Hello All,
November 29th was my first OFFICIAL professional volleyball match! Therefore it's relevance is huge and I am going to recap the day and our amazing WIN! :) Ok, so the morning of the 29th we had to be in the facility that we play our matches in which is different than where we practice. It is beneficial/necessary for teams to get to practice some in the facility they will actually compete in, cause with volleyball the gym has a major influence on individual and team performance. For example the size of the room may affect the air flow which in turn affects how much a volleyball can/will "float" once it is served or even the way it moves when you are receiving/passing it, also the lighting is a major factor when it comes to setting and hitting because of course we have to look up to follow the ball and if the lights are different than what we are used to we need to adjust to this. Ok so back to morning of game day...I side track a lot so bare with me lol...we got to the gym and were shown to our locker room it was a big space with a couple of benchs a door with showers sinks and toilets with stalls mind you, because not all the places I have been to have the courtesy of stalls...one place was a hole in the floor and let me tell you I've since been conditioned to carry toilet paper EVERYWHERE because this is not provided ANYWHERE! Lol and I learned very fast to have some with me! The first time I went into a bathroom unfortunately, I realized their was no toilet paper after the fact and I actually said out loud (not that anyone could understand me) "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!" Instead of toilet paper they have provided their guests with a lovely hose and spray nosel like the kind that is equiped in every American home at the back of the sink for spraying your dishes lol well here they like to spray other things with it!
Alright so back to the practice...A new girl was in the locker room this morning I actually never learned her name and she was gone the next afternoon so, sorry I can't give you those details, but it's pretty common for our coach to bring in a new player, never introduce them and then they are gone just like that. Most likely he changed his mind or they weren't good enough and this is all because we don't have a full team yet. Well...we kind of do now but we still need like two or three more players just in case some one were to be injured. Besides this new girl who-can-not-be-named we had just recieved two other players the day before, Aynur and Audina a middle and an outside hitter. They transferred in from two separate clubs here in the Azerbaijan League, from what I could gather they were bench warmers for Azerrail's club and Baki's club, and boy did we need them! I was so grateful that they came the day before our first match and they already knew most of the girls on my team. I think they have played with each other previously. They have been such a blessing a big help to our team. I'll give you a tad more info on my team before I finally get to the morning practice part, so the club's name is Shirvan this is the first year that it has been in operation, our head coach is Adnan Kistak he is a coach from Turkey and has been around for a while. I just learned the other day that he was actually the head coach for Azerrail one of the best teams in this league, last year, but that he was fired and allowed to start this club. Why he was fired I don't know but I gather it's from the lack of organization and friendliness (I think thats a word) I believe he knows his volleyball quite well and is a very good technical coach, but regardless of the language barrier which could be cause for some minor misperceptions I am sure he is impersonal, lacking empathy and some major food group social skills... (lord I hope he doesn't read this! Lol) Ok and so being we are a first year club we do not have a trainer, a masseuse, a doctor, or a facility. We split time with Azerrail using their gym, we actually borrow their doctor occasionally and were allowed to use their locker room and sauna while they were out of town for a week, and I must say this has been the biggest adjustment coming into playing professionally versus college, anyone who has ever been to Florida State or even watched one of the many sporting events would know that FSU has some of the best facilities in the nation and I was so blessed to be able to compete for the seminoles and use the state of the art equipment, but the down side is, it has made transitioning from there to here quite difficult. Thankfully my best friend Kerri gave me a major heads up about what things were going to be like overseas! She filled me in on the differences and what to expect and that I should come here prepared to take care of myself in whatever ways necessary, cause if I wasn't going to ice my own knees isn't wasn't going to get done! And I did come semi prepared with kinesio tape, icebags and prewrap, some allergy meds and of course imodium lol but still...not having access to a stem unit (a machine that sends electronic pulese through muscles to help them loosen/warm up) or a cold bath has been really hard.
