An Adventure in Europe 4/28/12

After a long journey overseas, which unfortunately included many of our guys stuck in middle seats (in economy class) we arrived tired, stiff and a bit cranky in Serbia. We expected to spend 8 days there training with a professional club called Partizan. This is one of the biggest and best water polo clubs in the world. Basically it is a water polo factory. All day long, the pool is filled with young (7 - 18 year old) kids training to become the next Serbian superstar. It is pretty amazing to watch. There are ten year olds doing some of the drills that we do with our national team. The first few days of training were excellent. However the original schedule for the week was suddenly changed drastically - eliminating almost half of our trainings with the club for the rest of the week. One of the factors was that the head coach’s wife had passed away shortly before our arrival. She had been ill for quite a while with cancer but the last few months had been really rough. The coach, Igor Malnovic, is one of the most celebrated water polo players in Serbia. He was the center for Yugoslavia in the 80’s when they won two Olympic gold medals and we won two silvers. I know Igor very well and had a chance to spend an hour or so with him while we were in Belgrade. He was a broken man. He and his wife have two beautiful daughters (5 and 8 years old) and he is trying to figure out what life looks like without his wife. He appeared to have aged ten years since I saw him last, just two years ago. My heart hurt for him. It was a hard reminder of how fragile life is and how we must focus on the relationships in our lives. Also, a good slap in the face to keep what we are doing with the team in perspective. We shared a tearful hug when we departed. Anyway, we were forced to make a decision to leave Serbia and find another team to train with during our time here in Europe. Fortunately for us there was a good match. A club in Italy, called Pro Recco was interested in hosting us and training with us for a week. It was a bit of a struggle but we were able to find flights to mobilize our team of 24 athletes, coaches and staff and get everyone to Italy. We also had to work within our budget to make this happen. Pro Recco offered to help on that end. They actually agreed to host us (room and board) and pay an additional $ 3,500 for transportation to help us get there. This was very helpful and made the decision to head to Italy easy. After an afternoon of flying we arrived in Recco on Wednesday night. Recco is a town just east of Genoa that sits right on the sea. It is a small and quiet town. However, their water polo team is just the opposite. This is truly a world all-star team. There team consists of three Serbians, three Hungarians, two Croatians, two Montenegrins, two Spanish, two Italians and a few other select players. All of these players are the best players on their respective teams. They are loaded with talent. We have been training twice per day with this team. We warm up and then we scrimmage for an hour. It has been fantastic. A good opportunity for us to play against the best. This is a team that is as good as any national team in the world. Another upgrade has been the food. It is not that the food was bad in Serbia. They took care of us very well but since moving to Italy we have eating like kings. Lots of pasta and carbs. A little rough on the guys that are eating a gluten free diet but the Italians have been very accommodating and have been serving those guys the gluten free pasta. It is difficult as a coach who stands on the deck, talks to his players, waves his arms around a bit and occasionally raises his voice to make a point with a referee to keep up with how much the players are eating. Obviously, they are burning the calories. We (the coaches) have had to ask for half portions to make sure that we don’t come home with ten extra pounds. Tonight (Saturday), we have an official game with Pro Recco. They are expecting a couple of thousand rowdy fans. It is great preparation for us to play a game like this against a powerful opponent with a hostile crowd. All of the scrimmages have been close so far. They have won a few by one or two goals and we have done the same. Hopefully, we will show up tonight and take it to them. The trip has also provided us with an opportunity to bond as a team. I have been able to meet individually with each player and the team has had a few dinners together. Tomorrow we will have a light day of training and then enjoy some time away from the pool together. We are trying to arrange a boat ride out to one of the local islands. Monday we will get back to good training before heading for home on Wednesday. Less than three months to go to London now... See you at the pool. Coach

