Another busy week is over and we have paid the price to the fullest.
The week started with our 2 Danish outsides, Charlotte and My calling in sick and they ended up missing all week from practice. Sanna(rightside) is still suffering from her ankle injury so she has been limited in practice and Bix(rightside) is still not available due to a back and neck injury.
A small roster played the match on Thursday against Lyngby, but as I always say "it is better to bring 5 Lions than 500 Sheep" and the 8 girls available for the match started out great bringing us to a 19-10 lead in the 1st set. Having that big a lead we started trying out different things in offense, but as some of those things failed and we added to that a streek of serving errors, Lyngby found their way back in the set stealing a 23-25 win completely stunning the home crowd.
2nd set continued with the bad finish to the 1st and we quickly fell back 5 points. However, after a time-out and a series of points from Noelle at the net we found our way back and grabbed the set win by 25-21
From then on our ways was set and we blew Lyngby off the court in the 3rd set with great serves, minimal amount of errors and great offense. 25-8 win in the 3rd, and eventhough Lyngby put up a fight in the 4th we showed great resilience to pull off a 3-1 win with 25-21 in the last set.
Another injury and then a loss..
Thursdays game was over and we had practice Friday before our long trip to Aarhus on Saturday to play AarhusVolley. 1 hour before Friday's practice Jeanette(libero) called in with a sprained ankle after a school tournament and suddently we were down to 7 players available for the match Saturday. We managed to get My(Outside hitter) up and running Saturday morning and inspite her influenza she showed up to help out the team by filling in on libero.
We started the match against Aarhus like the group of hurting and sick we actually were. With the score tied at 4-4 Aarhus pulled away 12-4 after we struggled greatly in passing, and when we finally got the set up there we managed to make an error in hitting or touching the net in blocking. 25-19 to Aarhus.
In the 2nd set we pulled ourselves together bringing us to a 2-8 lead early in the set. Fighting to keep that lead for the rest of the set we again found ourselves struggling in the same rotation as in the 1st set. Aarhus grabbed the set win 25-22.
With our back against the wall we started the 3rd set with more determination, but we were still making the errors that has been with us since Thursday match at home, but with a solid streek of points from Noelle at the end of the set, we managed to take the set 22-25 bring a small hope back that we could actually still win this one.
4th set and we are now in the lead.. We struggle in all parts of the game still but the girls fight hard to bring it back. At 17-19 in our favor the same serve that has caused us problems all game long again strikes holes in our passing line, and added to that we tip 2 ball into the net handing Aarhus the setwin at 25-20 and thereby the match 3-1.
A tough loss leaving us trailing the other 2 top teams.. Aarhus played as we expected them to, but we had no chance to resist in a game where we failed to meet our own level and our own expectations, and we will spend the rest of the weekend doing some soulsearching and recovering mentally as well as physically.
Season is long still and there is always a new battle to win. This coming Friday we play Gentofte at home and we need to find our game before then. 4 matches left before Christmas, 3 of which is against top4 teams including a semifinal in the Cup tournament against the only undefeated team in Denmark - HolteIF.
Michael
"We win and we lose together... that is what makes us a team.."
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Up and running once again..
Ok so it has been a while since I wrote anything last on this blog.. However, I have decided to pick it up once again and still bring some of my own thoughts about volleyball in general, my team(Vordingborg VK) and the competitions we are part of.
As I said I am now coaching Vordingborg VK’s elite women’s team in the Danish top league – “Volleyligaen”. I live in Præstø which is about 20min. from where we practice and play our home games, and I live here with my girlfriend, Ingrid who also plays on the team.
Where are we at...
Season is already 1/3 of the way and we have started out 6-1 in the league putting us in 2nd place at the moment, and we have qualified for the ½ final in the Danish Cup tournament. All in all a good start on the season, and we are working hard on getting the team settled after having a few players joining us just recently.
I will give a presentation of the team player by player in my next article, but to round this little teaser off in a good way, I will give you my views on the competition in the league this year;
There are 8 teams in the top league out of which 7 teams has at least 3 pro foreign players. All teams play each other 3 times in regular season before the start of playoffs.
The teams..
The current number 1 seed is HolteIF
Holte has started the season 7-0 and they will be our opponent in the ½ final in the cup tournament. The teams holds several Danish national team players and they have added 2 Canadian girls(setter and middle) as well as an Australian middle and an Icelandic National team outside to the mix.
Holte is expected to make the playoffs as well as a final as they always are, but this could be the year where they will face the toughest competition ever, as many teams have made a move for the playoffs. However, Holte is undefeated so far and they play a very consistent level with great block/defense.
My guess is that Holte will finish regular season in 3rd place.
The current number 2 seed is VordingborgVK
My own team is in 2nd place right now. We have had some player changes right as regular season was about to start, but we managed to come out of it with 6 wins and only 1 loss so far. We have 5 American girls on the team, 4 local Danish girls and 3 Danish imports from Copenhagen and Odense. Our goal is to play an aggressive and opportunistic offense, while being very disciplined in block/defense.
My guess is that we will finish regular season in 2nd place.
The current number 3 seed is BrøndbyVK
Brøndby is in my eyes the strongest team in the league this far. They have 4 pro American girls, 1 pro Scottish player as well as last year’s league MVP(their Danish setter) and 5 other Danish national team players. The team has currently a 5-1 record and they are in the ½ final in the cup tournament.
Brøndby have big blockers on all positions and they have a very strong passing line. This makes them capable of running a very fast offense as well as giving them great chance to play transition with their big blockers making it hard for the other team to make points.
My guess is that Brøndby will finish regular season in 1st place
The current number 4 seed is FrederiksbergVK
This team has 4 pro foreign players on the team, 3 American girls and recently added a Canadian middle. They also have our national team backup setter. They have a 3-4 record at the moment.
We have played this team 3 times already and won all 3 times(one of them in the cup tournament). They struggle a lot in their passing line with 2 very young liberos and I see that as their biggest weakness. They are in 4th place right now and that is why I am guessing them to finish 4th in regular season, but if their passing does not get better then I see other teams as a potential threat to that 4th place and the last spot in the playoffs.
The current number 5 seed is Fortuna-Odense Volley
Fortuna has a tradition of making the finals the past many years, both in the championship and in the cup tournament. So far they are in the ½ finals in the cup where they play Brøndby, and they are in 5th place in the league after a very slow start on the season leading them to a 2-4 record.
Fortuna lost in their season opener to the only team without pro players, and that loss is currently what is keeping them out of the playoff picture. Furthermore they have lost to Frederiksberg who is the team they need to pass to get in to the playoffs.
This team has an American coach and it has been inspiring to watch what he is trying to do with the girls. They have their own unique style of passing and blocking especially. However, this is also the smallest roster in the league with only 8/9 players, but they have 2 pro American girls as well as an Estonian pro outside hitter. Also on the team is the Danish national team captain.
My guess is that Fortuna will finish regular season in 5th place, but I am not ready to cut them out of the race for 4th just yet.. A lot of answers will be given over the next 3 weeks.
The current 6th seed is AarhusVolley
Aarhus is the only team in our league who has a team with only Danish players. They started the season with a big win 3-2 against Fortuna which was an upset to most people. Since then they lost 4 of their past 5 matches taking them to a 2-4 record. The only other team they have beaten is the bottom team, and I have a hard time seeing Aarhus playing more tricks on any of the top teams.
They have big roster, but many of their players are former national team girls who is no longer practicing a whole lot, and that shows in their matches. They have a top level which allows them to compete in a set or two each match, but keeping the level is where they struggle.
My guess is that Aarhus will finish regular season in 8th place.
The current 7th seed is LyngbyVolley
Lyngby is a team of 3 pro players(2 Americans and 1 Brasilian), then they have 4 very young and very talented players at the ages of 15/16 and to that mix they have added 4 girls who have all had their prime some years ago, but who can still contribute with experience and consistency.
Lyngby started season with their American outside hitter who is also coaching the team breaking her ankle, and she has not yet played a match for the team. They are at a 1-5 record and they struggle trying to run the fast tempo offense that half the team can master, but the rest can’t.
This team also has problems with the fundamentals of the game, but with 4 young girls working hard to get better I have a small hope that Lyngby will surprise a few as they also will get their coach/outside back on court soon.
My guess is that Lyngby will finish regular season in 6th place. They still have a small chance making playoffs as they are only 2 wins away from 4th spot and those wins may very well come as they get their full team back, but until we have seen what difference the American coach/outside can make I have them in 6th place.
The current 8th seed is Gentofte Volley
Gentofte aimed high from the start of the season hiring coach of the year 3 years ago and former men’s National team setter, Søren Hansen, but the results have not gone their way this year.
Gentofte has 3 pro Polish girls on the team, but one of them is yet to play her first match sitting out with an injury, and the players around the remaining 2 Polish girls are just not performing consistent enough to win matches. Gentofte has lost 2 times 2-3 and has also played some close games against Holte and Brøndby, but each time they fall on inconsistency.
Gentofte has a lot of young players who all have good ball control, but the lack of experience is hurting them a lot it seems, and to top that off their passing line is in my eyes the worst in the league.
I do however see them getting things right later in season and with just 2 or 3 wins they can find themselves in 6th place quickly, but I guess them to finish regular season in 7th place.
Those were my thoughts on each team in the top league this year.. Soon I will give a presentation on each player we have on the team in Vordingborg, but for now this was all.. I am excited though, to start up the blog again and I hope people are still following it..
Michael
As I said I am now coaching Vordingborg VK’s elite women’s team in the Danish top league – “Volleyligaen”. I live in Præstø which is about 20min. from where we practice and play our home games, and I live here with my girlfriend, Ingrid who also plays on the team.
Where are we at...
Season is already 1/3 of the way and we have started out 6-1 in the league putting us in 2nd place at the moment, and we have qualified for the ½ final in the Danish Cup tournament. All in all a good start on the season, and we are working hard on getting the team settled after having a few players joining us just recently.
I will give a presentation of the team player by player in my next article, but to round this little teaser off in a good way, I will give you my views on the competition in the league this year;
There are 8 teams in the top league out of which 7 teams has at least 3 pro foreign players. All teams play each other 3 times in regular season before the start of playoffs.
The teams..
The current number 1 seed is HolteIF
Holte has started the season 7-0 and they will be our opponent in the ½ final in the cup tournament. The teams holds several Danish national team players and they have added 2 Canadian girls(setter and middle) as well as an Australian middle and an Icelandic National team outside to the mix.
Holte is expected to make the playoffs as well as a final as they always are, but this could be the year where they will face the toughest competition ever, as many teams have made a move for the playoffs. However, Holte is undefeated so far and they play a very consistent level with great block/defense.
My guess is that Holte will finish regular season in 3rd place.
The current number 2 seed is VordingborgVK
My own team is in 2nd place right now. We have had some player changes right as regular season was about to start, but we managed to come out of it with 6 wins and only 1 loss so far. We have 5 American girls on the team, 4 local Danish girls and 3 Danish imports from Copenhagen and Odense. Our goal is to play an aggressive and opportunistic offense, while being very disciplined in block/defense.
My guess is that we will finish regular season in 2nd place.
The current number 3 seed is BrøndbyVK
Brøndby is in my eyes the strongest team in the league this far. They have 4 pro American girls, 1 pro Scottish player as well as last year’s league MVP(their Danish setter) and 5 other Danish national team players. The team has currently a 5-1 record and they are in the ½ final in the cup tournament.
Brøndby have big blockers on all positions and they have a very strong passing line. This makes them capable of running a very fast offense as well as giving them great chance to play transition with their big blockers making it hard for the other team to make points.
My guess is that Brøndby will finish regular season in 1st place
The current number 4 seed is FrederiksbergVK
This team has 4 pro foreign players on the team, 3 American girls and recently added a Canadian middle. They also have our national team backup setter. They have a 3-4 record at the moment.
We have played this team 3 times already and won all 3 times(one of them in the cup tournament). They struggle a lot in their passing line with 2 very young liberos and I see that as their biggest weakness. They are in 4th place right now and that is why I am guessing them to finish 4th in regular season, but if their passing does not get better then I see other teams as a potential threat to that 4th place and the last spot in the playoffs.
The current number 5 seed is Fortuna-Odense Volley
Fortuna has a tradition of making the finals the past many years, both in the championship and in the cup tournament. So far they are in the ½ finals in the cup where they play Brøndby, and they are in 5th place in the league after a very slow start on the season leading them to a 2-4 record.
Fortuna lost in their season opener to the only team without pro players, and that loss is currently what is keeping them out of the playoff picture. Furthermore they have lost to Frederiksberg who is the team they need to pass to get in to the playoffs.
This team has an American coach and it has been inspiring to watch what he is trying to do with the girls. They have their own unique style of passing and blocking especially. However, this is also the smallest roster in the league with only 8/9 players, but they have 2 pro American girls as well as an Estonian pro outside hitter. Also on the team is the Danish national team captain.
My guess is that Fortuna will finish regular season in 5th place, but I am not ready to cut them out of the race for 4th just yet.. A lot of answers will be given over the next 3 weeks.
The current 6th seed is AarhusVolley
Aarhus is the only team in our league who has a team with only Danish players. They started the season with a big win 3-2 against Fortuna which was an upset to most people. Since then they lost 4 of their past 5 matches taking them to a 2-4 record. The only other team they have beaten is the bottom team, and I have a hard time seeing Aarhus playing more tricks on any of the top teams.
They have big roster, but many of their players are former national team girls who is no longer practicing a whole lot, and that shows in their matches. They have a top level which allows them to compete in a set or two each match, but keeping the level is where they struggle.
My guess is that Aarhus will finish regular season in 8th place.
The current 7th seed is LyngbyVolley
Lyngby is a team of 3 pro players(2 Americans and 1 Brasilian), then they have 4 very young and very talented players at the ages of 15/16 and to that mix they have added 4 girls who have all had their prime some years ago, but who can still contribute with experience and consistency.
Lyngby started season with their American outside hitter who is also coaching the team breaking her ankle, and she has not yet played a match for the team. They are at a 1-5 record and they struggle trying to run the fast tempo offense that half the team can master, but the rest can’t.
This team also has problems with the fundamentals of the game, but with 4 young girls working hard to get better I have a small hope that Lyngby will surprise a few as they also will get their coach/outside back on court soon.
My guess is that Lyngby will finish regular season in 6th place. They still have a small chance making playoffs as they are only 2 wins away from 4th spot and those wins may very well come as they get their full team back, but until we have seen what difference the American coach/outside can make I have them in 6th place.
The current 8th seed is Gentofte Volley
Gentofte aimed high from the start of the season hiring coach of the year 3 years ago and former men’s National team setter, Søren Hansen, but the results have not gone their way this year.
Gentofte has 3 pro Polish girls on the team, but one of them is yet to play her first match sitting out with an injury, and the players around the remaining 2 Polish girls are just not performing consistent enough to win matches. Gentofte has lost 2 times 2-3 and has also played some close games against Holte and Brøndby, but each time they fall on inconsistency.
Gentofte has a lot of young players who all have good ball control, but the lack of experience is hurting them a lot it seems, and to top that off their passing line is in my eyes the worst in the league.
I do however see them getting things right later in season and with just 2 or 3 wins they can find themselves in 6th place quickly, but I guess them to finish regular season in 7th place.
Those were my thoughts on each team in the top league this year.. Soon I will give a presentation on each player we have on the team in Vordingborg, but for now this was all.. I am excited though, to start up the blog again and I hope people are still following it..
