleyball in general throughout the country. More coverage, more sponsors, more money, more fans, more interest. Hopefully it's true.

I've been thinking hard about volleyball the last few weeks. Why isn't it as popular as some other sports? Why aren't our fan numbers growing?

I don't have any real answers, but at some point, I thought to myself, maybe volleyball just isn't that exciting to watch. I mean, it's hard to admit it, being a volleyball player and a lover of the sport, but it's very possible. We've changed the format of the game to be more friendly to television and I guess it's helped in getting volleyball on TV more often. But I still look at the stands and I see an empty arena. We talk about how to "fix" the game so that it is more appealing to more people. The more I think about the idea of "fixing" volleyball, the more disgusted I feel.

I love the game the way it is. Actually, I love the game the way it WAS. I loved sideout scoring. I think that was the coolest thing about volleyball. You had to score a point in your own serve to win a point. And that meant you had to battle for it. Scoring a point was genuinely exciting - for players and for fans - because it was something out of the ordinary, there was a level of difficulty to scoring a real point.

I honestly think that the players have become less interesting since the abolition of sideout scoring. We are more business like, more calm, more focused. Points are easy to come by, all you have to do is sideout, do it 25 times in a row and the game will be over. It's like each team is a big indistinguishable mass of people with no discernible personality because really, what is there to get excited about? Who do people always enjoy watching? Brazil. Why? Because they are the only team that really look like they are enjoying the game. Each point is a celebration. No one else plays that way, no one else has the energy to do it.

I was at a basketball game the other day. And at one particularly exciting point in the game, before I realized what I was doing, I jumped to my feet. It felt totally natural. I was caught up in the moment and I realized afterward that I hadn't felt that way in a long time.

There are only two times where modern volleyball really gets exciting these days. One is when there is a long rally with a lot of great defense. The other is when the score reaches a deuce situation. 24-24 and the teams continue siding out back and forth. That's it.

Let me set the scene for you: Your favorite team is serving, they are ahead 12-10 in the old scoring system, a really good serve is passed poorly by the other team, they set a high ball to the outside who hits the ball well cutting it back to the corner over the setter's head, your position six defender dives to his right and just barely digs the ball with one hand, it comes up high enough for your setter to get under it and make a high set to position 4... This is where I would be feeling that anticipation, that feeling in my stomach, waiting, hoping to see my team's outside make a great swing on the ball and give us a big point to go up 13-10. Can anyone remember that feeling? Am I the only one who used to feel it? In the rally scoring system, this point is still nice, you are still happy to see it as a fan, but it isn't the same. It's just another point. Especially if say, your team wins the point and then goes back and makes a service mistake. All the points mean the same thing and in the end they all kind of blend together.

I recognize the importance of the rally scoring system for the "popularity" of the sport. Of course it is good that the sport is on television more often, but, it seems to me, volleyball was on TV all the time before. I watched because it was exciting then. I watch now because I want it to be exciting.

Where are we headed?

2007-04-23T20:16:00.000+02:00

Volleyball players move around a lot. Being a professional is committing yourself to a rootless lifestyle. It's hard to really get comfortable in one place when you easily could be moving somewhere else in a year. What's funny is that each new year, more or less, follows the same program as previous years. Figure out a way to move all your stuff to new place, spend first month trying to get internet and telephone set up and spending way too much on food, spend the next couple of months figuring out the new city, learning where to shop and where to go to have fun. Spend next couple of months repeating the same daily schedule. Spend last months looking forward to the playoffs and figuring out where you will spend next year. Repeat.

Since it is that time of year where everyone is out looking for new jobs (at least the people who aren't ballsy enough to wait until just before next season when they could make even better money but might end up without anything) I thought I would share my thoughts on the whole process.

I've played at three different clubs during my career, switching from SK Aarhus to Marienlyst and from Marienlyst to SV Bayer Wuppertal. The first time, I switched because I thought that Marienlyst provided a much better environment for the players. And it did. The second time, I switched because I wanted to push my limits as a player. I did. There are lots of other reasons to move: experiencing something new, exploring a different culture and the likelihood that I'll be playing for a winning team all play important roles in the decision making process.

Money has never been a big issue for me. True, it's nice to make more money than the year before. But, the money that I make, and this isn't true for some volleyball players who make very good money, is never going to be enough to make me feel rich. I'm not in the class of players who can demand huge sums of cash, therefore there are many other things that mean more to me than money when I'm looking at a potential club to play for.

First, I look at the team and I look at the staff surrounding the team. Do I think I would be a good fit there? Do I think that the staff is reliable and that the players are willing to work hard enough to win? Can we win more than we are going to lose? Is the coach crazy? Is the coach crazy in a bad way? Then I look at the technical stuff. The city and the arena etc...

What I really want though, and this may sound kind of weird, is to know that the club really wants me. Before coming to Europe to play, I used to marvel over how professional athletes in the US could leave a great situation where they had played for many years and were loved by the community, etc... over a few million dollars. They make so much money, I couldn't understand how a couple million dollars could convince a player to just get up and leave a team and move to some other place. Well, the answer is the other team made them feel wanted. That extra money shows that they are willing to go the extra mile for that player. It shows that they believe in that player and want to show that by giving more.

If a club is willing to do something extra for me, then I will seriously consider playing for them. It seems like a simple thing, but not every team manager or club owner understands this very well. Of course, there are certain conditions that have to be met, but a little attention from the club's side can go a long way. I think every athlete likes to have their ego stroked a little bit here and there...

Over?

2007-04-17T14:56:00.000+02:00

Coming from the University system in the States,where the volleyball season is much shorter than in Europe, it's surprising how fast the last eight months have gone by. Like I said in the last post: you play and play and play and all of a sudden it's the playoffs and you have one match that decides everything.

Now, the season is over and it still hasn't really registered with me.

Coming into our last match in Unterhaching, and for the first time in a long time, I didn't really have an idea of how everything would turn out. Somehow neither winning nor losing seemed probable. So it was just as much as a spectator looking forward to a great match as a player that I walked into their gym last Tuesday.

It turned out to be a bad experience in both respects.

The match was ugly for us. Nothing really worked at any point. Setting rhythm, serving, blocking, defense, nothing looked sharp. It's not the first time that we took a beating in an away game this year but it certainly was the most disappointing. No one wants to come up empty in a match with so much significance. That's perhaps the best way to describe the feeling afterwards: empty. In a way, it's a fitting end for our team, it's been a roller coaster year, full of ups and downs - most of the ups coming at home and most of the downs coming away - and everytime we had a chance to really break through we took a step backwards instead. It happened in the pokal quarter final, it happened away against Delitzsch and Leipzig and it happened again on Tuesday. All I can say is that hopefully the disappointment turns into motivation and experience for the future.

Personally, I've got all sorts of mixed emotions. While I feel like I contributed a lot to this team, if not in the matches where I played, then definitely in training, I also feel like I never got enough playing time to really get comfortable and make the kind of difference that I wanted to make. I developed my game like crazy and I found out that I am absolutely good enough to be a player in the league, I also had a chance to play significantly and beat a team like SCC Berlin, and that feels good.

As I look forward to next year, I have no idea what is going to happen. Wuppertal has expressed interest in keeping me here, and that would be great, but expressing interest and offering something concrete are two completely different things. Surprisingly, considering the amount of playing time I got this year, I've aready received quite a few phone calls asking about availability for next year. It's always flattering to hear that kind of thing.

At this point, I've got no idea what I want to do. And I'll definitely write more as I work my way through the confusion in the next couple of weeks. Until then, as you can see above, I'm on vacation!

Playoff Time

2007-04-08T13:24:00.000+02:00

It's weird when playoff time rolls around. I mean, on one hand, it is what you've been waiting for the whole season. On the other hand, it feels rushed, almost like you can't enjoy it before it's gone. With all the preparation, daily practices/weights, scouting, traveling the last five days feel like a blur. We've been to Unterhaching and back, lost, practiced a little bit and won our match at home. Now, we're looking at a match this Tuesday that has all sorts of implications.

If we win, we finish in the top four no matter what. On top of that, the season lasts another month, during which, we'll play the semi-finals and the finals or 3rd/4th place qualification no matter what. If we lose, the season's over and we're more or less finished. On top of all that, if we win, we're qualified to play European cup tournaments next year. If we lose, we're not. So, you could say that this match means a lot - in a lot of different ways.

In any case, it feels weird to be sitting here, waiting for a deciding third game that carries so much baggage. It just feels like we could have done without half of the regular season games and just gotten down to business with the playoffs. I mean, we play all of these matches over seven months and everything gets decided in about a week. There isn't really anything to be done about it except win!

Besides all the playoff stuff, this time of year is always an interesting time for a volleyball professional. It's the time of year where you sit and wonder about what you're going to be doing at this time NEXT year. And since the majority of volleyball contracts last one year there are a whole lot of athletes in the same situation.

I'll write more about this process soon. For now, worrying about the playoffs and finishing this season is enough without adding the invariably convoluted contract negotiations.

One more day at home before we hit the road for the long trip down to Munich on Monday and hopefully the triumphant return trip Tuesday night!

We Win, the Bundesliga Standings are Unimpressed.

2007-03-26T10:52:00.000+02:00

Coming into this weekend, there were still a lot of different playoff scenarios. The three teams below us in the standings all had the possibility of finishing above us. We also had the ability to move up to fourth place and get home court advantage for the first round of the playoffs if Unterhaching lost to Eltmann.

Well, we did our share and won: 3-1 against SCC Berlin. Unfortunately Unterhaching won also.

So, now the situation is that we are most likely going to finish fifth. Our win over the weekend makes it impossible to finish any lower than fifth which is a good thing. But we'll need a lot of help if we are going to move up.

The match was really positive for the team and for me personally. We've been playing well in the last couple of weeks, beating Friedrichshafen, playing a solid match in Dueren and now beating SCC Berlin. That's 2-1 against the top three teams in the league...not bad.

We started well, playing consistent high level volleyball. They played good defense but couldn't really turn anything into points. They looked a little out of rhythm and didn't really challenge us in the first.

The second set saw the roles reversed as we started making mistakes, attacking and passing, and they worked themselves into the game. The outcome was never in doubt as they stretched a lead in the middle of the set to six or seven points. I got to come in late in the set but it didn't change much as they continued to side out.

I got the chance to start the third set and from the first point I could tell it was going to be a good day. I had good touch and the passing was really solid so I could do a lot of the things I wanted to do. We sided out at a high level and picked up enough points here and there to win the set.

The fourth set was pretty much the same. We got a lead early and did enough to protect it until the end. Tomas' kill down the line ended it 25-22 and 3-1 in our favor. Needless to say, I was very happy.

For me, this weekend was extremely important. Over the season I've had chances to come in and play quite a bit. I've come in and helped us to wins over Rottenburg, VCO Berlin, Koenigswusterhausen and a few others. But this weekend's match against SCC Berlin was particularly satisfying for a few different reasons.

First, Berlin is one of the best teams in the league. So, getting a chance to play against them and especially to have success is a really good feeling.

Second, in my own opinion, I've been playing really well in practice for about the last month. I feel like I'm constantly improving but haven't really had a chance to show it on the court during a real match. To get that opportunity and for it to work out the way it did was really important for me.

Third, it's just hard in general to be on the bench. Playing a significant role in our win, simply put, felt good. It gives confidence and it serves as a reminder of why this game is so much fun.

In the end, we got a big win that doesn't seem to help us that much in the standings. While we are assured of fifth place, it doesn't look likely that we'll pass Unterhaching for fourth place. The playoffs start in a couple weeks, things are starting to get exciting.

Dueren and Some Other Things

2007-03-22T14:24:00.000+01:00

Last weekend was Dueren, another Champions League team, and after our defeat of Friedrichshafen, the number one team in the Bundesliga. To add to the level of difficulty we had to play in Dueren which is not an easy task. From what I've been told, beating Dueren at home is extremely tough. Apparently, last year's finals were decided by home court advantage. Dueren won all of their games at home and Friedrichshafen won all of their home games. Luckily for Friedrichshafen, they got to host the final game of the championship series. Maybe some unnecessary information, but I just wanted to set the stage for how important home court advantage can be sometimes.

Anyways, I take back my statement about Rottenburg being the best gym in the league, Dueren is definitely better. The crowd was louder, more intense and generally more full of energy. Of course, when your team wins all the time, it is easier for the fans to be excited and to create a really cool atmosphere.

The game was actually fairly positive for our team. We played well enough at times to take strings of points and were never completely blown out of the match until the last ten points of the last set. We had opportunities to win the first set and we won the third set in convincing style. In the end, their serving was better than ours, or at least it caused more problems than ours did, and they were able to score more transition points. Possibly because they had the option of setting to their opposite - Quero - who I decided during the match has a fifty-fifty chance of killing the ball no matter what situation he is in. What I mean is, if the set is low and tight and there is a well set up three man block in front of him, he has just as good a chance at killing that ball than if he is looking at a perfect set in a one on one situation. He's a great hitter who is like a box of chocolates. And we all know what that means.

We lost the match and now we move towards the end of the season. We're sitting solidly in fifth with a very small chance of finishing lower. There is still the opportunity to move up at least one place and finish fourth which would mean a great deal to us as we would have home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. After this weekend everything should be a lot more defined.

On another note, we've pretty much run out of middle blockers. Dirk is done for the season with his judo inflicted shoulder injury. Artur is questionable for the time being with a quadricep problem - he has not practiced this week. And that leaves Andy as our last remainig true middle. Nate has done a little work out of the middle for us and we have a second team middle who helps us out at practice but neither is a great solution for our problems. A good story that I think sums up the whole situation comes from yesterday: Jens contacted a former Bayer middle blocker who played on the team a couple of years ago but hasn't touched a ball in about a year to see if he would help us out in training and in the game this weekend. He said he would and came to training yesterday with the plan of easing his way back into things. What happened after about forty five minutes of playing? Jammed his thumb blocking on an attack from Peter. The joint capsule is messed up and the doctor says that it is very unlikely that he can play this weekend. Apparently the gods are against us at the moment.

So, we'll give it a shot and see what happens. I guess the best we can hope for is that no one hurts themselves before we play on Saturday...

Champions League?

2007-03-12T11:17:00.000+01:00

Ahhhhhhhh. On nights like these, as I sit in the fountain of Apollo, gently reclining, buoyed by the breasts of several young virgins, I lke to ponder the intricacies of living life, not as mere mortal, but as a god.

True, being a god among men can be difficult. (Ha, who am I kidding?) You get to wear sweat pants all day every day and no one can say anything to you. Of course my sweatpants are made of the hides of thousands of rare arctic snow foxes which are then sewn together by either Dolce or Gabanna. I prefer Dolce, but sometimes he is too busy even for me, so I have to use Gabanna :(

The oxygen that is pulled into my lungs emerges again, tinged with gold, carrying the smell of sweet wine and success to the rest of the world. People who stand next to me suddenly look taller and stronger (of course they actually look smaller and weaker because my personality and bone structure take over any room I am in) just because of my mere presence.

