the secret’s out…

If you’ve really been paying attention you would already know that about 6 weeks ago I left Jastrzebie in Poland and joined a new club in Germany, SG Eschenbacher Eltmann.  As the head coach, I’ve had a little less time on my hands for such things as blog posting.  Add to that moving in and getting settled and that leaves even less time.  But those are just excuses.

The town of Eltmann is a tiny village near Bamberg in south Germany.  The region is Bavaria and the normal greeting here isn’t ‘good day’ but ‘greet god’. I don’t really know what they say after that because the accent is quite distinct.  The town is really nice and every day I feel guilty about driving my car to practice despite it being only about 1 kilometre from my apartment.  I have mostly used snow and rain and cold as an excuse but the one day I did walk it made my knee sore for the next week (it is slightly uphill).  So that has been the excuse for the rest of the time.

The team had been struggling and has continued to struggle.  We’ve had strong positions in nearly all of the matches we’ve played but anyone who says luck doesn’t play a part in sport is kidding themselves.  In one match we had an incorrect referee overrule on one decisive point AND a decisive service series that turned out to be ALL foot faults.  But we’ve kept working because, well, that’s the only thing you can do when things aren’t going well.

There are probably a hundred details I could relate but I haven’t the time.  Or the security clearance.   But to make up for it a few videos.

Here is the interview I did in the VIP room after the first match.

Here is a video of an interview I did before my first home game.

Here is a fan montage of our most recent match against the current German champions.

And to prove that Eltmann is a really important place, a news clip about a bank holdup that happened less than 100m from my apartment… without me noticing it until the police knocked on my door.

jumping summary

There was some question about how much people jump in a volleyball match. This data was collected from two Belgian League matches between teams in the top three.  It was collected and collated by Johan Devoghel.

051022 PJL-ROE (1-3)					0511218 MAA-PJL (3-2)
TIME	AVE RALLY	AVE BREAK	AVE BREAK*		TIME	AVE RALLY	AVE BREAK	AVE BREAK*
102	10.1	21	19		115	10.4	23	19
LENNIK PLAYER JUMPS					LENNIK PLAYER JUMPS
PLAYER	TOTAL JUMPS	JUMPS/MIN			PLAYER	TOTAL JUMPS	JUMPS/MIN
S**	32	0.31			S	43	0.37
O	77	0.75			O	100	0.87
PH1	63	0.62			PH1	63	0.55
PH2**	63	0.62			PH2**	69	0.60
MB1	96	0.94			MB1	131	1.14
MB2	90	0.88			MB2	87	0.76
*	average break between rallies (not including set breaks)
**	combination of two players playing this position

portuguese adventure – the match

So with a much needed, confidence building win under our belts we hit the road on Monday to play the second leg of our European Challenge Cup match in the Azores.  As you can imagine, travelling to a small, tourism oriented island group in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean during December is not that straight forward and such a stressful moment of the season might not be the best timing for it.  But once those ping pong balls came out we were locked in.

The first ‘glitch’ was that due to its out of the way nature instead of travelling the day before the game we had to travel on Monday for a Wednesday match.  The travel wasn’t too bad, just one bus trip and three flights in 16 hours and we arrived in as good a condition as you could expect.   At least our hotel was right on the beach.  An entire day in any destination is a rarity and given that the only training time we could arrange was 8.30pm we had virtually the whole day to be tourists which meant I got to see a bit of somewhere before ticking it off on my ‘places I’ve been’ list.  I can report that the town of Praia Vittoria on the island of Terceira is a very pretty place.  It is neat and tidy and clean and obviously tourism oriented.  And in December even if it is too cold to swim in the ocean, it is warm enough to splash around for a few minutes.  That was enough for me and I didn’t shower to rest of the day so I could keep the ocean smell on me.

The reason we couldn’t get an earlier training time was that the gym in the town is a school gym and all the local hobby teams had to use their normal practice times.  It was like being back in Australia!  It became slightly more problematic when we arrived the next day for the game and were refused permission by the gym caretaker to walk on his hallowed court with our dress shoes.  We politely ignored him but the coach was outraged.  For me it wasn’t the first time, although it was the first time since I was coaching in division 4 in Germany.  As it turned out, given that it was a European Cup match and televised on Portuguese TV, we were given a special dispensation and the police didn’t need to be called.

