Röplabda, part one

My team, Békéscsabai Röplabda Sportegyesület, finally had our first scrimmage on January 7 and 8 against a team from Budapest. The teams were on a holiday break for the past 3 weeks, with no competitions, and would start back into matches the following week. On Friday, we won 3:0, playing a friendly fourth set to allow more play. Many people from the town came out to watch this scrimmage, as everyone was eagerly anticipating my introduction to the team and city as the new setter. Everything went very well for our team the first day, serve receive and defense, and we were able to be highly successful in our play. The girls and coaches all seemed optimistic about starting back into matches and everyone was able to leave the gym that evening with a smile.

That evening, Barbi (our libero), Niki (one of our outside hitters) and I decided we would hang out in Barbi's room and watch an American film, The Express. We made bundáskenyér,or french toast, and shared childhood stories, comparing cartoons and other TV shows from our youth. The night finally came to an end, and we all headed home to catch much needed rest before our scrimmage the next morning.

Saturday morning came much too early for our team. We arrived to the gym still half-asleep and unfocused for the morning's match. Our passing and all-around play was no where near the level from the night before. Attila was less than pleased with our performances, as we fell to the visiting team 0:3. We played two more friendly sets, and were victorious in only the 4th. It was definitely a humbling experience from our success the previous day, and showed that we have a lot of mental aspects that must be improved on in order to be successful. We would have Sunday off from training, and resume back on Monday to prepare for the first set of matches that weekend.