Restless in Shanghai
7/17/11
I have had a bit of trouble adjusting to the time change here. Perhaps it is the 15 hour difference between here and California but I am usually a pretty good sleeper no matter where we are in the world. I have found myself up before the crack of dawn and feeling a bit restless. My sense is that I am excited for this Championship to begin. The days before the big event are normally the toughest. The waiting game. There is a very positive vibe happening on the team. Lots of laughter and good energy. I think we are going to ready to play some high level games here. Can we win this thing? Yes we can... no question. In our meeting tonight, I mentioned that we were one of 8 teams that had a real chance to win this thing. I then asked them, Why not us? Why not now? What separates the team that wins the big tournament with the team that finishes just out of the medals? The answer is that usually very little separates the winning team from the rest. Everything just has to come together at the right time. Just maybe, this is our time.
We are training lightly - mostly going over some tactical last minute details. Unfortunately, we have had some unwanted spies at our trainings. It seems that at most of our trainings either Germany or Italy have been scheduled to come in immediately after us for their training. The bad part is that they show up 30 minutes early and just sit around and watch our training. This has made it tough for us to work on anything very specific in our preparation for either one of these teams. The guys have taken it all pretty well. They have laughed at the thought that these other teams are so desperate to find out what we are working on that they are planning their days around coming in early to scout us in practice. We are tapering down and getting our bodies feeling good.
Many of the teams (including Germany and Italy) went to Singapore for a pre World Championships tournament. We were invited but decided not to go because we wanted to spend our time at home preparing on our own. I think we made the right decision as it seems all the teams that went came down with some kind of intestinal bug and most of the teams have players that are still feeling a bit sick.
Tomorrow is game day. We will have a pretty casual day. Up at 8:30, 10 am swim at the pool and then some down time before our meeting at 3:45. From there we head over to the pool. Game time is at 6:20 tomorrow. We (the coaches) are going to show up in our new matching suits - fresh from the fabric market here in Shanghai. This is something that I have wanted to do for quite some time - bring a little more class to the pool deck. It should be interesting to see how everyone reacts. We just have to win and the culture may be changed forever.
Should be fun. I believe that we are ready. Once this tournament begins my restlessness should ease up.
See you at the pool.
Terry
I have had a bit of trouble adjusting to the time change here. Perhaps it is the 15 hour difference between here and California but I am usually a pretty good sleeper no matter where we are in the world. I have found myself up before the crack of dawn and feeling a bit restless. My sense is that I am excited for this Championship to begin. The days before the big event are normally the toughest. The waiting game. There is a very positive vibe happening on the team. Lots of laughter and good energy. I think we are going to ready to play some high level games here. Can we win this thing? Yes we can... no question. In our meeting tonight, I mentioned that we were one of 8 teams that had a real chance to win this thing. I then asked them, Why not us? Why not now? What separates the team that wins the big tournament with the team that finishes just out of the medals? The answer is that usually very little separates the winning team from the rest. Everything just has to come together at the right time. Just maybe, this is our time.
We are training lightly - mostly going over some tactical last minute details. Unfortunately, we have had some unwanted spies at our trainings. It seems that at most of our trainings either Germany or Italy have been scheduled to come in immediately after us for their training. The bad part is that they show up 30 minutes early and just sit around and watch our training. This has made it tough for us to work on anything very specific in our preparation for either one of these teams. The guys have taken it all pretty well. They have laughed at the thought that these other teams are so desperate to find out what we are working on that they are planning their days around coming in early to scout us in practice. We are tapering down and getting our bodies feeling good.
Many of the teams (including Germany and Italy) went to Singapore for a pre World Championships tournament. We were invited but decided not to go because we wanted to spend our time at home preparing on our own. I think we made the right decision as it seems all the teams that went came down with some kind of intestinal bug and most of the teams have players that are still feeling a bit sick.
Tomorrow is game day. We will have a pretty casual day. Up at 8:30, 10 am swim at the pool and then some down time before our meeting at 3:45. From there we head over to the pool. Game time is at 6:20 tomorrow. We (the coaches) are going to show up in our new matching suits - fresh from the fabric market here in Shanghai. This is something that I have wanted to do for quite some time - bring a little more class to the pool deck. It should be interesting to see how everyone reacts. We just have to win and the culture may be changed forever.
Should be fun. I believe that we are ready. Once this tournament begins my restlessness should ease up.
See you at the pool.
Terry
posted by Dr. Terry Schroeder at
3:21 PM
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