On top of the lack of resources, being this is Shirvan's first year we are seen as the underdogs and a team that is expected to lose to all the other's in this league, I've been told that all any one expects from us for this first year is that we play a "competitive match" but that we won't be winning cause we don't have any big time players with national team honors or world championships underneath their belt and even our own coach has drilled into our minds that we are inadequate not like the other teams, we aren't as good or as tall that we can't hit like Mamodova (famous Azerbaijan player) or block as high. Adnan has reminded our team since the day I arrived that we aren't as good as the other's in this league and because of this we have to train harder and stronger, become faster and smarter. Perhaps this is his coaching tactics and maybe he is trying to bring us down to build us up, but I believe there are better more effective ways to psychologically prepare your athletes for matches against competition that is ranked higher and well renowned.
Don't get me wrong...I understand what prestige is and that accomplishments in the sports world create your resume but I don't take being told that I'm not tall enough or good enough lightly!! And I had a mouthful for Mr. Kistak...of course I was respectful and discussed my personal feelings on the situation outside of practice time and away from all the others but, I explained to him via the interpretter, that regardless of how short I may be, or that I may weigh more or not jump as high in comparison to the competion...and that even though I'm lacking national team at the end of my name, I AM good enough to be here. I also brought up the point that even if he didn't feel that I was good enough he chose to bring me here along with the rest of my teammates, from all over the world on his own accord and if he doesn't believe we are good enough and isn't satisfied that's his own fault and he should be angry with himself for lack of recruiting skills! I have been playing volleyball for 12 years now and the last thing a team needs is for a coach that lacks confidence in them. After I explained those things to him told him how I felt he percieved it all very mildly and admitted that it was his fault on behalf of recruiting but he just thought I was taller before I got here and was expecting me to be a more complete player meaning have higher skills in defense and setting. I explained I would do my best to improve these aspects of my game as quickly as possible and asked for him to please be patient with me because in America it is common for middle blockers like myself to only block and hit I was never alotted teh opportunity to play defense, serve recieve and for the most part serve. All in all the conversation ended cordially and we haven't had another since BUT and I say but in all caps because...mind you we WON OUR FIRST MATCH lol and he has had an unbelievable transformation into the world of optimism! Ha...
Ok now back to the part where we are playing in pregame practice, it's still morning and the gym is beautiful! My favorite part about the place is that it's shaped like a dome and when you look up, way to the very top there is a fan circulating and it's so far away, that it reminds me of those movies when people come back to consciousness and they are blinking their eyes and the first blurry image that comes gradually into view is something spinning and the noise is a whooshing sound like an old drying machine...I don't know why lol but that's precisely what this ceiling makes me think of. On top of being so high up, the gym has this incredible echo whenever coach is talking his voice is booming and when we hit, as the balls make contact with the cream floor it reverberates throughout the entire gym and creates an atomosphere that's perfect for sporting events!
Coach had us do a lot of ball handling/rolling around everywhere to start and then we went into scrimmaging 6 on 6. Being this is the first practice with the addition of three new players, he wanted to get a lot accomplished in the morning before our game... but by the last 20 minutes I started to tire and began giving crazed looks towards the sideline where he was standing, you know...the look that says "are you freaking serious?!" I felt like I was doing one of Todd Kress's blue lip drills where the point of the drill is strictly to make you so tired the lack of oxygen changes your lips from red to blue...finally after a ball was shanked and prior to him entering a new ball into the drill I said something, actually more like gasped in broken English so he could comprehend, "Adnan finished??? Please we have game, I need save my jumps!" as I crossed my forearms over each other to make an X the universal sign I've learned since I've been here for the completion of drills or meetings. He look at me like I was the crazy one and said to the group "Moeshna Petit" meaning in Turkish get water, (if Duygu, Fatma or Gokhie is reading this sorry I slaughtered turkish for get water, but I did my best to sound it/spell it) and walked towards me to explain in a very grumpy guady manner that "Maybe in AMERICAAA not normal, practice two times day, but in Europe it's good and ok!" I just said ok I was sorry but that I am already exhausted and need to be able to play tonight. But I was not sorry in the least lol I've just learned to swallow my pride and keep the water's from boiling over with this man cause he loves the power, and I had nothing else to complain about cause guess what we got water, the drill was finished cause I said something and we went into serving to end the practice ;) !
