WHAT WOULD GOD SAY IF HE CALLED ON THE PHONE?

                                                                                                                                                               Osaka, May 23^rd 2008

 

WHAT WOULD GOD SAY IF HE CALLED ON THE PHONE?

 

Last week it was all confidence and assurances soaring into Korea and now heading into Japan uncertainty was the main theme.  "Do we play the event in Osaka or ensure team health for the next important tournaments coming up in Europe?  Are we focussing on the big picture or getting caught up in the short term fear of missing out?"  With each question came another and another…it was exhausting!  My (Sarah's) back health had proved more serious than previous incidences and playing in Korea had really inflamed the injury.  Was I in any condition to win matches and create a great result for our Olympic qualification?  That was the major question mark plaguing us all.

 

Each team member wanted to do the RIGHT thing…but what was that?  It was so unclear.  The more we sought a guarantee of a definitive way of proceeding, the more indecisive we all became.  It all came down to a phone call…

 

Sitting in our hotel room moments before the technical meeting (where we are officially entered into the tournament), William read out calculations from his computer as to the point ratios depending on what scenarios we chose and how that figured into our Olympic ranking (good old Will…always the practical one!), while Marie and I shared our varying concerns and emotions and feelings about each possibility.  As the question "So, will we play in Osaka or not?" echoed in the room, the phone rang and Marie exclaimed "Well, that must be God calling!"  My curious mind wanted to know who was playing God out here in Osaka???   Funny enough, it was Vince (the coach of the other Canadian team who is making a run for Beijing) and so we blindly asked him: "What would you do?"  Having no idea what we were talking about (yet always a good sport for our silly little games), he never hesitated:  "TAKE A CHANCE!"  Within that silly moment, the team realized there was no right way to proceed, only the one we would choose.  In this life, there are NO guarantees or promises of a sure thing…just living on the edge and observing while you fall.  It sort of sums up our quest for the Olympic Games…no guarantees, lots of uncertainties, tons of trust, a truck load of guts and determination and a willingness to try for something that billions on the planet wouldn't even dare!  So, we played!

 

We had opportunity on our side in Osaka, scoring a "bye" in the first round which meant only one match to qualify for the Main Draw of the tournament.  Facing the top Japanese team in the qualifier on center court proved to be a great match-up.  Team MtotheMax struggled from the beginning and then never closed it out.  Moments of creative brilliance shone through but the muddy waters it fought against were stronger.  Japan made the critical adjustments required to win on the day.  We risked it, we lost and that's just what's so!

 

After debriefing the match, it was straight into action on how to get to Barcelona ASAP.  On the practice schedule from Coach William: clean up our sideout, tighten up our offensive plays, and re-invigorate this unit that is foaming at the bit! 

 

Having the team at almost 100% health is something to relish in after two weeks of pain and discomfort.  We have not been able to practice together for some time and so there is excitement to get out there and feel that connection once again.  Our tool boxes are full to the brim with learnings.  It is time to get sandy and "get 'er done" (as my Mother likes to say!) 

 

A new chapter opens up as we head from Asia to Europe.  This message is being sent to you from above…way above in the clouds somewhere above Siberia (where the heck is that anyway?  The flight screen says that is where we are but the map cuts the world off when it gets that far up North!  How rude!) 

 

Our website updating has been challenging up until now but it has been rectified and BLOG updates will now be online days after each event.  No guarantee (haha!) but it is our commitment to you.  We appreciate your choosing to read into the HEART of our journey and not just settle for the scoreboard!  I hope that our adventures speak to your own lives in some small way.  You can now add comments and feedback to these entries if you so desire.  We look forward to hearing from you.  Signing off from the skies up above,

 

Team MtotheMax

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TWO SIDES TO A SHINY PENNY

                                                                                                                                                                                Seoul, May 16^th 2008

 

TWO SIDES TO A SHINY PENNY

 

We felt unstoppable!  Confidence coursed through our veins as we flew into Seoul, Korea!  We had experienced an uplifting training week in Hiratsuka (a beach town 3 hours outside of Tokyo where we were invited to train with the Japanese National Beach Teams) and felt that invincible feeling when things just come together…

 

Imagine that it is the day before the tournament: we practice with a top 10 team in the world from the USA and we experience how we are matching up to the best of the best; our team meetings center around the confidence we all feel and the MOMENTUM we are all experiencing (coaches and athletes alike).  Winning would be inevitable… right?  And then a twinge in my (Sarah's) back emerged out of the nowhere and expanded in the next hours into a full blown disc irritation!  Suddenly, that confidence was rocked out to sea (not only by my own worry for my physical health but by the Team's injection of DOUBT) and uncertainty replaced it.  If you ever wondered what attacks confidence most quickly, it is its counterpart: DOUBT!  Like a virus, it spreads and creates stories that seem so plausible, only a really alert spirit can detect it.  Distracted we were, and DOUBT planted itself within our team unit leaving only memories of the confidence that had seemed so impossible to crack hours earlier! 