I have eaten the heavenly ambrosia of the gods and let me tell you: it is a disappointment. Now, I only eat meat that is taken from my own flank and roasted to perfection by my own team of master chefs. In this way, I save the world from an appetite which is boundless and get to eat of something that is worthy of my discerning pallete. My skin is made of rainbows and vitamin C tablets - Vitamin C tablets that are actually made of multi-vitamin tablets that offer the full daily allowance of every element from the periodic table (yes, including - ununquadium.) - it is very shiny. One time, I let this human take a bite of my skin, do you know what happened? Spontaneous combustion.

You guys heard of Sasquatch? I beat him in a two out of three arm wrestling match. Nice guy.

I think after I'm done here, I'll wrestle the legendary dragon-like beasts of far away worlds and after defeating them, create a new master race of god/dragon hybrids which will rule the universe for eternity. No big deal.

Ha! 3-1 to us.

I'm not going to spend too much time on the signifigance of a win like this. Of course it is a big win for us, for the standings and for our confidence, but I'm not going to say that this win means anything more than that. We caught them at the right time and we played our asses off. Our passing was incredible throughout the match, we got a few timely blocks and serves and then built enough of a lead in the fourth set so that we could hang on when they made a run of points. They also missed a few too many serves and didn't seem as sharp as they normally do, especially in passing. Their coach is Germany's national team coach and well respected by pretty much everyone, so maybe I'm not qualified to question him, but he seemed awfully stubborn, refusing to make any substitutions through the first few sets. Their outside hitters did not perform well, and with the quality they have on the bench, I'm surprised they didn't make a move earlier.

Anyways, it feels great to win a match like this. If not for a few questionable calls in the second set, it could have easily been a 3-0 win for us which is kind of staggering seen in the light of the beating that we took when we played them earlier in the year. It's the great thing about sports, you get to test yourself with every new game and measure your progress in very real terms.

We've got a lot more work to do. Hopefully we are headed in the right direction though. In the space of one month we've lost to one of the worst teams in the league and beaten a possible top four European team - I have no idea where we are going next...

Rottenburg

2007-02-26T17:00:00.000+01:00

The Map24 printout said that the trip to Rottenburg would take about four hours. Apparently, the computer didn't adjust for Friday afternoon traffic...

Rottenburg is a college town with a lot of things going for it. The location is excellent, deep in the South of Germany, reasonably close to the border and surrounded by natural scenery.

The club is also fairly impressive. As one of the worst teams in the league, they average 2500 spectators per home game. The gym is a perfect place to play volleyball: the right size, high ceiling, nice atmosphere...and covered in pink paint. In my opinion, it's the best gym in the league.

Unfortunately for them, all of this hasn't been enough to create any success on the court.

Our guys came into this one with a slight tinge of urgency. We've lost two straight away matches and neither of those were pretty games. We all knew that if we played the same way we had we'd be looking at another disappointment. Besides that, we're in a dogfight for a good seed in the upcoming playoffs. The match against Rottenburg represented the last "easy" match of the year as we have Friedrichshafen, Dueren, Berlin and Eltmann remaining on the schedule. Two points were an absolute must.

To our credit, we came out playing well. Surprisingly, Rottenburg didn't just lay down in the face of the Wuppertal juggernaut, they decided to play a good match as well. We weathered their first set assault and won a close one.

As we have done so many times before this season, we lost intensity in the second set, and ended up losing that one without putting any real pressure on them.

After a little talking to in the locker room we got our game together and figured out a way to win the last two sets.

Overall, the game was fairly unremarkable. We played fairly well in the three sets that we won and we have to be happy with that. But, this was a match that we had to win so there can't be too much celebrating about it. I think we're satisfied and happy enough to move on towards what is going to be a hard final stretch of the season. If we can get a few wins we'll be in great shape for the playoffs. If not, it's going to be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Matches

2007-02-19T20:55:00.000+01:00

Two wildly different results in the last couple of weeks. And I think that the difference illustrates the importance of the home crowd to our team.

Last weekend we played in a small town called Delitzsch and lost an ugly match 1 - 3. They are currently one of the worst teams in the entire league and losing to them is nothing less than a catastrophe. From the very first ball we played poorly. We hit a ton of balls out or into the block and we didn't do anything positive to make up for the bad stuff. We saw a quick edited compilation of all our mistakes in a row yesterday - it wasn't pretty.

Matches like that are the hardest to figure out. You can always look back and think about how poorly we practiced the week before or look at the problems we ran into when both of our opposites weren't fit to play, but that doesn't really give any answers for why we played so weakly in the actual match. The guys who were there shouldn't have been affected by any of that stuff. It's kind of like, immediately after the match, you understand what you did wrong and if you had another chance to play the same game the whole thing would happen differently. I don't know if that makes sense, but I am 100% sure that we would play an entirely different game if we had another chance to play them. It's like a lesson in instant wisdom.

I guess the trick is figuring out how to change the bad vibes during the match and not have to wait for the 20/20 rearview vision. Sometimes I think we should have little cheat notes that we could refer to during the games. Several lines of text tattooed right on our forearms: Stay Aggresive. Play with heart. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Etc... Maybe that would help. Anyways, the whole thing was embarrasing and hopefully we won't have to deal with anything like that again.

Yesterday, we played VCO Berlin at home and the outcome was completely opposite. I wouldn't say that we played a whole bunch better, and this is where the home crowd comes into the argument, but we did enough to get out of there with a 3-0 win. And it looks like when everything is all settled at the end of the season, set score is going to be pretty important so 3-0 is also big for us.

There wasn't anything too remarkable that happened during the match so I don't want to spend more time on it.

Off the court we've had some...ahem...interesting things happening lately. Starting with the league's top blocker and one of our co-captains breaking his shoulder trying to do a judo roll for a university test. Sometimes that Fortune lady is a bitch. He's basically out for the year and it's not so much that I don't trust his replacement, it's more that we now only have two real middles. Nathan is actually our new backup middle blocker. No matter how well he bounces balls out of the position, it is asking quite a bit to have him learn to play middle in the space of two months. Just a negative development in so many ways. But, we'll see, maybe it will force us to pick up our game in different areas. I should also say that I feel terrible for Dirk, he's a great guy and it always sucks to see someone injured like that. Hopefully he'll be back and ready to go as soon as possible.

Otherwise, it was fun this weekend to have a visit from some of the people from Amager Volley. Always nice to see some people from Denmark and to get a chance to show off a little for them. I guess this weekend wasn't too bad of a choice considering that it is Karneval here in Germany!

This weekend we're off to Rottenburg and another win is absolutely necessary. Apparently they have one of the best fan bases anywhere in German volleyball - around 2500 people at every match - so it should be fun to see what it's all about down there.

To the East again.

2007-02-10T11:47:00.000+01:00

One more time headed east towards Berlin and Leipzig. This time we're going to Delitzsch to play one of the lowest ranked teams in the league. Needless to say, we have to win. Delitzsch though? Isn't that a weird name for a city?

Anyways, at some point soon I'd like to reflect a little bit on the differences that we see when we leave the comfortable confines of what used to be West Germany. Maybe when we get back on Sunday...we'll see.

Moers

2007-02-05T17:24:00.000+01:00

This weekend it was Moers at home in the Bayerhalle. For reasons I talked about in an earlier post, there was little room for a bad performance from our side in this one. Fortunately, it turned out to be a positive experience for everyone.

Moers is kind of an enigmatic team. They've got arguably the best attacker in the league - Georg Grozer Jr. - and a pretty solid supporting cast around him. They played themselves into the Cup finals recently after beating Dueren and SCC Berlin in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively. But they've also been inconsistent in the league. Currently they are sitting eighth in the standings.

When you're playing a team like that, you just have to be more solid than them. Don't give them the chance to get hot. Don't give them any reason to elevate their game or get excited. Keep constant pressure on them and they will eventually crack. I think that we did all those things and it resulted in a good win for us.

We served well, they did not. We passed well, they did not. I've said it before and I'll say it a million times more before I die. When you win the serving and passing battle you will almost always win the game.

Some notes from the match:

Apparently, Moers' libero was sick and did not play in the match. This forced one of their back-up outsides to play the libero position which in turn forced their coach, none other than, Georg Grozer Sr. to suit up. He was very good back in the day. Also pretty crazy. But he is, shall we say, slightly past his expiration date now so it was kind of weird to see him sub himself into the match. At one point I realized that it was the first time I had ever played indoor volleyball against a father/son pairing. I started thinking about what I would say to my dad if he just kept shanking passes and I couldn't really come up with any ideas. It must have been awkward for them though.

The sets to Grozer Jr. were beyond high balls. I can't imagine what he would do if he was going one on one instead of the normal three man block that he sees.

Peter was really good when he came in for us. Ended top scorer and therefore justified the awkward picture above...

Handball

2007-02-02T12:40:00.001+01:00

I got to sit down with the rest of our team last night and see the second half of Germany vs. France and then the entire Denmark vs. Poland match afterwards. Our team, of course, is made up mainly of German players but, and it's kind of funny, we also have Danes and Poles. So, three out of the four semi-final teams were covered. Both matches were obviously exciting. Too bad that Denmark couldn't pull out the victory, a Denmark vs Germany final would have been a lot of fun to watch on Sunday. I haven't had a chance to really process everything that happened but it turned out to be a truly interesting night.

Just seeing the difference between the way Germans and Danes approached the two matches was riveting. You could almost sense the way the Germans sat back and expected to win in the end. Obviously, they were nervous and excited, just like any sports fan would be. But, there was a distinct difference from the way the Danes acted. I don't know if you can call it arrogance, confidence or just a more "been there, done that" attitude. It was weird. Their team played solid, didn't make mistakes (except on that one play where the guy lost the ball in the backcourt) and won in the end. It was like their fans knew it would happen and therefore they were more calm.

The Danes on the other hand were all over the place. They played amazing at times, made some terrible mistakes, couldn't score for long periods even though they had plenty of chances. The fans were positive that Denmark couldn't win. They expected losing and they seemed afraid to really believe that they could win. And in the end, they didn't.

I wonder if this kind of thing means something deeper. Does it mean that Danes have been burned so many times with their teams that they have a hard time really putting their hearts behind them? On the other hand, Germany has had so much success on the international scene, football, handball, etc... that it is easy for a German fan to root for their team. Or does it mean that Germans just have more of a winner mentality? Or maybe, since Denmark is smaller, these kind of events mean a lot more to them then they do to Germany. When a Danish team makes it to the Semi-FInals of a major tournament that means so much more than when a German team does.

I could just be making this stuff up in my own mind. But it seemed to me that there was a real difference in the way the two groups of people approached the match. Sometimes I wonder if that is a reflection of the players on the court or if the players on the court reflect that nervous energy from their fans. Does the confidence of 19,000 fans rub off on the team they are rooting for? Or, by the same logic, does the refusal to believe in your team make a difference to the players on the court?

That relationship between players and fans seems kind of like a real relationship between any two people. The fans want to support their team and they want to believe that the team they root for is the best. The team on the other hand agrees to always do their best and to give the fans something to be proud of. If either side doesn't fulfill their resposibility then problems happen. If the team keeps losing and not playing well, then the fans have a hard time giving everything to the team because they, understandably, don't want to put in so much effort to a lost cause. Ironically, if the fans are dead and they don't create a great atmosphere for the players then that will negatively affect the way the team plays.

I don't think it can be argued against that some teams benefit from playing in front of their home crowd. I guess my question is whether some teams can be negatively affected by their fans and whose responsibility is it to make sure that that never happens?

I kind of ended off on a little tangent, but I think the question is an interesting one. Originally, I just wanted to say I thought the games were exciting and I'm a little disappointed we won't be seeing a Germany vs Denmark final. But I guess I'll still have the opportunity to be nervous and pessimistic when Denmark is playing against France for third place...

2007-01-31T18:06:00.000+01:00

Let me start with a little explanation for what’s been going on here on the site. I’m not sure there are any people left checking in anymore, but if people are like me with blog reading, they probably look in every once in awhile and see if there is anything new.

Obviously I haven’t been updating. There are a few reasons. One, and the most significant, I’ve been writing a lot, but not about volleyball, and I just haven’t had the extra will power to write for this site. I may start a different blog at some point where I’ll post the short stories, etc… I’ve been working on but first I’ll have to write something that I think is good… Second, and I’m going to talk more about this below, volleyball has taken over a large part of my brain. Even when I’m not at practice, I still think about it a lot, so writing about it also can be a bit tedious. Third, I’m a little lazy. Fourth, our schedule can be hectic sometimes, that means little time left over for blogs!

So, if there are still people out there checking in, hopefully I’ll update a bit more often. I could imagine a few posts finding there way online at some point; however, I can’t guarantee anything.

Now to the volleyball:

As a team we’ve just been through a really interesting time. Starting before Christmas we were in what has been referred to as a “crisis” of sorts. We lost a few matches in a row. More importantly, we lost badly. Even more importantly, when we played, it didn’t really look like any one of us cared that we were losing.

Needless to say, it wasn’t a good recipe for success and it wasn’t a fun time for any of us.

Since then, we’ve done quite a few things to turn things in a new direction. We’ve had multiple meetings, with coaches, without coaches, with administration, etc… And I think, in the end, and without going into detail as to what was said, the meetings were very positive. It’s a good thing to be able to honestly express yourself in front of your teammates.

This is also where volleyball kind of takes over your life. Not that it isn’t huge for all of us, it is what we do for a living, but it can be hard when you feel terrible all the time because you know you’ve been underperforming. It’s a double-edged sword, you love the game and you get to play it as a professional, but when you lose and you don’t play well, it’s depressing. Fulfillment in your job comes down to tangible wins and losses. Two points in the fifth set can be the difference between a good week and a bad week. Kind of a bitch sometimes.

But all the meetings in the world couldn’t guarantee anything. We also had a lot of work to do on the court – just straight technical stuff – in practice in order to really develop ourselves.

As soon as league play resumed in January we saw a difference in our game. We beat a good Unterhaching team 3-2 and followed that up with a 3-2 win over Eltmann. Both of those matches were huge as far as the standings go because both those teams figure to be close competitors when we come down to the end of the season. We also beat a team that has been dangerous on their home floor, Koenigs Wusterhausen, 3-1 at their place. Three wins out of three chances, all in one week, pretty good right? Well…Yes. But…

We followed it up by catching an absolute beating in Leipzig last weekend. And I’ll be honest here, this weekend we’re playing Moers (better known as this guy and six other guys who hope to touch the ball every once in awhile) and we pretty much have no choice but to play well.

I do think that the game in Leipzig was a hiccup. I think that we are a better team and that we are headed in the right direction. I heard someone saying that every time we have a real chance to move forward and break through that we always end up taking a step backward. I don’t think that’s true. I’m choosing to look at it from the viewpoint that sometimes you have to take a couple of steps backward before you can move even farther forward. Because we are a better team right now then we were three months ago. I can only hope that we are a better team in two months than we are now.

Personally, I’m getting some playing time. I’ve played quite a bit. There hasn’t been a game in recent memory where I didn’t get a good chunk of playing time. And I’m doing pretty well. You don’t believe me? Well, as we all know, statistics are the only thing that really matter in sports, I mean, they never lie. So check this out. It pretty much means that I am the best setter in the world. Possibly ever.

Read Blocking

2006-12-20T15:14:00.000+01:00

One of the biggest differences in style of play that I've noticed between what I've learned in the States (particularly during my time in University) and what I've experienced here in Europe has to do with blocking.