Michael
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Life... you never know where it takes you
Principles are made for a reason...
About 1 month ago I made a deal with Lindesberg about coming back next season and I settled to that idea pretty fast. The city, the club and the people around the team have all been super great all year and I liked the challenge of coming back trying to do better..
Little did I know that only 1 week later I had a meeting with the club again to talk about which players to bring back and which to change to bring the right squad for next season. After that meeting it was very clear that we could not agree at all and instead of trying to force anything through on either part, we decided to split ways without any drama or anything like that.
I want to send a huge thank you to Lindesberg Volleyball and the city of Lindesberg for the great year I have had there. We had a great season, made things happen for the club and the team which we set out to do. I will always be greatful for Lindesberg for contacting me and I believe we have started something which will take Lindesberg even further next year, and that is always fun to be a part of.
What now...
Parting ways with Lindesberg opens a door of options and let me say right now that I have not yet decided what to do with it all..
I have a dream of being part of changing Danish volleyball to something better than what it is today... To do that I need to be there or at least be the coach of Danish players, but I am not sure I fit in the traditional Danish "way of doing things"...
It is no secret that I am not great friends with many "important" people within the Danish National Team and the Danish Federation, mainly because I do things differently than what they have been doing the last 100years..:0/
I have be given the opportunity to help a relatively new team in the league in their efforts to make a name for themselves as a top team in Denmark.. Not just for potentially winning a gold medal, but for the way it will be won.
The club is Vordingborg VK and we share the same vision for Danish volleyball.. We want the quality to be spread out in more than one club, and to do so we need to make sure that more than one club offers the high quality of both physical, techniqual and tactical practice and environment which is a demand from the Danish players.
As part of figuring out where do coach next year I decided to "investigate" the market of Danish players joining Vordingborg with a serious project, good environment and the addition of high quality of foreigners, and to make it all really good the Danish players I talked to all were offered very nice contracts to join the team.. The result of the "investigation" was that inspite of a certain level of interest the step to actual make the move to a different club was too hard to take and as of now the season in Denmark looks to be a copy of the last 2 years.. The best Danish girls(nationalteam players) all play for the same team under whatever conditions they can get, two or three other teams then shop foreigners who by the end of the year will be strong enough to win the finals..
I am not sure that is what I want to be part of in my next years as a coach.. I had hoped to move some things in the league but for that to happen we need a few more teams that are attractive to the handful of Danish girls who wants elite and who has what it takes. The league is stronger year by year but it is because of the foreigners in the league.. The Danish girls are stacked up in one team only with each other to put pressure at practice.. All I hope for now is that some of them decides to take a chance on themselves.. Dare to get more than what you have now by investing just a little bit more.. take the step, make the move, see what else is out there because I guarantee that there is nolonger only 1 club and 1 coach working hard and dedicated.
I fully understand that players want what is best and the last many years that has only been possible in 1 place, but things are changing and the past 5 years several clubs and coaches have taken the next step.
When will we know..
I will make my decision on where to play within a few days and it will be a choice between France, Sweden or Denmark. I have a good feeling about a couple of teams right now and I am leaning towards Denmark for sure but nothing is certain at this point.
No matter where I end up I feel really good about what I have learned after this past season in Lindesberg, and I have a good feeling regarding winning more medals and gaining more experience as a coach, and agent and a person.
Michael
About 1 month ago I made a deal with Lindesberg about coming back next season and I settled to that idea pretty fast. The city, the club and the people around the team have all been super great all year and I liked the challenge of coming back trying to do better..
Little did I know that only 1 week later I had a meeting with the club again to talk about which players to bring back and which to change to bring the right squad for next season. After that meeting it was very clear that we could not agree at all and instead of trying to force anything through on either part, we decided to split ways without any drama or anything like that.
I want to send a huge thank you to Lindesberg Volleyball and the city of Lindesberg for the great year I have had there. We had a great season, made things happen for the club and the team which we set out to do. I will always be greatful for Lindesberg for contacting me and I believe we have started something which will take Lindesberg even further next year, and that is always fun to be a part of.
What now...
Parting ways with Lindesberg opens a door of options and let me say right now that I have not yet decided what to do with it all..
I have a dream of being part of changing Danish volleyball to something better than what it is today... To do that I need to be there or at least be the coach of Danish players, but I am not sure I fit in the traditional Danish "way of doing things"...
It is no secret that I am not great friends with many "important" people within the Danish National Team and the Danish Federation, mainly because I do things differently than what they have been doing the last 100years..:0/
I have be given the opportunity to help a relatively new team in the league in their efforts to make a name for themselves as a top team in Denmark.. Not just for potentially winning a gold medal, but for the way it will be won.
The club is Vordingborg VK and we share the same vision for Danish volleyball.. We want the quality to be spread out in more than one club, and to do so we need to make sure that more than one club offers the high quality of both physical, techniqual and tactical practice and environment which is a demand from the Danish players.
As part of figuring out where do coach next year I decided to "investigate" the market of Danish players joining Vordingborg with a serious project, good environment and the addition of high quality of foreigners, and to make it all really good the Danish players I talked to all were offered very nice contracts to join the team.. The result of the "investigation" was that inspite of a certain level of interest the step to actual make the move to a different club was too hard to take and as of now the season in Denmark looks to be a copy of the last 2 years.. The best Danish girls(nationalteam players) all play for the same team under whatever conditions they can get, two or three other teams then shop foreigners who by the end of the year will be strong enough to win the finals..
I am not sure that is what I want to be part of in my next years as a coach.. I had hoped to move some things in the league but for that to happen we need a few more teams that are attractive to the handful of Danish girls who wants elite and who has what it takes. The league is stronger year by year but it is because of the foreigners in the league.. The Danish girls are stacked up in one team only with each other to put pressure at practice.. All I hope for now is that some of them decides to take a chance on themselves.. Dare to get more than what you have now by investing just a little bit more.. take the step, make the move, see what else is out there because I guarantee that there is nolonger only 1 club and 1 coach working hard and dedicated.
I fully understand that players want what is best and the last many years that has only been possible in 1 place, but things are changing and the past 5 years several clubs and coaches have taken the next step.
When will we know..
I will make my decision on where to play within a few days and it will be a choice between France, Sweden or Denmark. I have a good feeling about a couple of teams right now and I am leaning towards Denmark for sure but nothing is certain at this point.
No matter where I end up I feel really good about what I have learned after this past season in Lindesberg, and I have a good feeling regarding winning more medals and gaining more experience as a coach, and agent and a person.
Michael
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Season ended...
So...
After a loooong time since my last update I feel like I am ready to reflect a bit upon the last part of season.
Losing out in the semifinals 1-3 in matches(3-0, 2-3, 2-3, 2-3) was the last stop on our journey this year, and as the results show there is a long and deep story behind it all with a lot of drama and intensity..
First of all let me say that we finished the regular season in 3rd place losing the last match 3-1 away to Sollentuna. Maybe that loss was a sign to us of what was to come. It was not so much the fact that we lost, cuz Sollentuna played the best we have seen them play, but it was the fact that we entered the match thinking that a decent effort would be enough to win it... We thought wrong.!
After that loss we had a good talk about our mental state and we entered the 1/4 finals with a lot of confidense playing the #7 seed from Falköping. Unfortunately that confidense resulted in the exact same mistake as we did against Sollentuna, and our home crowd got to see a hometeam without the usual resilience and confidense on court when things got rough.. We lost the first 1/4 final by 3-2 at home and suddently our season had turned upside down in just 2 weeks from having a chance to finish 2nd in the regular season winning homecourt advantage all the way through possible semifinals and being undefeated at home, to now finishing 3rd losing that homecourt advantage and our Linde Arena was nolonger an sieged fortress.
In retrospect that may very well have planted some seeds in our mentality and I am sure - now more than ever - that it took a big bite from our confidense in our own style of play. We have all season played an aggressive style of play with much discipline in block and defense, but the loss to Falköping told us a story of giving up 16 block kills to the other team and 39 errors on top of that in 5 sets... If anyone is wondering - YES that is how you ensure to lose a match.
Picking up our game we won the next 2 matches 3-0, 3-0 giving us a chance to finish off the 1/4 finals in 4 and regain all confidense. The 2 wins was secured with smart offence avoiding the big blocks from Falköping and that gave us an advantage.
The 4th match started out perfect and we ran them over in the 1st set, 2nd set same story until we reach about 20 and then we start to lose focus, laughing of our own mistakes and maybe trying too many things when not needed. We lost the 2nd set. 3rd set we are back on track after having talked with big letters in the time between the sets and we run them over again. 4th set is tight all the way but Falköping took it at the end bringing us to another 5th set against this team. In the 5th set it is again the young girls from Falköping who has the edge and they play without fear of losing which is the opposite of what we are doing and they win the set and thereby the match.
Driving home from Falköping one of my players was interviewed by the loal news and she spoke very responsably and calm with all the confidense in the world that if we just play our own game we will win easy.
We did in the last match at home and took it big 3-0 and thereby made the semifinals.
Playing our own game...
Entering the semifinals playing the #2 seed we had a belief that we could win and we were hungry for revenge after having lost to this team the last 2 times we played them.
We played the 1st match away and took a huge 3-0 win where our serving pressure was unstoppable and everything went our way.
We brought that level to the 2nd match at home winning the first 2 sets huge and leading 16-13 in the 3rd... I am going to let that sit for a while... 5 sets in a row crushing this team and 6th set up by 16-13...
And then something happened that I had not seen coming.. We lost our lead in the 3rd set with a series of bad passes and Katrineholm took the set 25-22 and from then on they never looked back winning the match 3-2 in our gym.
We were all in a state of chok after that loss but had a good talk about it and our hunger for revenge grew again..
The next match was moved up 2 days from a Sunday to a Friday leaving only 1 day between the 2 matches but all that did was to make us want it even more, and as long as the physical level could be held high we knew we could do it..
It was another match of ups and downs.. We won the first. lost 2nd and 3rd, won the 4th only to lose out in the 5th set and another 3-2 defeat..
Suddently we were down 2-1 in matches and needed to win the next one at home to stay alive.. We had plenty of rest and it felt good going in to the game.
Again a very clear memory for me was our tactical meeting before the match, one of the girls said that she was not worried because now we were all feeling strong and rested so now we would win, and she was just speaking out the feeling we al had.. Again in retrospect I feel we forgot everything we talked about after those words came out.. We spend the rest of the meeting talking about why we all played volleyball, what made it fun, what is our style of play and how we needed to stick to that when it got touch and tight, yet it seemed to have no effect in the match just 2 hours later..
We crushed them in the 1st, had an 8 point lead in the 2nd only to throw that away giving them the 2nd set. 3rd set we stormed away and won it by 10 points only to lose out in the 4th after another series of unsuccessful passes.
So here we were at the beginning of the 5th set.. our 5th 5set match of the playoffs having lost the 4 before this one.. This time however there was no doubt, Katrineholm took a solid lead after we switched sides and they never stopped putting pressure, didn't give away errors and we unlike most of season we unable to convert to points.. the 5th 3-2 loss in just as many tries leaving us with a feeling that we had the level to win but lacked ability to believe in it when it got close..
The aftermath...
Ending it all this way has left what they in Sweden call Silly Season(the time between season where players and coaches har hired and fired) in a bit of a chaos... We all feel like we could have ended season with a better result and there will always be a ton of people on and outside the team with claimed knowledge of what should have been different and who did what wrong, but at the end of the day it is always so easy to sit back after everything is done and point fingers and we will not be doing that in this club... We know that only 1 team will sit with the gold in the end and if everyone but them did a bad job because they didn't win the gold then the rate of success in this business is so small that it id hardly worth doing...
In Lindesberg we believe in the development of the club and the culture of how we want to do things and there is a lot of reflecting going on right now within the club and coaches and all the players are being involved as well.. We want to come out of this stronger than 1 season ago and that is exactly what we will, but you do not want to built a new house with a new foundation and 3 levels just to pick it down after a year and build a new one.. You can change a windowframe, a doorknob but the foundation needs to stay the same year after year to get the most out of the investment made in the house..
That is why we will not be changing 12 players, 2 coaches and 3 board members just because we lost in the semifinals.. Overall we had a good season for Lindesberg Volley and our values have been clear to our crowd and our sponsors all year long and they love what they see.. That brings us further and gives us more opportunities to invest further and develope more on our foundation..
At the end of it all I want to say a big thanks to the girls for the many experiences we have shared this season, the club and board for the hard work they have done to make this a special season for us, the crowd for our home matches and the atmospheare they help create around our team and the endless support, and last but not least our sponsors who with their involvement and support has made everything we have accomplished this season possible to begin with... You har a HUGE cornerstone in our foundation and we are forever greatful that you believe in us.
Michael
After a loooong time since my last update I feel like I am ready to reflect a bit upon the last part of season.
Losing out in the semifinals 1-3 in matches(3-0, 2-3, 2-3, 2-3) was the last stop on our journey this year, and as the results show there is a long and deep story behind it all with a lot of drama and intensity..
First of all let me say that we finished the regular season in 3rd place losing the last match 3-1 away to Sollentuna. Maybe that loss was a sign to us of what was to come. It was not so much the fact that we lost, cuz Sollentuna played the best we have seen them play, but it was the fact that we entered the match thinking that a decent effort would be enough to win it... We thought wrong.!
After that loss we had a good talk about our mental state and we entered the 1/4 finals with a lot of confidense playing the #7 seed from Falköping. Unfortunately that confidense resulted in the exact same mistake as we did against Sollentuna, and our home crowd got to see a hometeam without the usual resilience and confidense on court when things got rough.. We lost the first 1/4 final by 3-2 at home and suddently our season had turned upside down in just 2 weeks from having a chance to finish 2nd in the regular season winning homecourt advantage all the way through possible semifinals and being undefeated at home, to now finishing 3rd losing that homecourt advantage and our Linde Arena was nolonger an sieged fortress.
In retrospect that may very well have planted some seeds in our mentality and I am sure - now more than ever - that it took a big bite from our confidense in our own style of play. We have all season played an aggressive style of play with much discipline in block and defense, but the loss to Falköping told us a story of giving up 16 block kills to the other team and 39 errors on top of that in 5 sets... If anyone is wondering - YES that is how you ensure to lose a match.
Picking up our game we won the next 2 matches 3-0, 3-0 giving us a chance to finish off the 1/4 finals in 4 and regain all confidense. The 2 wins was secured with smart offence avoiding the big blocks from Falköping and that gave us an advantage.
The 4th match started out perfect and we ran them over in the 1st set, 2nd set same story until we reach about 20 and then we start to lose focus, laughing of our own mistakes and maybe trying too many things when not needed. We lost the 2nd set. 3rd set we are back on track after having talked with big letters in the time between the sets and we run them over again. 4th set is tight all the way but Falköping took it at the end bringing us to another 5th set against this team. In the 5th set it is again the young girls from Falköping who has the edge and they play without fear of losing which is the opposite of what we are doing and they win the set and thereby the match.
Driving home from Falköping one of my players was interviewed by the loal news and she spoke very responsably and calm with all the confidense in the world that if we just play our own game we will win easy.
We did in the last match at home and took it big 3-0 and thereby made the semifinals.
Playing our own game...
Entering the semifinals playing the #2 seed we had a belief that we could win and we were hungry for revenge after having lost to this team the last 2 times we played them.
We played the 1st match away and took a huge 3-0 win where our serving pressure was unstoppable and everything went our way.