 

We made a go of it on court with some major physical limitations BUT it was not a physical ailment that caused our defeat in the end.  It was our thoughts about the physical limitations that did us in!  When we faced South Africa on the other side of the net, we won the first set working together with what we had on the day.  The second set saw them make some adjustments and our thin layer of resolve began to crumble.  Amidst all that, it was 12-12 in the third set and winning was there for the taking.  A crucial "soft" sideout by me (Sarah) and a lack of warrior fight in the end saw cheers from the South African girls and tears for Team Canada.  One result…very different emotions!!!

 

It was only one loss but we attached a lot of meaning to it.  Tears flowed where once there was all smiles and laughter!  It became clear to us that identifying with a state of being (for example: being confident) has two sides to it; one moment the chest is high and the shoulders back and the next its yucky opposite can be take its place…bringing sadness, disappointment, anger, and despair!

 

How do you recover from this?  Get upset and frustrated for  a while is how we dealt with it and then the watcher within began to observe it all going on.  Next came breathing and letting go and then more letting it go and then waking up the next day ready to choose your next move!  Injury healing for me (Sarah), lots of practice for Marie and on court mental work, and Coach William to support and bring out the best in us for the next tournament!  A new day dawns…

 

Team MtotheMax

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Our truth about China...

As promised, we will be reporting on the more intimate details from each World Tour event in this special summer of our lives…

It is our 4th time competing in Shanghai and our 8th time travelling to China therefore we have bore witness to the growth and development of this fascinating country! Each year, it changes and seems more familiar for us (I guess all that really means is that they have adopted more Western traditions!) and so we eat more regularly and feel at home in the amazing hotel that sprang up last year out of nowhere. We have seen nothing of the fuss over the Olympic Games that continues to grab international press and were privy to a top Chinese business man’s perspective (which sheds additional light on the all-Western perspective we hear on the news!). Such an intriguing country that is in the midst of such dramatic shifts and changes…

We did come here to play volleyball and so let us share a little on how it felt to be out there on court in the qualifier. We began against the team from Sweden who are both 6’4” (over 190cm) and so it was being posited by some as the “David and Goliath” match –up (for those of you who don’t know what we are talking about, get out the Bible and have a read on this historic story). Our focus and determination was clear from the outset and we served strong and had the tall girls in a tail spin! The referee kept whistling them to hurry it up because they kept discussing amongst themselves where they could put the ball to score…they felt us EVERYWHERE! In the second set, the Swedes made a great run and showed their skill but we sealed it off at the end of the match, creating strategic points with cagy defensive moves and blocks.

From that great win, we ran to debrief the match and plan the next one as we were to play in 45 mins. This is unusual and proved to be reason for distraction for our team. The same team that won against Sweden, did not show up for the match against Mexico…we were passive and sluggish and one step behind the play. We kept our wits about us and led in some moments in the second set but it was to be the magical tournament for the Mexicans and we stepped aside and opened the door for them! Don’t you hate it when you realize that’s what you chose in the moment??? Mexico continued on to a Main Draw birth and beat the 2nd ranked team in the world, China, to begin their overhaul of the main draw field and are still fighting for 5th position tomorrow…they rarely qualified for the Main Draw last year and never saw better than a 25th placing…anything’s possible! Though it would be nice to be the ones on that run, we celebrate their success knowing that this is part and parcel of our own successes down the track.

Since our early exit from the tournament, we have turned on the heat and practiced a ton. Coach William has seen to it that we breathe in as much toxic Shanghai air as possible with killer training sessions and lots of game play!

We head to Shanghai City Centre tomorrow (about a 1.5hr car ride from where we are playing in Jinshan Disctrict) to see what all the hype is about in this world renowned city. We are first-timers and so we will have the big camera lenses out and our senses high taking in all the sights!

Next stop is Tokyo, Japan where we spend the week training with the Japanese National Team. This is a week of preparation for the upcoming event in Seoul, Korea in two weeks time. We are building ourselves up emotionally and taking it one moment at a time. Till we speak again…