Read blocking seems to be the key word throughout international volleyball right now. Everyone is doing it because it seems like the most effective way to block. Of course teams are running extremely fast offenses as well in an attempt to beat the bunch read blocking system. And basically, a good read blocking team has a great chance to beat almost any offense. Even if the passing is pretty good.

But, what I've noticed is that most teams don't really read block. In most cases, when you see good passing, the middles jump with the middles trying to take away the quick attack. It doesn't matter if the setter on the other side has not set the middle in the entire match. Somehow, taking away that quick hitter becomes the most important thing to do. Discard the fact that almost any setter will NOT set the ball to the middle when the pass is perfect, (this is another topic that I would like to discuss in detail in another post) why do middle blockers do this?

In college, we spent lots and lots of time on blocking. And I think the result was a group of much better blockers than the average. We were also smaller than most other teams so we were forced to be better disciplined. We were a true BUNCH READ blocking team. That means that you read and REACT to the other team. The idea was to never decide before the setter sets the ball where he is going to set it. Just read him, read his hands, look if he is leaning one way or the other and then react when he sets the ball. DO NOT GUESS.

Needless to say, this is easier said than done. But since I have been in Europe, all of my coaches have said that we are going to read block, and I truly don't think any of the middles I have played with have done that. And I don't think that any of said coaches have ever really attempted to force them to do it. I remember hearing, "DON'T GUESS!" or "WATCH THE SET!" over and over again. Middle blockers would be drilled over and over again. If they leaned the wrong way or left too early from their spot they would be out to the side to do push-ups.

I understand that this was really hard training and not an easy skill to master, but in the end, it really paid off. And I think that most of the teams I have played on could benefit from implementing the system. Because honestly, right now, too many middles just jump blindly with the middle. As a setter, this is exactly what you want, because then you don't have to do anything hard. All you have to do is set the ball to the outside or behind you every time and you will almost always have a one on one situation.

I don't know, maybe it's better to go on gut instinct sometimes and just do what you feel is right as a blocker. But I think being disciplined will get a lot more touches in the end.

Bodensee - A Nice Place to Be!

2006-12-11T18:20:00.000+01:00

The German Cup tournament finally opened up this weekend for us with a match in a little city named Konstanz. Located on the border with Switzerland, the city is home to a lot of students who come to enjoy the incredibly nice, laid back atmosphere. Lake Bodensee, one of the biggest lakes in the area, is also close.

As it turns out, the gym was located right on the shores of a quiet river that flows into a bigger lake just nearby. One of the smaller halls actually had a huge windowed façade facing the flowing water. After a short walk and a bite to eat I was ready to proclaim the city of Konstanz as the nicest in all of Germany.

The team from Konstanz was not particularly impressive. They weren’t supposed to be, playing in the third division, but I expected them to come with a little bit more than they did. The match was nothing too spectacular - we played fine and that was plenty to win. The most memorable moments were Dirk helping a serve that wouldn’t have gone over the net by bouncing it off his hand at the net and the referee not calling anything, Dirk also made a nice play when he had a short joust with the setter then proceeded to hold the ball in one hand after the setter let go (the referee failed to call this a lift, choosing instead to call a replay) and of course the Konstanz middle who had red contacts which made his eyes look exceedingly weird.

The biggest news came from the drawing of lots for the next round of the tournament which took place directly after our match. In probably the best scenario possible, we drew SCC Berlin at home on the 22nd of this month. I wrote last time that we would have to wait quite a long time to prove that we are a better team than Berlin. Well, it looks like that won’t be the case! I think everyone is excited for the match-up and hopefully we’ll be able to come out of this one with a big win.

Two Weekends - Two Losses

2006-12-05T16:08:00.000+01:00

Last weekend, we hosted a four-team tournament. Eltmann from Germany, Opava from the Czech Republic, Marienlyst from Denmark and Us were the participants. Unfortunately for us, we finished fourth with Eltmann finishing first, Marienlyst second and Opava third.

It wasn’t our finest hour and there is little to say besides we are lucky that the tournament means nothing as far as official records are concerned. Hopefully we learned some lessons from the way we played and hopefully those lessons will have a positive effect on the rest of the season.

Personally, I played one set against Eltmann which we won, and then a full three sets against Marienlyst which ended 2-1 for them. I’ll be the first to admit that losing to a former team doesn’t feel good. On the one hand, I’m happy for all the guys on the team that I played with for two years, they played really well. On the other hand, losing sucks. Needless to say, the weekend was not a good experience for me personally. I didn’t play well, and the team didn’t play well, and that’s never a recipe for success.

So, congratulations to Marienlyst for the second place, and congrats to Eltmann for winning the whole thing. We’ll see you guys soon though in the Bundesliga…

On Sunday we finally resumed our Bundesliga schedule with a match against SCC Berlin, in Berlin. Traditionally, they’ve been a top team in the German league but this year there has been some talk of them slipping. At the end of November they lost 3-0 to Unterhaching and it appeared that they were in a bit of a crisis. As described above, we’ve been having our own troubles, but we had had a pretty good week of training and we came into the match feeling positive.

As it turned out, the match was hard to classify. We played well at times, they played well at times, we played poorly at times, they played poorly at times and generally, the momentum of the match swung back and forth often. In the end though, we lost 3-2 and have to feel upset about a lost opportunity. I say lost opportunity because there were certain points in the match where we had the chance to take it over and leave them behind. We had several leads, and we scored a ton of points in our own serve, but just as quickly we would give those points right back through our own personal errors.

Once again, I got a chance to come into the match later, playing all of the fourth and fifth sets. And I feel good about what I did while I was out there. I think that generally, the tide changed for us once I got the chance to do a few things, serving and running the offense especially, but I still made a few decisions that weren’t correct and it hurt us in a few spots.

We’ve got to take this match, take the positive out of it (we won a pressure filled fourth set 33-31 in a hostile environment) remember it and then use the negative (losing big leads several times) to motivate us for the future. We should also take confidence from this one and hopefully start to understand how good we are as a team. I think everyone feels that we’re a better team than Berlin, unfortunately, we’re going to have to wait quite a while before we get another chance to prove it.

Now, we look forward to our first Cup tournament match this Sunday in the far South. I know very little about the team we’re playing as they are from somewhere down around the third league, except that they played a close training match against Friedrichshafen (playing without either setter). In any case, nothing but a win will be acceptable.

Guests

2006-11-21T16:18:00.000+01:00

As a part of the Marienlyst - Wuppertal cooperation agreement, Daniel Thompsen and Shane Alexander are both here for the week to train with us. So far, we've done very little ball work, opting instead, to lift weights and do more jump specific training. But, tonight we should have a mostly competetive practice and it should be interesting to see how they fit in with the rest of the guys. It's also great for us to have a couple extra players since we have had so many injuries lately. Although, with Shane, we now have three setters and that can never be a good thing. I might have to warm up the old shoulder and show the rest of the team how to put a couple of balls away.

Seriously though, it looks like Gergei and I will do a lot of switching in and out on one side while Shane runs a team on his own. Kind of a weird system but also kind of good for everyone. We get to work specifically with one side while Shane gets to figure things out and get a lot of touches. In any case, it should be nice to get a real strong practice under our belts, 6 vs. 6 is always so much better than 5 vs. 6 or whatever else. It makes a huge difference to have that complete team.

2006-11-15T19:15:00.000+01:00

One of the major differences between what I’ve experienced in Germany so far and what I experienced while I played in Denmark is the difference in the general attitude of the people. It’s a hard thing to describe accurately, but there is a certain palpable excitement that flashes across people’s faces when you tell them that you are a professional volleyball player. In Denmark, I had many a conversation that sounded like this:

Random Person: “So, what are you doing in Denmark?”
Me (after awkward look comes across my face): “I play volleyball?” (The question in my voice making it obvious that I don’t expect them to know what I’m talking about).
Random Person: “Nåh… Can you live from that?”
Me: “Barely.”

And then we would move on. The point is that people were generally put off by the idea that I could play volleyball professionally. I don’t know if it was because they had never heard of that before, if volleyball is so small that most people don’t know there is even a league, or if they just didn’t really care, but it was almost always the same weird conversation. Of course, some people were more enthusiastic than others, but no one ever got that kind of starry-eyed look in their eye.

Now, I’m definitely not trying to insinuate that I’m living here in Germany, snorting gold-laced cocaine off of the backs of rare Asian imported white tigers, eating only green M&M’s, like a rock star; however, there is a big difference in the way I, and the team are perceived. People here want autographs, they want to shake our hands and generally, they treat us with more respect than we deserve. It’s a thrill and a weird feeling all in one. In any case, it’s a big difference from what I’m used to.

Interlude

2006-10-25T21:52:00.000+02:00

I don't know if everyone knows this, but the Bundesliga is going to sleep for about a month starting this weekend. The break is because of the world championships in Japan in November and since Germany is competing several teams in the league will be missing players for the month.

What does that mean for the common man you ask? What will the average volleyball player be doing during this time?

Well, it means that we have a month without any league matches. It does not, however, mean we have no practice. Nope, we get one week off and then it's back to the grind. Circle/Circuit training will rear its ugly head, weight lifting will intensify and training will probably be a little bit more technical. Basically, we'll be doing all the same stuff we did during the pre-season in an effort to keep everyone's bodies from falling apart down the road.

We've been particularly affected by injuries so far this year losing a back up outside hitter for two months, one of our opposites until the end of November and Mads was just out for a little while. All of that besides the small injuries that everyone deals with day to day. But generally it has to be said that we're in pretty good shape at this point in the season. Sitting in third place after a good chunk of the first half of the schedule has been played. Admittedly, we've played our share of "weaker" teams, but none of those teams are easy teams to beat. From what everyone is saying, even though we aren't sitting in first place like last year, the team is playing better at this point in the season. So, hopefully things will continue to go the right way.

Over the weekend we played Rottenburg, a team that didn't play in the Bundesliga last year, and ended up winning 3-1. Again, I got a good chance to play in this match, coming in after the second set and helping our team win the last two. Things have gone well lately when I've been on the court and I've been pretty happy with the way I've developed. It's also fun to see the difference in our team when we switch setters. Gergei sets a lot more balls to the outside and pipe while I focus a lot on the middles and I think it throws other teams off to have to adjust to our very different playing styles. Of course, our own team has to adjust as well, but I don't think I've ever seen such a difference in style from one setter to the other.

We're going into the break optimistic after having accomplished a fair amount here in the beginning of the season. Good luck to everyone else who is actually playing during that time, I'm also looking forward to seeing Marienlyst come down here at the end of November, that should be fun as well. Also, good luck to those ripper Volleyroos, bloody oath!

First Start...Disaster.

2006-10-19T16:55:00.000+02:00

Driving the six hours back from Friedrichshafen last night I had a good chance to consider a match that our team will remember for a long time. Friedrichshafen is, without a doubt, a good volleyball team with lots of physical, experienced players on their roster. Clearly, there were few outside of Wuppertal that gave us very much chance to win a match in their gym. And after the way we played last night, those people are justified.

Positively for myself, I got my first start in a Wuppertal jersey last night, something I had hoped for but was still a little surprised to have happen. Standing on the court before the match started I was excited, it felt good to be out there from the beginning, hopefully it will happen more often in the future.

But, on to the match, as a whole it was a poor performance from our team. Afterwards, Jens said that he felt that we were influenced by the fact that it was Friedrichshafen on the other side and that we gave them too much respect. Whether or not that is true is unimportant, because in the end, it looked like we were. The mistakes we made were the ones that you make when you play scared, when you play afraid of making mistakes. As much of a cliche as that is, it was obviously true. I tend to think that we all put too much pressure on ourselves. Generally, when everyone is telling each other to, "play loose" and that, "we have nothing to lose" then the match is already lost. Why should we play any different than any other time? As soon as you start saying, "let's play loose" you are pretty much guaranteed to play tight. And we did.

For a good portion of the first and third set we were actually playing good volleyball, aside from serving. Our sideout was effective and we were able to keep the score close for long sections. Unfortunately, we couldn't put any defensive/serve pressure on them and that just made it too easy for their side. In the end, we would make a couple of mistakes and they would make a few good serves and all of a sudden we would be behind by three or four points at the end of the set.

I've played in matches like this before and I think that is what makes me sick about this match in particular. The next day, or even hours after playing, you sit back and think about the match and you realize that you did play nervous in some aspects and that it was totally stupid. You need to play as best as you can and let the chips fall where they may, but you don't play tentative because that never does anything good for anyone. The feeling I have, is that if I could do it over again, I could play the match ten times better than I did, mostly from the service line, and that's a feeling that I don't want to have again. It's a feeling that I tell myself to remember because the next time I am in that same situation, I have to be able to change my focus and get better. And that's what I want to kick myself for, because I know better.

Anyways, there were some positives, setting wise, I feel good about what I did yesterday. I'm unhappy with two or three decisions but those are going to happen sometimes. Otherwise, we can take this loss and turn it into something positive I hope. I think that if we all understand what happened yesterday and decide to embrace the fact that we can all learn from it we will get better and we will be better prepared to play in the same kind of match in the future. Even more importantly, even though we were controlled by them yesterday, that team is not unbeatable. And in the face of such a bad loss, we'll have to take whatever we can get out of it and move on.

Game Time

2006-10-16T22:23:00.000+02:00

I finally got a chance to play a fair amount in our match against VCO Berlin and I'll tell you what - playing is more fun than not playing!

We drove to Berlin a few men short, Lars and David are out with long term injuries and in the morning training before we left, Mads hurt his knee. So, going into the match we knew that there were two people left on the bench who could actually play if necessary: Me and a middle blocker, Andi.

We won the first set and lost the second, both semi-close. I came in at the end of the second set and played the last ten points, got subbed out for the last point and to my surprise came back to start the 3rd set. From there I played the rest of the way. We ended up winning the 3rd and 4th, still close, but no question about it, I had a good time finally playing a bit. I've been coming off the bench for small runs of points, tours through the backrow, etc... but haven't really had the chance to establish a real rhythm with the team, so it was really nice to get a chance to run my offense and settle into the match a little bit. In any case, it was exciting and even though we were supposed to beat this team, it still feels good to have had some influence on the match.

Now, we look to a much harder opponent. Tomorrow we leave for Friedrichshafen knowing that we're going to have to play a real good match if we want to come away with anything. Bet and Win has us as 11 to 1 underdogs so apparently our second place doesn't buy us very much respect...

#2 With a Bullet

2006-10-12T22:56:00.000+02:00

We’re several weeks into the main schedule now and everything is working out fairly well. At the moment we’re sitting number two tied with a couple of other teams. Partly because we have played more games, partly because we have had a fairly easy schedule so far and partly because we are playing pretty well and have won some important matches.