We brought that level to the 2nd match at home winning the first 2 sets huge and leading 16-13 in the 3rd... I am going to let that sit for a while... 5 sets in a row crushing this team and 6th set up by 16-13...
And then something happened that I had not seen coming.. We lost our lead in the 3rd set with a series of bad passes and Katrineholm took the set 25-22 and from then on they never looked back winning the match 3-2 in our gym.
We were all in a state of chok after that loss but had a good talk about it and our hunger for revenge grew again..
The next match was moved up 2 days from a Sunday to a Friday leaving only 1 day between the 2 matches but all that did was to make us want it even more, and as long as the physical level could be held high we knew we could do it..
It was another match of ups and downs.. We won the first. lost 2nd and 3rd, won the 4th only to lose out in the 5th set and another 3-2 defeat..
Suddently we were down 2-1 in matches and needed to win the next one at home to stay alive.. We had plenty of rest and it felt good going in to the game.
Again a very clear memory for me was our tactical meeting before the match, one of the girls said that she was not worried because now we were all feeling strong and rested so now we would win, and she was just speaking out the feeling we al had.. Again in retrospect I feel we forgot everything we talked about after those words came out.. We spend the rest of the meeting talking about why we all played volleyball, what made it fun, what is our style of play and how we needed to stick to that when it got touch and tight, yet it seemed to have no effect in the match just 2 hours later..
We crushed them in the 1st, had an 8 point lead in the 2nd only to throw that away giving them the 2nd set. 3rd set we stormed away and won it by 10 points only to lose out in the 4th after another series of unsuccessful passes.
So here we were at the beginning of the 5th set.. our 5th 5set match of the playoffs having lost the 4 before this one.. This time however there was no doubt, Katrineholm took a solid lead after we switched sides and they never stopped putting pressure, didn't give away errors and we unlike most of season we unable to convert to points.. the 5th 3-2 loss in just as many tries leaving us with a feeling that we had the level to win but lacked ability to believe in it when it got close..
The aftermath...
Ending it all this way has left what they in Sweden call Silly Season(the time between season where players and coaches har hired and fired) in a bit of a chaos... We all feel like we could have ended season with a better result and there will always be a ton of people on and outside the team with claimed knowledge of what should have been different and who did what wrong, but at the end of the day it is always so easy to sit back after everything is done and point fingers and we will not be doing that in this club... We know that only 1 team will sit with the gold in the end and if everyone but them did a bad job because they didn't win the gold then the rate of success in this business is so small that it id hardly worth doing...
In Lindesberg we believe in the development of the club and the culture of how we want to do things and there is a lot of reflecting going on right now within the club and coaches and all the players are being involved as well.. We want to come out of this stronger than 1 season ago and that is exactly what we will, but you do not want to built a new house with a new foundation and 3 levels just to pick it down after a year and build a new one.. You can change a windowframe, a doorknob but the foundation needs to stay the same year after year to get the most out of the investment made in the house..
That is why we will not be changing 12 players, 2 coaches and 3 board members just because we lost in the semifinals.. Overall we had a good season for Lindesberg Volley and our values have been clear to our crowd and our sponsors all year long and they love what they see.. That brings us further and gives us more opportunities to invest further and develope more on our foundation..
At the end of it all I want to say a big thanks to the girls for the many experiences we have shared this season, the club and board for the hard work they have done to make this a special season for us, the crowd for our home matches and the atmospheare they help create around our team and the endless support, and last but not least our sponsors who with their involvement and support has made everything we have accomplished this season possible to begin with... You har a HUGE cornerstone in our foundation and we are forever greatful that you believe in us.
Michael
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Quick update
We've played 2 matches since our win against Engelholm at home..
Last weekend we played away in Falköping and after a week with only 2 practices due to cancellation in the Arena and a big team metting, we still managed to get a quick 3 - 0 win in their Gym.
Falköping has a lot of potential, but the lack consistancy and struggle to find answers once pushed in their passing line, so it was a good win for us.
After the match I went for a small visit in Denmark and got to hang out with a couple of players from my team last year, and that was really great.. We had a fun party and then back to Sweden the next day.
This past weekend we played Örebro at home.. The local rivals and a big deal here in the small town we live in... Örebro has always been a "big sister" to Lindesberg since they have been a dominating team in swedish volleyball for a while now and Lindesberg has only played in the elite for 4 season(this being the 5th.)
Last year Lindesberg won both matches against Örebro but still finished the season behind them.. This year we won the first match in Örebro and now we've won the 2nd one as well... let's not hope history repeats itself and sends us packing in the quater finals.
We played at home in front of about 500 people and much like last time we played Örebro it was a match full of errors and lack of attitude on our part, but the girls fought their way through it and came out on top in another 3 - 1 win.
With this win we are now only 2 matches away from finishing in top3 in the regular season, and we are still with a chance to get 2nd place which will give us homecourt advantage in the play offs.. at home we are 7 - 0 in matches with a setscore of 21-4 so obviously we would like to play at home in the play offs as well.
To finish 2nd we need to win the last 2 matches against Svedala away on Saturday and the week after it is Sollentuna away. Both are teams we beat 3-0 the first time we played them, but they have both also showed much improvement since then and we know we will have our work cut out..
We are working hard at practice these weeks getting ready for the quater finals and our focus is to make our own points and not rely on the other teams to give us them.. We want to have a "you only get what you take" attitude as we approach the big matches coming up...
Michael
"Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime"
Before I finish let me just send a quick shout out to Coach Mizuno, my assistant from last year, Coach Klaus also assistant from last year - both of them are headcoaches this year(Mizuno in Poland and Klaus in Denmark).. I hope you guys rock!!
Last weekend we played away in Falköping and after a week with only 2 practices due to cancellation in the Arena and a big team metting, we still managed to get a quick 3 - 0 win in their Gym.
Falköping has a lot of potential, but the lack consistancy and struggle to find answers once pushed in their passing line, so it was a good win for us.
After the match I went for a small visit in Denmark and got to hang out with a couple of players from my team last year, and that was really great.. We had a fun party and then back to Sweden the next day.
This past weekend we played Örebro at home.. The local rivals and a big deal here in the small town we live in... Örebro has always been a "big sister" to Lindesberg since they have been a dominating team in swedish volleyball for a while now and Lindesberg has only played in the elite for 4 season(this being the 5th.)
Last year Lindesberg won both matches against Örebro but still finished the season behind them.. This year we won the first match in Örebro and now we've won the 2nd one as well... let's not hope history repeats itself and sends us packing in the quater finals.
We played at home in front of about 500 people and much like last time we played Örebro it was a match full of errors and lack of attitude on our part, but the girls fought their way through it and came out on top in another 3 - 1 win.
With this win we are now only 2 matches away from finishing in top3 in the regular season, and we are still with a chance to get 2nd place which will give us homecourt advantage in the play offs.. at home we are 7 - 0 in matches with a setscore of 21-4 so obviously we would like to play at home in the play offs as well.
To finish 2nd we need to win the last 2 matches against Svedala away on Saturday and the week after it is Sollentuna away. Both are teams we beat 3-0 the first time we played them, but they have both also showed much improvement since then and we know we will have our work cut out..
We are working hard at practice these weeks getting ready for the quater finals and our focus is to make our own points and not rely on the other teams to give us them.. We want to have a "you only get what you take" attitude as we approach the big matches coming up...
Michael
"Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime"
Before I finish let me just send a quick shout out to Coach Mizuno, my assistant from last year, Coach Klaus also assistant from last year - both of them are headcoaches this year(Mizuno in Poland and Klaus in Denmark).. I hope you guys rock!!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Ending a tough month with a big WIN...
So..
This Sunday we were to finish off a very tough start to 2011 hosting Engelholm at home in Linde Arena.
We expected them to come wanting a rematch and we have been spending the week preparing on how to play that game best way possible.
For us it was a chance to get a little "play-off mentality" into the season before we actually get to them... Playing a top team 2 times in 1 week and having to win them both.. We chose an aggressive aproach and wanting to come out firing at will.. We did just that and killed off the will in the Engelholm players from the beginning to the end.
After a close start to the 1st set we got a better hold of our serves and we took the lead from the middle of the set and kept it to the end.
2nd set and the picture was reversed.. We started out tight but Engelholm took a big lead in the middle where we struggled in passing. We made a few subs. to try to turn it back around and we managed to go from 11-18 to 19-18 and suddently we had the upperhand. We took the set 25-21 and that seemed to take the last of Engelholms will to fight.
3rd set started with and Engelholm lead, but after first time out at 6-8 we rallied to a big lead and kept it with high pressure in serve and transition, and effective side out to take the set 25-21 and the match 3-0.
The crowds went crazy after what they had just seen and not many had expected us to send Engelholm packing that fast. We made a plan before the match and we stuck to it throughout the match, and that made the big difference comparing to earlier matches against them. Engelholm has a very consistant level and never stops putting pressure, but with a mindset of "fighting fire with fire" we managed to get them out of their comfort zone and that gave us the edge.
With the win we are back in the race for 2nd place and we have a big task ahead of us trying to win the remaining 4 matches and thereby put pressure on Katrineholm for 2nd place.
You are never as good as you think after a big win and you are never as bad as you think after a loss... With that knowledge we will continue working hard trying to develope our game inch by inch making us as strong as possible for play off time..
Michael
"Rise and Rise again until Lambs become Lions..."
This Sunday we were to finish off a very tough start to 2011 hosting Engelholm at home in Linde Arena.
We expected them to come wanting a rematch and we have been spending the week preparing on how to play that game best way possible.
For us it was a chance to get a little "play-off mentality" into the season before we actually get to them... Playing a top team 2 times in 1 week and having to win them both.. We chose an aggressive aproach and wanting to come out firing at will.. We did just that and killed off the will in the Engelholm players from the beginning to the end.
After a close start to the 1st set we got a better hold of our serves and we took the lead from the middle of the set and kept it to the end.
2nd set and the picture was reversed.. We started out tight but Engelholm took a big lead in the middle where we struggled in passing. We made a few subs. to try to turn it back around and we managed to go from 11-18 to 19-18 and suddently we had the upperhand. We took the set 25-21 and that seemed to take the last of Engelholms will to fight.
3rd set started with and Engelholm lead, but after first time out at 6-8 we rallied to a big lead and kept it with high pressure in serve and transition, and effective side out to take the set 25-21 and the match 3-0.
The crowds went crazy after what they had just seen and not many had expected us to send Engelholm packing that fast. We made a plan before the match and we stuck to it throughout the match, and that made the big difference comparing to earlier matches against them. Engelholm has a very consistant level and never stops putting pressure, but with a mindset of "fighting fire with fire" we managed to get them out of their comfort zone and that gave us the edge.
With the win we are back in the race for 2nd place and we have a big task ahead of us trying to win the remaining 4 matches and thereby put pressure on Katrineholm for 2nd place.
You are never as good as you think after a big win and you are never as bad as you think after a loss... With that knowledge we will continue working hard trying to develope our game inch by inch making us as strong as possible for play off time..
Michael
"Rise and Rise again until Lambs become Lions..."
Monday, January 31, 2011
Update with Grand Prix and Nordic Championship
It has been a while since my last article and for those who follow I appologize..
January has been an extremely long month with no less than 8 matches out of which 7 was against top teams.
We have played Hylte/Halmstad, Gislaved and Katrineholm in the Swedish elite series where we beat Hylte/Halmstad and Gislaved at home but lost to Katrineholm away. We have played Sollentuna and Engelholm in Grand Prix where we won the semifinal against Sollentuna but lost the final to Engelholm.
Finally we have played Katrineholm, Brøndby and Engelholm in Nordic Championship and it ended up with a loss to Katrineholm but a win against Engelholm and Brøndby.
Grand Prix...
It is the 2nd most prestige full event in Sweden only outranked by the Swedish Championship and we went there with hopes of another gold medal.
On day 1 we faced Sollentuna who we have beaten 3-0 in the league but they played better this time and pushed us more in their serves. We ended up winning though, 3-1 and thereby qualified for the Final on day 2.
In the final Engelholm was waiting after they beaat the home team Katrineholm in the semifinal, and after a close 1st set where we lost by 2, Engelholm ran away with the titel after a 3-0 win.
We left Grand Prix with a little less confidense and we had expected more from ourselves. You can't always win but you can always be a part of how you lose a match and that final was one where we never gave everything we had.
So Engelholm took their 1st gold of the season and proved that they are the team to beat in Sweden.!!
The league...
In the league we have played 3 matches in January and after finishing in 2nd place at Christmas time with 7 wins and 2 losses we had hopes of improving that record since the only 2 losses we have had has been away from home after many hours of driving.
1st chance to improve was at home against Hylte who beat us in the first match of the season, but this time we took no prisoners and gave them a big 3-0 beating. So off to a good start in the league.
wnd match of the year was against Gislaved who is last in the league and the difference between the 2 teams was very clear throughout the entire match. Another big 3-0 win at home and confidense was growing.
3rd league match was against Katrineholm away and they never really gave us a chance. We took 1 set from them, but in the end we never played the level we know we have and therefore they could hand us the 1st loss in the league since nov. 14th 2010.. With that win Katrineholm also took the 2nd place in the league for now.. The importance of 2nd place is due to the fact that should a team reach the semifinals then it will be the highest seed who has homecourt advantage.
With that loss we are now forced to go through the rest of the season without losing to have a chance to get 2nd place and we have many tough matches to come.. 1st one is this Sunday where Engelholm is visiting.
Nordic Championship(Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland)..
In the resent weekend we played Nordic Championship Finals in Engelholm. A tournament with the 4 best ranked teams after the group stage of the tournament and those 4 teams was; Katrineholm(SWE), Engelholm(SWE), Lindesberg(SWE) and Brøndby(DEN).
Day 1 we faced Katrineholm again with a chance to take back the pride we lost after the match in the league on Wednesday.. But Katrineholm wanted something different and after we beat them big in the 1st set we eased up the grip on the match and let Katrineholm take control.. They thanked us by taking the next 3 straight sets to win it 3-1 and give us the worst possible start to the Finals.
Day 2 was time for a war against the only Danish team in the tournament and of course a special match for myself and Jeanette since we know all the players and coaches on the other team so well.. We took an early lead in the 1st set but again failed to maintain focus and Brøndby came back in the end.. It was a nerveracking last 10 balls of the 1st set because we knew that a set loss here would basically take away our chances of gold. We kept cool though and won it by 2 points and took the next 2 sets to win it 3-0.
Day 3 and a win against season undefeated Engelholm to have a chance for gold.. We prepared as well as we could and off we went.. Losing the 1st set 25-21 after we had an early lead but failed to close the grip.
After that we went off on a killing spree and basically handed Engelholm the biggest loss I believe they have received in a loooooooong time against a Swedish team. Unfortunately we needed 4 more balls against Engelholm to win the gold.. But no matter how we twist and turn it there is no way we could have hoped for a better finish than what we gave/got/TOOK.. A 3-0 win would have gotten us the gold, but beating Engelholm by 16points is close to the best one can hope for..
Looking back I guess we can be sad about losing to Katrineholm but then again they played much better than we did.. We can also be sad about not beating Brøndby big enough but I feel sad that it is the team that loses everything 3-0 that ends up with the deciding piece.
All in all we took Silver at Nordic Finals and that is of course worth taking back home. Engelholm won their 2nd gold medal this season and they are doing an amazing hob staying consistant and not giving anything away for free.. They fully deserve so be the number 1 right now.
We will go back home and remember the things we learned this weekend.. about ourselves and our closest opponents. Next challenge is AGAIN Engelholm this Sunday the 6th at 14.00(2pm) at home.. SUPER BOWL Sunday by the way..
