Well, I'll have to keep this one short, as conversations with people back here have already kept me up way longer than originally intended. After what seems like an eternity of waiting, we got together for our first preseason practice of the year!
Conditioning: Although we didn't do too many conditioning drills, the ones we did were pretty strenuous. One of them lasted about 10 minutes and consisted of 120 pushups and 200 sit-ups. Yikes? I could barely hit the ball for the next 10-15 minutes as my arms worked on un-flexing. A couple sprint drills here and there, as well as some jumping drills. I didn't hydrate enough, because towards the end of the 3-hour practice I could feel my left calf begging to cramp up, and about 5-6 others had the same problem.
Playing: We did a couple passing drills, hitting lines, then scrimmage-like scenarios. With this being the first time coach saw everyone, egos were in play and the competition/energy was FIERCE. I felt everyone looked very good, and the chemistry/team bonding seems better on this team than the previous two years.
Personally, I didn't get to do much backrow work. Coach wanted me hitting in every drill, which I didn't mind, but I could tell my approach was getting fatigued towards the end. This year I've transitioned from opposite to outside, and although I played outside most of my career, we run a very fast offense and it's going to take me awhile to get it down. I was VERY early on my shoots today, which led to jumping straight up and having the block get a lot of playable deflections. I'll stay patient though, it's only day 1, and overall I was pleased with how I played.
I'm off to bed for now. We practice for only two hours tomorrow, so hopefully we focus mostly on volleyball, as the tournament at Springfield is Saturday and we need all the repetition we can get. A quick stretch before hopping into bed, then hoping my body isn't broken when I wake up!
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