So this weekend we had a tournament in Stockholm(Sollentuna) and it was our last tournament in our preseason...
The team has at this moment played 63 sets in 19 matches against 12 different opponents over the last month. No surprise that the girls are tired at and they have been awaiting the next 2 free weekends with great excitement.
Now the tournament…
We played Sollentuna on Friday night and that match was over in 3 fast sets. Sollentuna has improved a lot since the first 2 times we played against them, and after the match we talked about the importance of our own continues development as a team and later each individual on the team..
For the first and only time the girls got to stay at a Hotel for the weekend.. A well deserved price after a lot of gym floors, airbeds and self cooking.. Scandic Hotel took care of us with the perfect breakfast – sorry there were no bacon Sam..!
Saturday after the amazing breakfast and a very nice lunch at Sollentuna’s new Arena, we played against Katrineholm who are the reigning Swedish Champions. A match we had looked forward to for a while and the intensity was there from the beginning.
We won the first 2 sets fairly safe but in the 3rd set it seemed like Katrineholm turned it up a bit and we struggled for some time with our passing especially. Down 20-14 and the last time-out taken all there was left to do was to wait for the girls to respond – so they did… In a nerve wrecking finish we rallied to catch them at 24-24 and went past them 26-24 to make it a 3-0 win.. Fantastic win for so many reasons which I will not bore you with now, but to me and the girls the way we came back and the attitude the girls showed at the end meant the world to us. ALMOST a reminder of several play-off games from last season..
Last match of the tournament was set for Sunday against Brøndby, but we had agreed to play a friendly match against them on Saturday night as well to make the trip worth their while and to take advantage of the opportunity to play against a foreign team 2 times now they were here.
We won the friendly match 2-1 with some different line-ups on both sides, and besides the loss in the 3rd set we all felt good about our performance.
Sunday morning after another amazing breakfast we played the “real” match against Brøndby and this time we won it 3-0 without much trouble. Brøndby has an extremely high toplevel but they struggle a bit to stay up there for long at a time, and when they go down they fall deep. Especially passing was a problem for them throughout the game.
What did we take with us..?
4 matches played and 11-1 in set score. The pure result was more than satisfying but so was the knowledge we gained about our team and of course 2 of our competitors in the Swedish elitedivision.
We found out how vulnerable we are when our passing line is broken and we struggle to fix it fast enough.
We also learned(/confirmed what we already knew) that we have more than just 7 starters on this team, we can play pretty much any line-up and still put a very strong team on court.
We had a teambuilding weekend early in September where we talked about a couple of key words we thought should represent this team, and this weekend we saw that the work we have been doing so far is leading us in the right direction.
Recharge and reload…
This week we have 4 days off, 2 days of practice and 1 cup match against Orion from 2nd division. The next 2 weekends will be without volleyball for the girls. It is time to nurse family, friends and love ones and recharge batteries so that we are 100% ready both physically and mentally for our season opener against Hylte/Halmstad on October 16th.
I am very proud of the work the girls have done this preseason and sitting here now with the results we have gotten so far, I can’t help but be happy about all the hard work the club and I did over summer putting together this team. Finding the right girls, making sure everyone knew what they said yes to when they signed with the team and last but not least making sure everyone were ready to work their hardest for the team.
Many have had their doubts… people on and around the team and many more… doubts that we could put this team together, doubts that this small club could rise with such a challenge, doubts that a silly Dane and a group of 9 new players plus 2 “old” ones could get this off to a great start… Well many things can be said about doubt and one of them is that if you doubt that you can accomplish something you will accomplish nothing.. challenge your doubt with action.. you need to have confidence in your abilities and then be tough enough to follow through... We have shown that we are tough, we dare to follow through and as time has gone by our confidence has gone up..!
We know the season is long and we are ready to face the future we are presented with. We know we have far to go and only hard work will get us where we want to end up. 7 months is a lot of time..
Finally I would like to send a big THANK YOU to Morten Piil who chose to visit us in Stockholm this weekend and with his enthusiasm he made a big impression on a lot of the players there. Morten your passion for volleyball can’t be questioned and Jeanette and I thank you for making us feel a little special this weekend.
Michael
“The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.”
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
First trophy in Lindesberg..
This weekends tournament was suppose to be in Norway, then we changed it to Denmark and then on Thursday evening we ended up deciding to play Knallecuppen in Borås.
Plans changed on us several times and every time it was without our own influence, but at the end of the day we learned how to roll with the punches and got the best out of it.
Friday we played 3 sets against Engelholm. We drove down there(5.5 hours) and played at 15.30. We lost the match 2-1 to a well organized and tough serving Engelholm team who looks like being the team to beat if we want to go all the way this year.. It is still early to say anything for sure, but they look strong this early.
