Fan-ly Motivation

I love game day...

I love game day the same way Dr. Doogie Howser loves final exam day...

Game day is the one day of the week where you get to show what you have. All the work throughout the week is demonstrated on game day. The difference between Dr. Howser and a team's game day is a crowd of 1,000+ people is not screaming, "Howser! Howser!" when you answer an essay question correctly. I love the fans...they scream, hoot, and holler every time we add a point to our final score.

I love game day because there is nothing more to learn, examine, or practice. Simply show up and show what you got. On game day, there is no need to hold back AND there is no need to provide something you have never learned before: The week's training has already given you the tools to be successful. Relax and demonstrate those tools.

Over-prepare in training so you do not Under-perform on game day... Easier said than done. But it is so true...

As a member of a top sports club, I consider it a blessing to have the support of the fans. It makes game day so much more special. Fans that wish to spend 2 hours of their day watching us. 2 hours where the fans forget about what is going on in their individual lives, live vicariously through the players, and hopefully see our team succeed.

So yea, I love game day because its a weekly test of a team's growth... but one major motivation for success comes from the fans. Fans show the love and support, and we show them why.

Over prepare in training for the success of the team... so you do not under-perform on game day for a fan base that shows love and support.

Too all the fans, past, present, and future... I have nothing but love for ya!

Busy December!

December has been quite the busy month. 7 matches, A trip to Azores, Christmas in Celle, and its not even 2012 yet.

The trip to Azores was one awesome and scenic learning experience. It was a learning experience because before traveling to Azores, I had no clue this place existed! A two hour flight from the west coast of Portugal, this Portuguese island is located in the middle of the Atlantic. I tried to get family and friends to come because its half way between home and Duren, but noooo! :-) Just kiddin... Here is the location... Pretty sweet!

After arriving there, I also found out there was a US military base with roughly 1500 troops. I had hoped to come across some fellow Americans but no dice. I did drive by the base, close enough! Evivo traveled there to play the first round of CEV cup against Fonte Bastardo Azores (most awesome name ever). We suffered a first round loss against the Bastardos but had hopes to even the score when we played them again at home. The hotel we stayed at was 200 feet from the ocean and wow, I forgot how much I miss the water! Every chance I got, I took a dip in the cold water and it was worth it. The weather was very kind to us. Temperatures in the 55-60 F range with the sun shining most days. One day, our team doctor and I took a morning drive around most of the island. Saw some great sites...

 On top of, Serra de Cuma

 Looking down from Serra De Cuma

 Rainbow!

Miradouro Dos Moinhos

The beach was incredible. And every moment our team had free, I made sure to get out and reacquainted with the ocean. About a quarter mile from our hotel, we found some big waves. I went there on two seperate occasions with Hauke, Matze, and Tomas. Tried to swim out to the big waves but the rocks along the ocean floor were too sharp to even start the walk out. But we still had fun pretending...

 Too rocky to start swimmin out...

 Wheww! Surfs up!

 Sehr schon!

Hauke parting the sea...

Beach Video! (the video quality is disappointing!)

But as I mentioned before, we went to Azores to play volleyball and it was a shame that we lost the first match. But there was still hope, the following week we were playing Fonte Bastardo again at home and if we won at home, there would be a "Golden Set" match played immediately afterwards. Personally, I had the opportunity to start in this match and I was more than pumped. The stage was set for an exciting match. Our crowd gave great support with some loud cheering and some hateful whistles at the other team (awesome). Going back and forth throughout the whole match, we knew it would come down to the deciding 5th set. But in the 5th set, the victory went to the Bastardos and thus we were eliminated from the CEV Cup. Bummer. 

For the Christmas Holiday, I was invited to Hauke's home in Celle, Germany which is very close to Hannover. Celle is a pretty historic city. With buildings in the city center older than America! Hauke and I arrived on the 23rd and met his Father at the Christmas market for some Glühwein
and to walk around. It was very easy to get into the Christmas mood with all the booths set up with Christmas decorations and yummy food. Glühwein is basically hot wine. Which is good to have when it is cold outside. Warms ya right up!