Given the size of the town, we didn’t expect a big crowd but were still a bit surprised that 35 minutes before game time there were only 2! spectators in the gym.  What brought a smile to our faces was that they were huddled under a giant banner that read ‘Volleyball is our passion’.  It turned out though that 30 minutes was the moment that the crowd was let in and for the few hundred that did rush in, it was clear that volleyball was their passion as they provided a great atmosphere for the match.

In the end though, that was not enough to make the match memorable as we won easily and booked our passage to the next round and a trip to Kiev.  I am looking forward to that because Ukraine is the place of (half of) my ancestors – and because there are direct flights from Poland!

But before we worry about that we had to get home – and that is a story in itself…

portuguese adventure

13 dec – kedzierzyn

The popularity of spectator sport is strangely inexplicable to many people.  Well, I find it strange because to me the  cause of the popularity is perfectly obvious.  If you take away the ball/stick/stopwatch all spectator sport comes down to one thing: the actions of and interactions between human beings.  And as we know from the popularity of Reality TV, the actions and interactions of human beings are mostly unpredictable and endlessly compelling to other human beings.

Take yesterday’s match for example.  All the evidence of the previous matches would have predicted an easy victory for Kedzierzyn.  They were undefeated, playing well and were at home in front of one of the biggest and loudest crowds in the league.  We, on the other hand, had lost our last 3 out of 4 in the league and were playing just three days after one of the most dire performances anyone (certainly me) could imagine.  But a funny thing happened on the way to the three points.

The match was completely the opposite of what anyone ought to have expected.

Where before we were passive, yesterday we were aggressive.

Where before we were disorganised, yesterday we were organised.

Where before we played dumb, yesterday we played smart.  And of course,

where before we were unlucky, yesterday we were lucky.

And what makes it most interesting, is that there was no reason for anyone, except perhaps our faithful fans, to expect it.  Any of it.

So the crisis is (probably) over and we finished the first round on a high note.  The league is very close, so we will likely be 5th when the round is finished but certainly within reach of all the places above us.  Tomorrow we head towards New York and stop in the Azores to play the second leg of our European Cup match against the Bastardos.  On yesterday’s form, that ‘should’ be a formality, but in reality the best we can hope for is ‘could’ be a formality because you just never know…

10 dec – fonte do bastardo

Tonight one team played at the peak of their ability, with aggression and heart and gave everything they had to win until the last point of the match.  And to prove that life is really, REALLY unfair, that team will travel back to Portugal tomorrow having lost.

Of course ‘unfair’ doesn’t automatically imply either good or bad.  So while for players, staff, fans and sponsors of Ponte do Bastardo ‘unfair’ is bad, for the players, staff, fans and sponsors of Jastrzebski Wegiel ‘unfair’ is very, VERY good.  Actually, change that to just very good.  We were still bad.

Enough said.

5th nov – rzeszow

It took me a while to work out what to write after the last less than optimal result.  This game was a little worse so it took a little longer.  After a couple of poor games, the Gdansk result gave us some cause for optimism particularly as Rzeszow has had some of its own problems.  We began the match pretty well and led at both technical timeouts, and even at 23-23 it was still evenly poised.  But when things aren’t going well, the first thing a team loses is the little bit of confidence it takes to push to win the decisive points.  So instead of being aggressive to win the last points we became passive and played not to lose.  Which, of course, did.  But with our supporters really getting behind the team we bounced back to dominate the 2nd set.  Everything we did with our block worked perfectly and they had no chance.  The 3rd was close and we had a lead at 15-14 but they were able to bring on a couple of strong replacements and we made a couple of bad mistakes and it was over.

The other consequence of low confidence is a lower threshold of adversity it takes to become discouraged.   It turns out that for us, at this moment, the threshold to become discouraged is exactly ‘falling behind 1-2′.  The 4th set was fast.  And not in a good way.   Except in the sense that it was it was easily forgettable.

But the result is not forgettable our ‘streak’ has hit hit four losses from five games (and five from seven).

Our first chance to turn it around is tomorrow when we host Fonte Bastardo from Portugal in the CEV Challenge Cup.  The first game of the rest of our season, so to speak.

For photos of the debacle click here and/or here.

30 nov – gdansk

One of the things about sport is that there is always another game coming up fast.  If you are in the middle of a rough patch, that can be either a good thing or a bad thing.  If you’re a half glass full kind of guy, it is a chance to redeem yourself.  If you’re a half glass empty kind of guy, it is a chance to dig yourself deeper in a hole.  After losing the last three matches and four of the last five yesterday was our chance for redemption or to keep digging.