After the match we drove to Borås which was about 3 hours north and on the way we needed to pick up Josephine(setter) in blablabla city ;0) where she would be arriving with the train.. Check this out – her train had hit a MOOSE on the way and was thereby delayed for 2.5 hours.. A f..in MOOSE.. That made me think of my old team in Lyngby and all the amazing times I’ve shared with those guys…!
We got her picked up and headed for Borås where the girls checked in to a small apartment complex while Oskar and I shared 2m2 of space.. Talk about being VIP..
Day 1
Saturday we played Oslo who we are playing in our Nordic Championship group and that match was over pretty fast. 2-0(25-6, 25-20) against a slow starting Norwegian team(which later showed a lot more quality than that morning match).
Next up was Örebro our local rivals and we lost the first set to a very engaged and loud team. We spend the time between 1st and 2nd set re-loading and talking some things through and came out unstoppable… 25-10 and 15-9(if I remember correctly) was the score..
3rd and last match of the day was against our friends from Falköping RIG and the young girls again showed how talented they are pushing us in an intense fight which we won 2-1. We won the 1st and 3rd set of the match but I don’t remember the scores at all.
Winner of the group, and a semifinal on Sunday against Hylte-Halmstad with 2 Polish stars and a newly acquired Brazilian outside was waiting for us Sunday.
The girls spend the evening with a player meeting and story-telling, while Oskar and I had a quite and loooong coach meeting with the coaches of Gislaved and Ljungby at the Grand Hotel.
Day 2:
We all came out Sunday morning with clear minds ready to take on Hylte-Halmstad and we made it very clear from the start of the match that we wanted to go to the final. A quick win in 2 sets and ready we were..
And who was waiting for us in the final – Falköping RIG who beat the English development team in their semifinal. This would be the 4th time we would play Falköping in just over a week. We expected a group of young girls who wanted this win more than anything and we tried to built a strong mentality to resist them, but we started the match with a lot of easy errors and that gave Falköping all the room they needed to unfold their potential, and we were never close to win the first set which finished 19-25 or so..
We made a few subs between the 2 sets and agreed to start over, but we were still not at all close to the level we have shown these past few weeks, and it took a bit of an attitude from me in a time-out before the team started to respond, and once we got started we never looked back.
High pressure in serving, stability in passing topped off with opportunistic and fast offence gave us a big win in the last 2 sets 25-10, 15-10… and our first gold medals as a team.
What did we take with us…
Other than the medals and the cup to bring back to a proud club president, I really feel we grew as a team this weekend. We had good talks with the full team trying to learn from each match we played, and the girls got a chance to work with the internal agreements on the team. The individual improvement for each player is not a high priority of mine right now. First of all the players all have a really high level already, but more importantly we have a lot of work to do as a team, and once the players are working for and with each other I believe the individual improvement will be much more efficient.
I have a really good group of girls again this year and the opportunities are endless with the sky as the limit… Chemistry off the court seems extremely well and has been focus for me from the beginning which so far seems to have paid off. On the court we are still finding each other, but with each ball we play and each point we win or lose, we take a big step in getting to where we want to be as a team and I am proud that the girls are working so hard as they are, and they are doing everything I ask of them which makes my job a real pleasure.
Tournament player in my book was Kaisa Wallin who quickly has taken a really important role on the team putting the S in stability when it comes to passing and defence AND a big A in aggression at the net where she along side Sam has been the teams most scoring players so far this preseason. Well done Kaisa and grats to the whole team.. not only for the title but also for the progression you have made as a team this weekend.
Michael
“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant”
Plans changed on us several times and every time it was without our own influence, but at the end of the day we learned how to roll with the punches and got the best out of it.
Friday we played 3 sets against Engelholm. We drove down there(5.5 hours) and played at 15.30. We lost the match 2-1 to a well organized and tough serving Engelholm team who looks like being the team to beat if we want to go all the way this year.. It is still early to say anything for sure, but they look strong this early.
After the match we drove to Borås which was about 3 hours north and on the way we needed to pick up Josephine(setter) in blablabla city ;0) where she would be arriving with the train.. Check this out – her train had hit a MOOSE on the way and was thereby delayed for 2.5 hours.. A f..in MOOSE.. That made me think of my old team in Lyngby and all the amazing times I’ve shared with those guys…!
We got her picked up and headed for Borås where the girls checked in to a small apartment complex while Oskar and I shared 2m2 of space.. Talk about being VIP..
Day 1
Saturday we played Oslo who we are playing in our Nordic Championship group and that match was over pretty fast. 2-0(25-6, 25-20) against a slow starting Norwegian team(which later showed a lot more quality than that morning match).