Night time at the Christmas Market

Hauke and his family were great. We celebrated Christmas Eve with his mothers side and had a traditional German dinner. With two small ovens on the table, each person had their own small tray and designated spot in the oven. You take a healthy (big) piece of cheese, load it with whatever kind of meat, vegetable, or fish... melt it in the oven on your tray... then transfer the melting goodness to a cooked potato on your plate... and you repeat this process until you are full- or my my case, so full I was sweating from satisfaction! 

Christmas in Germany is celebrated mostly on Christmas Eve evening compared to Christmas morning in America. But that didn't stop us from celebrating on Christmas day! We met at a Chinese Restaurant call the " Große Mauer" (Great Wall) for a 4 course lunch/dinner that included soup, make your own spring rolls, duck with rice, and ice cream.  Again, so tasty! 

The 26th, We celebrated with Hauke's father side and had another lunch/dinner at a pretty cool place with an endless amount of food... Did i mention, "I never went hungry on this Christmas trip?" soon after, we went to Hauke's Uncle house for some cake and played Kinect on Xbox and had a blast.

Hauke and I suiting up

Hauke and I took one of the mornings to walk around the city... here are some pics

This Building is from the 1500s!

This is a government building...If you can see the gold balls on top of the building, they were used as a, "fire safe"...any important documents were kept there in case of fire.

This is where knights met back in the OLD days for duels... duels like- two horses running at eachother, each knight holding a long stick, and BOOM one knight falls and the crowd cheers. So cool

It was really nice spending time with Hauke's family at Christmas time. Being away from my family and friends is difficult during the holidays but having a family to spend it with made it very memorable and fun. Having the three day break was good too. And now we are back in Duren practicing and preparing for our next match on Wednesday, Jan 4... 2012! Holy crap, its almost 2012!

Sheltered American? Comfortable Germans?... You decide...

Rockin out to "Mercy" by One Republic at the moment... they have been around for sometime but I recently discovered their awesomeness and cant get enough of their music...

I have wanted to share this story since I have come to Duren…before I "reveal" it, reader beware! This story contains flesh and mental laughter… 

I have been a frequent fan of going into saunas since my first year playing volleyball in Denmark. For those who are unfamiliar with a sauna, simply put: its a room full of HOT air. And typically, Saunas have an oven with special rocks to pour water onto and make the room even hotter... here we go...

Early in the season before a practice, Hauke tells me that him and some other teammates are going to a sauna after practice and asked if I would like to go… I never pass on a sauna opportunity… However, I did not have a clean towel to go to the sauna after practice so Hauke gave me a towel to use…

Now I pause for a second to explain my idea of what a sauna is… Saunas are a place for men to gather to relax, get a good sweat, take a cold shower, and repeat as many times as they want. A room where the temperature can reach anywhere from 80-100 Celcius (175-212 degrees F). Germany on the other hand has  a completely different way of making the sauna "experience" more personal…

I pick up my story where I left off… my roommate Hauke gave me a towel to use at the sauna…we realize once we get to the sauna that it is a hand towel. What a classic mix-up, no big deal- out team showers infront of eachother daily so I'm comfortable showering in front of strangers, no bigge... for the moment. We walk into the locker room… its mixed sex… men and women, showering as naked as you came into this world.  If that wasn’t weird enough… children are roaming around while you are “free”. 

Okay showering next to other men, women, children… its all part of the experience right?… It gets better… Exit the locker room and join a field of naked people in a resort of nakedness… Covering up with a robe or towel? Optional! No one seemed to care! A handful of different sauna rooms and an outdoor patio with men, women and children sweating and relaxing to their hearts desire…

This cant be real, but there is more… written on a wall is the "Auff Guss" schedule… 

I had only heard of an "Auff-guss" and to experience one forced me to take a step back and truly laugh at my present situation… a man, working for this resort, was paid to enter the sauna with man, woman, and child, introduce himself to the room in German (I wish I knew what he said) and pour special types of water on the rocks with various scents: honey, ucaliptis, salt, lemon... and once those scents hit you, it clears your sinus like nothing you have ever imagined…then this "Auff-Guss-er" takes a towel and fans you and everyone else. Refreshing right? The heat is intensified when blown your way…for 10-15 minutes, he waves a towel around this small room forcing you to take in now ten to fifteen minutes of HOT air… If you move, it gets hotter, if you breathe hard, your lungs singe with heat, if you flex your knuckles or toes too hard, you begin to feel an even more intense heat… basically, a room like this forces to you relax to the point of “if you don’t relax, its gonna hurt more”…