So now that our first practice was finished we went into stretching ran to cool down for a little while and went to pregame meal at the federation. Something that has been a major change for me is the food they serve here, I would like to say that it's good but that would be a solid lie lol and I have tried to see the bright side of this sitution but YUCK! Is the crap they feed us disgusting...actually for one positive point the soup is absolutely fabulous I haven't had a bad bowl yet but other than that I don't like the meat in the least, especially when it's chicken liver or lamb on an overly large femur sized bone sitting in a bowl with some type of broth and veggies...potatos are great and I quickly learned how to say potato in Russian it's "Kartoshka" :) one of the ten words I know lol. Oh and last thing there is this horrifically HEINOUS green spice that they put in EVERYTHING and it's so bitter and disgusting that I am getting goosebumps now just thinking about it ewww. So this devil spice has limited my food options by 60% cause otherwise I would like to eat the cold pastas or mixed meals but the spice is infesting everything soon as I see it or smell it I have to send back that plate of food, someone told me it may be dill weed, I'm not sure what it is but I know it's freaking nasty. Ok off my bad spice tangent...so After our pregame meal we went home for a little and were picked back up by the bus and our crazy ass, excuse my language, driver! Thank god I have 9 lives because he's take 4 since I've been here and I lost a couple growing up, I actually have bruises from him slamming on the breaks cause some how or another he happened to MISS the PARKED car to the left lol GOSH he's awful, anyways, so we walked across the street where he picked us up and went back to the gym to change and start our pregame warm up.
Our competition for the night was Locomotive another club in Baku. They have some very good players from USA, including Nancy Metcalf, Ashley Davis, and Kristin Richards. I was soo excited to play in my first game! :) I couldn't wait and I started, so I was very grateful for that, but I started in back row and the libero came in for me before the first ball was ever served so my actual first playing time, was three rotations later when Aynur the middle opposite of me went to serve. I definitely had butterflies in my stomach and I was a little nervous, enough so, that I totally forgot to take of my pregame warm up shirt and was running into the match with it on lol, my coach was yelling to me in gibberish and Paulina the libero realized what was going on and started to pull it off of me herself before I knew that I'd forgotten haha! So a minute later and a warm up shirt less, I was in the match playing professionally for my FIRST TIME! We ended up winning in five and we were all so very excited it was an intense match with a lot of great and mediocre play coming from both sides, and luckily we pulled out with a win! The second to last game point 14-13 I scored with a deep tip to the five zone :) one of my favs, for any volleyball braniacs you know what I'm talking about, for everyone else I'll explain...normally people tip the ball short, that's why it's called a tip, just barely using your finger"tips" lol but I had been tipping short the entire match up to this point. It had scored twice and been picked up once, so before our side served, I thought about how the libero in left back had started to cheat up and was surely expecting me to tip short and that the middle back player had just subbed in, she hadn't played once the whole match so I knew she wouldn't be ready for the deep tip either. So I asked Simona our setter to set me a 'Bash' which is a small quick set behind her head, so I could execute my plan lol and when I got the point I was really excited that it worked! Then we ended up winning the next point and the match on an ace service! GREAT DAY :) Our coach only had nice things to say OF COURSE ha and we had a loud and obnoxious bus ride filled with dancing and singing back to our apartments. Where I celebrated the win with a glass of fancy Azerbaijan red wine only 3 monets(their currency) a bottle, like 4.50$ USD, and sat with my roomies and two teammates Simona and Tanya to talk about our win and how shocked everyone was that we pulled it out being we are "supposed" to lose an all! So for my first match I couldn't have been happier! I don't know who to or where to, even begin looking for statistics for the game but personally I'll tell you how I feel I did, my hitting was decent but I wasn't happy with my blocking at all and that is something I have been succesful with in the past, but so many things are different about playing here versus college that I am going to try and be patient with myself, to learn as much and as quickly as possible. Like how to block better and outsmart the opponent, but besides the bad blocking I am just so grateful we won! Things couldn't have been better!
So that is the sum it up tell it all of the my First Professional Match, I will write more on our second match and how this past week has been soon...Thanks for reading
God Bless
Jordana