"I don't know what to say really.
Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives.. all comes down to today.
Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch... play by play... till we're finished.
We are in hell right now, gentlemen believe me...
and we can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us... or we can fight our way
back into the light.
We can climb out of hell... One inch, at a time.
Now I can't do it for you... I'm too old.
I look around and I see these young faces and I think... I mean, I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make.
I uh.... I pissed away all my money believe it or not.
I chased off anyone who has ever loved me... And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror.
You know when you get old in life things get taken from you.
That's, that's part of life... But you only learn that when you start losing stuff.
You find out that life is just a game of inches... So is football.
Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small.
I mean... one half step too late or to early, you don't quite make it.
One half second too slow or too fast, and you don't quite catch it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in ever break of the game
every minute, every second.
On this team, we fight for that inch
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us
to pieces for that inch.
We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know... when we add up all those inches... that's going to make the fucking difference between WINNING and LOSING... between LIVING and DYING.
I'll tell you this.. in any fight it is the guy who is willing to die
who is going to win that inch.
And I know, if I am going to have any life anymore it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch... because that is what LIVING is.
The six inches in front of your face.
Now I can't make you do it.
You gotta look at the guy next to you.
Look into his eyes.
Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you.
You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same thing for him.
That's a team, gentlemen
and either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals.
That's football guys.
That's all it is.
Now, whattaya gonna do?"
January has been an extremely long month with no less than 8 matches out of which 7 was against top teams.
We have played Hylte/Halmstad, Gislaved and Katrineholm in the Swedish elite series where we beat Hylte/Halmstad and Gislaved at home but lost to Katrineholm away. We have played Sollentuna and Engelholm in Grand Prix where we won the semifinal against Sollentuna but lost the final to Engelholm.
Finally we have played Katrineholm, Brøndby and Engelholm in Nordic Championship and it ended up with a loss to Katrineholm but a win against Engelholm and Brøndby.
Grand Prix...
It is the 2nd most prestige full event in Sweden only outranked by the Swedish Championship and we went there with hopes of another gold medal.
On day 1 we faced Sollentuna who we have beaten 3-0 in the league but they played better this time and pushed us more in their serves. We ended up winning though, 3-1 and thereby qualified for the Final on day 2.
In the final Engelholm was waiting after they beaat the home team Katrineholm in the semifinal, and after a close 1st set where we lost by 2, Engelholm ran away with the titel after a 3-0 win.
We left Grand Prix with a little less confidense and we had expected more from ourselves. You can't always win but you can always be a part of how you lose a match and that final was one where we never gave everything we had.
So Engelholm took their 1st gold of the season and proved that they are the team to beat in Sweden.!!
The league...
In the league we have played 3 matches in January and after finishing in 2nd place at Christmas time with 7 wins and 2 losses we had hopes of improving that record since the only 2 losses we have had has been away from home after many hours of driving.
1st chance to improve was at home against Hylte who beat us in the first match of the season, but this time we took no prisoners and gave them a big 3-0 beating. So off to a good start in the league.
wnd match of the year was against Gislaved who is last in the league and the difference between the 2 teams was very clear throughout the entire match. Another big 3-0 win at home and confidense was growing.
3rd league match was against Katrineholm away and they never really gave us a chance. We took 1 set from them, but in the end we never played the level we know we have and therefore they could hand us the 1st loss in the league since nov. 14th 2010.. With that win Katrineholm also took the 2nd place in the league for now.. The importance of 2nd place is due to the fact that should a team reach the semifinals then it will be the highest seed who has homecourt advantage.
With that loss we are now forced to go through the rest of the season without losing to have a chance to get 2nd place and we have many tough matches to come.. 1st one is this Sunday where Engelholm is visiting.
Nordic Championship(Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland)..
In the resent weekend we played Nordic Championship Finals in Engelholm. A tournament with the 4 best ranked teams after the group stage of the tournament and those 4 teams was; Katrineholm(SWE), Engelholm(SWE), Lindesberg(SWE) and Brøndby(DEN).
Day 1 we faced Katrineholm again with a chance to take back the pride we lost after the match in the league on Wednesday.. But Katrineholm wanted something different and after we beat them big in the 1st set we eased up the grip on the match and let Katrineholm take control.. They thanked us by taking the next 3 straight sets to win it 3-1 and give us the worst possible start to the Finals.
Day 2 was time for a war against the only Danish team in the tournament and of course a special match for myself and Jeanette since we know all the players and coaches on the other team so well.. We took an early lead in the 1st set but again failed to maintain focus and Brøndby came back in the end.. It was a nerveracking last 10 balls of the 1st set because we knew that a set loss here would basically take away our chances of gold. We kept cool though and won it by 2 points and took the next 2 sets to win it 3-0.
Day 3 and a win against season undefeated Engelholm to have a chance for gold.. We prepared as well as we could and off we went.. Losing the 1st set 25-21 after we had an early lead but failed to close the grip.
After that we went off on a killing spree and basically handed Engelholm the biggest loss I believe they have received in a loooooooong time against a Swedish team. Unfortunately we needed 4 more balls against Engelholm to win the gold.. But no matter how we twist and turn it there is no way we could have hoped for a better finish than what we gave/got/TOOK.. A 3-0 win would have gotten us the gold, but beating Engelholm by 16points is close to the best one can hope for..
Looking back I guess we can be sad about losing to Katrineholm but then again they played much better than we did.. We can also be sad about not beating Brøndby big enough but I feel sad that it is the team that loses everything 3-0 that ends up with the deciding piece.
All in all we took Silver at Nordic Finals and that is of course worth taking back home. Engelholm won their 2nd gold medal this season and they are doing an amazing hob staying consistant and not giving anything away for free.. They fully deserve so be the number 1 right now.
We will go back home and remember the things we learned this weekend.. about ourselves and our closest opponents. Next challenge is AGAIN Engelholm this Sunday the 6th at 14.00(2pm) at home.. SUPER BOWL Sunday by the way..
"I don't know what to say really.
Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives.. all comes down to today.
Either we heal as a team or we are going to crumble.
Inch by inch... play by play... till we're finished.
We are in hell right now, gentlemen believe me...
and we can stay here and get the shit kicked out of us... or we can fight our way
back into the light.
We can climb out of hell... One inch, at a time.
Now I can't do it for you... I'm too old.
I look around and I see these young faces and I think... I mean, I made every wrong choice a middle age man could make.
I uh.... I pissed away all my money believe it or not.
I chased off anyone who has ever loved me... And lately, I can't even stand the face I see in the mirror.
You know when you get old in life things get taken from you.
That's, that's part of life... But you only learn that when you start losing stuff.
You find out that life is just a game of inches... So is football.
Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small.
I mean... one half step too late or to early, you don't quite make it.
One half second too slow or too fast, and you don't quite catch it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us. They are in ever break of the game
every minute, every second.
On this team, we fight for that inch
On this team, we tear ourselves, and everyone around us
to pieces for that inch.
We CLAW with our finger nails for that inch.
Cause we know... when we add up all those inches... that's going to make the fucking difference between WINNING and LOSING... between LIVING and DYING.
I'll tell you this.. in any fight it is the guy who is willing to die
who is going to win that inch.
And I know, if I am going to have any life anymore it is because, I am still willing to fight, and die for that inch... because that is what LIVING is.
The six inches in front of your face.
Now I can't make you do it.
You gotta look at the guy next to you.
Look into his eyes.
Now I think you are going to see a guy who will go that inch with you.
You are going to see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team because he knows when it comes down to it, you are gonna do the same thing for him.
That's a team, gentlemen
and either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals.
That's football guys.
That's all it is.
Now, whattaya gonna do?"
Friday, December 24, 2010
Christmas Break and what a season so far..
We came out of November with a great Cup gold and as a group it was time to pick up the harder and heavier physical training to get everyone in shape for January where we need to peak once again.
We had a nerve-racking derby against Örebro early December which never became a pretty affair but we fought hard and the girls really showed the right mentality when it was needed and we pulled off a 3-1 win on their home court.
After that we could finish off with 3 home matches against Falköping, Svedala and Sollentuna. The first 2 gave us a fast 3-0 win in both cases, and it left us on 4th place in the standings before the last match against Sollentuna.
To stay in 4th place we needed to win against Sollentuna and if things worked out the way we wanted we could finish in 2nd place before Christmas break. On gameday all the girls were 100% fit and ready to go and we went on court taking home a solid 3-0 win after trailing with 4 points in both 1st and 2nd set, but once again we proved to be the resilient team we aim to be and we kept the leagues top scorer to 5 kills.
The wins in December gave us qualification to Grand Prix in January and with other results going our way we end up in 2nd place which means we will play Sollentuna in the Semifinal of the Grand Prix on Wednesday the 5th of January.
As a team we are where we want to be looking at results. We have been able to do what it took to win when we needed to, and even though it can’t always be as pretty as we would like, in a long season you need to appreciate a win whenever you get them and the goal is to always be part of the fun matches.. matches where we get a chance to play for medals.. matches that require us to perform our best if we want to win.. matches which are the reason we practice to hard every day.. And so far we have been part of all of those matches available.
Christmas break is upon us and I wish everyone happy holidays. We start practice again on the 28th and then go on until Grand Prix, but first it is time to enjoy quality hours with family and friends..;0)
Merry Christmas
Michael
"Rise and Rise again until Lambs become Lions"
We had a nerve-racking derby against Örebro early December which never became a pretty affair but we fought hard and the girls really showed the right mentality when it was needed and we pulled off a 3-1 win on their home court.
After that we could finish off with 3 home matches against Falköping, Svedala and Sollentuna. The first 2 gave us a fast 3-0 win in both cases, and it left us on 4th place in the standings before the last match against Sollentuna.
To stay in 4th place we needed to win against Sollentuna and if things worked out the way we wanted we could finish in 2nd place before Christmas break. On gameday all the girls were 100% fit and ready to go and we went on court taking home a solid 3-0 win after trailing with 4 points in both 1st and 2nd set, but once again we proved to be the resilient team we aim to be and we kept the leagues top scorer to 5 kills.
The wins in December gave us qualification to Grand Prix in January and with other results going our way we end up in 2nd place which means we will play Sollentuna in the Semifinal of the Grand Prix on Wednesday the 5th of January.
As a team we are where we want to be looking at results. We have been able to do what it took to win when we needed to, and even though it can’t always be as pretty as we would like, in a long season you need to appreciate a win whenever you get them and the goal is to always be part of the fun matches.. matches where we get a chance to play for medals.. matches that require us to perform our best if we want to win.. matches which are the reason we practice to hard every day.. And so far we have been part of all of those matches available.
Christmas break is upon us and I wish everyone happy holidays. We start practice again on the 28th and then go on until Grand Prix, but first it is time to enjoy quality hours with family and friends..;0)
Merry Christmas
Michael
"Rise and Rise again until Lambs become Lions"
Monday, November 22, 2010
November is almost over..
Sorry for the lack of updates this past month, but it has been a heavy one and we have had so many important matches to play..
To start it off from where I left off last time.. We needed a win against Gislaved in our 2nd league match to get over the loss in the first round to Hylte/Halmstad. We went there and won the match 3-0 and basically left Gislaved with no chance at any point of the match.
Nordic Championship..
A week later we were off to Stavanger on a 13 hour drive to play 3 matches in the 1st round of Nordic Championship.. Fortuna was the opponent in the first match and again a fast 3-0 where the opponent never really were able to push us.
2nd match we played Oslo who had lost 3-1 to Stavanger on the day before. We got off to a flying start and were riding on all gears in the first set. We managed to get so much down after that start and ended up losing the 2nd set... a lost that would prove to be costly.
We finished the match fairly fast after that without impressing anyone and it was a tired group of girls in the locker room after a 3-1 win.
Sunday it was time for the "final" and knowing the results from the other groups we would have to win the match because of our lost set frm the day before.
We came out with high energy and a lot to prove and we took the match 3-1.. Big match by both of our outisdes Margie and Klaudia in that match against Stavanger.
Home court premier...
Coming home monday morning after another 13 hours in car, we had 3 days until the next big thing.. our first home match of the season in the new arena against Katrineholm. The day before the match Jeanette sprained her ankle but we were able to patch her up well enough to play the match... Winning the first 2 sets in front of about 500 people was the best possible start, we about 45 min. later Katrineholm had taken momentum and tied the match at 2-2 AND they had a lead of 10-6 in the 5th set... Again proving to be resilient and unbreakable we pulled off a crazy comeback and won the match 3-2 with 15-12 in the 5th set... A huge win for a very tired team and the crowd LOVED the drama they saw on court.
Playing the top team...
3 days later it was time to drive to Engelholm and play yet another tough match.. We started out perfect and took the 1st set, but slowly Engelholm got better and we did the opposite.. Maybe the hard program had finally caught up with us.. Engelholm won the next 3 sets and delivered us our 2nd loss in the league.
This leads us to the just ended week where we spend most of it recovering and trying to find a good balance between still practising and at the same time healing injuries both physical and mental.
The Cup Finals...
This Saturday we played our cup semifinal against Gislaved.. Again a fairly fast 3-0 win, but looking at the 2 matches we played against them within a month, our own level had dropped somewhat all in all.. We played with less tempo and struggled far more in passing.
Sunday it was time for the Final against Hylte and we felt we needed to prove that we could beat this team.
Off to a bad start with many errors in serving and passing and we lost the first set. 2nd set was a slightly different story and after an intense finish we won it 31-28.. After that we started playing with confidense and tempo like we want to and we took the following 2 set 25-23, 25-20 and thereby the Cup gold.. A HUGE relief for the team, for me and for the club.. Defending the title that the club won last year had been a priority from the beginning and after such a schedule stacked with do or die matches I am extremely impressed with the girls, and I know that they are very proud as well.
Now... here... Monday the 22nd of November at 23.53 in the evening I can take a look back on 3 weeks with 8 matches, 7 wins and 1 loss, 5 points in the league, qualification to the Nordic finals in January and a gold medal around my neck... Had you asked me 3 weeks ago if I would be happy with that my answer would be a big YES.. And that is what I am.. Happy..!
I feel like we have developed a lot during this period, and even though we probably at no point during this month played at the high level we have done earlier this season, I can be nothing but satisfied with what we have accomplished and how the girls have responded to the meetings we've had, the practices I've run and the tactics we have made.. The potential in this team is amazing and we will work hard to reach it when the time is right... But winning along the way means a lot to all of us and it is just as impressive an accomplishment as the development in itself.
On Saturday we face Falköping who are currently right in front of us in the league.. It is a match we need to win to keep the hope alive of participation in Grand Prix in January. First though we need to recover physically after these past 3 weeks, and then prepare for a tough match against some of Swedens biggest talents and I am sure they are hungry for a win.. This will be the 5th time we play these girls and we have won the first 4 including 2 finals of 2 preseason tournaments.
Michael
"Rise and Rise again until Lambs become Lions.."
To start it off from where I left off last time.. We needed a win against Gislaved in our 2nd league match to get over the loss in the first round to Hylte/Halmstad. We went there and won the match 3-0 and basically left Gislaved with no chance at any point of the match.
Nordic Championship..
A week later we were off to Stavanger on a 13 hour drive to play 3 matches in the 1st round of Nordic Championship.. Fortuna was the opponent in the first match and again a fast 3-0 where the opponent never really were able to push us.
2nd match we played Oslo who had lost 3-1 to Stavanger on the day before. We got off to a flying start and were riding on all gears in the first set. We managed to get so much down after that start and ended up losing the 2nd set... a lost that would prove to be costly.