A Milestone and a Lesson 4/21/12

On Wednesday (April 18th) we celebrated 100 days till the Opening Ceremonies in London. Wow! It is really hard to believe how quickly the Olympic Games will be here. How did we celebrate this milestone? Two of our players, Tony Azevedo and Merrill Moses flew to New York for a big media day. They left right after practice on Tuesday morning and arrived in New York around midnight. Their media stops included early appearances at the NY Stock Exchange and the Today show and then later in the day stops at various other NBC affiliates. After a day in the “spotlight” so to speak they boarded a plane and headed back to Los Angeles. Both arrived home in the early hours of Thursday (1:30 am) and after a few hours of sleep were on time for our morning training at 8:45. Those that stayed home also had a long day. We had a very tough workout in the morning that consisted of some difficult swims and leg work. Immediately following training, six players – Ryan Bailey, Adam Wright, Jesse Smith, Jeff Powers, Peter Varellas and Layne Beaubien had an all day photo shoot with Men’s Journal magazine. This was big deal! Men’s Journal brought a staff of 18 to do make up, hair, catering, interviews and of course photography. The shoot lasted from 11 am to 6 pm and it was a hot summer-like day. Needless to say, the guys were sunburned and a pretty exhausted when they jumped in the pool for our competition night. Although the scrimmage started out a bit slow the competitive juices began to flow and it ended up being a good practice. Physically drained and a bit emotional the team showed up for practice on Thursday morning in a sour mood. As training began, it was obvious that the team looked lethargic. Robert (assistant coach) took them through a couple of warm up sets and then it was time for the main set. It was not necessarily a hard set but on this particular day it seemed like a big mountain to climb. Here is the set – start out with a 200 swim medium speed (this means under a 2:12), next swim 2 X 100 above medium (under 1:05), and finally swim 8 X 50 with everyone under 30 seconds on each one. If everyone does not make it then we do the entire set again. Let me make this clear – for all of our athletes swimming a 50 under 30 seconds should not be difficult at all. In fact, most of them swim a 50 in under 23 seconds. However, on this particular day a few of our older athletes were struggling with exhaustion and “broke down” after the first couple of 50’s. So we repeated the set, not once but three times with the guys becoming more and more agitated after each failure. Watching and waiting for the right moment to speak, I stopped them and addressed them before they were to swim the 8 X 50 (the fourth time). I simply said this “I know that we all had a super long day yesterday and that we are all exhausted, however, when we get to the Olympic Games not one of our opponents is going to give a damn about how we feel. We have to be able to be strong in these moments and push through it. Only when we can do this in practice consistently will we be able to do it at the Games”. The team responded and everyone made the 50’s and we were able to finish the rest of the practice on a positive note. We can not afford to waste a day of training. Each and every day counts. I believe that all the players went home with that message and hopefully learned a valuable lesson about being able to stay together in those tough moments and push their bodies and minds to another level when they feel like they can’t. In fact, we have to take the word “can’t” out of our vocabulary if we want to win. We are now off to Serbia for 9 days. We will be in Belgrade where we will train with a club called Partizan. This club team’s roster is primarily made up of the Serbian national team. It should be good intense training. We will travel with all 16 of our team and once again we will have a chance to evaluate individuals and see how different combinations of players work in the water together. When we return, we will have less then three months left in our preparation for London. Thank you for all of your support! The team appreciates it. See you at the pool. Coach

Growing Awareness 4/14/12

It was a good hard week of training for Team USA. The level of intensity in the pool was high all week. The guys are competing against each other and making each other work. In my opinion, this is what will make us better than anyone else. Our practices must be as intense as the games themselves. The intensity and stress level must be high in the water at all times, and then when we actually get to London, we will be used to playing at this high level. Unfortunately, one of the risks of training at this level is injury. We had two players get hurt this week. Peter Hudnut took an accidental head butt to the face and lost his two front teeth. It was a violent collision (totally accidental) that occurred in our Wednesday night scrimmage. Peter missed a couple of days of training but will be back in the water on Monday morning sporting a couple of new teeth. Thursday morning, John Mann took an accidental elbow above the eye. He was a bit bloody but after a few stitches he was ready to go again. Both of these players - in fact all of our guys are very tough. Even though it was a bit of a bloody battlefield this week at practice – it was a very solid week of training. I feel we accomplished what we had planned. One week closer to London – one week closer to being ready.