Our biggest win this year was clearly the 3-0 thrashing that we gave Moers in their home gym. Coming into the match they were heavily favored (I’m not sure exactly why, looking at their team and comparing to ours they are not particularly impressive) and had won against Unterhaching and SCC Berlin, two teams that are also top teams in the Bundesliga. Two things about Moers, they set the ball higher than I have ever seen a team set, the tempo of their offense is not one of their advantages. Blocking against them is like when you are learning to ride a bike and you have training wheels and then you take them off and suddenly riding is so much better and faster. We blocked a lot of balls in this match, mostly because we had enough time to (as Jens likes to say) enjoy a cup of coffee from the time the ball left the setter’s hands until it reached the attacker. Second thing about Moers, their opposite, George Grozer is probably the best attacker I have ever played against and I can understand why they set him so high. He hit balls out of the back row diagonally inside our three meter line, easily. It was impressive to see, the kind of hits where all you can do is just clap and say good hit, we’ll try and get the next one. I heard that Moers signed him to a contract a couple of years ago and he didn’t know that the club had put in an option for themselves that gave them the opportunity to keep him for two more years. Which sucks I’m sure when you are getting offers from Italy… Anyways, that was a big match for us and it has given us confidence that we can hopefully use against the big time teams later in the schedule.

This week we’re headed to Berlin to play one of the lowest ranked teams in the league. They are basically the junior national team and they aren’t terrible, but they haven’t won a match yet even though they have been close. Another win and we go into Friedrichshafen next week in the number two spot…

A Life on the Outside

2006-10-01T00:02:00.000+02:00

A few people have asked me what it’s like playing in a stronger league on a team with a deep roster. Generally, I tell them that it is all a learning experience for me, that I have slowly been getting used to the more physical, taller players and the faster tempo of the game. I came into this season with the expectation that I would have to play very well to earn a starting role on the team, and that it would take quite a bit of time before that could even happen. But, that doesn’t mean that standing outside of the court during our matches is easy.

Throughout my career as a volleyball player, I’ve spent little time on the bench. The times that I can remember are short and inconsistent with me being subbed in often. So, the situation here in Germany has been different for me. Up until now, I have yet to play my first points in the Bundesliga, in our two matches I’ve watched entirely from off the court.

Not playing is a grind. I’ve never realized what being a bench player entails, besides the physical aspect (standing for two hours and trying to remain warm is not really that easy, at least basketball and football players have actual benches to sit on) the mental side of being a back up is extremely difficult to grasp. Leading up to a match I can feel my body and my mind getting excited, after all, that’s what warm-ups are for, but as soon as the match is ready to begin and I’m not headed for the court, it is very difficult not to feel some sort of let down. Your body is ready to play, your mind is ready to play, and there is no outlet for that emotion. You feel the emotions with the rest of the team on the court, you want to win, and you want to help your team, but in the most basic way you have no connection to what is going on inside the court. It’s a hard adjustment to make when you are used to playing all the time.

Several people have also asked me how I feel about being on the outside of the court during matches. The question usually implies that I must have a hard time being satisfied with not starting but I don’t really feel that way. Is it hard not playing all the time? Sure. But do I have an issue with it? No, definitely not. Referring to my previous post, I’m fucking Zen. I knew where I stood when I came here, and I have no problem with competing for my spot. I’m going to keep coming to practice and I’m going to keep working hard until my chance comes. Because, to be honest, I like where I am right now, I like the fact that I can see improvement in my game every week. I like that I am getting more and more comfortable with each player and their role on the team. I’m confident that when it’s my turn I’ll be ready and that’s all that I can be at this point.

Tomorrow we play our second home match of the season against Leipzig. If we want to be a top team this year that means that this has to be a win for us. When you play at home against a team not named Friedrichshafen or Duren you pretty much have to win. So, hopefully the team will come with the same intensity that it did in the first set from last week. If we do, it won’t be easy to beat us…even if I’m not on the court…

Zen

2006-09-23T18:48:00.000+02:00

Two days ago, I had one of the worst days of practice I have ever had. Nothing went right, every touch on the ball felt awkward and wrong. Instead of doing something to help the team each time I played the ball I was doing the opposite. My hands felt sticky, my legs heavy and most importantly, my head was elsewhere. No matter what I did I couldn’t get myself into that place that an athlete needs to be in to do well. And after spending a lot of time replaying that day in my head, I think that I’m starting to understand why.

Here’s the main reason: My focus was misplaced. I don’t mean focus as far as concentrating on the game. I was most certainly focused on the task at hand. But specifically, I was focusing on things that were of absolutely no value to me at the time.

Let me explain the way practice was structured that day. Morning training consisted of a warm up game called Hagebau, a game based on the principles of soccer and volleyball, which has become just as competitive as anything else we do down here. This day, the “young” team, made up of the younger players on the team, killed the old and set the negative tone for what would be a terrible day for me. Afterwards we did a bit of straight setter training and a few light drills afterward. The night training, and I count this as the worst of the two, was basically a competitive practice with scrimmage-like drills taking up all of the two hours.

The thing that worried me most about playing so poorly on this day was the fact that I had a good feeling going into the day. I’ve felt an improvement in my game over the last few weeks, and felt that I had been training well, doing my job and working hard to get better every single day. My serving felt stronger than it had in a long while, my hands felt light like I could do almost anything with the ball I wanted to. In short, I felt strong. So, going into the day, I was full of confidence, I knew that I was improving and I was looking forward to getting a chance to continue.

But somewhere along the way, my priorities got mixed up. Instead of going into that night competitive training with the mindset that I was going to keep improving, focus on the aspects of my game that needed work and just work hard, I came in thinking only about winning. Now, winning is absolutely one of the most important parts of playing sports. Anyone who says different is not being honest with themselves or anyone around them. But, focusing on winning, especially while playing, is a complete and utter waste of time.

The concept is nothing profound. I don’t claim that what I’m saying is innovative or deep. However, I do believe that it is something we lose sight of all the time.

For example, when I walked into the gym on Thursday night, I had already had a full training earlier in the day where I didn’t feel very good about my game. Like I said, my legs were slow, my hands didn’t feel very good, I didn’t feel like I could make solid connection with the ball. I knew all of these things, I felt them somewhere in the back of my mind but when I got to training and I saw that we were going to have a competitive game like practice I immediately started thinking about winning each drill. We warmed up, did hitting lines and served. And I still didn’t feel good about my game, but I remember still thinking, when the games start, hopefully I’ll be able to switch it around.

What happened? The team I was on lost every single set that we played. Zero wins and five losses. And we switched around a lot so I brought the losses to both sides of the net. As a setter, I take a lot of responsibility for those losses. No one has a bigger influence on the outcome of a volleyball match than a setter.

The funny thing is, I spent the whole time worrying about the score, worrying about the refereeing, worrying about the difference in how hard the free balls were to my side of the net compared to their side of the net. Worrying about losing…

I finally realized afterward that these were the things that a loser would think about. These were the things that I hadn’t been spending my time on for the past two months.

So, what should I have been thinking about? Well, that’s the tough question. The more I think about it, and this is for me personally, the more I think that getting better and being a great player is based on working on your weaknesses all the time. More than that, it is identifying your weaknesses on any given day. Maybe today your legs are tired and that means that you have to work that much harder to make sure you move your feet and get to the position you need to be in. I have a tendency to drop my hands when I set and not take the ball as high as I should (something I did all of Thursday without doing anything about it) and I have to remind myself all the time to take the ball high. We all have lots of things that we have to work on and it is a constant struggle with yourself to keep working on those things. But the only way to get better is to focus on them and correct them and continue to develop as a player.

Second, I think all great players have the ability to drop all of their insecurities when they get on the court. This is directly related to focus because once you drop that insecurity you are free to just play the game. All of a sudden, winning doesn’t reflect positively or negatively on the player because it is what we can call an “outcome goal”. We all know that winning is not 100% dependent on how well we play, there are several factors that influence the outcome of every match or game. Luck, weather, opponent’s ability, refereeing, teammates, these are all things that can make even the best performance a losing one. Without insecurity, a player can play without distraction, the only thing that matters is their performance and knowing inside their heart that they have done all that they could do to help their team. They can be courageous and they can play without pressure because the only important pressure comes from inside, and usually, a player who plays this way wins. Once you forget about winning, you generally win and that, for me, is a zen-like state.

So, that’s where I’m at right now, trying to lose all of my insecurities. Trying to take what the coaches tell me without saying, “But….” Because they don’t want to hear an excuse and an excuse only holds me back from my goals. When I make a mistake, the goal is to correct that mistake and do it right next time, not to get angry at my hitter for not putting the ball away so that I don’t look bad. I lose sight of this all the time and it doesn’t do anyone any good, and I think if we’re being honest others do too, and it all comes from being insecure about our own abilities and what others, whether it’s a coach or spectators, etc…, think about us.

Friday was a much better day and even though I’m sure there will be more bad days at some point, I’m trying to stay zen. Until we lose in Hagebau again that is…

Unterhaching.

2006-09-20T17:27:00.000+02:00

Unterhaching is a suburb of Munich, about a six hour drive from Wuppertal, and consistently one of the top five or six teams in the German Bundesliga. We’ve had a good pre-season with only a few setbacks along the way. Other than one terrible training match in Duren and the finals in the Bottrop tournament where we were missing all of our outside hitters we’ve won pretty much every match we’ve played. Everyone has told me that we were farther along than last season’s team at the same point in the season and that we had a great chance to go to Unterhaching and take home two points. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.

I personally didn’t really know what to expect from the experience. Being my first ever match here in Germany, I had very little idea of how the match would go and how good Unterhaching actually would be. It turns out, they can play, and also, it is going to be extremely important to protect home court advantage when we play in our own Bayer Halle. The difference in the season is going to come between the middle five teams – Eltmann, Unterhaching, Moers, Us and SCC Berlin.

Unterhaching relies heavily on two main guys, an outside hitter – Stankovic and an opposite – Mayer. Mayer jumps very well and hits the ball high when the set and rhythm are there. He kind of reminds me of Danny Weemes, just 25-30% better. They ran their offense fast to the outside but fairly slow to the right side and not particularly fast to their middles. Overall, they are a good team that can play at a high level at times.

The match was close all the way. Neither team took a very big lead at any time except when they sprinted out to a five or six point lead in the fourth set, and neither team could really put the other away. Playing from behind seemed easier for both us and them. The last set was no exception with us leading by one or two points throughout, we looked like we were going to sideout our way to a win but around 13-12 or so we couldn’t finish. Two middle sets from their side one the last two points and we were looking at six hours of driving carrying a loss home with us.

We’ve talked quite a bit about the loss in the last few days, and needless to say, no one is particularly happy about it. On the positive side, the team performed at a high level for much of the match and we actually won more total points. Last year the team came into Unterhaching and lost 1-3 without really pushing them at all, so it looks like this year’s team has potential to be around the top of the league. Also, if we get a couple of breaks to go our way, we win this match and everything feels a lot better.

Personally, it was a good experience to be a part of the match. I actually didn’t play at all (some thoughts on this soon) but most of our bench got into the game at one time or another and everyone did a pretty good job. The crowd was pretty solid, 700 or so in an intimate space made the match that much more exciting. Our first home match is coming this weekend and I can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

Unterhaching

2006-09-19T09:30:00.000+02:00

Our first match is over and we're starting to get a good feel for where our level lies in comparison to the rest of the league. Things aren't ever going to be easy for us especially when we are away from home. Teams like Unterhaching, Moers and Eltman will absolutely put the wood to you if you don't come into their gym and play good consistent volleyball. We failed to do that over the weekend and we paid for it.

The match itself was pretty exciting, very close all the way with a lot of lead changes and at times a pretty high level of volleyball. It was not a good feeling to lose this one.

I'll write more about the whole experience in the next day and post it here.

Odense, Denmark

2006-09-13T12:03:00.000+02:00

When we left for Denmark, I was pretty excited for a few different reasons. Besides being free from punishing my body physically everyday and the chance to finally play a little more volleyball. I was mainly interested in what it would be like to play some matches against Pepperdine.

As long as I have been here in Europe, I’ve wondered how well teams from the American college system would fair against teams from Europe. It’s been a topic of discussion with nearly any foreigner that I have ever encountered during the time that I have been here without anyone ever being able to make a defining argument for either side. I’ve heard people say that American teams would dominate in Denmark, I’ve heard that they would be somewhere in the middle and I’ve heard that they wouldn’t do as well as it seems they would. My feeling has always been that a good American team would sit somewhere in the top four in Denmark. What made this trip even better was that we would get to see how well a good American team would do against teams from not only Denmark, but Sweden and Germany as well.

Personally, getting to play against Pepperdine again was a special experience. I’ve known their coach, Marv Dunphy for a long, long time. Both my parents went there and my dad played both with and under him back in the 70’s. Plus, Pepperdine is always a good team, so they were a perfect sample for the comparison of American and European volley. And the result is that they did pretty well without really proving anything.

We spent four days in Sønderborg team building and playing American football and Frisbee golf while still training some volleyball and playing two matches against Pepperdine. It was nice to be back in Denmark for a little while, especially on the coast with easy access to the ocean and beaches. I’m not exactly sure that I’m ever going to be ready to live too far away from the sea like here in the middle of the European continent. The air is just different.

But, the time was well spent. We were head and shoulders above Pepperdine in the two training matches that we played, winning 8-1 over the two days. Unfortunately for them, they were missing one of their best players (a 201cm outside hitter) from the beginning and lost yet another starting outside hitter in the middle of our first match when he dislocated his shoulder in a collision with another teammate. As far as the volleyball went, their biggest problem is being young and undeveloped. Their first seven were possibly physical enough to play with us but as soon as you got down into their bench, they just weren’t strong or experienced enough to play with anyone on our team.

Some notes from their team: I loved their setter, great size, great hands and a good attitude as far as I could tell. He’s got to work a little more on the way he runs his offense and try to put more tempo into his sets because generally they weren’t fast enough. But those are things that can easily be corrected in the next couple of years, he is still very young. Otherwise, their middles were generally more effective than most of the other teams we saw in Denmark. Somehow, I feel that American teams put more emphasis on attacking out of the middle. When I was in college, all I heard was set to the middle repetitively, and it seems like Pepperdine did that with a lot of success as well. I don’t think they looked real impressive but I would guess that their middles hit a very high percentage.

Otherwise, the trip was a success. We won the Marienlyst tournament with only a few problems along the way, including a five set final. The tournament looked pretty solid, if a little early in the season, with a nice mixture of teams from Denmark and abroad. I should say congratulations to Jesper Hansen and the rest of the club for organizing everything and pulling it off without a hitch.

It looks like the Danish league is going to be competitive again this year with four, five or possibly even six pretty good teams fighting at the top. From the looks of things, Marienlyst and Gentofte are a tad ahead of the rest of the pack, but lots of things always happen once the season gets going.

Overall, a good experience, capped off by a classic night at Christian Firtal and Frank A. Good luck to everyone who was there. It’ll be exciting to see how things go.

Pre-Season Review

2006-09-11T11:42:00.000+02:00

It was slightly premature when I said earlier that this blog was back. A certain internet company, which will remain nameless, who has their name plastered all over the shirts of a certain Champions League playing German football team, decided that me having internet was not very high up on their list of priorities. The result, after numerous trips to the store, and several phone conversations, is that last week the apartment finally joined the modern era…

With that said, I wanted to start by looking back at what has been going on down here during the past month.

First, I want to say that it has been an experience being a part of this team. Besides working hard on the court, we’ve got several initiatives off of the court that we have been participating in. More importantly than that, there is an overall feeling that we’re headed towards something, both as a volleyball team and as a part of the community. Without overplaying it, I think that everyone in the club feels the same way and it’s a good thing for all of us.