We finished the match fairly fast after that without impressing anyone and it was a tired group of girls in the locker room after a 3-1 win.
Sunday it was time for the "final" and knowing the results from the other groups we would have to win the match because of our lost set frm the day before.
We came out with high energy and a lot to prove and we took the match 3-1.. Big match by both of our outisdes Margie and Klaudia in that match against Stavanger.
Home court premier...
Coming home monday morning after another 13 hours in car, we had 3 days until the next big thing.. our first home match of the season in the new arena against Katrineholm. The day before the match Jeanette sprained her ankle but we were able to patch her up well enough to play the match... Winning the first 2 sets in front of about 500 people was the best possible start, we about 45 min. later Katrineholm had taken momentum and tied the match at 2-2 AND they had a lead of 10-6 in the 5th set... Again proving to be resilient and unbreakable we pulled off a crazy comeback and won the match 3-2 with 15-12 in the 5th set... A huge win for a very tired team and the crowd LOVED the drama they saw on court.
Playing the top team...
3 days later it was time to drive to Engelholm and play yet another tough match.. We started out perfect and took the 1st set, but slowly Engelholm got better and we did the opposite.. Maybe the hard program had finally caught up with us.. Engelholm won the next 3 sets and delivered us our 2nd loss in the league.
This leads us to the just ended week where we spend most of it recovering and trying to find a good balance between still practising and at the same time healing injuries both physical and mental.
The Cup Finals...
This Saturday we played our cup semifinal against Gislaved.. Again a fairly fast 3-0 win, but looking at the 2 matches we played against them within a month, our own level had dropped somewhat all in all.. We played with less tempo and struggled far more in passing.
Sunday it was time for the Final against Hylte and we felt we needed to prove that we could beat this team.
Off to a bad start with many errors in serving and passing and we lost the first set. 2nd set was a slightly different story and after an intense finish we won it 31-28.. After that we started playing with confidense and tempo like we want to and we took the following 2 set 25-23, 25-20 and thereby the Cup gold.. A HUGE relief for the team, for me and for the club.. Defending the title that the club won last year had been a priority from the beginning and after such a schedule stacked with do or die matches I am extremely impressed with the girls, and I know that they are very proud as well.
Now... here... Monday the 22nd of November at 23.53 in the evening I can take a look back on 3 weeks with 8 matches, 7 wins and 1 loss, 5 points in the league, qualification to the Nordic finals in January and a gold medal around my neck... Had you asked me 3 weeks ago if I would be happy with that my answer would be a big YES.. And that is what I am.. Happy..!
I feel like we have developed a lot during this period, and even though we probably at no point during this month played at the high level we have done earlier this season, I can be nothing but satisfied with what we have accomplished and how the girls have responded to the meetings we've had, the practices I've run and the tactics we have made.. The potential in this team is amazing and we will work hard to reach it when the time is right... But winning along the way means a lot to all of us and it is just as impressive an accomplishment as the development in itself.
On Saturday we face Falköping who are currently right in front of us in the league.. It is a match we need to win to keep the hope alive of participation in Grand Prix in January. First though we need to recover physically after these past 3 weeks, and then prepare for a tough match against some of Swedens biggest talents and I am sure they are hungry for a win.. This will be the 5th time we play these girls and we have won the first 4 including 2 finals of 2 preseason tournaments.
Michael
"Rise and Rise again until Lambs become Lions.."
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
ONE...
A lot has happened over the last week and a half.. As most of you probably saw online we lost our match number ONE in the season to a well playing Hylte/Halmstad team. We ourselves did not play a good match at all, and more than the defeat bringing down our spirits it was the ways of the defeat.
We started the match without balance between our mental excitement and our physical abilities.. This caused us to make a lot of unforced errors and our offense was without timing for the first 2 sets.
There is a 10min. break between 2nd and 3rd set here in Sweden and it was a break we really needed.. We had a good and honest talk in the locker room and we came out as a new team… Blowing past Hylte in the 3rd set and had our chances in the 4th with ONE set point included.. We did not know our visiting hours and with a couple of unforced errors in the end of the set we threw away a chance to take the match to 5 sets.
A tough loss of course considering the preseason we have had so far and maybe even more devastating it was a big knock down on our confidence.. We came in to the match a bit nervous having said goodbye to Sam, but of course we still had confidence in our abilities and we expected to be able to stay organized and in system at the least.. We did not manage to live up to our own expectations for more than about ONE and a half set and that is not enough to win a volleyball match.
As a coach you always think about how to rebound from a tough loss… How will the team react and what do you need to do to make them trust in themselves, in the system, the tactics and in each other… There is no ONE certain or ONE correct answer to that question because I believe that it is very different from team to team and from coach to coach. ONE thing is for sure though, we should always strive to take from the loss everything we are able to use to our advantage.. It is important to lose some matches now and then to have teams better than you that day show you where you are doing things wrong… That is at least my approach to it and that was what I chose to do.. We spend some time watching the video of the match and watching some of the things we did wrong and were we ended up being weak ONE time after another.
Of course a couple of the girls quickly ask the question; “are we going to spend time watching the things we did well?” A very just and understandable question, and my answer was that generally yes of course we are, but right now after the match we just played.. No..! We have won 19 of 21 matches or something like that and that is our reward for doing a lot of things well.. So I will use the 2[read: two] losses to point out the things we are not doing well enough. This is to make sure that each victory is more appreciated, every kill has a higher meaning, every defensive play is an opportunity and every loss is a lesson.
We have had some good practices since our loss 2 weeks ago, and our free weekend probably came at a good time… We have had time to be frustrated, time to be disappointed and now we have time to rebuild some of the things we need to move forward.
Intensity, aggressiveness, resilience and opportunism are the key words for our team. We have had to change a couple of things with our new squad lineout and I feel like it is changes for the better! Now it is time to show each other and show our opponents that ONE loss will never be enough to take us down, beating us ONCE will not equal us laying our weapons, and ONE defeat gives us twice the will to come back…
We are entering a pretty important and tough month here in November.. We play Gislaved this Sunday away(5.5 hours of driving each way). We have Nordic Championship in Stavanger the weekend after with 3 matches in 3 days, we play the reigning Swedish champions from Katrineholm Thursday after we come back from Stavanger in our first home match of the season, only to finish off the week with another 5 hour drive to play Engelholm away on Sunday.
6 matches in 2 weeks and all 6 requiring the girls to perform at their best if we are to come out of it with the results we want.
It is a big goal for us to reach the final round of the Nordic Championship so we have to win all 3 matches in round ONE. Playing Grand Prix in January requires a top4 position in the league at Xmas time and that means we need 2 wins out of the 3 league matches we have in these coming 2 weeks to keep that goal within reach. All in all a lot of pressure but the only way to deal with it is to play ONE match at a time and prepare the best we can for every single ONE of them.
In all my years of coaching at elite level, all the way back to my first season in Lyngby I have never been ONE to give up.. I remember us playing the 2nd final in best of 3 against Fortuna that year. We had lost the first ONE and we were down 2-0 in the 2nd final at home.. We did not give up, we picked up our weapons an chose to fight still.. We won the match 3-2 and pushed the finals to a 3rd match. And year by year I feel I have been in situations playing for medals where it just looked like a match was lost, a goal was out of reach… The year after still with Lyngby we played the Cup Final.. My starting setter called me ONE month before and told me that she was pregnant and as it turned out she would be unable to play. My backup setter had from the start of the season told me that should we make the Cup Final she would be unable to play do to some business travel.. We went in to that match playing a 18 year old setter who had joined the team just a few weeks before and we chose to fight… We lost the match 3-0 but we had 8 set points total in the 3 sets.
Last year in Fortuna is pretty well known history and now again I have managed to put myself and my team in a spot where pressure is on us and the odds are against us yet somehow I have very much confidence in the girls and that we can make this happen. I have talked a couple of times with Morten Piil(Danish journalist) about what the key to get out of those situations is, and my answer is always; to believe.. But it would probably help to not get in those situations to begin with.. ;0) except it is in those situations that medals are won, history is written and where glory and honour is at stake.. And it is here true competitors should feel the most at home..!
We have a lot of hard work in front of us and the girls are working really hard, maybe too hard at times.. But we are finding each other as times goes by and we help each other find a balance so that we can all feel ready for the next big task.
Michael
“Rise and Rise again, until Lambs become Lions”
We started the match without balance between our mental excitement and our physical abilities.. This caused us to make a lot of unforced errors and our offense was without timing for the first 2 sets.
There is a 10min. break between 2nd and 3rd set here in Sweden and it was a break we really needed.. We had a good and honest talk in the locker room and we came out as a new team… Blowing past Hylte in the 3rd set and had our chances in the 4th with ONE set point included.. We did not know our visiting hours and with a couple of unforced errors in the end of the set we threw away a chance to take the match to 5 sets.
A tough loss of course considering the preseason we have had so far and maybe even more devastating it was a big knock down on our confidence.. We came in to the match a bit nervous having said goodbye to Sam, but of course we still had confidence in our abilities and we expected to be able to stay organized and in system at the least.. We did not manage to live up to our own expectations for more than about ONE and a half set and that is not enough to win a volleyball match.
As a coach you always think about how to rebound from a tough loss… How will the team react and what do you need to do to make them trust in themselves, in the system, the tactics and in each other… There is no ONE certain or ONE correct answer to that question because I believe that it is very different from team to team and from coach to coach. ONE thing is for sure though, we should always strive to take from the loss everything we are able to use to our advantage.. It is important to lose some matches now and then to have teams better than you that day show you where you are doing things wrong… That is at least my approach to it and that was what I chose to do.. We spend some time watching the video of the match and watching some of the things we did wrong and were we ended up being weak ONE time after another.
Of course a couple of the girls quickly ask the question; “are we going to spend time watching the things we did well?” A very just and understandable question, and my answer was that generally yes of course we are, but right now after the match we just played.. No..! We have won 19 of 21 matches or something like that and that is our reward for doing a lot of things well.. So I will use the 2[read: two] losses to point out the things we are not doing well enough. This is to make sure that each victory is more appreciated, every kill has a higher meaning, every defensive play is an opportunity and every loss is a lesson.
We have had some good practices since our loss 2 weeks ago, and our free weekend probably came at a good time… We have had time to be frustrated, time to be disappointed and now we have time to rebuild some of the things we need to move forward.
Intensity, aggressiveness, resilience and opportunism are the key words for our team. We have had to change a couple of things with our new squad lineout and I feel like it is changes for the better! Now it is time to show each other and show our opponents that ONE loss will never be enough to take us down, beating us ONCE will not equal us laying our weapons, and ONE defeat gives us twice the will to come back…
We are entering a pretty important and tough month here in November.. We play Gislaved this Sunday away(5.5 hours of driving each way). We have Nordic Championship in Stavanger the weekend after with 3 matches in 3 days, we play the reigning Swedish champions from Katrineholm Thursday after we come back from Stavanger in our first home match of the season, only to finish off the week with another 5 hour drive to play Engelholm away on Sunday.
6 matches in 2 weeks and all 6 requiring the girls to perform at their best if we are to come out of it with the results we want.
It is a big goal for us to reach the final round of the Nordic Championship so we have to win all 3 matches in round ONE. Playing Grand Prix in January requires a top4 position in the league at Xmas time and that means we need 2 wins out of the 3 league matches we have in these coming 2 weeks to keep that goal within reach. All in all a lot of pressure but the only way to deal with it is to play ONE match at a time and prepare the best we can for every single ONE of them.
In all my years of coaching at elite level, all the way back to my first season in Lyngby I have never been ONE to give up.. I remember us playing the 2nd final in best of 3 against Fortuna that year. We had lost the first ONE and we were down 2-0 in the 2nd final at home.. We did not give up, we picked up our weapons an chose to fight still.. We won the match 3-2 and pushed the finals to a 3rd match. And year by year I feel I have been in situations playing for medals where it just looked like a match was lost, a goal was out of reach… The year after still with Lyngby we played the Cup Final.. My starting setter called me ONE month before and told me that she was pregnant and as it turned out she would be unable to play. My backup setter had from the start of the season told me that should we make the Cup Final she would be unable to play do to some business travel.. We went in to that match playing a 18 year old setter who had joined the team just a few weeks before and we chose to fight… We lost the match 3-0 but we had 8 set points total in the 3 sets.
Last year in Fortuna is pretty well known history and now again I have managed to put myself and my team in a spot where pressure is on us and the odds are against us yet somehow I have very much confidence in the girls and that we can make this happen. I have talked a couple of times with Morten Piil(Danish journalist) about what the key to get out of those situations is, and my answer is always; to believe.. But it would probably help to not get in those situations to begin with.. ;0) except it is in those situations that medals are won, history is written and where glory and honour is at stake.. And it is here true competitors should feel the most at home..!
We have a lot of hard work in front of us and the girls are working really hard, maybe too hard at times.. But we are finding each other as times goes by and we help each other find a balance so that we can all feel ready for the next big task.
Michael
“Rise and Rise again, until Lambs become Lions”
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Season begins in Swedish womens elite… A lot of excitement..!!
We have been waiting for so long to get started and finally the weekend is here. As many might have read we have said goodbye to Samantha for now. She has decided to skip this season of volleyball to attend her family home in the US and she has been supported by the whole club and her team mates.
Now anyone who has followed our preseason will know that the loss of Sam is bound to have an influence on our team. Both on and off the court Sam was a HUGE asset to this team and we will surely miss her personality, crazy stories and many many jokes as much as her points on the court.
We will see you soon Sam – E.L.E.
We will take our time to regroup and we have brought in a new girl, Sara Fredrickson(USA) to compete with Kaisa and Margie on leftside. Sara(29 years old) is an allround hitter who played both middle, leftside and rightside in college and has spend the last many years on the AVP tour in the US playing beach volley. We expect that Sara in time will be able to push Kaisa and Margie to reach even further, but her versatility will be an asset to the team right away since she is a great block player and she can pass as well.
As a group I believe we can get stronger by this.. I have experienced setbacks before as a coach – huge setbacks, but nothing can make a team grow stronger than coming out on the other side realizing that you are still a strong team.. We WILL find ways to win games and nothing will stop us from working hard to reach the places we has set out to reach…
This weekend we play Hylte/Halmstad on the road and other than the 5 hour drive there we are all very excited. Taking a glance on the list of names on the Hylte player list it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this will be a very tough match. 4 pro. Players and a very talented setter is what await us in Hylte and I am sure the see us as wounded animal right now, and if so we will be there to show something different.!
It is my opinion that the team able and willing to put the highest pressure in their serves will come away with the win. Both teams obviously hold a lot of quality player by player and experience on both sides of the net gives high promises of a match with few errors and a lot of disciplined volleyball.
We are coming there to win and we will do everything in our power to get the best possible start to the Swedish Championship season.
Other matches in the elitedivision…
Anyone who knows me just a little bit knows that I am a bit of a competitor and reading the Swedish volleyball Federations website the other day I found an article by a respected coach from last years Örebro team, Jonas Håård writing his bids for the outcome of the first round.. He guessed the following;
Gislaved - Örebro 1-3
Hylte/Halmstad – Lindesberg 3-2
Katrineholm - RIG Falköping 1-3
Engelholm – Sollentuna 3-2
Now you all quickly realize at least one match where I picture a different result.. ;0) but let me give a crack at the rest of them even though my knowledge of the teams in Sweden is still very limited. I like a fun challenge, and I believe it brings a little spicy taste to the sport..