Onward... after the 5 minute auff guss is up, everyone leave the sauna, this is where it gets friendly… my first German sauna experience was one that highlighted "salt"… after leaving the room, you are handed two handfuls of salt to rub over your entire body, face, butt… anywhere you can reach… cant reach your back? People are not shy to lend a helping hand and rub ya down with salt… hot people helping hot people!…you allow to salt to absorb into your skin for five minutes only to briefly shower your face and return into the sauna for another 10 minutes with the fanning and everything…

Remember that hand towel? I did my best to cover my "cash and prizes" but after seeing everyone free, I decided that I too can let it all hang out… I stopped caring about covering up because everyone around me did not care… I ditched that towel with a feeling of, “who cares!?”… 

so after showering in cold water and feeling refreshed, it was time to relax and refuel with dinner… yep, me and three other teammates sat down to eat dinner on the patio, again, the hand-towel... I was ever-so-free... and eating- what a great picture, right?…initiation to the team? Id like to think not because we all shared a good laugh about it… 

Imagine this with a naked guy...me...

after dinner, we had the option of going back into a sauna with another special scent- and the Auff Gusser man took large "venik" bush leaves and soaked them in water, soaked the rocks and then sprayed us with hot water… same amount of intensity but at least no strangers where rubbing salt on my backside this time… a little more comforting…

Am I a sheltered American? Or is Germany a bit to free? haha, you decide... making memories!

Its been a minute or two...

I come to you today after a morning practice while jamming out to VH1 "We love the 80's"... Currently showing, "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn

St. Louis Cardinals are World Series Champs, surprise visit home, saw a St. Louis Blues' win, growing a "Dirt-T", 6 hour train delay, update on the house repairs, and video analysis of my game... Just some highlights of what is to come- HERE WE GO

I could write an entire book about the St. Louis Cardinals' road to the World Series and then winning... but my computer doesn't have enough battery... In summary, the cardinals gave the best fans in baseball a reason to cheer even more loudly. In a best of 7 game series...the cardinals were down 3-2. It was Game 6 and the Texas Rangers were down to their final strike to win the World Series- not once, but TWICE... only to witness one stunning comeback from a "never say die" Cardinals team. Lance Berkman and St. Louid native David Freese were the RBI heroes that will forever be remembered in the 2011 World Series. The cardinals went on to win game 6, thus forcing a decisive game 7... Ive hear "you will never forget where in the world you are when your team plays/wins the World series"... well as a result of the time difference I had some planning to do if i wanted to witness the conclusion... Evivo Duren had a Saturday match and this decisive game 7 was being played at 7:30 Friday STL time which meant 1:30am Saturday Duren time... i decided it would be best to fall asleep early, and wake up at 4am to catch the ending. I woke up at 4am, tuned into ESPN America and the cardinals were winning in the 5th inning. They were able to hold onto that lead for the rest of the game and at 6:20am the final out took place- the Cardinals won... I quietly hopped around my apartment with my hands in the air because Hauke was sleeping. Then went back to sleep with a smile on my face and all together gathered 8 hours of sleep! What a Series!

The Final Out

Which brings me to this past week (Nov 7-14) and a surprise visit home. This surprise break in the season was announced by the DVL (Deutsche Volleyball League) 5 weeks ago to make room for the National Team to prepare for the Olympic Games coming in 2012. Since our club is busy through most of the week of Christmas, i saw this as the only opportunity to visit home... and why not make it a surprise, right?  My brother in law, Henrick picked me up from the airport Monday evening and took me to Cugino's Restaurant where my family was patiently waiting for a "surprise celebrity" as Henrick told them... Mom and Dad thought it was the Mayor, no joke! Walking in asking, "whats up guys?"... jaws dropped all around... Surprise was a success! My brother later greeted me with a whisper, "did you get fired?"... good times!

