No Joshin'

Tonight, after my ATVN shift, I went over to the gym for club volleyball practice at 7 p.m. After last Friday's loss (which I ranted about in a previous post), our team gathered together and talked about how we could fix stuff for the upcoming weeks. I got the impression that after that embarrassment at Biola, things would change.

People were not gonna half-ass it anymore.

Guys weren't gonna miss practice anymore.

We were gonna come together, fulfill our potential, leave no doubt as to how good our team really is.

...apparently not.

Tonight I - along with four other teammates - showed up to an empty gym. We waited, wondering where everyone was. Was practice really cancelled? Not after a match like last Friday. We couldn't cancel practice. We have so much to work on.

By 7:17 p.m. I got a hold of the team president who told me that practice had in fact been cancelled. Fantastic. So much for my evening. I've got enough going on as is that I don't need to be showing up to cancelled practices.

When I got back to my apartment, I saw that there was an email in my inbox announcing the cancellation of practice. Time sent: 6:31 p.m. Start time of practice: 7:00 p.m.

Is that a joke? What the hell happened to refocusing? What happened to fixing the teams problems? Last time I checked, cancelling a practice is probably the worst way to improve a team. But apparently that's the method this team has chosen. Whoopee!

I decided to send the following email to the team:

Forget rolling down hill...this is an all-out free fall off a cliff. Of the 22 guys on this email list, we couldn't get 12 to the gym tonight? After the match against Biola (for those of you who weren't there .... well, let's just say it wasn't pretty), I was hoping that we could come together and refocus. Instead I showed up to an empty gym ready to practice tonight along with a few other guys who didn't "get the memo" in time.

After matches like the one last Friday, the last thing we can do is cancel the next practice, regardless of the reason. We only have 4 hours a week in the gym. That's only four hours to get better each week. And right now, we've got a way to go to reach our potential. But nights like this make me wonder just how much we - as a team - truly want to reach our potential.

Like adam said, let's show up this Thursday with our A-game. We've got some big tournaments coming up, and if we want results different from the ones we saw last Friday then we need to get to work. Let's make Thursday's practice something to be proud of ... along with the rest of the season.
Josh

Let's hope things are different - in a positive way - the rest of the season.