The season unofficially started a few weeks ago with our first big exhibition match against Duren. Duren has been one of the best teams in Germany over the last few years. They have finished in the top 2 and actually done a fairly decent job in Champions League.

Coming into the match, I had no idea what to expect. We had worked very hard with our conditioning and strength programs over the first month, but hadn’t spent a whole lot of time on volleyball specific drills. We had played a little but certainly not a lot and were still working to get everyone on the same page. We were at a normal early-early season place for most volleyball teams and it was exciting to see where our level was. We’d also been making a big deal out of this match as a part of a “Double Feature” with handball, there were posters plastered all around town, radio announcements, etc… And it turns out that quite a few people responded. There were around a thousand people in the stands when the lights turned off and the music started for introductions.

It was actually something that I needed some time to get used to. Drums were banging, people were screaming and the game moved at a faster pace than I was used to. We ended up winning in four sets (no thanks to my poor performance in the third set) and even though Duren was missing one of their best players, it was a good win for us and for the crowd. Anytime you beat a good team you have to be happy about it.

Just for a quick comparison point to Denmark, after the match we had several jobs to do during the handball match. Some people started by serving drinks, etc… in the bar for the fans, some mingled downstairs in the VIP room with the sponsors and some sat at a table and signed autographs. Weird experience.

So, it was a good start to the season for us. And a good way to end our “pre-season/hell conditioning program” while transitioning to the next phase of our preparation. Next Stop: Denmark.

Slightly More Work

2006-07-31T19:52:00.000+02:00

Around 8 - 10 practices per week.

3 X Circle Training
3 X Weight Training
2 X Spinning
2 X Stabilization Training
5 X Ball Training
+ Testing + Running

What's a poor young man to do?

Things are progressing nicely down here. It's only been one week of actual training but I can already see the ways that this year will be different from all of the others I have experienced so far. My body hurts but not in a bad way, and somehow when you expect the work to be hard, it isn't as bad. Hopefully things will keep progressing in a positive direction...

Inspiration at Ishøj

2006-07-21T14:42:00.000+02:00

First of all, Germany is hot. Yeah, yeah, Denmark has also been hot lately, but not like this. Not like 37 degrees everyday. So, the fact that I can even raise myself off of the couch to type anything is amazing. Second, I’ve got no internet access at the moment, which means I’ve got to go to the internet café to get anything posted…second strike against posting anything on the blog. Third, it has been so long since I regularly posted, I would be surprised if anyone is even reading anymore. BUT I’m going to do it anyways, because what I saw at Ishøj deserves to be written about. It’s that simple.

It’s a funny thing, the idea of electricity and sports. It’s a common notion though. And really, it doesn’t matter what the sporting event is, whether it is a World Cup final or a local table tennis club rivalry, if there are certain elements in place the atmosphere can become electric. In other words, it can be exciting, emotional and interesting beyond any normal expectation. As athletes/sports fans, we can all remember watching or participating in something that felt special, whether it was because of the fans, the quality of the play or the circumstances of the match, it is set apart in our brains for a long, long time.

This general feeling applies in other areas of entertainment as well. For example, certain concerts can be dull and un-interesting, even if the performer is someone we usually consider to be great. Sometimes a band we don’t know can give a concert and put on a show that is somehow just electric. And these are the performances we remember.

Okay, after all of that, I don’t want to overstate the things that I saw at Ishøj. This was not the most incredible thing that I have ever seen and I didn’t start crying out of pure emotional joy while watching on the sidelines. But, there was something there in that final that I don’t think I have seen in a long time on the Danish volleyball scene. I’m not sure if everyone felt it the way I did, but that final will stick with me for a long time.

I can’t help but think that it was the first time, besides on Amager, that a final took place in the perfect beach volleyball atmosphere. This is the way beach volleyball is supposed to be seen and enjoyed. Spectators are supposed to be sitting in their seats, shirts off, wondering if they should apply another layer of sun block because they can feel the raw burn of the sun. They should have an obvious favorite, someone that they can root for and someone they can root against (this is of course better if there are two factions of fans, each rooting for their own team) which they had in Ishøj. In any case, they should have a reason to cheer, anything but sit there like dead cattle.

That was a bit of a tangent, but the point is that, this was a true beach volleyball final. And I don’t care if you think I’m being arrogant, I’m from Southern California, I know about the atmosphere for beach volleyball…

Most importantly, there was passion. Passion that was tangible, that, I think, we could all feel. That made the finals a memorable experience. And, if I’m being completely honest here, most of that passion was coming from Siig and Teis. So, congratulations on the win, although I don’t enjoy losing to you guys, I do appreciate what you are doing!
The other thing that really stuck out at me, that I think made things even more exciting, was that it felt like we were seeing the beginning of a real rivalry. We all know that at the moment, the two best teams in Denmark are Teis and Siig and Anders and Bo, yet for some reason or another, this is the first time we have seen the two teams at full strength against each other. Somehow, you just get the feeling that we’re going to see this final repeated a few more times down the road, and as a fan that is a good thing. I wish I could see more.

Coming soon, a little bit about life in Germany (candy and chocolate for everyone)...practice starts on Monday...don't forget to tell everyone you know that I heart volley is back!

Stop staring at my Assens!

2006-06-30T17:30:00.000+02:00

A bad joke to make up for all the missed time in the last few months...

But clearly, it has been a revelation to be back in sunny Denmark. Whenever I leave the beach with bright red, sunburned skin instead of a heavy winter jacket and rain pants, I am a happy man. And everyone is predicting that this weekend will be even better. So, thank you to the weather gods, perhaps all of the bad summers over the last couple of years are being repaid right now.

Obviously some changes have been made out on tour. The switch to Nestea as the main sponsor seems to be going okay. A little weird to see white and blue instead of orange all over the courts, but nothing too dramatic. I realize also that Nestea isn't supplying the same amount of money that Fanta was before, and there isn't much to do about it, as having a tour is better than not having a tour. But it would be nice if the prize money was still the same. It hurts that there is no money for anyone past third place. Makes that long drive to Løkken or Ishoj just a little bit more expensive. I'm not here to complain about money though!

I want to say that I think the Danish volleyball tour has always done a good job. I've always felt that the organization is good and the tournaments are run well. No real wasted time, no unnecessary problems, etc.. It's great that everything will continue. Further, it seemed to me that there have been some absolutely positive changes this year. Most significantly, it seems like the hand setting rule has been examined and tweaked a little bit to more closely resemble the international standard. I think it's great. I claim before every tournament that I will begin hand setting in that tournament but somehow I never do. Nevertheless, to me, it is a positive change and I'm glad that the referees are willing to go in that direction.

As far as my tournament in Feddet, I don't want to say much more than to compliment Martin for playing some really good volleyball, it's not easy playing with a partner who contributes about 20% of what he should. I'm not sure if I have ever been as tired as I was in our match on Sunday morning but I guess I should expect that after a month and a half laying on the couch...

Assens looks like it is going to be a great tournament. If for nothing else, the weather should be spectacular, and really, that's enough to make the weekend worthwhile. After seeing them play last weekend, it will be interesting to see if anyone can threaten Bo and Anders in this tournament. They certainly look sharp. It will also be interesting to see Martin and Teis and what they can do. Teis doesn't really jump ever anyway so his stomach shouldn't really be an issue (: I guess that means that Martin will be playing two weekends in a row with someone who can't jump or move... Look forward to seeing everyone on the beach!

Free Time

2006-04-22T21:09:00.000+02:00

When I'm not playing volleyball this is what I spend my time doing... Rescuing random cats out of the walls. Believe me, I'd like to know how it got in there also, but the real question is what one does with a face like that.

GOLD

2006-04-12T12:46:00.000+02:00

As the remaining tendrils of cigar smoke and the boozy haze in my brain recede, I realize, I've had little time to reflect on what has been a unique season. Thinking back to August and the beginning, all sorts of thoughts come to mind. It's been bumpy along the way. From somersaults to a gimpy shoulder to coming back from the dead in Gentofte, somehow we managed to do what I can quite honestly say, didn't seem probable at many times, win the Danish Championship for a second time in a row.

Without getting too deep into everything, I just want to say that personally, I'm incredibly proud of the accomplishment. I'm proud of the way this team had a knack for winning close matches. I'm proud that we got better as the season went along. And I'm proud that we won a league that was more competitive than it has been in a long time. So, Fellas, congratulations on a fantastic season! It's been an absolute pleasure.

For me, it's kind of a weird feeling. I've been in Denmark for several years now, and I love it. But, and I know this isn't a big surprise, I've decided to sign a contract in Germany with Wuppertal for next season, so my time here is over (at least for the moment). I'm going to continue with the blog next season, so I hope some of you will keep reading, I don't know if there will be anything too interesting to report, but I guess we'll find out!

But now, it's time to get on a plane and find my way home for a little while. That means the blog is going to be off for a couple months, I might post every once in awhile if I feel like saying something or if I play in a couple AVP tournaments... But I doubt it. Laying around in the sun, on the beach, takes up a lot of time. I'll be back in the middle of June, possibly playing in one or two tournaments on the Fanta Tour, definitely hanging around and watching some, and generally enjoying the wonderful Danish summer.

Ses!

FINALS

2006-04-08T11:16:00.000+02:00

There is little to report from last night's first final. The gym was set up, the fans were there, and the match was slightly disappointing. As has been reported, we won the match in fairly safe style, winning by at least four in each of the three sets. We played stable but not especially well and it was enough to win a match that had quite a few mistakes in it.

There were definitely some good things from our side. We played good defense, blocked pretty well and only gave up a couple runs of points. But all in all it was a workmanlike win for us that we'll take and head back home for Monday.

It feels good to have that first win in the bank, and the security of home court for the next two. We've played well in Marienlystcentret all year so we go home with confidence. No question the next match will be more intense, from both sides, hopefully we'll be the ones holding up the trophy after it is over!

After heart attack comes the finals...

2006-04-03T14:56:00.000+02:00

I don't need to tell everyone all the same stuff that everyone else already has. The match was ridiculous and I'm still not positive that we won. I'm still waiting for someone to come to me and say that the match isn't over and that we need to go back to Copenhagen to play the rest of it. We essentially lost (down 24-21 with Jacob passing) and won (Toke blocking at 14-12) before actually winning the match. It was a great experience, one that I will remember for a long time, but I'm not entirely sure that I could take it if I had to do it again, say...tomorrow. Luckily, we're in the finals and we can now focus on getting ready for Friday.

I'm glad that we finally got to play a match where both teams could say afterward that they played at a high level. I'm sure it doesn't make up for losing, but with the way that Gentofte played yesterday, it has to take some of the sting out of it. When you perform the way you want to and your opponent does the same it is hard to be too down about losing. And obviously, there was very little that separated us from each other yesterday, one ball goes the other way and we're going back to Marienlyst to play again tomorrow.

As far as what happened after the match, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, things were intense and I have said before that I personally have no problem with trash talking. If you really think about it, yesterday's match was probably one of the best in a long time in Denmark, it was also one of the most "talkative" matches I have been a part of since being here. If nothing else, the talking contributed to the intensity of the volleyball. So, in that sense, I loved it.

On the other hand (And please remember this is just my feeling on the subject), in my mind, there is a certain art to trash talking. The people who are really good at it have a way of making it entertaining, funny, cool and effective. Rarely does it get personal and rarely does it have to do with anything more than the sport at hand. I mean otherwise, you're not really trash talking, you're just talking shit about someone to their face. And I think what got out of hand yesterday is that a lot of things were said that would NEVER be said off the court and to someone's face. From both sides.

Obviously there is no need to get physical about it, but let's just remember there is no need to keep talking after the match is over. And this isn't to sound like a "tough guy" but if you do persist on talking after the match then you have to also be willing to stand by what you say, it was intense and that meant that any number of reactions could have occurred. I didn't hear what was said, and I honestly don't know who started the whole thing, I'd imagine both sides are guilty, so let's just put it all behind us and stop taking everything so personally.

Hats off to Gentofte and to the crowd yesterday, thanks for making the match a classic. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened in a third and deciding match...

Team of the Year

2006-03-30T11:04:00.000+02:00

By now it seems like everyone has a feeling one way or the other about the new team of the year voting. I’m no exception and I think it is fairly ridiculous. First though, let me just say that I think it reveals a larger problem in Danish volleyball: Namely, the tendency to change the way things work all the time, regardless of whether they work well or not. Since I’ve been in Denmark, I’ve played three different formats for the finals, I’ve seen the grundspil change, I’ve seen the team of the year voting change twice, etc… I admit, some of the changes have been positive (taking points from the grundspil over to the slutspil for example) but generally, it seems to just be change for change’s sake. I’ve also heard from a lot of people that there have been constant changes throughout the history of Danish volley. I do understand that change is necessary and that the DVBF is doing these things in the name of progress, but it just seems like overkill sometimes.

As for the new team of the year selection process, I’m fairly skeptical. For most of the same reasons as everyone else, who are these people on the committee? Have they seen any of us play? What was wrong with the old system, etc…

And while I agree that some players voted “tactically” or not seriously, the majority took it seriously. Who is to say that the new system isn’t going to be more political than the old? Now you have a small group of people deciding the outcome of the team, if only one or two have a stronger connection to one team or one player than another then you have a major problem. Say they haven’t seen two of the teams play this season? No matter how objective they want to be, they are naturally going to vote for what they know. I think that is a shame. Let’s look at the board: One person doesn’t even live in Denmark, so that’s interesting. A couple of the others, I admit, I don’t know who they are so they could have been at some of the games and I wouldn’t know. I know that at least two live in Copenhagen so they would have seen most of their games in Copenhagen, where most teams would be playing away.

I realize that the coaches are going to be making a lot of these decisions, with the nominations, etc… And the board will kind of be settling any disputes that come along, but to me that is backward. You’re giving the power to a select few instead of the masses. It’s kind of an oligarchic Greek step back in time, where we need Rome and the republic. I just think the old system worked well, had a few small flaws and satisfied everyone while the new system may work well, may have big flaws and leaves many people unsatisfied.

I think the people that get left off the list will have more to complain about this year than before. No one ever got edged out by someone’s joke vote, generally there were two or three legitimate candidates that got most of the votes and then there were a few dumb votes down the line. But, at least a player could see where he stood. If they missed by a couple of votes, they missed by a couple votes, not much to do about it, the votes weren’t there. Now, if you come in second, you have to wonder, who was it that didn’t vote for me? Did they see me play one bad game? Did they see the other guy play one good game? Did they see me play at all? I think in general the process is losing credibility by switching.

I can say personally, as a player, it felt good to have the other players in the league vote for me. I trust the people that I play against every day more than anyone else, they know who gives them the most problems during a match, they know about the little things that affect the outcome of the match that you can’t really pick up from the stands.

Who says that people voted tactically anyways? Coordinating votes as a team? Who are the teams that do this? I’ll happily state here in full view that if your team discussed this and coordinated your votes so that someone on your team made it, then you all are ridiculous people. You can have my player of the year award if it means that much to you. I have a hard time believing that this happens.