Katie, Sara, Matt, Emily, Nate, Abby, Unkie Joe

Abby, Emily, Nate

Jamie and Da Don

During my time at home, I had a chance to visit most of my hometown friends, saw previous coaches, reconnected with my Longboard, and saw a St. Louis Blues win! It was nice to get out and see a Blues game with Dan, Kristen, Dj, and Jamie. The Blues were under the direction of a new coach, Ken Hitchcock and looking good. Shutting out the Tampa Bay Lightening 3-0.

Dank and Me

My family and friends also noticed something new with my face... tattoo? nope... piercing? nej nej... Facial hair? Schon! My teammate Matze and I are attempting to grow what we can (we agreed, no mustaches) until Christmas... I was drilled by a few friends for this attempt of physical "maturity"... and I thank them for being honest... because I agree and this is a look I will not keep on December 26th! No close up picture... and you are welcome...

It was also really nice seeing work on the Deimeke house since the tornado damage back in April. The contractor says Mom and Dad should be able to move back in by Christmas- we will see! There is still quite a bit of work to do. But almost every day, there was a hand-full of work trucks at the house working so it was nice to see the work in progress! In addition to all the repairs, Mom and Dad decided to change some things that would add some value to the house... here are some pictures of progress...

Our new back door!

Sun room

We have Heat again!

Front porch

When November 14th came around, I was shocked at how fast the week at home was. Time flies when you have fun. It was hard to say goodbye again to my family and friends, but this trip home is something I needed to regain focus on my volleyball life here in Duren. So after nearly missing my connecting flight to Frankfurt, I thought nothing else could go wrong. I arrived in Frankfurt a half hour later than expected and this is where the day's, "mood" takes a turn. After going through customs, I went to the train ticket counter and bought a ticket home after which the nice lady working told me, "the train you are taking should arrive in a minute" all while pointing to the platform number where the train will arrive. I thought, "this day is too easy, I have not waited at all!"... so I went down the escalator and sure enough, the train was just arriving! I hopped on the train, pulled out my book and started reading (Steve Jobs biography, a good read so far)... After an hour, the employee working on the train who checks tickets approached my seat, checked my ticket and delivered the bad news... I was on a train going the OPPOSITE direction...Stuttgart anyone?... I exited the train at the next stop and asked the ticket counter about my new route back to Duren. I waited an hour inside the train station for my new train to Koln Hbf which is my connecting station back to Duren... From here, it is an easy route back to Duren... just find a train heading in the direction of Aachen- a city 30 minutes past Duren. So I found a train heading towards Aachen, got on, asked the people around me if this was a train heading towards Aachen: all said, "yes"... so I was relaxed, right? for about ten minutes I was relaxed... and then NOPE- "Train Ticket Checker Guy" found me and told me this train was a direct train to Aachen and I would have to get off there and find another train to Duren... Unreal... So I got off in Aachen, checked, double checked, and triple checked the next train to Duren and finally got to my final destination. Just under 24 hours of total traveling time from STL, I arrived safely in my apartment. Needless to say, I slept like a baby that night

After returning to practice and getting back into a volleyball routine, I was delighted to hear about our next training idea involving instant video feedback. A video projector was set up courtside at practice for individual skills. This meant that we could perform a few volleyball moves, and then watch ourselves perform those moves on the projected screen. As an example, this morning the serve receive players met to work on serve receive. We would receive three balls in a row, exit the court, watch ourselves perform those same three balls in a row, and repeat the process for the duration on the practice... Personally, I find this to be the best coaching tool available and I hope to see more of it as the season continues...

Its good to be back and playing again but I had one AWESOME trip home. STL, see you again in May. Duren, you are stuck with me until then!

