Janelle Jenkins Posts to the Preseason Blog
August 16, 2012 | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 16, 2012
Hello Cardinal fans, it's your girl, Janelle!!!
Today is day six of preseason and I want to tell you all about our practice. It started off with a good and healthy breakfast, which included a lot of protein. Everyone was early to practice to get treatment and do extra stretching so we could last longer during practice. Our strength coach, Eric Hammer, told us as we foamed rolled that "pain is weakness leaving the body," and then Gwen Rucker started reciting quotes from the movie, Remember the Titans to pump us up before a vigorous practice.
After everyone was warmed up, we jumped straight into ball control and had to communicate in order to be on the same page as our teammates. Talking is one of the most important keys to success within the team and your Louisville Volleyball team is accomplishing that. We moved onto a blocking scheme that we learned from our meeting last night and applied it into a drill. Footwork is very important in order to make a solid block. Once we got the fundamentals down everything else fell into place. No matter what position we played it was very important to know and be comfortable with other positions in order to be a balanced and well-rounded player.
After that, we worked on team rotations and applied all of our techniques into every play. When one court finished before the other, they would stand in the back and act as the opposing teams student section and try to distract us with their obnoxious yelling. Your Lady Cardinals are too focus to listen to outside noises and they finished strong. We then proceeded to meet with Eric Hammer and Chad Workman again to work on our breathing and also releasing any tightness in the body by stretching.
Everyone had a delicious lunch with lots of vegetables and protein to replenish our body with the correct nutrients. We then rested our bodies so that we could be alert for the second part of practice. This particular practice was filmed so we could show our family, friends, recruits, and fans what to expect at every Louisville Volleyball game. You can see it on CardsTV on this site.
Once the cameras were on us we were energized and ready but not distracted. We finished practice playing six on six and a little conditioning. Everyone had lots of reps and participated fairly in practice. We then ate dinner together at ville grille as a team and finished up the day with a review of blocking again. That's how we finished the sixth day of preseason. Thanks for reading.