As we get closer to the Olympics, we are seeing a big increase in the popularity of our team. We had ESPN (radio, magazine and TV) out doing interviews with the players and coaches the week before last. This week, Tony Azevedo shot a commercial for 24 hour fitness. He was one of two Olympians that were chosen for this spot. The other was beach volleyball superstar Kerri Walsh (pretty good company). We had Reuters out with cameras on Thursday. They shot practice and then interviewed a number of the guys. Men’s Health was out in between trainings on Friday shooting photos of 5-6 of our athletes for an upcoming issue. This weekend the athletes of both our Men’s and Women’s team will be making appearances at Simon Malls around Southern California. Next week, we will be having interviews with AP on Tuesday and then a big photo shoot in between trainings on Wednesday with Men’s Journal.

Obviously, all of this exposure is great for our team and great for the sport. The last few weeks we have seen this awareness and demand for our team grow tremendously. However, we have to make sure that it does not become a distraction. I believe that the team has handled it well to date. I will definitely keep my eye on this process and make certain that the time demand does not interfere with our goal. We have to stay on track and maintain our focus. Each and everyday counts and we can not afford to waste one day of our preparation.

I am proud of the guys. They certainly deserve the recognition they are now getting. We are building more awareness and hopefully as we get closer to London there will be many more water polo fans cheering Team USA on to the Gold!

See you at the pool.

Coach

Honoring Team Mates 04/06/12

Team USA completed a short training week on Wednesday night. Coaches, players and staff have all been working extremely hard and a long weekend off is needed. At this point, we are close to half way through are full time training. We started the year in Australia and are now just short of 3 ½ months into it. We have just over 100 days to go until Opening Ceremonies. There is sense of urgency that is growing with each week – really with each day that passes. We all know that with each day we are a little closer to making our dreams come true – representing the USA at the Olympic Games and having a chance at winning a gold medal. Perhaps this seems a contradiction to talk about urgency but take some time off? Truth is that this journey is a balancing act. On one side there is the risk of just pushing through and getting to the Olympic Games and being fatigued and burned out. On the other hand, we need to make sure that we are the most prepared team there… I believe that we are on a good path. We are putting the time in and “grinding out” some very difficult workouts. We need to balance that out with some rest and perhaps a bit of fun with family and friends. That is what this weekend is all about. We have four days off to be with family and relax, reconnect and rejuvenate. It is well deserved and in my opinion, a very important part of this process and ultimately our success.
This was a difficult week as I had to sit with two players and tell them that they were done. It is a terrible job. Honestly, it is the worst part of what I do. I feel for these guys. Each has sacrificed so much to try to make this a reality and they are all very gifted athletes. When you think about it - they are one of the top 18 water polo athletes in our country. What I thought I would do is tell you a bit about the two athletes that we cut this past week. My intention is this – to honor them as a part of our team. They have made our team better. In practice, they pushed the others to a higher level. They gave it all they had but unfortunately came up a bit short. These guys have nothing to be ashamed of – they did there best and that is what life and sport is all about. Let me introduce you to these two team mates (family members).
Jeff Tyrell is 26 years old. He is 6”5’ and 215 lbs. He was born in Mountain View, California and attended UC Berkeley where is graduated in 2007. While at CAL he was a part of the national championship teams in 2006 and 2007. He was an All-American in both of these years also. After graduating as an Academic All – American he began playing club water polo for the New York Athletic Club. He has played professionally in Italy as well. Jeff joined the senior national team in 2006 and has travelled with us on numerous trips. He was a part of our team that placed fourth in the 2010 World Cup. He is one of the fastest players on the team. He also shoots the ball as hard as anyone on the team. Jeff is very strong in the water and plays the role of a center defender.
Janson Wigo is 6”3’, 195 lbs and left handed. He was born in New York but grew up in Fort Lauderdale. He attended Stanford University with his twin brother Drac. Both graduated in 2010. After graduation he has played for the New York Athletic Club and professionally for one season in Croatia. He was a member of our Junior National Team and played for the 2011 World University Games Team last year. He has been training with the national team for the past year. Water Polo is definitely in his blood. His brother, Wolf, is a three time Olympian and his father, Bruce, is the past Executive Director of USA Water Polo. At 24, Janson is the youngest member of our national team.
My hat is off to these two players. I appreciate what they gave –their time, their effort and their passion. I am confident that both will be future Olympians and I wish them the best on their journey.
The team goes back to work on Monday morning. Have a Happy Easter!
See you at the pool.
Coach