Boom

Blog numero dos

To Poland and back

After a 15 hour bus ride to Poland, we finally made it to Hotel Amber. Hotel Amber was the nicest 3-star hotel I have ever seen. This place had a really nice layout with an outdoor garden and our team nearly had a whole wing to ourselves. I forgot to take pictures…

Poland (at least the city I was in: Olesnica) was a pretty cool place to play volleyball. Volleyball is a top spectator sport in Poland and it showed. The fans at these practice matches were passionate, crazy, and loud. All the money raised from these matches went to a special needs girl. The support for her was really great. Our team played against Trefl Gdansk and Skra Belchatow. We also got a look at our first league match opponent, SCC Berlin. I was particularly excited to play against Skra Belchatow because of their high profile in European volleyball. In the past, I was always eager to watch Skra on streaming volleyball websites: But to play against them for a first time would be something I would remember for a long time. Skra has some high profile players. Bartos Kurek (who was resting after playing with the Polish National team) and argueably, the best opposite player in the world, Wlazly (Picture Below). Our team suffered a 3-0 loss to Skra and a 3-1 loss against Trefl Gdansk: but I believe we played well against the two teams. Its important for us to have some tough opponents before the season starts because our first few matches in the league are quite tough. When all the matches were over, it was so awesome to see the fans scramble to get autographs and pictures with our team as well as the other teams. Volleyball support in Poland is unmatched!

Wlazly for SKRA Belchatow

We left Poland and traveled back to Germany… where on the way, we stopped at the border for what I thought, was a bathroom break… I walked around a building to find a bathroom, returned to where the bus was, and what do ya know, the bus is gone… I was left behind without my passport, phone, or wallet. Thank God I was near a police station. The people I met inside could not speak English, so after some internet identification (I have a Wiki page??) we were able to make progress. Only when my teammates decided to watch a movie on the bus and turn on English subtitles for me did they say, “Wait, where is Joe?!” and realized I was left behind. What a day!

So we continued on to a sports school in Breitenbrunn, Germany to prepare for our first league match against SCC Berlin. This sports school was the main training center for the Olympic Weight Lifting team of Germany. Placed in the mountains/ hills, it took our bus driver some time to navigate the roads to the school, but the scenery was incredible. Churches placed on a hillside, each house was unique, and everything was GREEN.  After arriving there, some teammates and I went for a walk in the woods full of pine trees and shell-less snails (Note to self: Do not step on a snail without a shell, it is narrrsty) We trained like we normally do throughout the week and had a team BBQ before leaving Thursday morning.

We got to Berlin Thursday afternoon and had a practice that day in their arena which is comparable to Scott Trade Center in St. Louis. It reminded me of Boise State with all the orange and blue colors. Our match was Friday night and it was a crazy one. There wasn’t an empty seat in the arena of nearly 5,000 : by far, the largest crowd I have ever played for. Coordinated cheers from the crowd created an electric atmosphere for the entire match. Our team came out strong and won the first set 25:21. We lost the next two sets 17:25, 18-25. We won the fourth set 25-21 with lots of momentum moving into the 5th set. In the 5th, SCC Berlin had match point at 13-14 when I was subbed in to serve receive. The pressure was on but I passed near perfect and we battled on to win the set 18-16 and win the match!

Packed house!

Evivo winning is newsworthy on the train!

Here are some pics from our website… click on the first one “30-09-2011-Berlin”
http://www.evivo-dueren.de/bilder.html 

Here is a video summary of our match…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRETSdW9Lus&feature=player_embedded

We were given the weekend off and I got the chance to stay in Berlin and see as much of the city as I could. Berlin is flooded with history and cool sites to see. On Saturday, I did the touristy thing and hopped on a site seeing bus that went around the city. Berlin was crowded with people because it was a holiday weekend in Germany. October 3, 1990 (Reunification Day) marks the day when East and West Germany officially came together and Berlin became one city. The bus was fun but I felt like herded cattle…saw most of the sites and decided which one I wanted to see again on Sunday.  Sunday was fun, hopped on a river boat tour (and thanks to a credit card machine malfunction, it was free :-) After the boat tour, walked around and got some famous “curry wurst” which is a delicious sausage with curry ketchup as well as some good-tasting Doner.  Here is the collection of pictures from the trip… turn on the captions!

http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3837755021/a=2054888021_2054888021/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Relaxin...

