Camp

What a busy weekend!! The entire weekend was filled with lots and lots of volleyball. Camp is just another word for two-a-days and its the last weekend to get a lot of practice in before the season starts. I'm really excited because this coming weekend we have our first tournament, Super Cup, where we get to play against a bunch of teams in our league.

On Friday we started off by getting a good lift in the weight room. We did a lot of leg, arm and core exercises. I can feel my arms and legs getting bigger from all the lifting we do! It's also a time where I can work on special exercises for my knee. Overall the strength in my knee is pretty good but my inside quad muscle, the Vastus Medialis, is still a bit smaller than the one on my right leg. Our strength coach Ophelia, gave us a Mobilo, which is a little disk that you have to balance on. I use it a lot because its perfect to strengthen that muscle. I've gotten so good that I can balance on one leg with my eyes closed!

Right after practice we headed over to the gym. It was quite a quick turn around but practice went pretty well. Since we are getting closer to the start of season we are working a lot on 6 vs 6 drills, especially first ball side out (its where you have to score right off of the serve). At times our passing can be a little off but I think that will improve throughout the course of the season. I think the best thing is our defense has gotten a lot stronger. The rallies are lasting a long time and its a lot harder to score. It will be interesting to see how our defense holds up against other teams. We had lunch quick as a team and then we were able to go home for a bit. I took a nap but could have honestly slept a lot longer! We had another practice that evening where we worked on the same things. This time we actually got to play where you serve and rotate which was fun! We were all pretty tired from the long day but we had a team activity which was going to see a local men's volleyball team play. I'm always amazed at how different the two games are even though we are still playing the same sport. After the match was over, we stayed for dinner and ate with the two teams. And of course we made our presence known by doing our traditional toasting cheer... Sante!!!! Overall it was a good day! We got home around 12 30 so we went straight to bed.

The morning definitely came too soon but it was time for another practice. This practice was mostly all scrimmaging because we had an inter-squad scrimmage for the public in the afternoon. We were split into our two teams and played two sets but my team lost them both. We had a short break back at home and then it was time to head back to the gym. I think we were all excited to play in front of fans and to show off our team. Before the game started we presented our jerseys to the crowd as well as introduced the players. The majority of the team is the same but there are a couple new people like myself. In the first set my team, the black team, beat the red team 25-8. We attacked them from every position but especially the service line. The next set was a bit different. We won 25-22 and came back from 20-22 to win. Charlotte went on a 5 point serving streak to close the set. In the third set we switched setters. It was close but we lost 22-25. There was quite a few people there and Jo our president told me that everyone is very excited for the season to start. And after the game it was like Christmas because we got all of our gear!!! We got two different warm-ups (jackets and pants), a warm up shirt, knee pads and some socks. I always love getting our warm-ups! We quickly showered and went to another team dinner. We were supposed to go to a local concert but it was raining so after dinner we headed home.

It was finally Sunday and our last practice of camp. We were all pretty tired and I could tell because usually we talk a lot before practice starts but this morning we were all pretty quiet. My knee wasn't feeling the greatest so I just worked on serve receive with the liberos and some other people hit. It was a low key practice but we still got work done. Philippe actually ended practice early which was so nice! It was a very long weekend but I think it got us prepared for Super Cup!! Can't wait to play some other teams!

The weekend wasn't quite over! One of the girls on the team, Laura, has her birthday on Tuesday so Lindsay, Val and I decided to have everyone over to our apartment for a team dinner. A lot of the team hadn't seen our apartment yet but were very impressed with how big and nice it was. We made tons of pasta and it ended up being a great meal. Laura was turning 25 and when you turn 25 over here its a pretty big deal. Whenever someone turns 25 over here they are given a hat that has a lot of funny little items on it. For example, we call our team les vaches or the cows so people put some small cows on her hat! She also wears a bunch of different watches so we had to put one on there as well! Here is what her hat looked like! It was a great way to end the weekend.