“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened” |
I often find in my day to day coaching that I come across situations that other teams face and I think how would I handle that or who would I use in this position if something happened to this player? As a coach we need to deal with the unknown on a regular basis, when something out of the ordinary happens we need an immediate response to the situation. This past weekend was a good test of how we would respond. I also have learned in the past couple of weeks that I need to spend less time worrying and more time doing. An interesting revelation for me.
On our way to Kamloops we encountered a lot of delays. What was supposed to be a nine hour trip turned into a 17 hour day. We ended up waiting forever at airports. I was really impressed with our teams. (We travel with the men’s team to most of our matches) It would have been really easy for the teams to get whinny and complain about the situation, but they took it in stride. Most used the opportunity to study as we have final exams this week. Others found ways for the team to bond together, to touch base with team members that they haven’t had a chance to talk socially with for awhile.
Russ Paddock the men’s coach/athletic director was with us so he was very involved in the decisions that were ahead of us. In the Winnipeg airport while we were waiting, we were handed 3 different boarding passes, as West Jet was trying to help us get to our location.
We ended up flying to Kelowna and having to bus 2 hours. We arrived and were settled into our hotel by 3:30 am. This is 5:30am on our body clocks. TRU was very accommodating and gave us a little later practice time so we could sleep some. That is what impressive me about most of the schools we play against in Canada West. The understand the travel and know we need to be accommodating. We owe them now. Everyone wants to win, but knows that one day it could be you.
We practiced at 11am. You could tell the team was very sluggish. As a coaching staff we tried hard to get them up and moving. We started with a serving game that has one partner serving to another partner. They try to catch the served ball on the other side of the net the partner then , runs to the end line on her side and serves back. The trick to this game is that anyone can knock the ball away from anyone else before their partner catches the ball. We call it hamburger and the team is pretty competitive at it. They end up really competing and lots of running after balls hit away.
Then we went to a serve and replace drill, one that I explained last time. Then we got into our typical game day practice. The rest of the day the athletes napped or studied. I was very worried about this weekend. This is a team we have traditionally beaten and they have improved a lot. They have some older players who are playing well. Plus they run some pretty wacky rotational stuff. Our team really needed to focus on the game video and watch more of it.
We ended up playing like we had travelled all night and TRU played exceptionally well. We tried every combination of things we could to try and fight our way out of this funk. But in the end we were not prepared. WE were just a split second late on making our reads, and that transferred into being late on our movements. This loss falls on me. The old adage players win and coaches lose is true in this situation. I didn’t stress the importance enough of this weekend and the prep. With final exams coming into play I should have known that the focus of the team would have be academic. ( I am excited about how well as a team we are doing academically it is a strong sense of who we want to be.)Instead of being lenient and understanding of their situation last week, I needed to be a bit more demanding and Require them to do more. To schedule more things instead of trying to limit the contact so they could study. Realistically the team would consider the volleyball their most important class, and would willingly be involved in more video and discussions. Coaches often we think of ways to try to limit the contact time so that they can have more time for school.
The second day we played much better we were prepared, but again our confidence in tight situation wasn’t there. We tried a few different things and by the end of the second set Brianna Walsh was playing regular minutes for us. Brianna is a First year player from Calgary. She is a very good athlete with a lot of upside in this sport. She is a jumper, for this reason we put her on the floor thinking she could put up a decent block and add to our ball control which was sporadic. Kellie ended up with a deep bruise in her calf during the second set, basically a Charlie horse in her calf. Kellie toughed it out and played well for us as she limped around the court. Chloe went back to the libero position hoping to help solidify our passing and defense. WE lost the second set 31-29, we had opportunities to win the sets and just couldn’t put it away. We won the third 25-15 and played well. The change allowed us to be in system more and run our faster offense and we scored at will. The fourth set things we going well until 17. Then we were stuck again in a rotation and fell behind by three. The teams then traded points and we lost 25-20.
Back to back losses were not good for our play off hopes. Realistically we needed to win one of the matches. But now we need to refocus and find that 1 win somewhere else. WE definitely have a tough road but it is very much possible. WE have an incredible record at home and we need to find success on the road. As my Friend Brad Murrin used to say “nothing feels better than winning as an underdog”
I love the way this story is going to end....could be one for the books.
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