This week, I have finally started my German lessons. Tobias Wendt is my teacher and he usually teaches English. This is the first time he is teaching German so we are taking the lessons one day at a time. Pretty cool dude. We have gone over some common phrases to use in small conversations and I am using a free online course at the moment. Schon!

Thanks to ESPN America, I have also been able to watch the St. Louis Cardinals and how amazing! The Rally Squirrel is incredible, the team is constantly proving people wrong (Ahemm, ESPN analysts, Aheemm). Next game is Sunday against Milwaukee for game 1 of the NLCS! Yew!

Our next match is Wednesday October 12, against Chemie Volley Mittedeutschland. Los Gehts Evivo!

Blog #2, BoomVideo Link

Hello Germany!

So, I've always wanted to start a blog while I'm playing volleyball in Europe... So today is the first day!

Its hard to believe, but I have been in Duren for a month already! I miss home like crazy but I am definitely enjoying my time here. In the month I have been here, I have traveled to Aachen and Cologne Germany to walk around and see the cities (more pictures shown in the link below).

Photos from Aachen and Cologne...
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3774464021/a=2054888021_2054888021/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/)



Also our team has had practice matches in Antwerp and Maaseik, Belgium. The picture below shows he best volleyball promotion I have ever seen... it was in Masseik...

We are gearing up for a long bus ride (11-12 hours) tomorrow morning to Gdansk, Poland to play against some top teams from the Polish league. Evivo Duren is the most professional club I have ever been a part of and our preseason schedule is a clear indication! After this weekend, we travel straight to town near Berlin for a week to prepare for our first regular season match against SCC Berlin Recycling Volleys on Friday, September 30th. This is the first official match of the Bundesliga (German) league and because of that, it will be streamed live on the website listed below. The starts at 7 or 730pm German time which means 12:00, 12:30pm STL time. Our coaches and managers say that this match will have 5,000+ fans! If that is the case, It will be my first time seeing a crowd that size for a volleyball match so im pretty excited about it!


Match stream...
http://www.cpm24.tv/

Currently, I am enjoying the morning off from training... Ahhhh.... typically, we have a lifting or a light volleyball practice in the morning followed up by an intense volleyball practice in the evening. The level of play here is much higher than anywhere I have played before. My teammates are giants, the game is faster, and hits and serves are harder. Coach Sonke (pronounced Zoon-ka) has pointed out some elements in my game that could use some work and I have already seen some personal improvement. Coach Sonke has been involved with the Youth National team here in Germany so developing players seems to be his specialty. So far, the practices have been spoken in German so the language barrier is higher than I am used too. But the great thing about volleyball is that it carries a lot of the same ideas from team to team. I have picked up most of the "German Volleyball" language and can perform in a practice with little problems.

Duren, Germany is a small town that suffered a lot of damage in World War II. Most of the city was bombed in the mid-late 1940's and since then, the city is being rebuilt. The people here are very nice, everyone seems to know everyone. We have a fan club for our volleyball team that calls themselves "The Mosquitos" (i have yet to see them in action) that show a huge amount of support everywhere we go. Here are some pics from around the city...

My apartment is really nice. I live with a teammate, Hauke. He is from Germany and just came up from the 2nd league in Germany. Him and I are at similar places in our vball careers so it is nice to have someone to relate to. He speaks english very well-thank the Lord- so we dont sit around and stare absent minded at eachother! Our apartment has two bedrooms, 1.5 bath, with a large kitchen and living room area, and two balconies! Here are some pictures from when I moved in

Here is the view from our back balcony...

Kitchen... with a clothes washer!

My Bedroom... Notice the Tom & Jerry wallpaper!

View of our building, We are on the 2nd floor

Just last week, our internet and tv was set up and guess who has ESPN!? It was so awesome to see the Cardinals play on Sunday night baseball and then have the Rams play on Monday Night football. Sure the Rams lost (they look decent though- just some red-zone jitters) and the Cardinals are today, 1.5 games back in the Wild Card (yahoo!) but being able to speak with family and friends and watching some STL teams on TV, I honestly feel more at home now than I have the past two seasons in Denmark!

Blog number 1, DOWN!

Looking forward to our first match! Cant wait to tell ya'll about it

Joe D