Thanksgiving never ceases to please me. I think of all the holidays out there, Thanksgiving is the one I can always depend on to be exactly what I hope for it to be. I have celebrated it in four different locations in each of the last four years, but the atmosphere almost never changes. Good food, couple drinks, a strong family environment, and sports on the TV. The perfect way to get a break from the normal grind. Especially with what is going on overseas with the terrorist attacks, it is a time to truly be thankful that although we do have to keep our eyes open, we are lucky to not have to worry about that from day to day.
I haven't touched a volleyball in three days, which slowly but surely gets my mind moving in a thousand different directions. At the moment, I find myself thinking about a couple things specifically.
The first is relief that I'm finally starting to adjust to the new physique I'm working with. The first couple weeks I struggled keeping the ball in the court, dealing with a bit more of a pop on the ball than I normally have. Lately, things have started to get more consistent, I've adjusted my snap to compensate, and although I'm still getting comfortable with my shots, I'm confident that I'll be good to go for the tournament at Boston University next weekend.
I had thrown 10 pounds on before preseason due to a pretty strenuous workout regimen. Although the power has stuck around, the weight has not, toning back down to 170 in the last two weeks. It never fails, no matter what I do in the off-season, the weight is coming off once I'm on that court daily. Still haven't figured out whether or not I want to adjust my eating habits to try and counter this, as I know less weight equals less strain on the knees, which I want to preserve as long as possible. Perhaps I'll hit up my physical therapist for a diet after the season.
I can't help but wonder what my role will be on the team this year. Although I've been playing on the outside so far, coach isn't against the idea of me hitting opposite. I want to do what's best for the team, and there are so many pros/cons to both moves, it is difficult to tell she'll settle on. So many players can play multiple positions this season, I suppose it's a good problem to be dealing with when versatility gives a team almost too many options.
I can't wait for the starting line-up to get some reps in together this week. We've been split the entire pre-season, but we're going as one full squad to the BU tournament. That being said, I'm sure we'll be finally putting the starters together to get some chemistry going, and I really think it's gonna go well. We didn't play in the tournament last year, and Rivier ended up winning it, but I look forward to the opportunity to bring the title back to Brookline this year!
Individually I feel this will be a strong season for me. I don't like to put goals on quantity of numbers, so as for kills/blocks/digs, I don't worry about it. However, hitting percentage and errors per attempt are two categories I do keep my eyes on, and I hope to continue the increase on my efficiency. Freshman year I hit .232 at opposite, and after a strong off-season re-habbing a weak arm I boosted that to .288 last season. I feel that I worked harder this off-season that I've ever worked before, and hope that the team's results end up showing that.
I talked with someone high up at the school about a scholarship fund in Coach Dave's name a week ago, and preliminary talks about it went well. Still needs a lot of research/work, but I want to do whatever it takes to make this happen. This is the last team Newbury will have with all his recruits, and I know I'll be using it as fuel to keep moving forward no matter what obstacles we hit all season.
I think that's enough rambling for now. Have a good Black Friday, more updates to come in the next few days.
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