Beach Finals

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

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?

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?

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

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.

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

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?

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...