Big weekend this weekend, as the U18W are getting closer and closer to the Small Countries’ Association Championship in Malta, 11-4 April.
We have training on Saturday from 11am - 6pm and then from 10am - 1pm on the Sunday.
And AFTER the training, we have a cold water plunge for the girls to raise money for their trips to Malta (and Italy, and Portugal)! Since we’ll be training this weekend near Sandycove, we’ll be popping down to the world famous Forty Foot (or Sandycove Harbor, if it’s too wooly out there).
So if you feel like donating, you can do so here: https://gofund.me/00836741
We’re lucky enough to have two scrimmages lined up on Saturday, one at 11am, one at 3pm, where we’ll be working on a bit of grit: at the VLY Championships the girls did okay… won 2, lost 2, which is far better than the year before, but there were a lot of silly mental errors and some things we want to work on (of course, who doesn’t have *something* to work on?).
The big focus, in the matches and in training, will be on the middle-setter connection, outsides getting outside to attack aggressively, and better readiness in service reception. We’re also going to drum our middles on communicating the state of play on the other side of the net, especially when we’re serving.
We’ll also be chatting to the girls about their mentality in the matches. It can be intimidating, no matter the venue, no matter the opponent, stepping out on the court when it ‘matters’, and we’ve seen, sometimes, that deer in headlights kind of look from the players. So this weekend will be gearing up for the upcoming competitions: the Saint Patrick’s Challenge (tickets on sale now! - https://www.volleyballireland.com/latest-news/st-patricks-challenge/) and the SCA in Malta, taking advantage of the whole coaching staff to make sure the girls heads are in the right place. And what I mean by that is being a little quicker with the hook in these matches and letting the assistant coaches put their heads back on. It can suck being subbed off in the best of times, so it’s so helpful to have a coach or two on the bench to help give a bit of mental physio work to one or two specific players.
What’s your favorite way to build a bit of that mental muscle for succeeding when the chips are down?