It's all the about the pre season

When I was at Hillmorton High School, if you wanted to be cool there was one thing that could propel you up the ranks, Volleyball. Yep the kids at my school loved Volleyball and if you were the top kid at Volleyball you were the top kid in school, period! During the time that I was there a guy by the name of Kiwa was that kid. His talent for jumping and hitting a ball was unbelievable. He jumped like Jordon and hit the ball like Tyson. It was a special thing to watch.

The interesting thing about Kiwa was that in the fourth form, the last year before becoming a senior player, he wasn’t the best player on the junior team. He wasn’t even the third best player. But something magically happened over the summer break between the fourth and fifth form that turned him into one of the top three players in the country. You may be thinking that he developed more into a man which helped him with his power and jumping ability and while I’m sure the development in these areas helped - they weren’t the key. What Kiwa did was practice! When Kiwa started dominating the others with his amazing skills everyone started talking about how this happened. It happened during the holidays when he would go down to the courts and practice for over four hours a day. The reason Kiwa dominated when he became a senior player was because he put in all the hard work  during the off season. 

For those of you planning to play winter sports this year this is something to think about. There are many reasons why we participate in team sports; social reasons, for fitness, for the win or you may be trying try to represent in your code. But if you want to improve on a personal level there’s one thing that will make the biggest difference - off season work! If you devote time to working on your fitness and skills before the beginning of the first game, by looking at your skill set and developing the areas that will improve your game and even enhance the areas where you are already strong, I can almost guarantee that you’ll have a good season. You’ll become a player that other teams look out for and your own team will  rely on you when the going gets tough. You’ll also enjoy the game more because you can play to the best of your ability.

So as the summer months are ending and the winter sports are getting closer, get out there and do the work like Kiwa did. You’ll find it makes a huge difference when the whistle goes off to start the season. 

If you enjoy my pieces you can get them emailed to you when I put them on the internet. This way you won't have to come back to my website to check when a new piece is out. Don't worry I won't spam you. If you want to join up just put your details in here: