It's been a wild couple of weeks for me. Signing a deal with my team the night before the state league grand final, then two weeks later flying to the Netherlands to commence the next part of my journey. It still hasn't really sunk in yet. I still feel like only a few days ago I was training at Dandenong complaining about how cold it gets. But that's all changed now. Soon I'll be no doubt complaining about a different stadium and when winter hits how cold it is. About a week ago I started my transit to Holland. Late on a Wednesday night, my brother dropped me off at the airport so I could begin the constant cycle of waiting for my next connecting mode of transportation. After being delayed an hour in Melbourne, finally got on the plane and sat next to some parents of someone whose kind of famous. They were the parents of Adam Gibson (a top NBL player, whose also currently playing in the Australian men's basketball team in the world championships in Spain). We had a good chat about sports, what it's like being away from family and how even though they don't see Adam as much as they like they love how he does something he's passionate about. This was only made better by the fact that the airline gave me an exit row seat too. Then a fun 7 hour layover in Doha (with free wifi thankfully), I was off to Frankfurt. I missed the last train out of Frankfurt to Rotterdam, so got to spend a cosy night at the airport, but again free wifi so it wasn't too bad. After my over night stay, it was on the train for about 7 hours with a few changeovers where I finally got to Rotterdam Alexander, where team manager Leo was scheduled to pick me up. Unfortunately I've never met Leo, so luckily he recognised me when he arrived. He drove me to my apartment, the place I'd call home for the season, and then left me to my own devices. After a quick trip down to the supermarket, where I was reminded I don't speak Dutch, I came home and met my country mate, room mate and team mate Max. Max had already been here a few days so helped me out a bit. The next day we took an adventure around the city centre. We're about a 15 minute train ride from the middle of the city, and since we don't have bikes yet the train is our main mode of getting around. Then on Sunday our president David dropped off the final piece to the Australian trifle, Sam Boehm. Our apartment is still missing a few things, but after talking to David, the club has been super helpful with trying to get us settled. They're in close talk with our main sponsor (ARBO) who helped us out with getting desks for our bedrooms, some sharp knives, a drying rack among other things. So far everyone from the club has been really welcoming, doing their best to provide us with what they can.
Now onto the volleyball part; I had my first practice with the team on Monday night. Monday nights are run by our assistant coach Victor, who is actually a former Australian beach volleyball player, who has been coaching in the Dutch beach volleyball program for the past decade. So another Aussie to make us feel like we know what's going on. There was a bit of rust coming off but good to see the general level of the team and knowing what to expect. On Tuesday we had a sit down with our head coach Rodin. Talking about the season, we learned that we don't really have a full roster of players yet, so we have a few people who only train with us and don't travel. So I still haven't met everyone whose on the team yet, but I'm told this will happen sometime next week. It's going to be a busy schedule. We had the first 3 trainings on Monday - Wednesday, then on Thursday we played a practice match against another team who got promoted from the 3rd division to the 2nd division. Then this Saturday we play a tournament somewhere (I don't really know what it's called) and that will involve 3 matches including one match against a team we will play in the Dutch league. The following weekend we will be off to some place in Belgium to play another practice match. So it's been straight into the deep end since I've been here, which is great cause it means the only thing to worry about is trying to get myself ready for the start of the season and figure out what I need to do to try and help my team be successful. It's going to be a long season. The Dutch league has expanded from 10 to 12 teams, so we have a 22 match season. Plus a few more matches in the Dutch cup. There's lots of volleyball to play, so hopefully there'll be lots for me to write about. I must apologise for the delay on my first post, so I thought I'd made it a long one to make up for it. We still don't have internet setup at our apartment yet, so I quick shout out to my friends at the Bibliotheek (I'm assuming the Dutch word for library) for kindly donating me some of their wifi for a good cause.
Peace out.
Now onto the volleyball part; I had my first practice with the team on Monday night. Monday nights are run by our assistant coach Victor, who is actually a former Australian beach volleyball player, who has been coaching in the Dutch beach volleyball program for the past decade. So another Aussie to make us feel like we know what's going on. There was a bit of rust coming off but good to see the general level of the team and knowing what to expect. On Tuesday we had a sit down with our head coach Rodin. Talking about the season, we learned that we don't really have a full roster of players yet, so we have a few people who only train with us and don't travel. So I still haven't met everyone whose on the team yet, but I'm told this will happen sometime next week. It's going to be a busy schedule. We had the first 3 trainings on Monday - Wednesday, then on Thursday we played a practice match against another team who got promoted from the 3rd division to the 2nd division. Then this Saturday we play a tournament somewhere (I don't really know what it's called) and that will involve 3 matches including one match against a team we will play in the Dutch league. The following weekend we will be off to some place in Belgium to play another practice match. So it's been straight into the deep end since I've been here, which is great cause it means the only thing to worry about is trying to get myself ready for the start of the season and figure out what I need to do to try and help my team be successful. It's going to be a long season. The Dutch league has expanded from 10 to 12 teams, so we have a 22 match season. Plus a few more matches in the Dutch cup. There's lots of volleyball to play, so hopefully there'll be lots for me to write about. I must apologise for the delay on my first post, so I thought I'd made it a long one to make up for it. We still don't have internet setup at our apartment yet, so I quick shout out to my friends at the Bibliotheek (I'm assuming the Dutch word for library) for kindly donating me some of their wifi for a good cause.
Peace out.
RSS Feed