Next up was Örebro our local rivals and we lost the first set to a very engaged and loud team. We spend the time between 1st and 2nd set re-loading and talking some things through and came out unstoppable… 25-10 and 15-9(if I remember correctly) was the score..
3rd and last match of the day was against our friends from Falköping RIG and the young girls again showed how talented they are pushing us in an intense fight which we won 2-1. We won the 1st and 3rd set of the match but I don’t remember the scores at all.
Winner of the group, and a semifinal on Sunday against Hylte-Halmstad with 2 Polish stars and a newly acquired Brazilian outside was waiting for us Sunday.
The girls spend the evening with a player meeting and story-telling, while Oskar and I had a quite and loooong coach meeting with the coaches of Gislaved and Ljungby at the Grand Hotel.
Day 2:
We all came out Sunday morning with clear minds ready to take on Hylte-Halmstad and we made it very clear from the start of the match that we wanted to go to the final. A quick win in 2 sets and ready we were..
And who was waiting for us in the final – Falköping RIG who beat the English development team in their semifinal. This would be the 4th time we would play Falköping in just over a week. We expected a group of young girls who wanted this win more than anything and we tried to built a strong mentality to resist them, but we started the match with a lot of easy errors and that gave Falköping all the room they needed to unfold their potential, and we were never close to win the first set which finished 19-25 or so..
We made a few subs between the 2 sets and agreed to start over, but we were still not at all close to the level we have shown these past few weeks, and it took a bit of an attitude from me in a time-out before the team started to respond, and once we got started we never looked back.
High pressure in serving, stability in passing topped off with opportunistic and fast offence gave us a big win in the last 2 sets 25-10, 15-10… and our first gold medals as a team.
What did we take with us…
Other than the medals and the cup to bring back to a proud club president, I really feel we grew as a team this weekend. We had good talks with the full team trying to learn from each match we played, and the girls got a chance to work with the internal agreements on the team. The individual improvement for each player is not a high priority of mine right now. First of all the players all have a really high level already, but more importantly we have a lot of work to do as a team, and once the players are working for and with each other I believe the individual improvement will be much more efficient.
I have a really good group of girls again this year and the opportunities are endless with the sky as the limit… Chemistry off the court seems extremely well and has been focus for me from the beginning which so far seems to have paid off. On the court we are still finding each other, but with each ball we play and each point we win or lose, we take a big step in getting to where we want to be as a team and I am proud that the girls are working so hard as they are, and they are doing everything I ask of them which makes my job a real pleasure.
Tournament player in my book was Kaisa Wallin who quickly has taken a really important role on the team putting the S in stability when it comes to passing and defence AND a big A in aggression at the net where she along side Sam has been the teams most scoring players so far this preseason. Well done Kaisa and grats to the whole team.. not only for the title but also for the progression you have made as a team this weekend.
Michael
“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant”
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Tournament in Lindesberg and Nordic Championship
This past weekend we played our 2nd preseason tournament and this time at home in the great new Lindesberg Arena. Results on www.lindesbergvolley.se
Teams participating were: Stavanger(NOR), Falköping RIG(SWE), Sollentuna(SWE) and Lindesberg(SWE).
We opened the weekend with a friendly match against Stavanger on their night of arrival and it pretty fast became clear that they hadn’t gotten the 6 hour drive out of their legs. We won easily 3-0 in less than 1 hour.
Saturday the tournament started and we opened against Stavanger… This morning Stavanger came with the intention of paying back for their loss the night before. They served tougher and put more pressure on our hitters with great blocking, but the girls showed true toughness and pulled off a 2-0 win in 2 pretty close sets.
2nd match for us was against Falköping RIG and the young and very talented squad counting about 95% of the Swedish youth national team fought hard to compete, but in the long run we proved to be the better team looking at stability and discipline. Another 2-0 win for Linde.
3rd and last match Saturday was against Sollentuna and almost before the match got started it was over in a very clear 2-0 win. Both teams saved a couple of key players and that seemed to hurt Sollentuna more than it did us.
Group stage results:
Lindesberg 3 wins, 0 losses
Stavanger 2 wins, 1 loss
Falköping 1 win, 2 losses
Sollentuna 0 wins, 3 losses
1st place in the group stage of the tournament and we would be facing Sollentuna in the Semifinale Sunday morning.
We expected a tougher match up this time as Sollentuna lined up a stronger line up, but we stepped up to the task as competition got tougher and won 2-0 without struggle.
In the Final awaited Falköping RIG who beat Stavanger in a close and intense semifinal 2-1. A small upset by the young and talented squad, but to the story belongs the fact that Stavanger played without libero the entire tournament because she was away with the Finnish national team, and passing line proved to be what Stavanger struggled with the most this weekend.