In the end, I think there is space for this committee, if it necessary. But I would like to see a system that takes everything into account. We could keep the committee and the coaches, and still have the players vote. Then we could assign a certain weight to each of the results. More information usually equals more accuracy and the players would still get to have a say. Simple.

Ok, enough about that, I’m not really in favor of the new system. But I love all of you on the committee! And the coaches too! I’m sure you’ll all make the right decisions for nominations…

I am actually glad that they brought back the “player of the year” category, that was always kind of a mystery that they stopped naming a best player. So, that is positive. Now they just have to start giving money again to the people who make the team, that was also nice.

I’m not so sure about the referee of the year category. I think that it probably should be recognized, but it would help if they would have told us about this earlier so I could have been thinking about it during the season. It’s fairly hard to think back and remember which referees were working each match, with the exception of some of the times I was unsatisfied. It’s kind of like you never really notice a really good ref, as it should be, so it is hard to remember the well refereed matches. But, I’m not voting, so I guess it doesn’t matter.

Last thing, I understand that the team of the year should be unveiled at the finals, and that is fine. But I definitely think that performances in the semi-finals and if possible, the first final match should be taken into account. I mean, those are important matches, I don’t see why they wouldn’t count towards the voting.

One of these days soon, I’ll write down who I would have voted for and why for this year. I was going to wait until after we voted, but since that isn’t happening, it doesn’t really matter.

Good luck to everyone this weekend!

No Time.

2006-03-28T12:39:00.000+02:00

Reading Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink” in the past week has been a kind of enlightening experience. The idea behind the book is that as humans, our unconscious has a much stronger effect on our everyday interactions than we realize. Most interestingly, he discusses “quick-splicing”, the idea that our sub-conscious makes quick decisions on our behalf before we really have a chance to think about something. Without going deeply into examples and studies from the book, he essentially theorizes that we are all the time making decisions and judgments that we don’t realize we are making. These decisions and judgments range from seemingly unimportant, understanding what someone means when they point to a painting on the wall, to profoundly significant, hiring a tall person instead of a short person because we respond to taller people in a more positive way. Gladwell states that we are all more racist/sexist/discriminative than we want to believe and that the idea behind the book is realizing this so that we can do something about changing it.

All of this has little to do with volleyball, but as I started thinking about the connection between our “quick-splicing” abilities and sports it became clear that sports are all about fast decision making. It is generally accepted that the best athletes, the ones who reach the highest levels, are the ones that can separate themselves out mentally. To me, “quick-splicing” plays a huge role in this when someone steps onto the court. If you ask a great player, in the middle of a match, why they decided to step two steps to the left in order to be in position for a dig, I don’t think they will be able to answer that easily. Of course they will say, the position of the block, the tendency of the hitter and other things all came together to help make the decision. But, I would argue that there is more to it than that. Our brain makes calculations all of the time, whether or not we are consciously telling it to, and those calculations play a major role in how we react to stressful situations like the middle of a rally on the volleyball court.

We’ve all experienced standing at the net, saying specifically that the opposing team’s setter is in the front row, and as soon as the play takes place the setter dumps the ball down on our side and no one on our team makes a move for the ball. How can something like this happen? We just said that we should be ready for it. Everyone heard that the setter was front row, but no one registered the information. I think a lot can be explained by understanding that our brain is thinking without us realizing it. When the play gets underway, our brain begins to run automatically, we have little or no time to think about what is happening, the things we do are decided by a new part of our brain.

What about beach volleyball? I think many of us have experienced having the other team make a short cut shot, a shot that in the moment, seems impossible to get to. So, we don’t run after it because we have already decided it isn’t reachable. Yet, we all know that in reality, if we did try as hard as possible to get to that ball, we would reach it a certain percentage of the time. It is this negative reaction, deciding that we can’t, that is the challenge for us as volleyball players. How do we overcome the bad “quick-splice” where our brain gives us poor information?

Through experience mainly. In the book, Gladwell references a company that trains body guards. The guards are forced to undergo several severely emotional tests in order to be able to eventually have better control over their body in these stressful situations. They must fight with rabid attack dogs, more than once, until they are able to deal with the situation in a calm and rational manner. They go into a dark house where they are shot with rubber bullets at different intervals, they can feel the bullets and the experience is just like being shot for real, until their body can cope with the shock of the situation. Eventually, they are able to function and maintain a normal level of decision making because of the heavy testing. I’m not recommending that a volleyball player go to these extremes, but if you want to break these bad habits, these bad quick-decisions your brain is making for you, you have to force yourself to go beyond your normal comfort zone.

The idea behind the book is incredibly interesting to me. I’m not positive there is any real connection between sports and Gladwell’s thoughts but I feel strongly somewhere in my brain that there is something there that athletes can use. And I guess there isn’t anything wrong with trusting my intuition.

Catch 3-2

2006-03-26T16:39:00.000+02:00

Just a few quick notes on our final match of the regular season.

I didn't really know what to expect from a match that had no real meaning for either team. Of course you want to win, there is no doubt about that, but the way that both teams played yesterday was fairly unremarkable. The match itself wasn't pretty to look at and I think it was fairly obvious that everyone was kind of holding back a little bit. We ended up pulling it out 3-2 but it didn't seem like they were too upset on the other side of the net... One more week and things get interesting!

Number 1

2006-03-24T14:26:00.000+01:00

Kind of out of nowhere, but with Middelfart losing last night, the slutspil is done. We finish first no matter what happens in Gentofte and we play them in the semi-finals starting next weekend. I was skeptical that Middelfart would lose again to HIK but clearly, they have their issues with the team from up north. I guess it will be interesting to see what happens in their semi-final as well, especially considering that HIK was the only team this year to have an overall winning record against Middelfart... I guess in the end it doesn't really matter who plays who, anyone can win.

Tomorrow's match is interesting to me because it means nothing whatsoever. Absolutely nothing. I don't know if I have ever played in that kind of match before, frankly, I don't know how to feel about it. I mean, we learn that it is important to win when we play sports, that wins and losses add up to eventually mean something overall. But in this case, our fate is decided, we have no role to play, winning is irrelevant and losing is irrelevant. One could make the case that it is a kind of test for the semi-finals, to see where both teams stand in comparison to each other, but that only really means something if both teams are trying their hardest to win. And I'm not sure that we both will be.

This subject gets debated quite a bit in the US, especially around NFL playoff time, because most of the time the best teams are guaranteed their position in the playoffs. People spend lots of time debating whether it is better to rest their starters and not "give anything away" for the playoffs or if it is better to just keep playing like they have all season. Can a team interrupt their rhythm by taking out all of their normal starters? Is it really important in volleyball to rest and be fresh for the playoffs? In our specific case, will Gentofte have a better read on our players if we play like we normally do this weekend? Will they be able to use that to their advantage when we play in the semis?

I personally think it doesn't really matter. There is plenty of tape out there from us playing this season, we've already played Gentofte three times, so I don't think there are a whole lot of surprises left, but who knows? I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow and figure it out from there.

Middelfart

2006-03-20T12:16:00.000+01:00

I don't have a whole lot to say about the Middelfart match in particular. We played well and they didn't, in many ways it was the exact opposite of when we played them earlier in Middelfart. Our passing was extremely good which made it easy for me to stand at the net and distribute. Their passing wasn't as good and it made it easier for us to get some reads and block some balls. But, I'm not putting too much weight into this one, both teams have now gotten a bad game out of their system against each other and if we get the chance to play against each other again I would expect a whole different scenario.

What I do think is interesing is the way that each of the top four teams have put a solid beating on each other (with the exception of HIK vs Us) at different times this year. Does that mean that any team can win on any day? Is it all about form? Or did one or two teams just slip at the wrong time? In other words, was it poor play from one of the teams? Or was it good play from the winning teams? Can we really characterize a favorite based on consistecy throughout the season? I guess the semi-finals will give us some answers. In any case, I don't think I have seen a season where there has been such a huge variance between individual matches, it's exciting to see how it all turns out.

On another note, and this has been covered, SK has unfortunately dropped out of the top four and will not be in the semis this year. I wonder what the team will look like next year. Is there anyone from Aarhus that can shed some light on that? And does anyone know if Sasha can play in their last match? Just wondering about the rules and what happens if you get kicked out of a game. I know that if it was Villadsen who did that he would have been probably kicked out of the league... Anyways, congratulations to the four teams left, I'm looking forward to getting things started.

Weekend 18306

2006-03-17T11:51:00.000+01:00

A pretty quick turn around from our match on Wednesday against HIK to playing Middelfart on Sunday. But hopefully we'll be ready, I know it took me a little extra time to get the old body ready yesterday for practice. That also reminds me, since we weren't allowed to practice at Marienlyst all of last week, we trained in Odense Idrœtshal instead, and my knees weren't particularly happy with switching back. I'm still not sure whether the floor in Marienlyst is especially bad for players, my legs and knees seem to adapt after a short time, but it's funny how much of a difference I notice after a week playing on wood. A lot of people say we have a big home court advantage there in Marienlystcentret, and I have to agree, but is it because of the floor? Or just the gym in general? I personally think it is one of the best home courts in the league, I like the small setting (because we don't usually have a thousand people) and I like the setup. No matter what, it is a different experience playing there than anywhere else and I think that is important. The worst place I have ever played in was PVC, there is no doubt about that, but I would also list Hvidovre and Spentrup as unremarkable places to play. Aarhus gets a pass because Hal 4 has sentimental value for me. But, isn't it kind of funny? The best teams all have a nice home court, besides SK which is questionable in other ways as well, is that a reflection of them having more money? Better management? Better organization? Is it just luck?

Anyways, back to the volley, I'm looking forward to this one, we've got a lot to prove to everyone, including ourselves after the beating we took last time. Hopefully the aformentioned home court advantage will make a difference. But there is no doubt that we'll have to do quite a bit to beat them, as we haven't really been able to win against them all year.

As everyone knows, SK and HIK are playing a HUGE game tomorrow, wish I could be there to see it, it almost has to be a classic. Both teams are essentially playing for the playoffs and that match is just always good anyways. Thinking about this one doesn't seem like it will get me anywhere so I'm just going to use the "Blink" strategy and quick splice it...SK wins this one. (Which, so far this year, means that I have absolutely cursed them with my pick. I admit, it is not often that I have been right). So, sorry, SK. If I think about it, I would say that SK is a little hotter, plus they are at home, plus HIK had to play us away on Wednesday, and there is no doubt SK will win if HIK plays the same as they did on Wed. Interesting to see what happens.

Gentofte of course is also playing for their playoff lives. Luckily for them, they're playing a team that has won one slutspil set this year. If they lose this one then they don't deserve to be in the playoffs. But they know that. I expect they will use this one to get themselves back in a winning mode and gear up for our match next weekend. Depending on what happens in Aarhus it could come down to our match whether or not they make it into the playoffs. Now that would be an interesting scenario! And I'm not going to lie, after getting canned in the Pokal semis over there, it would be sweet to be able to knock them out next weekend. BUT, that is next weekend, let's see what happens THIS weekend first. Good luck to everyone!

In case anyone missed it last time: Crikey! Check out Nathan's addition to the blogosphere @ http://www.nathanvolleyball.blogspot.com/

HIK Weekday

2006-03-16T12:02:00.000+01:00

Going into the match last night, none of us were sure how it would turn out. It'd been two weeks since the last time we played a match, including all last week where we were forced out of our gym because of Marienlyst's yearly boligmesse. A messe that I, and some of the others, were lucky enough to have spent three days setting up and taking down. A messe where the booths are all made out of pure iron walls. :)

In any case, we came into the match slightly unsure of what to expect, but fortunately it went about as well as it could have for us. I don't know what happened to Aalborg, could have been the long weekday drive, could have been that they didn't have a good match or it could have been that we played well. Probably a little bit of all. I think that the biggest differences in last night's match were in serve receive, where we passed consistently well and didn't really give anything away for free, and block. Especially in the second set where we ran off about 8 blocks in a row. We've been on the other side of that and it can be pretty demoralizing.

It looks to me like Aalborg is still rounding into form, they didn't start Jeppe although he did play a fair amount, and Flemming came in later in the match. Unfortunately for them they pretty much have to win this weekend to feel comfortable about making the playoffs, there are still so many things that can happen. I'd imagine they will be ready though, those SK - HIK matches are usually pretty intense.

I feel good about the way our team played last night. It was nice to get on a little roll, win the second set big and then still be able to focus our way through the last set. 3-0 could turn out to be real important coming down the home stretch here. Hopefully we can take that good feeling and that momentum and use it against Middelfart this Sunday, it would be great for our confidence to pick off a win against them here before the playoffs...

Crikey! Check out Nathan's addition to the blogosphere @ http://www.nathanvolleyball.blogspot.com/

The Weekend

2006-03-10T10:55:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately there has been little going on in the volleyball world as of late. Nothing that I have wanted to write about at least. With that said, let's take a look ahead at this weekend.

Since we've been working all week setting up for "Bo Rigtigt Go Fritid" we've got no game this weekend. Aalborg gets the great pleasure instead of driving down to our gym on wednesday next week for a match that is going to be big for both of us...

Let's start with Holte and Middelfart. Holte has won one set so far in the Slutspil, even though that one set came against Middelfart, that record should stay intact. When we played them last thursday it seemed like they were uninterested, as if they knew they weren't going to the semi-finals and they had kind of packed it in. I don't know if they would say differently, but in any case, they offered little resistance. I don't see why that changes this weekend and Middelfart is obviously interested in ending well so it should be a fairl one-sided affair. Odds are so low though that betting the match is fairly unattractive...

Then we come to SK and Gentofte. The oddsmakers have SK as the favorite in this one, apparently because of home court advantage, but Gentofte has yet to lose to them in this season. If I'm making this line I would put it even and just see what happens. Both teams need the win badly. A loss for SK and they are pretty much done, a loss for Gentofte and all of a sudden they might not even make the playoffs which would be a huge disappointment. But these teams have played big matches before against each other with Gentofte winning the pokalfinal. So, who wins this one? I have no idea, but I would love to see the match. This one has potential to be really exciting, maybe one of the best of the year. If I have to guess, I take Gentofte in a close one, just because they have won all of the previous matches this year. But an SK win wouldn't be a real surprise.

We'll know a whole lot more about the playoffs after this weekend. Should be interesting to see how things unfold. Good luck to everyone!

Match Report SK Aarhus

2006-02-27T11:37:00.000+01:00

Funny how everyone can play in a match and all have such different perspectives on it. Some quick thoughts from me on our match yesterday and what I have read online so far about it.

We can all agree that our serving was clearly not good yesterday. There is no doubt in my mind that that was the biggest difference between the two teams and one or two points out of our serve could have been a big lift for us. We also can't expect to win when the other team's setter (especially someone as good as Makoto) gets to stand at the net and get consistent passing up to his hands. It's just not going to happen.

What JP wrote about the match is fairly skewed (maybe this is to be expected) towards the home team's favor. But I mean, looking back on it, the match could have easily been a whole different story. We had a swing to win the second set which unfortunately didn't go down, to Aarhus' credit, but it easily could have. That ball goes down and the whole match is different. This isn't taking anything away from them, they were better than us and they won, but the JP article makes it sound like SK pretty much had control of the match throughout. I don't think that was the case.

