May 5th, 2010 St. Rose Secondary, Guayave

Today we were in St. Rose Secondary School, Guayave. The picture is of the school. This is fairly typical of all secondary schools in Grenada. The best way to describe them, or compare them to American schools, is that remind me of how our schools would have looked in the 1940s, or possibly earlier. They are simple structures with wooden desks or tables in the classrooms. All secondary students wear uniforms and each school has a unique color. I find this makes the school and students look professional, it's easy to tell who are students. This sounds strange, but there are a lot of people typically walking around in Grenada and sitting on porches and everyone looks younger than what they are. It would be hard to tell who's in high school without uniforms.

Today went well. We had both boys and girls at the same time. Mr. Richard Britton, a friend of mine from my previous visit is the coach and has generated a high level of interest. Both the boys and girls teams finished top 3 in the national Island Secondary School volleyball tournament this year. We began by warming up and then covered passing instruction, spiking, serving, and finally scrimmaged. Everyone seemed excited and had fun. During the hitting section, I had the boys hit as one group and the girls hit as a separate group. Each would shag for the other. One of the girls was standing near the middle of the court and not paying attention. One of the big hitters for the boys hit a very hard ball that landed square on the side of her face! She dropped like a Manicou (squirrel) shot from a tree! She was eventually okay and returned to the court. Several of the girls did not have tennis shoes and wore flip flops. One of the girls 'popped her flop' early and hurt her toe. She ran to the side and kicked her shoes off and returned barefoot. This was amazing because of course, we were on a concrete court and it had to be 100 degrees again!!!

May 4, 2010 Women's National Team

This is a picture of the 2010 Grenadian Women's National Team. This is not the complete roster as there are some in this picture that will not be on the team, they are here simply training with the team, and there are some not included in this picture.

Much better practice today!!! I came in knowing what to expect and completely prepared. My practice outline was fast paced and aggressive. We started practice off by stating our expectations (which were very high). I said I planned to run this the way we run practices in the US. That means we need hustle, talk, there will be running (consequences). I will expect "perfect" execution (knowing we can never be perfect, but we can strive). I expected complete concentration and focus, and demanded proper execution of all skills. The drills were fast paced and we continued to stress basic ball control.

We again did the 3 person switch ball control drill with a goal of 20. Last week our high was 14. We started off slow and could not get past 8. I gave the team 10 minutes to win this drill or we would run suicides. They struggled. Finally I began pulling people out of the drill again. On their second try after that, we made 20!! The team was very excited.

It was a very good practice and I truly feel I can make this team much better in just 6 weeks. This team will win the OES tournament in June!

I also continue my efforts to secure transportation for the athletes after practice. This is a big issue. I'm also working to obtain sponsors to provide practice gear and uniforms for the athletes. It amazes me that these athletes must fund raise for nearly everything to play...and yet they represent all of Grenada in International competition. What comes first...Winning, or Support? I don't know.

Tomorrow night is Men's National Team practice. I must be ready to push them also.

Respect.

May 4, 2010 St. Andrews Secondary School

The morning started off beautiful here. It rained last night. I am now settling into a routine. This week, we start after lunch every day, except Friday, and will go until 8 or 8:30pm. That means I have mornings free. In the morning, I get up early to the sound of a rooster crowing (I'm already beginning to hate that rooster!) and update emails, work on my blog, eat breakfast, outline the days practice plan, then walk to the beach. It is approximately 1.25 miles to the beach....takes me about 20-25 minutes. I've been eating an incredible amount of fruit here. I found out eating a lot of fruit reduces my need for water. I'm starting to miss American food a bit. I've eaten way to much pig tail, pig snout, chicken bones, chicken toe nails (just kidding), and god knows what else. They make most food into a soup, or "broth" as it's referred here. That means you really can't see what you're eating. Everything is cooked on the bone. You want chicken soup...it will have the bone. How about a chicken burrito....take a big bite and you'll bite right in the chicken leg bone. How about fish soup, not only are the bones in the soup, but the head will probably be looking up at you while you eat!

Overall, the food is much better than home because everything is fresh. Anytime we want fruit, Nanan either goes to his garden and picks it or we go to a friend's house to get it. And I actually love Grenadian seasoning and they way they cook. Last night I ate Mutton (lamb) and it was delicious! My earlier comments are simply because I DO NOT lIKE PIG TAIL OR SNOUT!!!! I hope Nanan reads this :)

Anyway, we worked with another secondary school yesterday, St. Andrews ( I think) from St. George's. This was not an easy day. The girls chosen to come to our session were not athletic, not completely interested, and many looked like they had never played a sport before in their entire lives! It was a very difficult session because volleyball is a hard sport to play. We worked hard and improved their skills and had everyone smiling and having fun, so I guess won! Of course our session was outdoors, luckily at the Carenage. That means we had a net. Unfortunately, it must have been 100 degrees today! Man was it hot. I had to buy a hat today because I felt my brains were starting to cook. Practicing on cement for 5 hours takes its' toll on a body. whew!