We entered the final as favourites and after about 45 minutes the match was over with a 2-0 win. But the win did not come as easy as the first time we played them on Saturday. This time the young girls showed amazing ability to fight for every point, converting defensive plays into points and tough serving. 2nd set finished 27-25 after several long and intense rallies, and in this part of the game we lacked “coolness” and aggressiveness which resulted in too many safe serves and attacks. However, the girls came out with the win and we can’t really complain about that, but it is our intention to stay aggressive even when the score is 25-25.
Player of the tournament in my eyes was Klaudia Grelowska. She played her first matches as middle due to some injuries on our team and she played the tournament very impressively. Also Jeanette played a great tournament with passing at the level of last season and defence which kept the 50 – 70 people in the crowd on their toes most of the time.
What is next...
Next weekend we are off to Denmark to play a small tournament with Brøndby(DK), Gentofte(DK) and Svedala(SWE). This weeks practice will be with focus on technique and resting so we are all ready for the 2nd half of preseason.
So far we are satisfied with our level and accomplishments in the 2 tournaments we have played, but have a long ways to go before season begins and before the 1st big test which will be Nordic Championship November 5th – 7th.
Our group in Nordic Championship will be played in Stavanger and it looks like this:
Lindesberg(SWE)
Stavanger(NOR)
Oslo(NOR)
Fortuna-Odense(DEN)
It will be exciting to play Fortuna(my team from last year) and also a rematch against Stavanger is something we look forward to.
Michael
“Your eyes can’t hit what your eyes can’t see, move like a butterfly and sting like a Bee”
Teams participating were: Stavanger(NOR), Falköping RIG(SWE), Sollentuna(SWE) and Lindesberg(SWE).
We opened the weekend with a friendly match against Stavanger on their night of arrival and it pretty fast became clear that they hadn’t gotten the 6 hour drive out of their legs. We won easily 3-0 in less than 1 hour.
Saturday the tournament started and we opened against Stavanger… This morning Stavanger came with the intention of paying back for their loss the night before. They served tougher and put more pressure on our hitters with great blocking, but the girls showed true toughness and pulled off a 2-0 win in 2 pretty close sets.
2nd match for us was against Falköping RIG and the young and very talented squad counting about 95% of the Swedish youth national team fought hard to compete, but in the long run we proved to be the better team looking at stability and discipline. Another 2-0 win for Linde.
3rd and last match Saturday was against Sollentuna and almost before the match got started it was over in a very clear 2-0 win. Both teams saved a couple of key players and that seemed to hurt Sollentuna more than it did us.
Group stage results:
Lindesberg 3 wins, 0 losses
Stavanger 2 wins, 1 loss
Falköping 1 win, 2 losses
Sollentuna 0 wins, 3 losses
1st place in the group stage of the tournament and we would be facing Sollentuna in the Semifinale Sunday morning.
We expected a tougher match up this time as Sollentuna lined up a stronger line up, but we stepped up to the task as competition got tougher and won 2-0 without struggle.
In the Final awaited Falköping RIG who beat Stavanger in a close and intense semifinal 2-1. A small upset by the young and talented squad, but to the story belongs the fact that Stavanger played without libero the entire tournament because she was away with the Finnish national team, and passing line proved to be what Stavanger struggled with the most this weekend.
We entered the final as favourites and after about 45 minutes the match was over with a 2-0 win. But the win did not come as easy as the first time we played them on Saturday. This time the young girls showed amazing ability to fight for every point, converting defensive plays into points and tough serving. 2nd set finished 27-25 after several long and intense rallies, and in this part of the game we lacked “coolness” and aggressiveness which resulted in too many safe serves and attacks. However, the girls came out with the win and we can’t really complain about that, but it is our intention to stay aggressive even when the score is 25-25.
Player of the tournament in my eyes was Klaudia Grelowska. She played her first matches as middle due to some injuries on our team and she played the tournament very impressively. Also Jeanette played a great tournament with passing at the level of last season and defence which kept the 50 – 70 people in the crowd on their toes most of the time.
What is next...
Next weekend we are off to Denmark to play a small tournament with Brøndby(DK), Gentofte(DK) and Svedala(SWE). This weeks practice will be with focus on technique and resting so we are all ready for the 2nd half of preseason.
So far we are satisfied with our level and accomplishments in the 2 tournaments we have played, but have a long ways to go before season begins and before the 1st big test which will be Nordic Championship November 5th – 7th.
Our group in Nordic Championship will be played in Stavanger and it looks like this:
Lindesberg(SWE)
Stavanger(NOR)
Oslo(NOR)
Fortuna-Odense(DEN)
It will be exciting to play Fortuna(my team from last year) and also a rematch against Stavanger is something we look forward to.
Michael
“Your eyes can’t hit what your eyes can’t see, move like a butterfly and sting like a Bee”
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