We were passive. Passive blocking, hitting, serving. You can't do that against a team fighting to survive. So, all credit to them for winning a must win for them. Now we have to go back and look at what caused us to play that way. What do we need to do to be better and to play aggressively from the beginning? We'll need answers to these questions if we are going to do well in the rest of the season. We had a chance to basically finish SK off and we didn't take that opportunity.

Anyways, anyone can pretty much beat anyone at this point. At least we can look forward to an interesting end to the season. Should be interesting to see what happens in Middelfart tomorrow. It looks like SK is going to need to win that one as well if they want to remain in contention. Exciting!

Television

2006-02-22T13:50:00.000+01:00

I’m going to start this entry off with a question. Does anyone know anything about the “new” TV deal that is supposedly happening? It got quickly reported on volleynet but no one seemed to know anything about it. Are there going to be televised games in the next month?

In any case, I thought it would be timely to take a second to examine the value (or non-value) of being on TV.

Two out of the three years that I have played in Denmark I’ve taken part in some kind of television broadcast. My first year it was the finals on DR1 and last year, of course, was DK4. No doubt those experiences were positive, being on TV is a thrill and it is always nice to have something to show to others back home. But is having volleyball consistently on TV a good thing? I’m not so sure.

Last year, with the consistent broadcast schedule we all got to see a lot of volleyball on TV. As a consequence we all got to see a lot of bad volleyball on TV. As has been discussed at length, the elite division doesn’t have enough good teams to support strong competition all year long. That means that inevitably, DK4 sent out some games that were not played at a high level. I remember we played Lyngby in a televised match at the end of last year that was not particularly broadcast-worthy for example. It does not help the image of the sport to show these games to the rest of the viewing audience. If we want to grow the sport, we have to present an exciting product.

As was discussed recently on DK4, the surroundings also play a huge part in the way the sport presents itself. When there are 4 people sitting in the stands watching a match, it is unlikely that the casual viewer at home is going to think that the match looks interesting. If I happened to see a handball match on TV one Sunday and there were 7 people sitting in the stands making no noise whatsoever, I’m not going to be inclined to sit and watch the match. And empty stands happened far too often during the televised matches last year.

All of these things add up to create a poor product. Of course there were good matches, with good crowds, that were shown as well. But I would say that those matches were few compared to the poor ones. Who knows? Maybe this year would have been a whole different story with a more competitive league and different venues. The schedule certainly could have been stronger.

With all that said, television does offer a unique experience for fans and players alike. Quite simply, being on TV creates a different atmosphere in the arena. I don’t know if everyone agrees with me, but I can certainly feel the difference walking into a hall with lights, monitors and cameras set up. Maybe it feels more professional in a way.

Television also offers exposure that nothing else can. Seeing the game on TV can only help to expose it to more people. Especially as the number of KIDS volley players grows will this become important. Unfortunately at this point, DK4 Sport seems to be the only outlet for the game, but hopefully soon enough there will be more channels interested. The more volley is seen on TV, the more it can be accepted as a mainstream sport. The trick is just going to be to present a good product every time. In my mind, that means cutting down on the number of games shown and working harder to get the people in the stands when those games are on.

Gentofte Match

2006-02-20T13:11:00.000+01:00

After winning yesterday, I suddenly feel like writing about the match.

Coming into the match there were quite a few questions swirling around in all of our heads. With so many teams beating each other it has been kind of a crazy slutspil so far this year. But after last weekends beating and the beating we took in the pokal semi final before christmas, it was hard to tell what kind of level we were playing on. Were we good enough to beat the mid level teams but not good enough to beat the top teams? Well, while it doesn't mean too much yet, at least after playing a solid match yesterday, we know that we are headed in the right direction.

The match was fairly decent. Not the best volleyball of the year, but clearly, the level was much higher than last time we played each other in Marienlyst. We started out each set by spotting Gentofte four or five points as we seemingly couldn't figure out how to do anything until they had a little lead. But generally we would work back into the set and apply enough pressure to bring ourselves back into the lead. We sided out well and touched a lot of balls in defense, enough that we were bound to turn some of them into points after transition.

Passing was probably as good as it has been all year, partly due to Gentofte serving with less pressure than normal, and it was easy to run an effective offense. There were also some good opportunities to run combinations.

Overall I would say that Gentofte was slightly reserved and didn't look like they wanted to win as much as we did. Maybe because we had more to play for with the bad taste of the pokal semi still on our tongues. But whatever the reason, it was nice to win one over a top team. The playoff picture is certainly starting to look more and more interesting. Now it is all about getting ready for Aarhus next weekend and hopefully playing another good match...

Weekend 18206

2006-02-17T12:22:00.000+01:00

While I conveniently forget about all that happened last weekend, it is time to write some more for this blog.

Looking forward to this weekend’s match against Gentofte creates several mixed feelings for me. On one hand, Gentofte, and now Middelfart, have stood for our two biggest beatings this year. Our loss in Copenhagen in the Pokal semi was a hard one to swallow for several reasons. Mostly because I feel like our team didn’t perform at all in that match. But also because the match was an important one and because we are well aware that it is Middelfart and Gentofte that stand in the way of us having a chance to win a title. To be beaten handily by the two teams that you know you have to be able to beat to achieve your goals is not a good feeling. Do we have it in us to beat those teams?

On the other hand, we’re a better team than we were before Christmas. Leaving out last weekend, we’ve been playing at a relatively high level, doing the things that we need to do. And I would hope that we are more focused. The point is to top at the right time in the season and that is hopefully what we are going to do. Of course, it is always fun to play against Gentofte as well. Anytime that you have a chance to play a marquee match at home you have to be excited for it…

Other matches:

SK looks like they should get their first win of the slutspil this weekend. Holte came together to beat them earlier in the year but that was a different SK team and it was in Copenhagen. At home, with the motivation of losing to HIK last weekend, a fiery Aarhus team should show up for this one. If they lose, they are essentially out of the running for the playoffs, I don’t think that will happen.

Middelfart should also be able to take care of HIK at home. I wouldn’t be surprised if they give up a set though. HIK looks like they are rounding into form and they match up pretty well with Middelfart. I’ll say 3-1 to the home team in this one.

Good luck to everyone this weekend!

The Weekend 11206

2006-02-10T15:06:00.000+01:00

Quick predictions for this weekend:

HIK - SK (H1.50): This one looks pretty even on paper. I don't really know why SK is getting a set in handicap, I guess it is because HIK is at home. Personally, I don't see any reason to pick HIK. We've been hearing all year that they are good and that they will be there in the end as soon as everyone gets healthy. Well, until they beat someone I'm not picking them. SK has looked fairly good in their matches so far, they have also played better competition so far. One thing is for sure, this one is important for both teams. I'm saying SK takes this one, the handicap just makes a bet even sweeter.

Gentofte - Holte (H2.50): As has been said, Gentofte killed Holte last time they played. I don't see any reason why that changes in this one. Gentofte has been strong at home all year, and Holte just doesn't have the horses to run with them. This should be a fairly secure 3-0 to the home team.

Middelfart - Marienlyst (H1.50): Weirdest odds I have seen all year. I don't have a problem with being the underdog in this one, but adjusting the odds down and giving us a handicap set doesn't really make sense. Either way, I'm looking forward to this one...

Quick note regarding the last post and the picture above: Maybe we should just start inviting the military to all of our games, there is some real spirit! Does this picture make anyone else really want to play for a team in Russia or what?

Dumb Volleyball Ideas

2006-02-08T12:19:00.000+01:00

Alright, I thought I would continue a little bit along the lines of the fluff piece. I’ve heard a lot of talk lately about volleyball in general, and what needs to be done to continue to make it a viable/marketable sport. The roundtable discussion on DK4 was interesting, if not slightly awkward, because of the different perspective everyone on the panel brought to the table. And the part where the journalist wasn’t paying attention was worth spending the time to see the show in itself. Anyways, I’ve always had some thoughts (some crazy, some not so crazy) about what kind of rule changes or possible additions would make the game more fun to watch. I thought I would list them here and if any one wants to comment or make some of their own suggestions I would love to hear what people have to say.

Some ideas that I have seen myself or heard about:

In between sets in the States there is generally some kind of crowd competition similar to what you would see on the Fanta tour. This is almost always some form of serve competition. At my school in the States, there was this big wooden sign that had a hole (about the size of a basketball) cut out of it. One person would be chosen at each match to try and serve the ball through the hole. I never saw anyone actually do it, but it was always fun to watch them try.

They also used to run a competition where six contestants would basically have a serve competition. They would serve at a marked area on the court with the people who could not hit the area being eliminated. The area would get smaller and smaller in each round and eventually only one person would be left. That person would get a prize.

Chad Grimm told me that in Belgium they used to have a contest where they would suspend an envelope from the ceiling, somewhere around 4 meters (forgive my metric system measurement) from the ground. The envelope had cash in it and one player from each team would take turns trying to jump up and grab it. I guess this one is only exciting if you have two players who can jump really high, but I still think it would be fun to see. Think for example, Geo Santos and Paw Harder trying to out jump each other for 500 kroners. I think it would be fun to watch.

Here are my ideas:

I’ve always thought that a hitting competition would be fun for fans to see. Some kind of bouncing contest besides the un-official warm up bouncing contests that we all have before every match. At the finals, we could let anyone who wanted to compete get a chance to see who could bounce the ball the highest (without touching the net, you know who I’m talking about). Crowd applause could decide the winner. It would be kind of like the dunk contest for volleyball.

In the States about two years ago, they experimented with making volleyball into a timed sport. That means, they had two teams play each other for one hour and just kept adding up the points. I think the final scores were usually around 100 – 85, 90 – 92, etc… Needless to say, it was a dumb idea. It was dumb because it worked the excitement out of the game. First of all, it is nearly impossible to go on a fifteen point run in volleyball, so, if your team was behind there was little chance that you were going to come back. Second of all, if the two teams managed to stay close there was really only the last couple of minutes that were exciting. I mean, who cares about a kill to make the score 7-5 when you know there is still an hour to go? Dumb idea. But I do think that volleyball scoring needs to be changed.

Personally, I think that the current system to 25 makes everything much less exciting. It is the same general principle as above, who cares about a play that makes the score 9-8? Unless you are a real hard core volleyball fan, the only time you get excited is when the score is 21-21 and the set is about to be decided. The answer? Tennis scoring. Play several mini games to 4 or 5 (this could even use the old scoring rules, remember when scoring a block or defensive point really mattered?) and those games add up to win a set. Still best out of 5 sets wins the match. Yes, the rally scoring system helps event promoters predict how long a match will take, and yes it hasn’t had a huge impact on the game in general. But, it could still use some tweaking. Think about it the opposite way, if tennis all of a sudden changed to our scoring system, it would be a lot less exciting.

Thirdly, a screening of SIDEOUT before every home Marienlyst match, projected on the gym wall.

Those are my dumb volleyball ideas!

SIDEOUT!

2006-02-01T14:44:00.000+01:00

With the recent release of Cloud 9 on DVD, the genre of volleyball movies has grown by about 150%. Math has never been my strong suit but what I’m trying to say is that there are not many volleyball related movies out there. With the other “serious discussions” going on right now about foreign players, etc… I thought I would recognize the greatest volleyball movie ever to be made. This may not be saying much, but without further ado, I bring you – SIDEOUT.

The movie stars C. Thomas Howell as young Monroe Clark, just out of college he gets a job at his uncle’s real estate company in Southern California. It should be noted here, that SIDEOUT came out in 1990 and is therefore one of the last of the great 80’s style movies. As proof of this, Monroe’s uncle is played by the great Terry Kiser, (Otherwise known as Bernie from the Weekend at Bernie’s series.) and Melrose Place star Courtney Thorne-Smith plays Monroe’s love interest. Anyways, Monroe, who has never played a day of beach volleyball in his life, gets hooked on the sport. Eventually teaming up with an ex-pro/deadbeat named Zack Barnes, played by the immortal lefty Peter Horton, who Monroe is supposed to evict for his Uncle’s company. Not surprisingly, Monroe and Zack end up shooting it out with the pro tour’s top teams in the grand final, eventually facing off with the world’s number 1 (Played by Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos). I’ll let you guess what happens in the end, but without giving anything away, the last play is really something to experience.

The best way for me to describe this movie is The Karate Kid in a volleyball setting. The sheer improbability of everything that takes place only makes it that much more delicious in the end.

Along the way we are treated to several 80’s movie moments. Fluorescent colors permeate almost every scene, cheesy music montages accompany us through training sequences, love sequences, and of course Southern California sequences (women in thong bikinis on roller skates, etc… Which I can guarantee never happens except in the movies).

C. Thomas Howell as Monroe Clark gives a true pantheon performance as a young midewesterner learning the ways of the beach. A poor man’s Tom Cruise (think volleyball scene in Top Gun) he utters the line, “I used to play a little six-man back in Milwaukee” with absolute confidence. By the end of the film you believe that even though he looks unorthodox on the court, he just might be the greatest player to ever play the game.

For any volleyball fan, the movie has plenty of interesting cameos. As stated earlier, Stoklos and Smith play a major role in the film. There are also several other big names from the 80’s and early 90’s, including Steve Timmons, Ricci Luyties, etc… They all get to “act” at some point which only boosts the entertainment value even more.

Truly, this is the Citizen Kane of volleyball films. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Sadly, I may be the only person in all of Europe who has a copy.

Note: I have included the original cover artwork as well as the updated DVD artwork for the sake of balance. And after looking on Amazon.com, I was able to find a copy of the video tape for as low as 0.38 cents American. That is roughly 2-3 kroners. Value!

Holte Match

2006-01-30T13:21:00.000+01:00

Not a whole lot to say about the match from this end. I watched the game from the bench and it wasn’t particularly noteworthy. Holte played fine, perhaps pressing their serves a bit too much, and we played fine also. In the end we won fairly comfortably and can now look forward to Thursday’s match up in Aalborg where hopefully I’ll be ready.

Weekends Matches 27106

2006-01-27T11:35:00.000+01:00

Ugh. Soon enough I’ll have to do something about this shoulder. We were talking in the locker room yesterday about just cutting it off and replacing it with some kind of robotic attachment. Then I could really hit the ball hard. Just a nice solid titanium replacement shoulder with arm attachment.

Anyways, it’s extremely irritating to have a body part holding me back from being able to perform, but that’s life and there is nothing else to do but keep rehabbing it. Luckily for us we’ve got Lasse to step in and set the ball…at least until I get my bionic attachment.

With that said, let’s look forward to the weekend’s matches:

Middelfart @ SK (H 1.50): I saw SK play in the Pokal final and I was very impressed. It was clear that they have improved a lot since the beginning of the season and it made me nervous for our match against them. Luckily, we were able to come away with a 3-0 win from a match where SK didn’t play as well as they did in the Pokal. My feeling is that they are still finding their level as a team and that they still have quite a few things to work on before they can really be considered a strong threat to the best teams in the league. Middelfart is also coming off a nice 3-0 win against Gentofte so their confidence must be fairly high at the moment. Add the revenge factor from the semi-final and I think this one goes to Middelfart. 3-0 at that.

