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…