As luck would have it, we were playing Gdansk, one of the bottom teams, at home.  For once everything went to plan.  We started well and soon had a handy lead.  For once, there were no hiccups and we won the set handily.  And for once, it continued that way until the end.  Well, almost.  We nearly blew handy leads in the second and third but when the dust settled we were back on the winners list.

Have I mentioned the dust in Jastrzebie / Zory?  I don’t know if it’s a function of the nearby farms, the nearby mines or the nearby homes burning coal for heating but everything, especially my car, gets coated in dust.  The good news is there is no way any speed cameras will be able to take photos of my number plate.  But I digress…

The win puts us 4th on the ladder, equal on points with 5th, but only four points behind 1st.  It seems to be a competitive season.  And the next match is coming up fast, at home on Friday against the 5th placed team, and with it another chance for redemption or hole digging.  That’s why it’s so much fun.

Some photos from yesterday are here.

22 nov – olsztyn

We lost.  On the road.  A game we could have won.

I’ve spent the last three days alternatively trying not to think about this game at all, trying to objectively analyse it and trying to think of some vaguely witty way to spin it for the blog.  I have been completely unsuccessful at the first and third and only partially successfully at the second.

I have said it before and will doubtless say it again, but losing is terrible.  It affects everyone at the club as even the people not directly related to the team are on their best behaviour so as not to upset anyone.  Each successive loss is progressively worse and Sunday’s game brought us to three in a row and four out of five.  At that moment there is only one thing you can do, and that is get back to work and do everything you can to get better.  And that is what we have focussed on this week.

Hopefully Saturday will see us get back on track with a home game against Gdansk.  Time will tell.

There is a gallery from the match here and here.

16 nov – czestochowa

Yesterday I was reminded of four truisms of sport.

Statistics are nice, but…

Last year we won a set even though we had only 2 spike points.  Yesterday, we lost a set in which we had 6 service aces.  Normally a team would be very unlucky to lose a set if they had 3 aces.  We had twice that many and still lost.  I don’t know exactly what the odds of losing a set like that but I suspect it is only slightly less than winning a set with only 2 spike points.

The heading of this truism could also be ‘Everything is timing’.

There’s a fine line between success and failure,

and sometimes you don’t have any control over the where the line is.  In the first set, two clear refereeing decisions went against us (indicated by TV slow motion replays, not disgruntled coaches).  One would have given us a lead of 20-18, and the other would have been an ace on set point.  If we had won the first set, everything would have been different.  How different we’ll never know, but…

For the record, there was an even more egregious error in our favour on set point for us in the 4th.  But the score was 24-17 at the time and didn’t have such an impact.

Put this one under ‘Everything is timing’ too.

A week is a long time in sport

Seven days ago we had had a great performance and result in the CEV Cup and a great win against the Polish champions in the previous four days.

The subsequent seven days were the opposite.

Winning is much, much better than losing

Did I mention that we lost to Czestochowa?  Five sets at home.

13 nov – olympiakos

After two good matches in the last week we were pretty confident before last night’s match.  The rules of the CEV Cup meant that if we won 3-0 or 3-1 we would qualify for the next round and set aggregate.  But if we won 3-2 the set aggregate would be 5-5 and we would have to play a ‘golden set’.  The golden set more or less like a penalty shoot out in football.  One set to 15, winner takes all.

That was a great little story, but more or less pointless.  We didn’t win 3-0, 3-1 or indeed 3-2.  We lost 3-1.  And it wasn’t really that close.  We played  okay at the beginning even though we didn’t seem that sharp.  In the middle of the set Olympiakos stepped up a gear and we had no answer.  Despite their good play being treated by silence from 2500 spectators in our gym they ran over us to finish off the set and then then the second.  In the third we responded as we would hope and came out firing.  It was close to our best set for the season as we dominated a really good team.   But it couldn’t last.  On the day they were just better. You can see photos here.

And so our dream of winning the CEV Cup is over.  As luck would have it all of our dreams are not dashed.  We have a second chance of European glory in the CEV Challenge Cup.  And because the world moves fast we already know our next opponent, A.J. Fonte Bastardo from Portugal.  An interesting name and an interesting place.  It is in Praia da Vitoria, which is part of the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  It looks like it might be about half way between Poland and USA but it seems pretty.  I’m a little nervous about how the travel will be, but no time to think about it, on Sunday we play Czestochowa who knocked us out of the league and the cup last season.  Can’t wait for that one.