Gislaved vs. Örebro
I have seen both teams this preseason and based on that alone Örebro must be quite big favourites in this one… Gislaved looked a bit unorganized last time I saw them and they have had a lot of changes on important positions. Örebro has pretty much the same starting line-up as last year and that also talks in favour of an away win… However a bird is singing of an Örebro team showing up with a few injuries AND missing staring libero and setter do to administrative “blunders” .. Could prove to be a costly mistake and my guess is that it will be. 3 – 2 Gislaved.
Katrineholm vs. RIG Falköping
Falköping has very quickly become a favourite team of mine… We have played them 4 times in preseason and it is an inspiration to see both the young girls and their coach with such a high level of devotion and passion. Nonetheless, playing the reigning champions away from the warm walls of the Gymnasium I have a hard time seeing them come away with a win. Katrineholm is a new team compared to last year, but we have played them once and it is a team with extreme quality. Both outside hitters can do almost what they like with the ball, and with a new setter filling out big shoes after last years big player, Agne Zakarauskaite a lot of pressure will is on to make the offence run – can she do it?? I believe she can from what I have seen. 3 – 1 Katrineholm
Engelholm vs. Sollentuna
As I see this match there can’t be much doubt that Engelholm is the favourites… They have the foundation of last years team – their Japanese setter, back in action and Tina has always been know for a very organized and disciplined squad. I can’t see many holes for Sollentuna to exploit but if one it would be the passing line of Engelholm. A new and young libero playing for a team with the highest goals and high expectations… A lot of pressure for young Karin but I believe that she has all the help she needs from their outsides and coach. 3 – 0 Engelholm.
That was my guesses for this round.. Of course I tip my own team to win if anyone was waiting for that.. ;0)
Either way I wish everyone good luck and I hope for a great start of this years league. I have been waiting for this day since late April where it became a fact that I was going to be the headcoach here in Lindesberg.
Michael
"This suspense is terrible... I hope it will last."
P.s. the match can be followed live on volleykanalen.se.. use our link from www.lindesbergvolley.se
Now anyone who has followed our preseason will know that the loss of Sam is bound to have an influence on our team. Both on and off the court Sam was a HUGE asset to this team and we will surely miss her personality, crazy stories and many many jokes as much as her points on the court.
We will see you soon Sam – E.L.E.
We will take our time to regroup and we have brought in a new girl, Sara Fredrickson(USA) to compete with Kaisa and Margie on leftside. Sara(29 years old) is an allround hitter who played both middle, leftside and rightside in college and has spend the last many years on the AVP tour in the US playing beach volley. We expect that Sara in time will be able to push Kaisa and Margie to reach even further, but her versatility will be an asset to the team right away since she is a great block player and she can pass as well.
As a group I believe we can get stronger by this.. I have experienced setbacks before as a coach – huge setbacks, but nothing can make a team grow stronger than coming out on the other side realizing that you are still a strong team.. We WILL find ways to win games and nothing will stop us from working hard to reach the places we has set out to reach…
This weekend we play Hylte/Halmstad on the road and other than the 5 hour drive there we are all very excited. Taking a glance on the list of names on the Hylte player list it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this will be a very tough match. 4 pro. Players and a very talented setter is what await us in Hylte and I am sure the see us as wounded animal right now, and if so we will be there to show something different.!
It is my opinion that the team able and willing to put the highest pressure in their serves will come away with the win. Both teams obviously hold a lot of quality player by player and experience on both sides of the net gives high promises of a match with few errors and a lot of disciplined volleyball.
We are coming there to win and we will do everything in our power to get the best possible start to the Swedish Championship season.
Other matches in the elitedivision…
Anyone who knows me just a little bit knows that I am a bit of a competitor and reading the Swedish volleyball Federations website the other day I found an article by a respected coach from last years Örebro team, Jonas Håård writing his bids for the outcome of the first round.. He guessed the following;
Gislaved - Örebro 1-3
Hylte/Halmstad – Lindesberg 3-2
Katrineholm - RIG Falköping 1-3
Engelholm – Sollentuna 3-2
Now you all quickly realize at least one match where I picture a different result.. ;0) but let me give a crack at the rest of them even though my knowledge of the teams in Sweden is still very limited. I like a fun challenge, and I believe it brings a little spicy taste to the sport..
Gislaved vs. Örebro
I have seen both teams this preseason and based on that alone Örebro must be quite big favourites in this one… Gislaved looked a bit unorganized last time I saw them and they have had a lot of changes on important positions. Örebro has pretty much the same starting line-up as last year and that also talks in favour of an away win… However a bird is singing of an Örebro team showing up with a few injuries AND missing staring libero and setter do to administrative “blunders” .. Could prove to be a costly mistake and my guess is that it will be. 3 – 2 Gislaved.
Katrineholm vs. RIG Falköping
Falköping has very quickly become a favourite team of mine… We have played them 4 times in preseason and it is an inspiration to see both the young girls and their coach with such a high level of devotion and passion. Nonetheless, playing the reigning champions away from the warm walls of the Gymnasium I have a hard time seeing them come away with a win. Katrineholm is a new team compared to last year, but we have played them once and it is a team with extreme quality. Both outside hitters can do almost what they like with the ball, and with a new setter filling out big shoes after last years big player, Agne Zakarauskaite a lot of pressure will is on to make the offence run – can she do it?? I believe she can from what I have seen. 3 – 1 Katrineholm
Engelholm vs. Sollentuna
As I see this match there can’t be much doubt that Engelholm is the favourites… They have the foundation of last years team – their Japanese setter, back in action and Tina has always been know for a very organized and disciplined squad. I can’t see many holes for Sollentuna to exploit but if one it would be the passing line of Engelholm. A new and young libero playing for a team with the highest goals and high expectations… A lot of pressure for young Karin but I believe that she has all the help she needs from their outsides and coach. 3 – 0 Engelholm.
That was my guesses for this round.. Of course I tip my own team to win if anyone was waiting for that.. ;0)
Either way I wish everyone good luck and I hope for a great start of this years league. I have been waiting for this day since late April where it became a fact that I was going to be the headcoach here in Lindesberg.
Michael
"This suspense is terrible... I hope it will last."
P.s. the match can be followed live on volleykanalen.se.. use our link from www.lindesbergvolley.se
Monday, September 27, 2010
Last team standing...
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.”
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.”
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”
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Time for a small update on things..
Regis University has been on a tour of Denmark and Sweden – they came, they saw and they conquered.!!
My good friends from Denver, Colorado came for a 10 days visit as part of their preparation for their season which starts this coming weekend.
I will spare you the details of the “tourist” part of the trip and just give you a recap of their volleyball performance here…
Day1 – Fortuna were taught a lesson in organisation and efficiency as they lost big in 3 fast sets on the night of Regis’ arrival.
Day2 – Brøndby were the opponent and again Regis proved to be the better of the two sides denying Brøndby any chance in the first 3 sets, but Brøndby showed strength and squad depth by winning the extra 4th set where both teams played some of their back-ups, but Regis took care of business in 5th set which they won pretty comfortably.
Day3 – Another trip to Copenhagen and a match against Frederiksberg. Regis won all 5 sets pretty easy and again a demonstration of organisation, great leadership and a strong level in ability to convert defensive plays into points made the big difference.
Day5 – The team had a day off from volleyball on Saturday just to prepare for 4 matches on Sunday against Skovbakken, Brøndby, Fortuna and Vordingborg on Sunday. All 4 matches was won pretty comfortably, but both Vordingborg and Brøndby managed to take a game off Regis to force them to a deciding 3rd set. In both matches Regis showed true colours in the 3rd set and won them with ease.
Day6 – travelling to Sweden to play Lindesberg and Örebro.
Day7 – It was time for my team to get their fingers stuck in the well-oiled Regis motor and even though we forced Regis to play some of the best they had done on the trip so far, we still lost the match 3-1. In the 5th set Regis won again without too much struggle.
Day8 – Örebro came to Lindesberg to play against Regis but unfortunately I was unable to see the match. However Örebro did perhaps the best job pushing Regis in their 3-1 loss. Örebro won the 1st game and kept pushing Regis in the rest of the match.
9 matches played in 8 days and with 9 wins as a result. The biggest difference between the Scandinavian teams and Regis seemed to be organisation and discipline which the Americans showed several levels higher class in than what we normally see. I would also like to bring out the Setter from Regis who as a Senior in college is at her highest level yet, and she really gave show of her skill in several occasions.
On behalf of Regis University I would like to thank all the teams in both Denmark and Sweden for picking up weapons and fighting… You were all great hosts.
Back to reality…
After Regis went home last Thursday I have been back in Lindesberg and picked up the work on my own team and all our preparations.
Pre-season has picked up the pace and we have been on our first trip. The team is pretty set for now, unfortunately we lost one of our middles, Sara T., so we are in need of a middle blocker pretty badly.
Our first trip took us to Denmark where we played against Hamburg and Fortuna in Odense. 2 matches Saturday and 2 matches Sunday would be our first real tests on squad depth, top and bottom level and how resilient we are as a team at this point.
We lost both matches against Hamburg but managed to take a set from them and pushed them in a couple more.
Fortuna has still a long way to go before reaching the level that brought home double gold last year, but the girls work hard and the new coach seems set on making it work, so I am sure they will get there. In this weekend however, they had no real chance against neither teams and we won 3-0, 3-0 in those 2 matches.
During the 4 matches we showed a really high top level, but it also came to show that when we are pushed consistently we struggle to push back, and it is still obvious that we are a new team with 8 new players compared to last year so organisation and chaos walk hand in hand…:0)
The girls all work really hard at practice and we are all very mindset on getting to a high level before our first big test which will be Nordic Championship group stage. Lady luck had a sense of irony when the groups were found. We are playing against Team BK(Iceland), Stavanger(Norway) and HolteIF(Denmark). It will be a very special experience to play against Holte again. Many friends on the other side of the net and it will be a very emotional match for me in so many ways. I am sure we will face a top tuned Holte team who would love nothing more than a chance to pay back for the lost Championship finals last season, but of course we will do everything we can to make sure that exactly that will not happen.
The Norwegian champions from Stavanger have 2 players on their team who I have signed in my job as an agent, and one of them, Robyn Devlin is a close friend of mine on top of that. All in all a very tough group where I expect a full weekends work to promote to the final round which is a big goal for us this season.
That’s all for now, we continue building on the “team” in the team, and we have our eyes on the prize…
Michael
“It takes a lot of hard work to be able to sit back and be satisfied… we don’t sit back because we are not satisfied”
My good friends from Denver, Colorado came for a 10 days visit as part of their preparation for their season which starts this coming weekend.
I will spare you the details of the “tourist” part of the trip and just give you a recap of their volleyball performance here…
Day1 – Fortuna were taught a lesson in organisation and efficiency as they lost big in 3 fast sets on the night of Regis’ arrival.
Day2 – Brøndby were the opponent and again Regis proved to be the better of the two sides denying Brøndby any chance in the first 3 sets, but Brøndby showed strength and squad depth by winning the extra 4th set where both teams played some of their back-ups, but Regis took care of business in 5th set which they won pretty comfortably.
Day3 – Another trip to Copenhagen and a match against Frederiksberg. Regis won all 5 sets pretty easy and again a demonstration of organisation, great leadership and a strong level in ability to convert defensive plays into points made the big difference.
Day5 – The team had a day off from volleyball on Saturday just to prepare for 4 matches on Sunday against Skovbakken, Brøndby, Fortuna and Vordingborg on Sunday. All 4 matches was won pretty comfortably, but both Vordingborg and Brøndby managed to take a game off Regis to force them to a deciding 3rd set. In both matches Regis showed true colours in the 3rd set and won them with ease.
Day6 – travelling to Sweden to play Lindesberg and Örebro.
Day7 – It was time for my team to get their fingers stuck in the well-oiled Regis motor and even though we forced Regis to play some of the best they had done on the trip so far, we still lost the match 3-1. In the 5th set Regis won again without too much struggle.
Day8 – Örebro came to Lindesberg to play against Regis but unfortunately I was unable to see the match. However Örebro did perhaps the best job pushing Regis in their 3-1 loss. Örebro won the 1st game and kept pushing Regis in the rest of the match.
9 matches played in 8 days and with 9 wins as a result. The biggest difference between the Scandinavian teams and Regis seemed to be organisation and discipline which the Americans showed several levels higher class in than what we normally see. I would also like to bring out the Setter from Regis who as a Senior in college is at her highest level yet, and she really gave show of her skill in several occasions.
On behalf of Regis University I would like to thank all the teams in both Denmark and Sweden for picking up weapons and fighting… You were all great hosts.
Back to reality…
After Regis went home last Thursday I have been back in Lindesberg and picked up the work on my own team and all our preparations.
Pre-season has picked up the pace and we have been on our first trip. The team is pretty set for now, unfortunately we lost one of our middles, Sara T., so we are in need of a middle blocker pretty badly.
Our first trip took us to Denmark where we played against Hamburg and Fortuna in Odense. 2 matches Saturday and 2 matches Sunday would be our first real tests on squad depth, top and bottom level and how resilient we are as a team at this point.
We lost both matches against Hamburg but managed to take a set from them and pushed them in a couple more.
Fortuna has still a long way to go before reaching the level that brought home double gold last year, but the girls work hard and the new coach seems set on making it work, so I am sure they will get there. In this weekend however, they had no real chance against neither teams and we won 3-0, 3-0 in those 2 matches.
During the 4 matches we showed a really high top level, but it also came to show that when we are pushed consistently we struggle to push back, and it is still obvious that we are a new team with 8 new players compared to last year so organisation and chaos walk hand in hand…:0)
The girls all work really hard at practice and we are all very mindset on getting to a high level before our first big test which will be Nordic Championship group stage. Lady luck had a sense of irony when the groups were found. We are playing against Team BK(Iceland), Stavanger(Norway) and HolteIF(Denmark). It will be a very special experience to play against Holte again. Many friends on the other side of the net and it will be a very emotional match for me in so many ways. I am sure we will face a top tuned Holte team who would love nothing more than a chance to pay back for the lost Championship finals last season, but of course we will do everything we can to make sure that exactly that will not happen.
The Norwegian champions from Stavanger have 2 players on their team who I have signed in my job as an agent, and one of them, Robyn Devlin is a close friend of mine on top of that. All in all a very tough group where I expect a full weekends work to promote to the final round which is a big goal for us this season.
That’s all for now, we continue building on the “team” in the team, and we have our eyes on the prize…
Michael
“It takes a lot of hard work to be able to sit back and be satisfied… we don’t sit back because we are not satisfied”
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Player presentation of Lindesberg Volley 2010/2011 season…
Setters:
Matilda Wikander(age 27): Matilda is a tall and physical setter with a great technique. She joins our team this year from Aachen in Germany where she has played the last 2 years. Matilda has played 29 matches for the Swedish national team.
Josephine Tegefalk(age 22): Josephine is a smaller and faster setter. Jose played on the team last year where she lead them to Swedish cup championship. Josephine is a setter of the future and her drive and ambition will take her far this season.
Erika Larsson(age 23): Erika is the 3rd setter on our team. She starts for the clubs 2nd team and has been part of the elite squad for some time now. She will help push our 2 other setters and bring more squad depth at practice. The goal is for Erika to develop her setting skills even more so that she in the future can join the elite team for full real. She is a hardworking setter who reads the game really well.
