Pan Am Games update 11/20/11
Team USA is training hard and getting acclimated to the altitude. The first few days were a bit tough but the guys seem to be doing pretty well now. The village is busy. I have heard that this is the second largest sporting event in the world next to the Olympics. The lines in the dining hall are pretty bad at peak times. Some times it is like Disneyland with 45 minute waits. The food has been adequate. The fresh fruits and vegetables are the best. They have some great papaya and watermelon... Some good juices too. The fresh guava juice has been my favorite.
The guys are all healthy and excited to begin. The days before competition are always the toughest. Too much time... on one hand you don’t want to sit around and do nothing but on the other hand you don’t want to run around and expand too much energy doing anything silly. The guys have been meeting up with some of their friends that have been classmates or that they have come to know at the Olympics or other international competition. We have had training both at the village gym, which is really nice but also very crowded and at the practice pool. The only bad thing about the practice pool is that it is a solid 45 minutes away bus. Which means that you are riding in a bus for as long as you are in the pool. We don’t get to have any time in the competition pool until Saturday when we get one hour.
We scrimmaged against Brazil yesterday and did pretty well. The altitude was still a bit of a factor and we did not look sharp but that will come together over the next few days. Tomorrow we have practice time with Mexico and hope to scrimmage one more time before the tournament begins.
Our tournament begins on Sunday with Venezuela. They replaced Trinidad and Tobago who dropped out at the last minute. We don’t know much about Venezuela but then again we did not know much about Trinidad and Tobago. Our second match is against Brazil who is seeded third in the tournament. After scrimmaging them the other day it is obvious that they have some really good outside shooters. Our final game of the preliminary round will be against Argentina. After that it is semi-finals and finals. The finals are nine days away.
Time to get to bed and get some rest. One day closer to competition.
See you at the pool.
Coach
The guys are all healthy and excited to begin. The days before competition are always the toughest. Too much time... on one hand you don’t want to sit around and do nothing but on the other hand you don’t want to run around and expand too much energy doing anything silly. The guys have been meeting up with some of their friends that have been classmates or that they have come to know at the Olympics or other international competition. We have had training both at the village gym, which is really nice but also very crowded and at the practice pool. The only bad thing about the practice pool is that it is a solid 45 minutes away bus. Which means that you are riding in a bus for as long as you are in the pool. We don’t get to have any time in the competition pool until Saturday when we get one hour.
We scrimmaged against Brazil yesterday and did pretty well. The altitude was still a bit of a factor and we did not look sharp but that will come together over the next few days. Tomorrow we have practice time with Mexico and hope to scrimmage one more time before the tournament begins.
Our tournament begins on Sunday with Venezuela. They replaced Trinidad and Tobago who dropped out at the last minute. We don’t know much about Venezuela but then again we did not know much about Trinidad and Tobago. Our second match is against Brazil who is seeded third in the tournament. After scrimmaging them the other day it is obvious that they have some really good outside shooters. Our final game of the preliminary round will be against Argentina. After that it is semi-finals and finals. The finals are nine days away.
Time to get to bed and get some rest. One day closer to competition.
See you at the pool.
Coach
posted by Dr. Terry Schroeder at
7:18 AM
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