Travelling with flu symptoms was my first mistake - 14 hours to LA without breathing through your nose, or wanting to eat, is not ideal. However, my travelling woes were relieved as I arrived in sunny Phoenix; where a Junior outside-hitter from the team picked me up in his brand new truck (private school kids). He took me straight to our assistant coach who then joined us on a tour of the campus - wow. Prime conditioned beach courts by a resort-style pool. Brand new dorm-room and class-room/ lab facilities. Palm trees guiding you along the walkway to a 5,000 seat arena for college volleyball and basketball events. Add to that Phoenix's most comprehensive weights and training rooms and you are starting to get an idea what we are dealing with.
This morning I had my first meeting with the coach - it was an introductory session for the freshman (First year of NCAA Eligibility) students. Thanks to NCAA's persistent efforts to keep the sport 'fair', there are very strict limitations on how much face-time we can have with our head and assistant coaches. For example, for these first three weeks we are not allowed ANY MORE than two hours of on-court practice with our coach - which is going to be scrimmage session each Thursday. Along with this, we can have 3 team 'lifting' sessions in the weights room. Now, I have already had three workouts with a few guys from the team this week, and I can have more since they were not official 'team' workouts and our coach wasn't present. The same thing goes for training. The team's setter and I have been in the gym each day getting reps - they have a serving machine here so passing reps are very easy to make up quickly. These are just some of things that I have learned thus far about the NCAA - but from what I've gathered there are many more restrictions to come.
I also had my first classes and dining hall experience today. It's hard to gauge a level of difficulty from today's introductory session - but I have some enthusiastic teachers and great class-sizes. The dining hall is unbelievable; not in the typical American fashion either. Healthy options are finally available! Salads and brown rice, as well as the junk that is always on offer - your hamburgers, fries, pizza, ice-cream. Unlimited servings as well, I might add. You simply swipe your student card, and it subtracts a meal from your plan - my meal plan for example is 14 per week, but with the amount that the team travels I will essentially store up three meals a day for while I am on campus. Perfect!
Other than that, I cannot say a bad thing about the people here - the transition could not have been smoother. They are all incredibly welcoming and I feel that this isn't special to my university - there seems to be a genuine respect and love of the game, thus to be on the team is to join a family. We walk around the campus and are worshiped as athletes, to be on an NCAA team is a very big deal over here.
That's it from me today, I'll try to keep a weekly post going - details of match practices are to come.
Thanks,
Gerrard
This morning I had my first meeting with the coach - it was an introductory session for the freshman (First year of NCAA Eligibility) students. Thanks to NCAA's persistent efforts to keep the sport 'fair', there are very strict limitations on how much face-time we can have with our head and assistant coaches. For example, for these first three weeks we are not allowed ANY MORE than two hours of on-court practice with our coach - which is going to be scrimmage session each Thursday. Along with this, we can have 3 team 'lifting' sessions in the weights room. Now, I have already had three workouts with a few guys from the team this week, and I can have more since they were not official 'team' workouts and our coach wasn't present. The same thing goes for training. The team's setter and I have been in the gym each day getting reps - they have a serving machine here so passing reps are very easy to make up quickly. These are just some of things that I have learned thus far about the NCAA - but from what I've gathered there are many more restrictions to come.
I also had my first classes and dining hall experience today. It's hard to gauge a level of difficulty from today's introductory session - but I have some enthusiastic teachers and great class-sizes. The dining hall is unbelievable; not in the typical American fashion either. Healthy options are finally available! Salads and brown rice, as well as the junk that is always on offer - your hamburgers, fries, pizza, ice-cream. Unlimited servings as well, I might add. You simply swipe your student card, and it subtracts a meal from your plan - my meal plan for example is 14 per week, but with the amount that the team travels I will essentially store up three meals a day for while I am on campus. Perfect!
Other than that, I cannot say a bad thing about the people here - the transition could not have been smoother. They are all incredibly welcoming and I feel that this isn't special to my university - there seems to be a genuine respect and love of the game, thus to be on the team is to join a family. We walk around the campus and are worshiped as athletes, to be on an NCAA team is a very big deal over here.
That's it from me today, I'll try to keep a weekly post going - details of match practices are to come.
Thanks,
Gerrard
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