Outside hitters:
Margie Giordano(age 23): Margie joins us from America where she graduated in 2009 from Arizona State University. Margie played and started all 4 college years for her team in the Pac10 conference which is considered the best in the US. Margie is an amazing passer and has a great mind in offense. She will be a big help for us in reaching our goals as a team.
Samantha Williams(age 23): Sammie joins the team from Pittsberg State University in Kansas where she graduated in 2009. Samantha has been recruited for her hitting abilities. She is a tall and physical player with great potential to be a big player in Sweden in the future.
Kaisa Wallin(age 23): Kaisa is joining us from last seasons Swedish champions Katrineholm where she had a big influence on the team reaching last years finals. Kaisa is a shorter outside with amazing passing and defence abilities. Kaisa is brought in to complete our outside position where we will have 3 potential starters with her addition to the team.
Therese Granlund(age 21): Therese played on the team last year as well. She a very talented all round player who will help the team as an outside as well as back up libero. Therese has an extremely fast arm swing and is one of the best defensive players on the team.
Rightside hitters:
Anna Sörensen(age 27): Anna is the 3rd Swedish national team player joining the squad this year. Last season Anna played for Örebro in the Swedish league, but we are very excited that she has decided to continue her career in Lindesberg. Anna brings a lot of experience and her natural calm attitude will have a good effect on our young players on the team.
Middle blockers:
Anna Rönnbäck(age 29): Anna joins the team from Aachen where she played with Matilda. Anna is a very experienced middle player who is considered one of the absolutely best in Sweden. She has played 51 matches for the Swedish national team and we are very sure she will do great things for us in Lindesberg.
Crystal Palmer(age 26): Crystal is our 3rd American player. She played on the team last year as well and was a dominating middle in the Swedish league. We are very happy Crystal has decided to come back and a huge goal for her this year is to further develop her passing since she dreams of becoming an outside in the future. Crystal has a lot of energy on court and will contribute a lot to the positive overall atmosphere on the team. Crystal will also back up the squad on the rightside hitter position where her hitting and blocking abilities will be very valuable.
Sara Thörnberg(age 22): Sara is another players who was on the team last year. Sara is a middle blocker in development. She has a lot of potential and will work hard this season to reach that potential. Lisa is a great addition to our two profiles on the middle position and she will see a lot of court time this season to help her improvement.
Kristin Sörman(age 22): Kristin is our 4th middle player. She played on the team last year as well and will complete the competition on her position. Kristin has the level to compete for a starting job on the team, and her young age gives her a bright future as well. Kristin is the shortest of our middles but she reads the game very well and she is super fast at the net.
Libero:
Jeanette Ellekjær Hansen(age 24): Jeanette is joining the team in Lindesberg coming off a championship season in Denmark with Fortuna. She was one of my most important players on that team and I am extremely happy she has decided to follow me to Sweden. Jeanette got MVP of the final series in Denmark last year and is one of the fastest and most stabile on the libero position. Jeanette has been around the Danish national teams several times and she will be of big importance for our team this year.
That is how our team looks for next year and what a team it is. We have been able to bring in a lot of talent combined with some national team experience and that will put us side by side with the best teams in Sweden. We realize that is will require a full season of hard work and a little bit of luck to make it all the way, but the goal is set and we are willing to put in the hours at the factory…
For myself I am getting ready to move out of my place in Denmark… Putting the last things in boxes I came to find a speech I wrote last season to my team after having lost the 4th final. It made me remember so many things from the past year and even though I am moving on to new and very exciting times, I found myself missing all the players, the club and everyone around Fortuna.. It was a great year… So here is a final SHOUT OUT to; Dorthe, Katie, Kristen, Lise, Katherine, Caley, Julie, Maja, Juliane, Jane, Jette, Lotte, Jeanette, Mille and Eva.
“It is in these hours after defeat that we lick our wounds, we regroup in the name of our pride and we thank God that we survived the battle, and that we STILL have a chance for glory… I urge all of you to find every bit of strength, every bit of courage and all of your pride – bring it to the gym tomorrow and let us prepare…Together! I have an answer and the price is nothing less, but I need all the hearts on this team to make a stand… Come tomorrow and expect to be enlightened, expect to be motivated and I promise you all … TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE READY.! The gold is what we want, this win is our way to get it and our hearts, skills and courage will be our means of weapon… I BELIEVE..!”
Michael
Matilda Wikander(age 27): Matilda is a tall and physical setter with a great technique. She joins our team this year from Aachen in Germany where she has played the last 2 years. Matilda has played 29 matches for the Swedish national team.
Josephine Tegefalk(age 22): Josephine is a smaller and faster setter. Jose played on the team last year where she lead them to Swedish cup championship. Josephine is a setter of the future and her drive and ambition will take her far this season.
Erika Larsson(age 23): Erika is the 3rd setter on our team. She starts for the clubs 2nd team and has been part of the elite squad for some time now. She will help push our 2 other setters and bring more squad depth at practice. The goal is for Erika to develop her setting skills even more so that she in the future can join the elite team for full real. She is a hardworking setter who reads the game really well.
Outside hitters:
Margie Giordano(age 23): Margie joins us from America where she graduated in 2009 from Arizona State University. Margie played and started all 4 college years for her team in the Pac10 conference which is considered the best in the US. Margie is an amazing passer and has a great mind in offense. She will be a big help for us in reaching our goals as a team.
Samantha Williams(age 23): Sammie joins the team from Pittsberg State University in Kansas where she graduated in 2009. Samantha has been recruited for her hitting abilities. She is a tall and physical player with great potential to be a big player in Sweden in the future.
Kaisa Wallin(age 23): Kaisa is joining us from last seasons Swedish champions Katrineholm where she had a big influence on the team reaching last years finals. Kaisa is a shorter outside with amazing passing and defence abilities. Kaisa is brought in to complete our outside position where we will have 3 potential starters with her addition to the team.
Therese Granlund(age 21): Therese played on the team last year as well. She a very talented all round player who will help the team as an outside as well as back up libero. Therese has an extremely fast arm swing and is one of the best defensive players on the team.
Rightside hitters:
Anna Sörensen(age 27): Anna is the 3rd Swedish national team player joining the squad this year. Last season Anna played for Örebro in the Swedish league, but we are very excited that she has decided to continue her career in Lindesberg. Anna brings a lot of experience and her natural calm attitude will have a good effect on our young players on the team.
Middle blockers:
Anna Rönnbäck(age 29): Anna joins the team from Aachen where she played with Matilda. Anna is a very experienced middle player who is considered one of the absolutely best in Sweden. She has played 51 matches for the Swedish national team and we are very sure she will do great things for us in Lindesberg.
Crystal Palmer(age 26): Crystal is our 3rd American player. She played on the team last year as well and was a dominating middle in the Swedish league. We are very happy Crystal has decided to come back and a huge goal for her this year is to further develop her passing since she dreams of becoming an outside in the future. Crystal has a lot of energy on court and will contribute a lot to the positive overall atmosphere on the team. Crystal will also back up the squad on the rightside hitter position where her hitting and blocking abilities will be very valuable.
Sara Thörnberg(age 22): Sara is another players who was on the team last year. Sara is a middle blocker in development. She has a lot of potential and will work hard this season to reach that potential. Lisa is a great addition to our two profiles on the middle position and she will see a lot of court time this season to help her improvement.
Kristin Sörman(age 22): Kristin is our 4th middle player. She played on the team last year as well and will complete the competition on her position. Kristin has the level to compete for a starting job on the team, and her young age gives her a bright future as well. Kristin is the shortest of our middles but she reads the game very well and she is super fast at the net.
Libero:
Jeanette Ellekjær Hansen(age 24): Jeanette is joining the team in Lindesberg coming off a championship season in Denmark with Fortuna. She was one of my most important players on that team and I am extremely happy she has decided to follow me to Sweden. Jeanette got MVP of the final series in Denmark last year and is one of the fastest and most stabile on the libero position. Jeanette has been around the Danish national teams several times and she will be of big importance for our team this year.
That is how our team looks for next year and what a team it is. We have been able to bring in a lot of talent combined with some national team experience and that will put us side by side with the best teams in Sweden. We realize that is will require a full season of hard work and a little bit of luck to make it all the way, but the goal is set and we are willing to put in the hours at the factory…
For myself I am getting ready to move out of my place in Denmark… Putting the last things in boxes I came to find a speech I wrote last season to my team after having lost the 4th final. It made me remember so many things from the past year and even though I am moving on to new and very exciting times, I found myself missing all the players, the club and everyone around Fortuna.. It was a great year… So here is a final SHOUT OUT to; Dorthe, Katie, Kristen, Lise, Katherine, Caley, Julie, Maja, Juliane, Jane, Jette, Lotte, Jeanette, Mille and Eva.
“It is in these hours after defeat that we lick our wounds, we regroup in the name of our pride and we thank God that we survived the battle, and that we STILL have a chance for glory… I urge all of you to find every bit of strength, every bit of courage and all of your pride – bring it to the gym tomorrow and let us prepare…Together! I have an answer and the price is nothing less, but I need all the hearts on this team to make a stand… Come tomorrow and expect to be enlightened, expect to be motivated and I promise you all … TOGETHER WE WILL MAKE READY.! The gold is what we want, this win is our way to get it and our hearts, skills and courage will be our means of weapon… I BELIEVE..!”
Michael
Friday, June 4, 2010
2010/2011 new things ahead…
Time for a small update here in the rather quite summertime..
The 2009/2010 season finished with double gold and I had actually for a while expected to re-sign with Fortuna, especially after that kind of ending to a season. However, a nice opportunity came up when the Swedish team Lindesberg contacted me with the offer of becoming their new headcoach. First of all the facilities in the club are amazing with a brand new gym, fitnesscenter, restaurant, full coaching staff around the team and a very ambitious board. Second of all they wanted to hire me to do nothing but coach volleyball which has been my goal for a really long time, so obviously it did not take me very long to decide that I wanted to go there.
Saying goodbye to Fortuna was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do… But the club supported my decision of going and they understood my reasons for wanting to try this thing out. The whole finish of the season and getting to say goodbye to everyone was all done in a bit of a hurry.. A couple of players left for travels right after the 5th final, and somehow it all just ended with a lot of emotions all over the place.
One more time I would like to send a HUGE thank you to the 2009/2010 Fortuna team, you were an amazing group of girls and we really did some amazing results.
I left to go work in the US early May and I am here until August. As soon as I get home I am leaving for Lindesberg and a season with a new group of girls and a new team to build. We are aiming for the stars without a doubt and a gold medal is our goal. The team had a – in many ways – rough season last year both on and off the court, and there will be a big task in rebuilding a culture in the club where athletes are feeling part of a family.
I am very excited for the coming season, but before all the work with the players start, we have to sign the players and that is always a full summers work. We are hiring 2 American outsides and the rest will be Swedish or Danish girls. So far it looks good but there are still a few steps to be taken before I will “go on vacation”… But it is an exciting process and fun to be a part of.
Recently I started working with an agency to help more players that loves the game and wants to play pro or semi-pro. My job will be to match players with teams in all of Europe to what will hopefully be a great experience for both parties. I have meet a lot of people in the US over the years I have been there, and it all just makes more sense that I end up helping players come from the US to Europe to play..
The Danish league 2010/2011
Lastly I hope to be able to follow the Danish league closely even though I will not be coaching there and that I will probably be busy with my own team and job most of the time. I think it looks to be an exciting year in Denmark. Last years silver medallists from Holte have added 2 starting players to their roster. Both of them with National team experience so there is no doubt that it will be a stronger team than last year. If you look to the other contenders for the gold, Fortuna has lost their entire starting 6 line-up from last year, including 3 players from team of the year AND 2 times league MVP Katherine Whitney who signed with a top team in France for next year(good luck Kat, I know you will do great). Also 5 year allstar Caley Carter Knudsen has decided to put her kneepads on the shelve and will start a life with her husband BT in the US.
Obviously Fortuna’s season will be depending on the new signings, but returned from a pro life as a Beach volleyball player, Stine Andreasen has decided to try a career as a setter and she will bring both experience and winner mentality to the team. Add to that 3-4 foreign signings and all the talents from the roster last year like Lise and Julie who both keeps getting better, I have no doubt that they will contend for the gold.. Time will tell if it is enough.!
Brøndby who finished 3rd last year will probably be the team most “experts” view as main contender for Holte. Brøndby has the leagues best setter in my opinion, and if their rightside Julie Guldager is back from injury she will be dominating as well.. However they have lost their libero, both their outsides and both middles from last years team. I think these players are possible to replace though. Brøndby have a solid talent factory of their own, and the club is also investing in at least 3 foreign players. If you look at the 3 players they signed last year I think they can do better for themselves with that money. One outside got hurt halfway through season and didn’t practice most of the time and the other outside ended up playing libero. The only really successful story would be their tall middle Jolene, but even Jolene struggled at the end of season. I hope for the competition that Brøndby find more luck in this years “draft” of foreigners, and if they do then they will be one of my favorits to go all the way.
The last team in top4 from last year would be Frederiksberg. They were a team that found themselves a bit in the middle of nowhere. They were better than 5 and down, but basically had no hopes of beating Holte in best of 5 matches in the semifinals. Headcoach William has aired a will to purchase a foreign player if he sees that as a breaking point in the teams goal to make the finals.. Most of the squad from last year will continue and a few new additions can prove to be just what they need to make top3.
Generally I think it will be very interesting to see how the best teams will do without a Katherine Whitney, Caley Carter or Pia Larsen. Players like that are hard to find in a small league like our, and I feel we have been blessed with their years playing for our top teams. Now it is time for new Danish girls to pick up the pace and time for the teams to strike the gold again when hiring their professional players. I personally see Holte as main favourites because the above mentioned 3 players are not in the league anymore, and unless other teams find a new game changing player it is hard to see how they can compete with Holte in this coming season. Holte is pretty much an equal with the Danish national team, so unless a few non Danish girls are ready to compete, the best of the best are in Holte..
That was all for now, enjoy your summer everyone and have fun on the beach tour.
Michael
The 2009/2010 season finished with double gold and I had actually for a while expected to re-sign with Fortuna, especially after that kind of ending to a season. However, a nice opportunity came up when the Swedish team Lindesberg contacted me with the offer of becoming their new headcoach. First of all the facilities in the club are amazing with a brand new gym, fitnesscenter, restaurant, full coaching staff around the team and a very ambitious board. Second of all they wanted to hire me to do nothing but coach volleyball which has been my goal for a really long time, so obviously it did not take me very long to decide that I wanted to go there.
Saying goodbye to Fortuna was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do… But the club supported my decision of going and they understood my reasons for wanting to try this thing out. The whole finish of the season and getting to say goodbye to everyone was all done in a bit of a hurry.. A couple of players left for travels right after the 5th final, and somehow it all just ended with a lot of emotions all over the place.
One more time I would like to send a HUGE thank you to the 2009/2010 Fortuna team, you were an amazing group of girls and we really did some amazing results.
I left to go work in the US early May and I am here until August. As soon as I get home I am leaving for Lindesberg and a season with a new group of girls and a new team to build. We are aiming for the stars without a doubt and a gold medal is our goal. The team had a – in many ways – rough season last year both on and off the court, and there will be a big task in rebuilding a culture in the club where athletes are feeling part of a family.
I am very excited for the coming season, but before all the work with the players start, we have to sign the players and that is always a full summers work. We are hiring 2 American outsides and the rest will be Swedish or Danish girls. So far it looks good but there are still a few steps to be taken before I will “go on vacation”… But it is an exciting process and fun to be a part of.