The problem I'm learning is that the PE teachers are the ones that select who should attend our sessions (and the sessions where Nanan runs them when I am gone). Because most PE teachers don't know volleyball, they send the worst athletes, or those not playing any other sport. Nanan has an uphill battle to fight. There are tremendous athletes on this Island, we simply need to continue to get our sport exposure and get the best athletes interested in playing.

Monday May 3, 1010

The picture to the right is of the men's national team practicing at the Carenage, St. George's province. There are six provinces in Grenada:
St Andrews
St. David
St. George
St. John
St. Mark
St. Patrick

Grand Anse, which is where I am staying, is in St. George. St. George is considered the "City." All other provinces are considered the "Country."

I was excited for practice tonight. Unfortunately, I thought we had the Women's National team practice tonight, so in the morning at the beach after my morning swim, I outlined a practice for the Women's team. As we were driving to the secondary school practice, I found it was the Men's team. Big Difference!!!! The men are very excited about volleyball. They are very excited to have a coach from America to work with them and train. I want to live up to their expectation.

I began preparing a practice outline while driving to the secondary school practice.

We had approximately 19 athletes report for practice. I'm noticing some consistently show up, and others, maybe once a week. We have new faces attend every practice. I'm still not sure exactly who is on the national team.

We started off with trips and then went into sumo instruction and digging technique. Nanan and I decided we needed to focus on technique this week and then getting into offensive and defensive playing systems. The men seemed very eager to learn and had great attitudes.

Again, I felt they were expecting a very hard, challenging practice...the best practice of their lives! And tonight, I was NOT up to the challenge! Not that I didn't want to be, I feel I ran a very average practice. We incorporated cooperative and competitive drills and did mostly game-like drills involving everyone. We spent maybe 15 minutes on partner passing technique learning sumo, pull-backs, and body positioning. We then went into a serve receive drill, focusing on seem coverage and getting the passing reps. I introduced our scoring system for serve receive and ran a competitive serve receive drill, ranking each team's passing efficiency. One team passed a 2.0 and the other a 1.9. No consequences.

We then went into a ball control drill because I feel we need to work on controlling the ball and learning how to consistently hit the ball in. We ran a 3 v 3 switching drill, where after one side attacks the ball over the net, they switch off and 3 new players come in. I asked the team to control the ball and try for 20 consecutive, successful attacks with the ball never touching the ground. I expected us to get maybe 10 or 12. Our high was 3!!! Our passing was okay, but we could not hit the ball with control. After 10 minutes, I changed the rules to allow any kind of contact to send the ball over....fingers, platform, spike, whatever. We still could not get more than 8. Finally, I began pulling people out of the drill that really didn't belong at this level of practice. Still no luck. I then ended the drill. Nanan was sitting on the sideline and I discussed with him the weaknesses. He said the team should run sprints because he was very disappointed. He approached the group and expressed his disappointment and demanded they run. As they were going to the line, one of the top players approached me and said, "You don't want to be hard on us Coach???" And he seemed disappointed. This affected me greatly.

This team is very willing to work hard to improve. They want to win. I came into tonight's practice completely un-prepared. Not because I didn't have a practice outline (last minute at that). But more because I did not really know what to expect. I was not sure how many would show up tonight, what their work ethic was, their level of dedication, their intensity, their willingness to work hard to get better, the practice habits, whether they hustled or not, if they did consequences or ever ran in practice. This was a complete unknown to me. The ages of the participants range from 16-42. Some are injured. I completely underestimated their desire and commitment.

We talked after practice and I asked if they wanted me to run this as an American practice..forget about the cultural differences, etc. They unanimously said "YES!" I have a new challenge and will be better prepared for Wednesday!!

Monday 5-3-10

Today I had two training sessions. One at St Joseph's secondary school in St. Andrews, and later with the Men's National Team. My training with the secondary school started at 3pm until 4:30p. The men's national team practice went from 5:30p-8pm.

In Grenada, Secondary schools are similar to our high schools. They are for ages 12-16. After that, kids attend 'college' which is like our junior/senior year in high school.