Aalborg (H1.50) @ Gentofte: This one is going to be interesting. Who really knows where Aalborg’s level is right now? They beat Holte decisively at home last weekend, but the match they played before that was a brutal loss to PVC Lyngby just before Christmas break. Clearly Gentofte has been playing well all season, especially at home, and there is no doubt that they are the favorites in this one. But, I have a hard time saying that HIK doesn’t have a good chance here. I think with the odds and the handicap the way they are, this one is a HIK bet or nothing at all. Last time they played it was a five set match, I’m guessing that it will go the distance again. Should be really interesting to see who wins.

Holte (H2.50) @ Marienlyst: I’m probably out for this one, but we don’t lose much when Lasse comes in, the offense will roll on. Odds might be a little low to really be of much value even though I am confident we will win this won. 3-0 to us!

Good luck to everyone this weekend, feel free to send designs for a new bionic shoulder to my email...

SK Match 21-1-06

2006-01-23T12:35:00.000+01:00

It had been a long, long time since we last played a match. A little uncertainty about where our level would be after the break, combined with SK’s fairly strong performance in the pokal final, made me think it would be a pretty even match. As it turned out, it was.

Generally, I think both teams sided out with a high efficiency. The major difference was that SK wasn’t able to hold stability in the rest of their game. Without any actual stats in front of me, I would guess that they had more clean aces than we did, but that they had a significant number of “2’s” in passing that made it easier for our block to get a good read on their hitters. I also think that the tempo of their offense is slightly slower than what we are used to, as a result we had more time to set two man blocks on our side. Their hitters also made some key mistakes that bailed us out when we didn’t effectively side out.

The second set was particularly interesting as we trailed pretty much the whole way. At 24-21 it didn’t look particularly good for us, but a few well-placed serves from the Scottish legend, created an opportunity that we ended up making good on. Kind of chronically for SK, they made a few errors at the end of the set and gave us a little hope, which in turn gave us the confidence to take the set. I think that winning that set gave us a real boost. It confirmed that we could get points when we needed them and took a lot of pressure off of us. Obviously, 1-1 in sets is a lot different from 2-0…

BT and Hansen deserve a lot of credit for creating the raw material with their passing. Also, Stewart had probably his best day for the team, he even hit some balls into the court without first hitting someone in the block! Congratulations Stewart! Overall, this one was a nice team victory for us. Everyone found a way to contribute and the team worked as a collective, really something that I think we can be proud of and hopefully a trend that will continue.

It’s a good feeling to shake off the rust of a long vacation with a pretty crisp win at home. More importantly, it’s nice to create a little space between us and the rest of the competition in the standings. Now it’s all about getting ready for next week and a visit from Holte and their incredible, interchangeable, ever-mutating team. (Just kidding Kristoffer, just wanted to mess with you a bit). Congratulations to all the teams this week, glad to be back!

Pokal Review and The Coming Weekend

2006-01-20T14:17:00.000+01:00

First, I just want to say that I appreciate all the discussion on the Royal League topic. It was extremely interesting to hear different points of view on the subject. No matter what, the more opinions heard the better.

Second, I wasn’t going to go to the Pokal final on Sunday, but I ended up getting talked into it and I’m glad that I was there to see it. The match was one of the most entertaining that I have seen all year. And I don’t care how you feel about SK Aarhus and their foreign line-up, they all came to play hard. I would say that their excitement was half of the reason why the game was fun to watch. The other half was of course Geo Santos, who pretty much took over the match when it mattered. In any case, I had split feelings about the match, I was happy to see that the match was played at a nice level and I was unhappy to see just how hard it is going to be to do well in the slutspil this year.

Interesting also to note that Gentofte got it handed to them in Middelfart last night. Not that Middelfart winning was a surprise, but 3-0 without ever really being in trouble? I don’t think anyone would have predicted that…

It’s going to be great to get back into a competitive setting after having more than a month off from any real matches. It will be interesting to see where we are in terms of improvement as a team and interesting to see how SK reacts to their loss in the Pokal. I think it’s going to be a real good match but hopefully we’ll have enough to pull out the win. It should be exciting.

I also like the other home team up in Aalborg this weekend. They have been kind of lying low, flying under the radar this season, it is time for them to show that they have the class that all the rest of us expect them to have. I anticipate a solid match from their end.

Which reminds me, can anyone explain the rules that govern who can play for a second team? For example, I watched Holte play DHG in the DVBF cup last weekend and there was at least one Holte player who I’ve seen playing with their first team. If that tournament is only for second team players then how can someone also play elite? Also, congratulations to Holte for winning the DVBF cup again, but you certainly could have injected a little energy into it, eh?

Good luck to everyone this weekend, time to get back to the grind!

Royal League?

2006-01-11T15:39:00.000+01:00

Over the Christmas break there has been some discussion about the amount of games that we play in a season. What is the optimal number? How do we make all of the matches matter? How do we make sure that the best teams are developing? Essentially, how do we make sure that the league continues to develop, in relation to Denmark and in relation to a bigger European picture? I think one of the answers may be to create a Royal League type volleyball tournament.

Much has been written about the disconnect between the top and bottom of the elite division. Clearly there are not enough good teams here in Denmark. More specifically, there are NO teams that are ready to have success in a European tournament. Our Marienlyst team last year was summarily dismissed from the CEV cup with one set won out of three matches. And that team lost two sets in all of the after Christmas season. So, development towards a league that can prepare its best teams for success in Europe is absolutely necessary. It’s also not a stretch to say that the same goes for the leagues in Norway and Sweden.

What can teams do to be more prepared for the level of volleyball outside of their respective countries? Well…playing more volleyball against teams from outside their country is definitely a necessary part of the equation. And that is where a Royal League of volleyball could be extremely valuable.

Certainly, a Royal League like the one that football is currently playing is not feasible for any of the clubs playing volleyball anywhere in Scandinavia. The format that I imagine is much more possible in relation to the budget and time of the average Scandinavian club. First, the league would be restricted to Norway, Denmark and Sweden. It would be great to include teams from Finland as they have had some success internationally but traveling to Finland is quite a bit more involved than the other two countries.

Quite simply the League would consist of three separate tournaments that all could be played over a weekend. Each country would host one of the tournaments. Take the top two teams from each league and place one each into two separate pools. The exact specifications for which team would go where could be worked out pretty easily. But, I would think it would look something like: Pool A: (#1 from Denmark, #2 from Sweden and #1 from Norway). Pool B: (#1 from Sweden, #2 from Norway and #2 from Denmark). These two pools play during the same weekend in different countries, say Norway and Denmark. The best four teams get seeded into a four-team tournament at a later date in Sweden to determine the champions.

Overall, the whole thing would take two weekends to complete and each team would be get at least two strong matches. (If they advanced to the finals they would get at least four high quality matches). As far as I can tell, every team in Denmark could find room in their schedule for something like this. And not only would they get good competition out of it, they would have a chance to get used to traveling to other countries and playing under different circumstances. Whether or not something like this would be popular with fans is absolutely secondary. The way Danish volleyball is right now, there aren’t enough high level games, especially before Christmas, and a tournament like this would give access to a good training and development opportunity. With minimal investment everyone could benefit from a scenario like this.

Eventually, the idea would be to be able to add more teams. Whether it is the third place team from each league or two more from Finland, the more games the better. But at the moment, I see this as the most feasible model, something that would take little effort and give maximal benefits. Plus, it would be interesting to see which country is playing at the highest level right now…

Wuppertal Trip #2

2006-01-09T11:22:00.000+01:00

So, the long Christmas break continues on, and we continue to prepare ourselves for what should be an exciting slutspil. Luckily enough, we had an opportunity over the weekend to take a trip down to Germany to play a practice tournament in Wuppertal. Four teams: Us, Wuppertal, Eltmann from Germany and Halen from Belgium. Each team would play three sets with each other and then the best two teams would play in a final on Sunday while the other two would play a third/fourth place classification match.

While we didn’t make it into the final (Surprisingly!) we definitely got a lot out of the experience. As a team we were able to experiment with a lot of different line-ups, positions and substitutions. Playing against quality opponents it becomes clear very fast which of these experiments were successful and which were not.

There were big swings in a lot of the sets that we played; but, we did manage to play some fairly good volleyball at times. We took a set from Halen in our first match and were one point away from taking another. The next night we took a set from Wuppertal, which turned out to be enough to stop them from making it into the finals. The match against Eltmann didn’t go quite as well, as they seemed to have a gear that they could shift to that we simply could not match. Their opposite must have hit in the high .800’s for the match…

Overall, I think we have to be satisfied with the way that things went. It seems that our play is headed in the right direction. Defensive intensity is picking up and the general team chemistry seems to be very positive. Personally, I’m starting to get back into the swing of things after a long recovery from my shoulder problem. I think the time off for Christmas has helped with the healing quite a bit. Now it is just a matter of working off those extra holiday kilos and letting the legs get used to the regular pounding of everyday training. After all the traveling in the last few weeks, I’ll be glad to just settle back into a more normal routine.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and is enjoying the EXTRA time off from playing any official matches.

Toubro for MVP...

2005-12-15T12:36:00.000+01:00

I had a good chance to think about last night’s loss as we drove home from Copenhagen. It hit me lot harder than a lot of other losses that I have ever been a part of. Partly because we were so thoroughly manhandled, partly because it was such an important game and partly because it has been a long, long time since I have participated in a loss, almost two years actually.

But there was no doubt that Gentofte was a far better team than us last night. They had a great game plan (and I admit that part of it was leaving Stewart wide open, so if any other teams want to use that tactic they are welcome to it), they were excited to play and they executed well. That being said, we had several chances to score points but it seemed like almost every time that we picked a ball up in defense and tried to transition it, they would just block whoever was hitting. Whether I was choosing the wrong people to set to or whether their block was just that good doesn’t really matter. In the end the match wasn’t close, and the scores reflect that.

Mads Toubro was the best player on the court by far. I would say that he changed the whole complexion of the match in the first set. It seemed like everytime we threatened to push our lead to more than two points they could rely on him to put a difficult ball away, no matter if there were two or three blockers waiting for him. His serving was also good. So, hats off to Gentofte, I hope that you play as well as you did last night in the finals! And hopefully next time we play each other, we can give you guys some competition.

Now, on to us. After playing Middelfart (in training) and Gentofte in the last few days I think it is fairly obvious that they are the two teams to beat at this point in the season. There is no doubt in my mind that they are a class above us right now and that we have a lot of hard work ahead of us if we want to reach that level. Hopefully with the LONG break until the first match after Christmas we will have time to get in the gym and work on our problems. And there is a long list to go through.

A few notes from Hvidovre and Middelfart...

2005-12-13T12:18:00.000+01:00

A match report is already up on Marienlystcentret.dk but I thought I would add a couple of thoughts on our match from Sunday and our training match against Middelfart from yesterday.

I have been fairly kind to Hvidovre throughout the season. In the beginning, I wrote that I felt that they had the potential to do better than they have in the past couple of seasons. After playing them, and this isn’t to be unnecessarily hard on Hvidovre, I understand why they aren’t winning many matches.

Generally, and most importantly, they are far too careless with points. Lose a point? No big deal, move on. Hit a ball out? Make an unhappy face and then move on. Serve into the back wall? Yell angry words and then forget about it. These things have to run deeper than just a superficial expression of how angry you are at yourself for making a mistake. You have to take that mistake, understand why and how you made it and then try to correct it.

While it is important as a volleyball player to forget about the last play and move on, it is also vital that the collective losing of points be stored somewhere in your brain so that you can be aware of when it is time to make a secure serve or when it is time to really go for it. Aggressiveness is key. But controlled aggression is the name of the game. Serving ball after ball out, in the name of “pressing your serve” is not the way to win a match. (Note: This turned into a diatribe on volleyball in general, not just Hvidovre)

Specifically for Hvidovre: The blocking tactics were mystifying. I take it as a kind of personal insult sometimes when teams decide not to block against one of my players. Leaving the opposite open cannot be considered a good tactic. It implies that one; he isn’t good enough to put the ball away with no blockers. Two, that I won’t be good enough to see that you aren’t blocking against him. And three, that you will now be able to stop our middles or other hitters just because you have an extra blocker to help. Also, committing on the middle every time is just an invitation for disaster. You may get one good solid stuff block somewhere in match, that is true. But even that isn’t for sure. What is for sure is that the outside hitters will hit a really high percentage because they will be hitting against one blocker all day long.

It’s important that middle blockers make an effort to read the game if they are ever going to develop into good players. You cannot just commit in the middle all the time. It’s lazy and sloppy and it makes the game much too easy for the other team. I don’t deny that middle blocker is probably the hardest position to play in the game of volleyball, but that doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t try to play it well. And I don’t mean this just for Hvidovre, that goes for a lot of the middle blockers that we have played against this year. Using what I have just said as a smooth transition, there is a team that is playing very disciplined volleyball, with middles that are working very hard on reading, and that team is Middelfart.

In our training match last night there was no doubt which team was better and it wasn’t us. I wouldn’t say that we played up to our best and I don’t have a good reason why not, but they clearly outplayed us in all the facets of the game. Particularly defense, where they touched a lot of balls, both at the net and in the backrow. It was great to see a team functioning as a unit the way they do, and I have to take my hat off to them. Hopefully, the next time we play we’ll be able to match some of that intensity and give you guys a good game.

If we plan on winning in Gentofte on Wednesday then it will take a much better effort than last night. There were just too many errors, especially on simple plays. We couldn’t get into a good rhythm because somewhere in the chain of bump, set, spike we would make a mistake. Volleyball can be an easy game unless you make it really hard on yourself and we did that last night. Anyways, hopefully thing will turn around here today and tomorrow and we can look forward to a Pokal final after Christmas…

I Heart Volley

Diggler.

Status

Triumphant Return

Oh the Anger.

Gold 2008.

One Step Away

Bronze - Meaningless?

New Classics

YES!

Trouble before tonight's second semi...

Finally.

Status

Playoffs...Already?

Underachievers?

A really long, scattered post.

New School/Old School!

Ugh.

Revisiting the revisiting of the Pokal

Aalborg...not in Aalborg for once.

POKAL

ASV

Middelfart + Momentum

Hvidovre

Aarhus + Pokal Semi

Volleymetrics

Aalborg + What If...

Foreign Rules?

Gentofte

Hvidovre and Nordic Championships

Aalborg

Aarhus

Weekend 13/10

Middelfart

ASV

The Weekend

Midtfyns

Middelfart Tournament Part 2

Middelfart Tournament Part 1

Pre-Season

Summer Recap

Beach Finals

An Ode to Sideout Scoring

Where are we headed?

Over?

Playoff Time

We Win, the Bundesliga Standings are Unimpressed.

Dueren and Some Other Things

Champions League?

Rottenburg

Matches

To the East again.

Moers

Handball

Read Blocking

Bodensee - A Nice Place to Be!

Two Weekends - Two Losses

Guests

Interlude

First Start...Disaster.

Game Time

#2 With a Bullet

A Life on the Outside

Zen

Unterhaching.

Unterhaching

Odense, Denmark

Pre-Season Review

Slightly More Work

Inspiration at Ishøj

Stop staring at my Assens!

Free Time

*GOLD*

FINALS

After heart attack comes the finals...

Team of the Year

No Time.

Catch 3-2

Number 1

Middelfart

GOLD

Weekend 18306

Weekend 18206

The Weekend 11206

Weekends Matches 27106