Sunday, February 8, 2009

How do you teach competition aggressiveness?

Today, K played in her 3rd volleyball tournament of the season. I say three since she played "up" with a 13's team for the first tournament and this is the 2nd with her team. After the first tournament, despite the fact that they didn't win a single game, she had a blast playing in this highly competitive league. She was one of 3 girls playing up and they did great. Things are different with her set 12's team. Many of these girls don't seem to know how to play aggressively. They just stand there! As I look back on my youth, I was a very competitive athlete. Softball was my game, and I was actually pretty good. I remember playing on "losing" teams and how frustrating it is. I know how K feels. After the 3rd match today, I was totally fed up with her and her team. They were all spectators, her included. I watched her just stand there and not even try when the other team got up some points on them. "Mom, I'm just tired of losing. I can't cover the entire court! I can't be the only one playing!" She gave up. After this match, the coach and I had a heart to heart with the team. They correctly told us everything they needed to do to win. They know what they need to do! "Then why don't you do it?", their coach asked. After this, they watched some of the 18 year old tournament upstairs. "Wow, they can move!" one of the girls said. "Look, their breathing hard!" I told them. "How many of you have sweated today?" I asked them. None of them answered in the affirmative. It finally clicked on them that they should be working to get to the ball, not just watching it drop. After the speech, and watching these 18 year olds play, they went down and won their last match. Maybe that was their wakeup call. I guess time will tell as the season goes on. We have 5 more tournaments. Hopefully, they will get that "Eye of the Tiger" and learn to play together and win.

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Our Christmas Family Pic.

Our Christmas Family Pic.
We had this taken at a family Christmas gathering. Note that by this time next year, K will be taller than me!

Our little hobby

Our little hobby
Alot of people ask about our garden railroad. He it is. It is actually quite a bit more mature than what you see here. This was July 4, 2006.

My husband with his trains

My husband with his trains
Handsome guy!