The picture above is of the students at St. Joseph's. This was their first volleyball training session of the year and they were all very new to the sport. Again, we hard a hard court (cement) surface to play on, no shade, and No NET! We had between 15-18 girls as some had to leave for other practices. We started off with introductions and then a fun game to get everyone excited and happy. We then focused on passing technique and did some competitions/contests. One competition was partner passing...which group could get the most in a row. We then introduced sumo-to-self passing and formed three groups. We practiced this technique then had a competition between groups...who could sumo-to-self-and-catch the most balls. The kids really liked this and we added fun consequences for the losers. We finished up by grabbing a rock and drawing lines on the cement to make a volleyball court. We put 6 on a side and had a 'scrimmage.' No serving yet. The kids really liked this and again we had a fun consequence for the losers. We finished with underhand serving instruction. The session went very well and the kids' commented they enjoyed it and learned something.

May 3rd, 2010 Culture

I thought I'd write a little about my cultural experiences so far. To the right is a Cocoa tree, where cocoa for chocolate comes from.

Grenada is a fascinating place. It is a poor country compared to the US, but the people seem happy and content. It is a simple life here.

In Grenada they use European Currency (EC dollars). The conversion rate is 2.67 EC to one US dollar. They refer to money here as dollars, so when you buy something you need to as "EC or US?" Items are fairly priced, unless you go into the tourist areas. Then they are overpriced.

It is not always easy to get many things we take for granted. I wanted to buy a small CD player to have in my room. I could find only one in the entire mall and it was $75 US! No thanks. I am currently having trouble finding a notebook as I have nearly filled mine.

My second day in Grenada, the water in my guest house went out. No water in the morning or afternoon. Interesting situation. I showered using a drinking water bottle.

I will post pictures of Grenada today or tomorrow. It is a beautiful country. I've learned they have 'two' sections of Grenada. The Country and the 'City.' The Country is truly beautiful. The Country is closer to the interior. It is mountainous and at higher elevations than the City. They are still 10 minutes from the beach, but it is a completely different lifestyle. Everything is green in the country. They have been getting rain and the crops and plants are healthy. There is always a cool breeze in the Country. You don't need air conditioning. The people are different too. It is more of a community there. People work together, hang out together, it reminds me of our small town living. I really like the Country and if I lived in Grenada, would live there...in St. David's province.

The City, which is where I am staying is different. It is much hotter. Houses are grouped together much closer. People are not as friendly, although they are still friendly. The City is more hustle and bustle and where people work. The road's are wide in the city, plenty of room for traffic. That means it is a two lane road with no shoulder. In the Country, there are a lot of 1 lane roads and if you meet an oncoming vehicle, one must give way. Grenada is experiencing a severe drought, since October '09, and the City is very brown and dry.

There are fruit trees everywhere you go. You can stop on any street corner and buy fresh bananas (which taste incredible), mangos, french cashews, plums (different than ours), buy pure can sugar juice (amazing), coconut, etc. My favorites so far are the mangos and bananas.

There are also bars on every corner. not like our bars, they are more similar to our storage sheds you keep lawn equipment in (only slightly bigger). They all sell beer (Caribs) and rum and some essential food items. They are typically owned by a family, that has passed from generation to generation.

More to come on the culture of Grenada and it's people. And I'm a Lime-man! I'll explain later. Respect!

Friday April 30, 2010 Coaching Clinic

On this date, I conducted a small coaching clinic. Those in attendance were the National Voleyball Team staff, Nanan, Adam, and Maggy. In addition, there were three other coaches from other national team staffs, but these showed interest in coaching volleyball and wanted to attend.

The clinic was from 9am-3pm. In the morning, we had classroom sessions. The afternoon session was to be 'practical' or outside and interactive. The clinic was held at the Carenage. In the morning we had open discussion and talked about more of the administrative side of coaching. We also discussed responsibility, motivation, discipline, etc. Not so much technical because it seemed everyone wanted to talk more about these issues.

We had lunch provided to us by the Ministry. In the afternoon, we began with an outdoor session. I started with fun warm up games to get the kids attention. We were gearing this section for the new coaches. I then showed passing technique and explained one of the most important things a coach can do is be able to 'invent' drills appropriate to their team. We discussed 'issues' a team might encounter (poor passing technique, not athletic, don't work together,etc.) and asked them to design a drill with a solution to the problem.

Soon, however, the heat became unbearable and we were unable to continue outdoors. Wow was it hot!!! the indoor session went well and the coaches asked a lot of questions.

Tomorrow (saturday) is a holiday (May day) and we will not have any practices.