Recently I started working with an agency to help more players that loves the game and wants to play pro or semi-pro. My job will be to match players with teams in all of Europe to what will hopefully be a great experience for both parties. I have meet a lot of people in the US over the years I have been there, and it all just makes more sense that I end up helping players come from the US to Europe to play..
The Danish league 2010/2011
Lastly I hope to be able to follow the Danish league closely even though I will not be coaching there and that I will probably be busy with my own team and job most of the time. I think it looks to be an exciting year in Denmark. Last years silver medallists from Holte have added 2 starting players to their roster. Both of them with National team experience so there is no doubt that it will be a stronger team than last year. If you look to the other contenders for the gold, Fortuna has lost their entire starting 6 line-up from last year, including 3 players from team of the year AND 2 times league MVP Katherine Whitney who signed with a top team in France for next year(good luck Kat, I know you will do great). Also 5 year allstar Caley Carter Knudsen has decided to put her kneepads on the shelve and will start a life with her husband BT in the US.
Obviously Fortuna’s season will be depending on the new signings, but returned from a pro life as a Beach volleyball player, Stine Andreasen has decided to try a career as a setter and she will bring both experience and winner mentality to the team. Add to that 3-4 foreign signings and all the talents from the roster last year like Lise and Julie who both keeps getting better, I have no doubt that they will contend for the gold.. Time will tell if it is enough.!
Brøndby who finished 3rd last year will probably be the team most “experts” view as main contender for Holte. Brøndby has the leagues best setter in my opinion, and if their rightside Julie Guldager is back from injury she will be dominating as well.. However they have lost their libero, both their outsides and both middles from last years team. I think these players are possible to replace though. Brøndby have a solid talent factory of their own, and the club is also investing in at least 3 foreign players. If you look at the 3 players they signed last year I think they can do better for themselves with that money. One outside got hurt halfway through season and didn’t practice most of the time and the other outside ended up playing libero. The only really successful story would be their tall middle Jolene, but even Jolene struggled at the end of season. I hope for the competition that Brøndby find more luck in this years “draft” of foreigners, and if they do then they will be one of my favorits to go all the way.
The last team in top4 from last year would be Frederiksberg. They were a team that found themselves a bit in the middle of nowhere. They were better than 5 and down, but basically had no hopes of beating Holte in best of 5 matches in the semifinals. Headcoach William has aired a will to purchase a foreign player if he sees that as a breaking point in the teams goal to make the finals.. Most of the squad from last year will continue and a few new additions can prove to be just what they need to make top3.
Generally I think it will be very interesting to see how the best teams will do without a Katherine Whitney, Caley Carter or Pia Larsen. Players like that are hard to find in a small league like our, and I feel we have been blessed with their years playing for our top teams. Now it is time for new Danish girls to pick up the pace and time for the teams to strike the gold again when hiring their professional players. I personally see Holte as main favourites because the above mentioned 3 players are not in the league anymore, and unless other teams find a new game changing player it is hard to see how they can compete with Holte in this coming season. Holte is pretty much an equal with the Danish national team, so unless a few non Danish girls are ready to compete, the best of the best are in Holte..
That was all for now, enjoy your summer everyone and have fun on the beach tour.
Michael
Friday, May 7, 2010
Damelandsholdet og spiller frustration..
Hep.. Lige et indlæg på dansk.
Nu er Landsholdssæsonen i gang, og alle spillere er til og fra landsholds træning hele ugen igennem.. Det bringer flere samtaler med disse spillere på bordet, samtaler der ikke er nye men dog bliver frisket op hvert år omkring denne tid.
Noget af det der gør at jeg har følt et behov for at skrive dette indlæg, er en nu 3årig periode hvor jeg har været rigtig tæt på flere spillere på landsholdet. Spillere som alle er dybt loyale overfor landsholdet og den præstige der følger med, og de stiller troligt op år efter år. Omvendt er det også spillere som kæmper en indre konflikt mellem klub og landshold.
En konflikt skabt af manglende samarbejde mellem klubtræner og landstræner, OG en konflikt der i MINE øjne i høj grad har at gøre med den danske landstræner.
Tony har sit syn på volleyball og har en meget beundringsværdig og stålfast mening om hvordan volleyball skal spilles. Det er enhver træners ret og det vil altid være arbejdsgiverens beslutning hvor længe det skal stå på. Så længe resultater målt i sejre og nederlag, udvikling af spillere etc. er i orden så fortsætter man naturligvis samarbejdet...!
I Danmark har vi 8 klubber i elitedivisionen og det er stort set det marked landstræneren har at finde sine spillere henne. Ud af de 8 klubber er der kun 1 elitetræner dvs. klub der deler landstrænerens syn på taktik og spillestil. Det er målt på antallet af spillere der ikke er brugbare på landsholdet med det spil de har allerede via den træning de får i klubberne, hvilket resulterer i at spilleren radikalt skal ændre sit spil for at være brugbar på det danske landshold.
Det vil altid være klubbens eget valg udfra valget af træner, hvilken spillestil eliteholdet skal have og dermed spillerne udvikles i, og situationen i Danmark er at Holte har valgt den samme tilgang til volleyball spillet som man har på landsholdet. Det har først klubben til rigtig mange medaljer og flotte resultater, så ikke en finger at sætte på dette.
Men hvad sker der så med de spillere der kommer fra alle de andre klubber når det er tid til landsholds samling?
Dette bringer os frem til den indre konflikt jeg talte om før...
En spiller der ikke træner den samme spillestil som benyttes på landsholdet, mødes med en hurtig kommentar fra Tony om at det hun har lært hele året i sin klub, det er fuldstændig forkert... Og det kan kun gå for langsomt med at få lavet det om.! Og nu siger jeg ikke at manden ikke har ret ift. hvad han ønsker spilleren skal bruge på landsholdet, for det er jo hans valg, men er det ikke liiiiige lovlig naivt og egocentreret at mene, at man har patent på hvad der er rigtigt og forkert i volleyball? - JO!
Disse spillere sidder så pludselig i en situation når de kommer tilbage til klubtræningen hvor de så skal diskutere det samme med deres klubtræner. I sidste ende står spilleren jo med et valg om at gøre enten som hendes hold i klubben stiler efter, eller som hendes karriere på det Danske landshold kræver. Alternativt kan man vælge at skifte til en klub hvor de to ting går hånd i hånd, og det har vi jo også set rigeligt med eksempler på, men det er nu ikke min pointe her så lad os lade det ligge.
Nej det jeg vil frem til er, at hvis vi i 7 ud af 8 eliteklubber er SÅ ELENDIGE til at udvikle spillere til det danske landshold, og hvis vores tanker om volley og hvordan det spilles bedst er HELT FORKERTE, så står Dansk volleyball, forbund, klubber, landshold og spillere i en ganske uheldig situation. Og som volleynation må vi vel træffe et valg om hvor længe vi vil stå i den uheldige situation, for der er ikke forbedringer forude, tværtimod... og det ses jo tydeligt på nedenstående liste:
Damelandsholdet:
Eva Mielskov Bang, hæver – Brøndby VK (backup)
Jindra Knudsen, hæver – Holte IF (starter)
Mia Kloth-Jørgensen, libero – Holte IF (starter)
Lykke Groot Degner, center – Holte IF (starter)
Juliane Graff Daugaard, center - Fortuna (Holte IF) (backup)
Christina Marie Stenvig Jensen, center – Brøndby VK (starter)
Mie Lindgren, kant – Brøndby VK (Holte IF) (backup)
Louise Johnsen Alrø, kant – Örebro VS (SWE) (starter)
Melcijana Salispahic, kant – Holte IF (starter)
Natja Bech Kjeldsen, kant - Skovbakken (backup)
Karen Helmer-Hansen, kant – Holte IF (starter)
Majken Asmussen, kant – Holte IF (backup)
Jeg tror min pointe er ret klar, og jeg synes ikke at det er en særlig god situation for dansk volleyball... I virkeligheden er den ganske forfærdelig! I hvert fald så længe der udtages spillere til landsholdet som kommer dertil glade og med tro på sig selv(ellers var de der jo ikke) for så at vende tilbage til klubben helt uden selvtillid og i dyb personlig konflikt i frygt for at spilde sin relativt korte volley karriere på at lære nogle forkerte ting...
Min besked til Tony er ganske klar... Udtag de spillere du mener passer i det system du gerne vil køre. LAD VÆRE med at udtage spillere der ikke passer for så at lave om på dem og BILDE DEM IND at den eneste rigtige måde er DIN måde.. for det er direkte LØGN! Det kunne helt sikkert gavne at at spillere lærer mere end 1 måde at spille på, men det skal gøres på en måde så det gavner spilleren, og ikke ødelægger deres tillid til sig selv og til deres klub.
Ja jeg ved godt at det her indlæg kommer til at gøre nogle meget vigtige herre meget sure, men jeg er 100% ærlig når jeg siger at jeg ALDRIG har set nogen være så dårlig til at bygge en spiller op mentalt som du er det Tony, og det gør mig pisse sur at der er en hel del menneskers hårde arbejde gennem flere sæsoner, som du bare samler op og kaster ud af vinduet.. det lader sig kun gøre af én eneste grund, og det er ikke fordi du ved bedre for det gør du ikke, men fordi du er landstræner og spillerne respektere de ting du siger og lære fra dig.. Men det handler kun om dig i din verden, og din verden er sgu ikke stor nok i mine øjne.. ØV!
Mini
"Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong"
Nu er Landsholdssæsonen i gang, og alle spillere er til og fra landsholds træning hele ugen igennem.. Det bringer flere samtaler med disse spillere på bordet, samtaler der ikke er nye men dog bliver frisket op hvert år omkring denne tid.
Noget af det der gør at jeg har følt et behov for at skrive dette indlæg, er en nu 3årig periode hvor jeg har været rigtig tæt på flere spillere på landsholdet. Spillere som alle er dybt loyale overfor landsholdet og den præstige der følger med, og de stiller troligt op år efter år. Omvendt er det også spillere som kæmper en indre konflikt mellem klub og landshold.
En konflikt skabt af manglende samarbejde mellem klubtræner og landstræner, OG en konflikt der i MINE øjne i høj grad har at gøre med den danske landstræner.
Tony har sit syn på volleyball og har en meget beundringsværdig og stålfast mening om hvordan volleyball skal spilles. Det er enhver træners ret og det vil altid være arbejdsgiverens beslutning hvor længe det skal stå på. Så længe resultater målt i sejre og nederlag, udvikling af spillere etc. er i orden så fortsætter man naturligvis samarbejdet...!
I Danmark har vi 8 klubber i elitedivisionen og det er stort set det marked landstræneren har at finde sine spillere henne. Ud af de 8 klubber er der kun 1 elitetræner dvs. klub der deler landstrænerens syn på taktik og spillestil. Det er målt på antallet af spillere der ikke er brugbare på landsholdet med det spil de har allerede via den træning de får i klubberne, hvilket resulterer i at spilleren radikalt skal ændre sit spil for at være brugbar på det danske landshold.
Det vil altid være klubbens eget valg udfra valget af træner, hvilken spillestil eliteholdet skal have og dermed spillerne udvikles i, og situationen i Danmark er at Holte har valgt den samme tilgang til volleyball spillet som man har på landsholdet. Det har først klubben til rigtig mange medaljer og flotte resultater, så ikke en finger at sætte på dette.
Men hvad sker der så med de spillere der kommer fra alle de andre klubber når det er tid til landsholds samling?
Dette bringer os frem til den indre konflikt jeg talte om før...
En spiller der ikke træner den samme spillestil som benyttes på landsholdet, mødes med en hurtig kommentar fra Tony om at det hun har lært hele året i sin klub, det er fuldstændig forkert... Og det kan kun gå for langsomt med at få lavet det om.! Og nu siger jeg ikke at manden ikke har ret ift. hvad han ønsker spilleren skal bruge på landsholdet, for det er jo hans valg, men er det ikke liiiiige lovlig naivt og egocentreret at mene, at man har patent på hvad der er rigtigt og forkert i volleyball? - JO!
Disse spillere sidder så pludselig i en situation når de kommer tilbage til klubtræningen hvor de så skal diskutere det samme med deres klubtræner. I sidste ende står spilleren jo med et valg om at gøre enten som hendes hold i klubben stiler efter, eller som hendes karriere på det Danske landshold kræver. Alternativt kan man vælge at skifte til en klub hvor de to ting går hånd i hånd, og det har vi jo også set rigeligt med eksempler på, men det er nu ikke min pointe her så lad os lade det ligge.
Nej det jeg vil frem til er, at hvis vi i 7 ud af 8 eliteklubber er SÅ ELENDIGE til at udvikle spillere til det danske landshold, og hvis vores tanker om volley og hvordan det spilles bedst er HELT FORKERTE, så står Dansk volleyball, forbund, klubber, landshold og spillere i en ganske uheldig situation. Og som volleynation må vi vel træffe et valg om hvor længe vi vil stå i den uheldige situation, for der er ikke forbedringer forude, tværtimod... og det ses jo tydeligt på nedenstående liste:
Damelandsholdet:
Eva Mielskov Bang, hæver – Brøndby VK (backup)
Jindra Knudsen, hæver – Holte IF (starter)
Mia Kloth-Jørgensen, libero – Holte IF (starter)
Lykke Groot Degner, center – Holte IF (starter)
Juliane Graff Daugaard, center - Fortuna (Holte IF) (backup)
Christina Marie Stenvig Jensen, center – Brøndby VK (starter)
Mie Lindgren, kant – Brøndby VK (Holte IF) (backup)
Louise Johnsen Alrø, kant – Örebro VS (SWE) (starter)
Melcijana Salispahic, kant – Holte IF (starter)
Natja Bech Kjeldsen, kant - Skovbakken (backup)
Karen Helmer-Hansen, kant – Holte IF (starter)
Majken Asmussen, kant – Holte IF (backup)
Jeg tror min pointe er ret klar, og jeg synes ikke at det er en særlig god situation for dansk volleyball... I virkeligheden er den ganske forfærdelig! I hvert fald så længe der udtages spillere til landsholdet som kommer dertil glade og med tro på sig selv(ellers var de der jo ikke) for så at vende tilbage til klubben helt uden selvtillid og i dyb personlig konflikt i frygt for at spilde sin relativt korte volley karriere på at lære nogle forkerte ting...
Min besked til Tony er ganske klar... Udtag de spillere du mener passer i det system du gerne vil køre. LAD VÆRE med at udtage spillere der ikke passer for så at lave om på dem og BILDE DEM IND at den eneste rigtige måde er DIN måde.. for det er direkte LØGN! Det kunne helt sikkert gavne at at spillere lærer mere end 1 måde at spille på, men det skal gøres på en måde så det gavner spilleren, og ikke ødelægger deres tillid til sig selv og til deres klub.
Ja jeg ved godt at det her indlæg kommer til at gøre nogle meget vigtige herre meget sure, men jeg er 100% ærlig når jeg siger at jeg ALDRIG har set nogen være så dårlig til at bygge en spiller op mentalt som du er det Tony, og det gør mig pisse sur at der er en hel del menneskers hårde arbejde gennem flere sæsoner, som du bare samler op og kaster ud af vinduet.. det lader sig kun gøre af én eneste grund, og det er ikke fordi du ved bedre for det gør du ikke, men fordi du er landstræner og spillerne respektere de ting du siger og lære fra dig.. Men det handler kun om dig i din verden, og din verden er sgu ikke stor nok i mine øjne.. ØV!
Mini
"Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong"
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